back on the train and slept the night in Delhi. We woke up early that
morning to see some of the city of Delhi and then make our way to the
city of Varanassi.
So far, I had really enjoyed the places I'd seen and
learned about, although, being in such a large group definitely has
it's tradeoffs. I typically prefer to travel in smaller groups and go
at my own pace. I guess you could say I'd rather spend time with
people then seeing sights. So, that morning our guide had planned to
take us to see many sites and memorials and such. I decided to go with
them to the Ghandi memorial but then "check out" from the group for
the rest of the morning and meet back up with them by afternoon for
lunch. My guide seemed a bit offended when I asked him for details of
where to meet them for later that day. I have to say, Dee was a great
guide, but it was time to go off on my own and do my own thing.
Myself and a friend walked away from the group and made
our way to "Old Delhi". When we got there we just wandered around for
a bit and absorbed the busy surroundings and activities going on
around us. At one point we stumbled on a school so I walked right in
and asked to speak with the principal, hoping to have a similar to
Mauritius experience and get to see the way school works in India.
When we got inside we waited a few minutes and then eventually an
administrator came out to say hello. She was very friendly and was
happy to hear about our interest in seeing the school. In India there
are two types of schools- government school and private schools
(similar to the US). The difference though (from what I've heard from
Indians) is that the government schools are severely sub-par and
hardly even supply the children with a sufficient education. Because
this was a government school in the back streets of Old Delhi, the
administrator seemed very happy to see us. Unfortunately she informed
us that the students were in the middle of their "test week" and would
be arriving at the school later only to take exams. We looked around a
bit, talked to some teachers, and then left.
Afterwards we stumbled on a Jain temple. Jainism is a
religion in India that is very similar to Buddhism. I took off my
shoes and entered the temple. A man noticed me walking around
aimlessly and although he didn't speak a word of English, somehow he
led me upstairs to the prayer rooms. It's funny that even with a
language barrier I was able to understand that there were 5 idols
representing 5 main gods in the religion and that the people were
praying to each god. He then told me that he wanted to go pray and
said good-bye. I have to admit that walking into the holy place for a
completely foreign religion made me feel very uncomfortable at first.
But this man showed me something that I would learn more and more in
the next few days, that the people are very open with sharing their
religion and culture. I stood upstairs and watched people pray. The
way they prayed was unlike anything I have ever seen. I ended up
following one woman as she moved from god to god…I watched her hold a
candle and move it in circles as she sang beautifully. I watched her
throw rice at the gods. I watched her get all the way down on the
group and also reach her arms up to the sky and spin in circles. I
watched her walk around the gods in circles and say prayers.
When I moved on to another room I saw something that
caused a completely unexpected emotional reaction. There was an old
woman who had men on either side of her supporting her as she moved
from one side of the room to another. This woman was in such bad
shape, she could hardly walk and had a very clear protrusion from her
stomach that I took to be some sort of tumor. It was clear that she
was using up every bit of energy she had just to get from one side of
the room to the other….I have no idea how she made it up the stairs of
the building. In that moment it didn't matter to me if I believed in
the same things as that woman or if I believed in any type of religion
at all, what mattered was the level of dedication I saw in that woman.
Coming from someone who has struggled with their relationship with
religion and God their whole life, I was suddenly more inspired than
I've ever been just by seeing this woman. I mentioned that I had an
unexpected emotional reaction…I say this because as I stood there I
started to cry. At the time I couldn't even begin to figure out why, I
just watched her from a corner of the room and cried quietly as I
watched her. At one point I made eye contact with her. She had the
look of distress, the kind of look you'd see in a soldier that is
ready to kill their commander as they hear "give me twenty" another
time. As we made eye-contact I felt almost embarrassed, but I gave a
little smile, a smile that I thought conveyed admiration. She gave me
the slightest smile back and then went back to her reality and struggle.
After the temple we walked around for a bit and
eventually headed to meet back up with the group. That afternoon we
flew to the city of Varanassi. Varanassi Is what I like to refer to as
the "Jerusalem for Hindus". We got there and immediately made our way
into the inner-city. As we walked through I saw exactly what I had
imagined out of India all along. The were bright colors and beautiful
clothes and clothing all around. There was everything in the streets
from cars to bikes to motorcyles to mopeds to any sort of animal you
can imagine. At one point I literally had a cow in front of me, a
donkey to my right and my hand on the hood of a car as I told it to
stop so that I could walk by.
We walked through the city in order to get to the Ganges
River. Now I said that Varanassi is the Jerusalem for Hindus, well the
Ganges River is the equivalent of the western wall for Jews. It is the
most holy place for Hindus. In fact, tons of Hindus from all over the
country and surrounding countries make pilgrimages there like Muslims
do to Mecca. It is believed that if one washes themselves in this
river, they are forgiven for their sins and considered pure and clean.
When we got to the stairs leading down to the river we
stopped to watch a religious ceremony that goes on every night at 7pm.
It was a random Wednesday and the place was completely packed with
people. The thing that I find the most amazing about the Indian
society is the level of religiousness and spirituality. You would
think that in a place with such poverty and reason to be angry with
the world people would lose faith…but some-how it had the opposite
effect. It was so clear as I looked around and saw so many people that
were wearing ripped clothes, no shoes, and looked as if they hadn't
been properly cared for that had, in spite of all their problems,
shown up to pray. I left the group and decided to try and find a seat
on my own. I saw a seat next to a group of Indian woman, gestured
towards it and they smiled and waved me over. I sat down and smiled
and tried to communicate. The woman next to me didn't speak a word of
English and I don't speak a word of Hindi, so we just sat there
quietly. I watched her and followed along with the motions she was
doing (clapping her hands, waving them). She noticed this and smiled
and welcomed me in joining her. After about 10 minutes a group of
tourists…I say they were tourists because like myself there were some
of the only white people there…stood in front of our view of the
ceremony. The woman on my left tapped me and started pointing to the
group and speaking to me. I gathered that she assumed because I speak
English I could communicate with them and that she wanted me to ask
them to sit down. I stood up and walked over to the group and did as I
was instructed, I asked the group nicely to sit down. To my surprise,
the group looked at me and didn't understand…they were Swedish. So, I
motioned to them to sit down and pointed to the people behind them.
They understood and sat down. As I walked back to my seat the woman
sitting next to me smiled and I assume she said thank you.
The ceremony was full of interesting rituals…there were
incents and fire burning and lots of singing and clapping hands. About
half way through the ceremony the woman next to me tapped me again.
This time she motioned to someone behind me. I noticed that the person
behind me was throwing up and his throw-up residue was making it's way
toward us. So, she and I got up and moved to the side. I sat there and
continued watched the ceremony. Soon, a group of barefoot men and
women walked through the isle and right through the pile of throw-up.
Another 10 minutes or so later, I heard a lot of commotion from the
crowd sitting a little behind me. I turned around and saw people
running and jumping to their feet. Then I noticed why…there was an
aggressive cow walking right through the group! So far in India I'd
been exposed to a lot, but I think this evening was the first time I
ever really felt like I was in the "India" that we see in movies.
In the airport on the way to Varanassi I met an American guy that has
been traveling through India for the past 3 months. He wrote down the
name of a really good restaurant in Varanassi that apparently had
great local cuisine. When we got back to the hotel I had an experience
that really disappointed me. Myself and my frinds Jeremy, David, and
Shelley decided we didn't want to eat dinner at the hotel, but instead
wanted to go to this restaurant that we were recommended to. We asked
the people at the hotel how to get a cab and where to tell them to go
so that we may get to this restaurant and they all said things along
the lines of "you can't handle the food", "it is dangerous out right
now", "everything is closed" (it was 9pm). We went to our group leader
and he said that we should listen to the hotel people and not leave.
It was clear to me that we could have gone safely, and if we couldn't
handle the food that would have been our problem. But, we still
weren't trusted to be able to do this. I was talking with my professor
who was on the trip and complaining to her about how I felt like such
a tourist on this SAS trip and how I really disliked it. She put it a
good way...she explained that most of the large tour groups that come
through this hotel and use this tour company are the types of groups
that come to "see India" but by the end of the day they are dying to
get back to their safe-haven of a hotel. She explained how the people
at the hotel have no way of knowing we are different and want to keep
exploring, so they will treat us the same way they treat everyone
else. This was another one of the major trade-offs I felt with going
with a Semester at Sea trip.
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