More Lessons

April 19, 2002-Return To Delhi
(photo:Varanassi through smog)

We had 5 ½ hours to talk to Kumar as we drove from Jaipur back to Delhi. We took the toll highway, which is a lot better than some of the two-lane roads. Even with the four lanes it was anything but limited access. At times there would be cars, overloaded trucks, or animal drawn carts heading towards us on our side of the divider. If they only had a short distance to go, they just went the wrong way. David asked if there were police patrolling the highway. Kumar said that the police only come if there’s an accident and someone calls them. There’s no regular patrol. He said that India only gets .7% of the tourist business and needs to promote itself a lot more. Evidently Goldie Hawn has been visiting for eighteen years and always includes Varanasi, our next stop, in her itinerary. She’s particularly fond of elephants and made a one-hour TV special about them. Kumar has met her and has also met former governor of Ohio Celeste and his wife Jackie when Celeste was ambassador to India.

We had a delightful lunch and David may be toying with the idea of becoming a vegetarian. He loves the cheese dishes here. We had Paneer Ghurghroo. It was a cooked block of cheese and the texture reminded me of saginaki, the Greek dish. It was covered in a delicate creamy sauce that had green peppers, cashews, and raisins. We had over-ordered and were frustrated that we couldn’t finish it all. Kumar ate his meal and helped us with ours. We entered Delhi this time via embassy row and a lovely neighborhood of apartments. Not to worry, there was plenty of rubble outside the walled compounds. The American flag was flying at half-mast and we thought it might be for the Canadians who were killed by our own bomb in Afghanistan.

Lotus And Mud

Since we’re going to Varanasi tomorrow, Kumar gave us a preview of what was to come. It’s where he grew up and his mother still lives there. His father died in 1986. I don’t know what his father did, but his mother is a retired teacher of vocal music. I was teasing him about fixing him up with some women we know at home and found out that he’s younger than I thought. He’s probably in his late 20s.

He told us that to him Varanasi is both the lotus and the mud. You have to focus on the lotus not to see the mud. His father brought him to bathe in the river Ganges frequently. Varanasi is the holiest city in India and at 5,000 years old is possibly the oldest living city in the world that has kept the same religious practices alive since its beginning. It’s the birthplace of Hinduism and Buddhism. Pilgrims who come to bathe in the river Ganges swell its population of two million to the ridiculous. They don’t see the filth. Kumar said that up to now we’ve seen dead monuments. Now we’ll see living monuments to faith and devotion in the people. They have faith in Mother Ganges to heal their bodies and to remove their sins. Their faith, not the water, cures them. Their faith keeps them from getting sick from the polluted water they drink and in which they bathe. It’s a city of life and death where children play next to the crematoria on the riverbanks. Varanasi is also called the City of Death because people come to die in the holy city of Shiva. A great number of elderly make their last pilgrimage to bathe in the Ganges. They study at one of the four great universities seeking knowledge that will liberate them from a fear of death. Their goal is to go beyond the cycle of life and death and to reach salvation (moksha).

I asked him about widows and how they’re looked upon in Varanasi. He verified what I’d read in that widows are seen as people who bring bad luck. If their families turn their backs on them or if they don’t have children to take care of them, they could end up on the street as prostitutes or in widow houses. They’ll get food and shelter in the widow houses and are asked to work there if they’re able. He said that most families don’t shun widows as they did in the past. There’s the belief that food will come if the widow bathes in the River Ganges and worships Shiva. I guess if they starve they didn’t have enough faith.

We heard some North American accents at dinner and struck up a conversation. It was a bi-racial couple with two young boys (age 8 and 11). They were from Connecticut and were just ending their trip. They said they got a few curious stares from people on the street but figured it was because they were foreigners. I’m sure they’re correct. We’ve gotten those looks too. They’d just come in from Jaipur as we had, but they’d been pretty sick. They said they got to experience Indian medicine first hand. That’s every tourist’s nightmare. Their guidebook mentioned one doctor in particular who came highly recommended and is used by the top hotels. They had really bad stomach problems. The doctor came to their room, set up IV’s and left his male nurse there over night. They were on their feet the next day.

April 20, 2002-Flying High

The security at the airport was unlike any we’d ever experienced. We were body searched twice, batteries were removed from items in checked luggage, and our carry-on was inspected three times. Our boarding passes were checked at each of the three inspection points and when we got off of the plane. We expected the Delhi airport to be pretty frenetic, but they only allow passengers and guides in so it’s not too bad. There are no- smoking signs all around the waiting areas with ashtrays under each one. It’s a good thing too. Our guide said that they don’t care about enforcing the rule. Our flight was on Jet Air and was very pleasant. It’s the best airline in India. They managed to serve lunch on the fifty-three minute flight and had literature stating that no beef or pork products were ever served on that airline. It’s been easier to avoid pork or shellfish in India than anywhere else we’ve traveled. When they say vegetarian they cannot cheat and add shrimp. Vegetarianism is serious business here and strict Hindus and Jains wouldn’t stand for compromise. Our flight to Bombay is on India Air. It has two stops one of which is in Delhi. We cannot seem to get away from that city.

I went to the toilet near the waiting room and had a hard time convincing the attendant that I really wanted to use the Eastern style facilities. She just shook her head and shrugged. I had the same problem in Varanasi when we landed. As I’ve said before, Eastern is preferable to Western when sanitation is in question.

We again heard North American accents and met a tour of twenty female travel agents from all over the States. One was from Detroit and one from Dayton. It was old home week. I told them that Kumar would be happy to hear that India is going to be promoted in the U.S. We spotted two men in our area and sat near them. They’re from Los Angeles and have been to India four times. One of them is a Buddhist. We thought they might be gay and fished around to see if they were by mentioning that we hadn’t met our daughter’s girlfriend yet and that she’s a Buddhist. We knew they would pick up the way we phrased it if they were gay. They did and they are. They’re staying at our hotel and I’m sure we’ll run into them again. They asked about the climate of acceptance of gays in Akron and we told them about Out in Akron. They were pretty impressed when we started dropping the names of celebrities who had come: Harvey Fierstein, Chastity Bono, and John Waters.

As we took off, I realized that Delhi too is in a desert. It was obvious from the air where the city ended and the outback began. The amount of pollution was also graphically visible from our altitude.

When we got to Varanasi, we found out we’d arrived at the end of a fast and that a festival begins tomorrow. There will be five priests at the river performing rituals to the Goddess Ganges when we get there at 5:30 AM tomorrow. Our hotel, the Taj Ganges, is listed as five-star, and is the best in the city. It would be a four-star at home. The service is friendly and excellent, as usual, and the lobby and restaurants are full of roses. They have their own garden and are justifiably proud of it.

I didn’t think it was possible, but Varanasi seems poorer than any place we’ve been in India. How poor is that? They’re so poor that they have blackouts and brownouts because the government hasn’t paid its electric bill and the electric company cuts back service. We still find that despite power outages, getting bumped by a bicycle, being in a fender bender, and being hassled on rubble-strewn streets, we like India a lot more than we expected to. A large part is the rich history that goes back farther than our own Judaism. Another factor is that even though Indians on the streets are cloying, dishonest, and devious, they don’t want to harm us. We’re their bread and butter. People in the service industry really have it down to a science. I’ve never experienced a more courteous and service oriented place in my travels. They are masters of hospitality and wizards of creating a mood that makes tipping a pleasure. They try to please and we gladly tip them with a smile and a chuckle. We know exactly what’s happening, but they’re that good. They know the only thing they have to sell is service. Sales people from around the world should be sent here to study and learn.

Toby