since my post about the annoying american couple, i have been haunted by their presence. every restaurant i have gone to for lunch since that day i have literally been seated right next to their entire group of 4 or 5. i have been looking for the silver lining and have concluded that it is just to show me how there are annoying people anywhere you go - people in india might hassle me constantly, but even my own people have the capacity to bug me to no end. no worries.
my hom
estay is going very well. the family has been amazingly hospitable, making sure that i am comfortable at all times, but alas it i have found it impossible to express my discomfort at certain times - when people are being so kind to you it's hard to complain about anything. but i have really been craving some alone time this past week. the family members spend their day in the house, together - which is quite different from my day to day life at home, and even in india, where it is definitely possible to get some time away from others if need be. they wake up at 8, make richie and i breakfast and tea, and at 9:30 when we leave for class they resume their sleeping. they wake up around 11 at which time my host father goes to Banaras Hindu University where he teaches tablas. the rest of the family eats lunch together, the daughter goes to school, the son practices his drumming, and the mother takes care of the household chores. around 2 or 3 they take a nap. this is interesting - they all sleep in the same room, on the floor, even though they have a 3 story house with 4 rooms - two of which have beds. very interesting. they wake up around 5 when we return, make us tea again, sit around talking for a few hours, and then the daughter studies, the son practices, the mother cleans and prepares dinner. their father returns around 6:30, when he begins his at-home lessons. he usually has 3 or 4 students per night, each ta
king hour long lessons. so lessons end around 10, when he gives me my lesson. after that, they tend to sit around talking for a few more hours, then play music as a family - the daughter practicing her singing and the son his tablas. at 12 or 12:30 they eat dinner (at which point i am weak with hunger), and then once again chat until around 3 when they sleep. it's a very nice schedule if you don't have to wake up at 8 and go to school all day like we do. i would definitely be able to keep up if i had the oportunity to nap and sit around all day. but still, i feel bad complaining, as they have done their best to restructure their lives to fit my liking.
estay is going very well. the family has been amazingly hospitable, making sure that i am comfortable at all times, but alas it i have found it impossible to express my discomfort at certain times - when people are being so kind to you it's hard to complain about anything. but i have really been craving some alone time this past week. the family members spend their day in the house, together - which is quite different from my day to day life at home, and even in india, where it is definitely possible to get some time away from others if need be. they wake up at 8, make richie and i breakfast and tea, and at 9:30 when we leave for class they resume their sleeping. they wake up around 11 at which time my host father goes to Banaras Hindu University where he teaches tablas. the rest of the family eats lunch together, the daughter goes to school, the son practices his drumming, and the mother takes care of the household chores. around 2 or 3 they take a nap. this is interesting - they all sleep in the same room, on the floor, even though they have a 3 story house with 4 rooms - two of which have beds. very interesting. they wake up around 5 when we return, make us tea again, sit around talking for a few hours, and then the daughter studies, the son practices, the mother cleans and prepares dinner. their father returns around 6:30, when he begins his at-home lessons. he usually has 3 or 4 students per night, each ta
king hour long lessons. so lessons end around 10, when he gives me my lesson. after that, they tend to sit around talking for a few more hours, then play music as a family - the daughter practicing her singing and the son his tablas. at 12 or 12:30 they eat dinner (at which point i am weak with hunger), and then once again chat until around 3 when they sleep. it's a very nice schedule if you don't have to wake up at 8 and go to school all day like we do. i would definitely be able to keep up if i had the oportunity to nap and sit around all day. but still, i feel bad complaining, as they have done their best to restructure their lives to fit my liking.some pictures of the home:
the room downstairs that richie and I share. the rug on the floor is our mattress. the marble floor is great for anyone who likes waking up with a terrible pain throughout their entire body!
Golu, their only son. he is about to turn 19 at the end of the month, and has been playing drums since he was 4 or 5. he is incredibly talented, and incredibly arrogant. he has dreams of world fame and the ego to go with it. his attitude can definitely get under my skin at times, but i have to hide it, because he means well - he is always looking out for us and making sure that we have everything that we need. for the next three days he is functioning as my teacher while Kuberji is away playing concerts. i am confident that one day he will attain the fame that he desires and i will be proud to have been a part of his life for these precious few days.
Chotu - the family's token imp. regardless, the 6 year old cousin of Shobna and Golu is arguably the cutest kid i have met in india. he has been learning tablas for about a year now and has performed twice since i've moved in. granted, he's not great, but he has developed a solid sense of rhythm (Golu claims that indians are born with rhythm in their blood), and never passes up a chance to irritate people with his above-par wrestling skills.
Shobna is Kuber's only daughter (pictured above with her grandmother), who just turned 17. she is well on her way to becoming a very famous classical vocalist, her voice blows the entire community away. she has given me a lot of insight into the lives of young women in india. richie 
put it the best - "i can't believe how much...cooler...girls in india are than the men." it's hard to put words to, but she just lacks all of the annoying factors of most indian mens' personalities. we have concluded that this is due to their completely different upbringings. while they both are learning music and going to school, shobna also has to take on the responsibilities of her mother - cleaning, cooking, waking up to make us tea every morning and afternoon...the women here are the reason that mens' lives are so easy - Golu didn't even know how to set up the folding bed that i slept on last night, you can tell that he doesn't have to do anything within the house. she acts so much more mature than him because she is - without those two women, the household would not be able to function. no one would eat, nothing would be clean, nothing would get done. mad props.
put it the best - "i can't believe how much...cooler...girls in india are than the men." it's hard to put words to, but she just lacks all of the annoying factors of most indian mens' personalities. we have concluded that this is due to their completely different upbringings. while they both are learning music and going to school, shobna also has to take on the responsibilities of her mother - cleaning, cooking, waking up to make us tea every morning and afternoon...the women here are the reason that mens' lives are so easy - Golu didn't even know how to set up the folding bed that i slept on last night, you can tell that he doesn't have to do anything within the house. she acts so much more mature than him because she is - without those two women, the household would not be able to function. no one would eat, nothing would be clean, nothing would get done. mad props.
my guruji - kuberji naat mishra. while he may not look it from this less-than-flattering picture, he is a very famous man within his community of musicians and in Banaras as a whole. it really becomes apparent when i see him interact with others, at performances or just around town. people are constantly reminding me how lucky i am to be studying under him, and when they hear that i am actually living with him, they are in complete disbelief at my luck. every day i am more and more thankful to be his student. and he has made it clear that i am more to him than a student, he treats me like a son. the relationship of guru to student it very interesting here. when any of his students enter the room, they touch his feet, then their own forehead and chest as a sign of respect. he refuses to let me do this, and greets me with a hug each time we meet. very unusual treatment to be receiving from your guru. at first it made me feel uncomfortable, and i felt like i was being rude for having such a casual relationship with him, but i have come to understand that he really doesn't see me as one of his "students" as he does the others.
Bhabiji, my host mother, is a classic example of an indian woman - she is also a trained tabla musician, but does not perform. it is only a hobby, and her true performance is within the house. she makes life possible for the family. while she does not publicly perform, she receives equal respect from the community as Kuberji. Golu acts as our translator most of the time, as she only speaks a handful of english words, which include "breakfast" "music nice" "health ok?" "more??" and "chotu naught boy!"
other news:
saturday was diwali, a big holiday in india. i still haven't received a decent explanation as to the origins of the holiday, but from my experience i have concluded that diwali = thanksgiving + christmas + 4th of July. it is a time that family gets together and eats massive amounts of amazing food, gives gifts, and blows shit up. it also should be noted that this is one of the most dangerous times to be walking the streets. let me rephrase that - you are not safe anywhere. indian fireworks are inexpensive and unpr
edictable. their firecrackers are called "bombs," and accurately so. the fuses on these explosives can take anywhere from one to ten seconds to burn. children drop them from rooftops at your feet, and throw them at your rickshaw. rockets were flying in all directions, and from our third-story rooftop it was a war zone. but a beautiful one at that. the show lasted around 5 hours, from sundown to about 2 AM. everyone decorated their house, the sidewalks and entry ways were pained with all sorts of colorful images, people everywhere were smiling and exchanging diwali cheers. festivities are still continuing, but i can't wait until people run out of fireworks and i can relax!
Banaras is famous for its silk, especially scarves and saris. the style has its own name - Banarsi silk, and is renowned nation-wide as the best india has to offer. this means a variety of things: a) chances are if someone starts a conversatin with you on the street it means they are ultimately going to ask you to come look at their shop or factory, "no pressure, just looking," b) 90% of the shops are the same and contain things that i have no interest in purchasing, and c) there is a huge population of weavers. we had the pleasure of visiting a weaving community with our class, and getting a glimpse of Banarsi silk behind the scenes. the process was tetious and looked mind-numbing, but the finished products are out of this world.
on the 27th, ben and i depart for our first week of independent travel. we were given the choice to travel anywhere we wanted, were given a budget of about 250 American dollars for travel fare, and were hooked up with a travel agent in Delhi that set all of it up for us. the two of us chose arguably the best possible place to go - Andaman and Nicobar, a series of islands off the southeast coast of india. since then, we have met a number of foreign travelers who have visited the islands. the beaches and villages are named with numbers, and we have been hearing rave reviews about beach 7. yesterday, ben informed me that beach 7 was voted time magazine's best beach in asia in 2004. hell yea.
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