"Varanasi is the place of learning and burning"

My teachers name is Anand, he is a very good teacher and his name means 'enjoy' in Hindi. I have now taken hindilessons from him during more or less two weeks. A couple of days ago when we had started our lesson (sitting on the stonefloor in some room in the school were Anand teaches), i looked up at the table we where sitting next to, there was a man sleeping. I had'nt noticed him before and Anand did'nt seem surprised that he was there. I don't remember what Anand said but supposedly something like "don't worry, he is just sleeping there". strange for me, normal in India.

Another day I was down the gaths, the stairs that leads down to the holy river Ganga. There I asked a moonk for the way to the Main ghat. We started to talk and decided he could show me the Vishunath temple, one of the most important hindutemples in Varanasi. We came to the enterance and toke of our sandals (In the indian temples you alwayz have to walk barefoot). After that we had to queue to be searched by the guards. This secueritycontrol is to prevent terrorist from destroying the temple. When i passed the "malequeue" and headed for the "femalequeue" to be searched by a female guard, one man shouted at me to stop. He looked confused, toke a rapid look at me and then told me to continue. What i think happened was that he misstaked me for a boy. Due to the recent and pretty radical haircut i made in Bodhgaya (total shave), plus the not-so-feminine-cloths i was wearing i can understand his misstake, but at the hotel they laughed a lot when i told them about the incident.

Me and Dinesh (the moonk) continued towards the templegate and once again we were getting searched by the guards. Then one of the guards said something to Dinesh, something about me being a hindu or not. We were shown into a room next to the temple where two more guards where sitting. Dinesh talked to them for a while and then they asked for my name, country and passport. After having told him that I did'nt have my passport with me I think one of them explained that only hindus were allowed into the temple. After that he asked: "Do you belive in Shiva?" I didn't want to lie, but at the same time I wanted to see the temple, so I answered rather diplomatic: "I don't know so much about Shiva". The man just looked at me, whereupon he seroiusly annonced "Shiva is the destroyer!" After that, he gave me a sign that said it was okay to pass. Me and Dinesh headed for the temple for the second time and this time the guards let us pass! Inside the tempel the atmosphere was everything but sacred, with guards pushing people forward, making them not stopping for to long time in the same spot. There where so many people at Vishunath temple so a guess they had to make people move so that their would'nt be a holy traffic congestion inside the temple.

I have started to help a german girl, Fiona, with english classes for kids. Fiona has already been at the school for three months and I will only be able to help her for two weeks as i am soon leaving varanasi. But Fiona seems happy to have found someone that can play guitar and the popular "Coconutsong" that Fiona has introduces to the kids and that they really love. After one lesson we are exhausted. The reason is that we all the time have to tell the kids to shut up, sit still, not hit eachother etcetera, etcetera, every once in a while. Teaching methods and pupils behavoiur is a little different here from Sweden.

Now I only have 1 1/2 week left in Varanasi before i'm going to Delhi to meet up with Martin. I think i'm gonna feel sad to leave Varanasi but at the same time I look forward to travelling with Martin and seeing new places of India. I'm also looking forward to travelling because I sometimes feel that here in Varanasi I have got engaged in so many things. The hindilessons, the englishclasses and all the 'friends' on the road that wants to buy me a glas of chai everytime I pass them by. Days without any "plans" has the last two weeks been unusual. Though I shall not complain because this is also the reason why i decided to stay on one spot for 5 weeks; I wanted to get to know more then only the important monuments of Varanasi, I wanted to get to know the people as well.

By the way, the origin of todays blogmessage is from a guy in the hotel. It was one of the first thing he told me and Elin when we arrived to Varanasi 4 weeks ago.