Saraswati shrines for Saraswati puja

I had thought that Saraswati puja would last for only one day (this past Saturday) and be over. But actually, many temporary shrines have been set up everywhere for Saraswati; it reminds me a lot of Durga puja! People play loud music day and night. Last night, some of our neighbors performed an evening arti (type of prayer) while banging on pots and pans in our alleyway. They had even set up a stage light by tying it to the telephone wire. The reason some people keep up their Saraswati shrines after the day of Saraswati puja is that they are waiting for an astrologically auspicious hour to submerge their image of Saraswati in the Ganges River.

Here are a bunch of pictures of various Saraswati shrines and parades in the streets of Banaras (complete with lots of rowdy young men dancing and trying to touch girls):

Saraswati Pooja

Yesterday was Saraswati Pooja. Saraswati is the goddess of learning, so on Sarasvati Pooja, all institutions of learning have special poojas to Saraswati to bless the students and their studies. Anyone who participates in Saraswati Pooja is supposed to refrain from studying at all on that day to honor the goddess. Since we were refraining from studying, we all went out to the nearby movie theater to see Agnipath (“The path of fire”), a remake of a 1990s Amitabh Bachchhan movie. It was ok, I thought it was really violent; the director made every scene of the movie into an EPIC scene but not always with an EPIC reason behind the epicness.

We have also started studying Arabic with a young man who works in a madrassa, a school where children are taught Arabic, Urdu, and the Koran. We had our first lesson in a park outside a Hindu temple, which I thought was funny.

Kate and I, excited for the puja to start.


The pujari (Hindu priest) setting up a room in our program house for the Saraswati puja.



Vimal ji, our Hindi teacher, acting as the yajnamana (the main beneficiary/representative of household i.e. our program) over the agni yajna (fire sacrifice).

The sacrificial fire is lit.
Everyone goes to take blessings from the sacrificial fire.

Zach during the puja.
Saraswati ji.

Kathak class from last semester

Last semester, we all (only girls did it; Zach and Michael watched and ate pizza) took a kathak class with a BHU student who is doing his master's degree in dance. We learned the basic footwork and hand movements and then at the end posed as Kali and Shiva (a very commonly depicted popular pose of Kali and Shiva) Kristina as Kali (the goddess of power) and Zach posing as Shiva Shankar ji (the god of dance and destruction).

The real Kali and Shiva.

COLD WARNING

WARNING: If you live in Varanasi, India, you are strongly advised to keep your children home from school today. Daytime temperatures have reached as low as 60 degrees Fahrenheit.

Agra and Banaras with the fam

After we went to Chandigarh, we visited Agra (for me, the second time!) and the Taj Mahal where there were thousands and thousands and thousands of people. After Agra, we returned to Delhi and flew back to Banaras. After about three days, Zach's family went home, and now our program is back in session; Sanskrit starts back up today and Hindi started last week.
Pam and Steve at the Taj Mahal.


Trying to hold the Taj Mahal.




Riti, our little host sister.
Me, Zach, Zach's family, our roommate Kerry, our host family (Riti, Bhabhi ji, and Bhayya), and a fellow traveller, Jennifer, all went out on an afternoon ride on the Ganges. The boat we went out on was built by one of the fall semester students on our program, Dan!
Bhayya

The ghats of Varanasi. (Ghats are steps that go down into a body of water).
Zach the boatman.
The landscape of Banaras. In the middle of the buildings is a mosque from the 17th century built by Akbar the Great, the third Mughal ruler of India.
A sunken temple in the Ganges.
Harishchandra ghat, one of the burning ghats. The burning ghats are funeral ghats where Hindus are ritually cremated.
Zach, Ansel, and our boat man.
Manikarnika ghat, the bigger burning ghat. All the stacked wood is for cremations.
Bhabhi ji and Riti.
A funeral pyre.
Another shot of buildings and the river. The bird is a migratory black headed gull from Siberia.
Now Riti and Bhayya are rowing...
Jain Ghat.
Another ghat. The first red building you can see used to be the ex Maharaja of Banaras' palace.

After the boat ride.
The next day we went on a walk in the gullys of northern Banaras and then went back to southern Banaras by walking along the ghats.
Someone making cow dung patties for fuel.
Some sadhus (wandering holy men) hanging out on the ghats.
A river mud sculpture of Bhishma, the grandfather of the Kauravas and Pandavas, the two clans who fought each other in the Bhagavad Gita.
Zach and a scared kid.

A priest getting his pooja (prayer) table ready for arthi (an evening ritual on the river).

Is this America? No, it's Chandigarh!

Chandigarh is a city and union territory in India; it is the capital of two states, the Punjab and Haryana. It has existed only since the 50s and was planned entirely by a Swiss architect, Le Corbusier. He planned everything from the layout of each city block to the sewer caps and chairs to be used in government buildings.

So its probably the cleanest, most organized, and best smelling Indian city. I felt like I was in Florida!
Is this America? Everyone has like three cars!


Zach's dad, Steve's colleague Harleen's husband Avinaash's mother's garden. There were some pretty birds hopping around in it too!
A beautiful palm tree on a clear sunny day.
My bedroom at my grandparent's house, just kidding, in Chandigarh.
Awesome bathroom. Hot water, what else can I say.
Funny sign.
Funny sign.
A little mandarin orange tree that is used to make fresh tasty marmalade!