1-29-09

We got up extraordinarily early this morning. Dad had arranged to meet a boatman at 5:50 so he knocked on our door at the ridiculous time of 5:30. Patrick wasn’t feeling well, dinner last night didn’t agree with him, so he decided to give the boat a miss. Maybe he’d have come if it wasn’t such a pain to get out of bed, I don’t know. I was still very sleepy when we got down to our boat, but the chilly air on the Ganages soon woke me up. Mom had cleverly brought her shawl along, so I scrunched up next to her and we shared it.
I was surprised at the number of people, Indians and tourists alike, who were already on the river at such an early hour. It was nice to see the buildings, palaces, and temples in the early morning light and from the safe cleanliness of a boat. After about a ½ hour, we tuned back, so I was facing the opposite bank and the rising sun rather than the city. Mom and Dad kept craning their heads around to see Varanasi, which bothered me a bit because we had come to see the sunrise which only lasted for a while and not the city which had been there for thousands of years; I happily watched the red sun rise over the treetops and light up the silver Ganges and turn her orange and yellow and pink.
After the boatride, which lasted about an hour all together, I went back to bed for a while. I think this is entirely understandable, considering my age. All teenagers need their beauty sleep and I am no exception; no teasing is allowed.
At a more reasonable hour, I woke up for the second time, breakfasted, and took off with Mom and Dad again into the main streets of Varanasi. Our destinations were Baa Baa Black Sheep- a wool and silk shop, The Open Hand – a tourist memento sort of place, and Indica Books – a well recommended bookstore with an interesting owner. We went to Indica Books first because it was the closest, but the owner was not there. We were told he would be there in a ½ hour or so and so took off for Baa Baa Black Sheep. But, sue to some confusion in sign posting, the shop was farther away than we had originally thought. (There was a sign with 2 arrows on it, on saying 50 meters and the other saying 1 Km. Mom and Dad thought this meant there were two shops, one of which was only 50 m away. I thought it meant you had to go 50 m one way and then turn and go 1 km another way, but didn’t say anything for some reason. It turned out I was right, so we went back to Indica books without having visited any shops.)
I was busy looking for children’s versions of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata when Alvero, the owner came in, so I didn’t join my parents immediately in their conversation. When I was little, I had a few copies of these, along with stories of other Hindu saints. They were well written and beautifully illustrated and were some of my absolute favorite books. Which means that I read them so many times that half the pages are ripped and torn and entire books are in general states of disrepair. Unfortunately, I found no replacements, so I walked up the stairs to Alverro’s office. We had a very interesting conversation, touching on many topics. At the end, one of my parents, I think Mom, asked if there was anything in Varanasi we absolutely couldn’t miss. After a moments hesitation, Alverro invited us to accompany him to meet the Jagadguru of the North the following day. If you don’t already know this, Sri Sankara sent four of his disciples to teach in the four different directions: North, South, East, and West. Each of those disciples had a successor, who had a successor, etc. until the present day Jagadgurus came to occupy their function. The Jagadguru of Kanchipuram, the one we met earlier in our trip, is the successor of Sankara himself. This is a very basic outline and there are some controversial issues which I do not understand, so I will not go into any more details.
After Indica Books, we went to Baa Baa Black Sheep. (I had a great deal of trouble typing that. Too many B’s and A’s) Mom and I wanted to look at silk and synthetic scarves because they make such good presents. Actually, only I looked at the synthetic ones, but I am a poor college student and Mom is not. In the end though, I, the poor college student, spent more than Mom. She got two beautiful, large, silk scarves for Rs. 1000 and I got 1 large silk scarf, 1 small silk scarf, and four small synthetic scarves for Rs. 1100. Personally, I think I got the better deal, because the synthetic ones are still beautiful even if they aren’t “the Real McCoy”.
After scarf shopping, we walked to the Open Hand, but didn’t purchase anything. While tourist shops are convenient and have lots of wonderful knick-knacks tou collect as souvenirs, they are ridiculously over-priced. We considered buying cappocinos in their café, but decided to get even that elsewhere. Elsewhere turned out to be the Palace on the Ganges Restaurant. It would have been quite delightful except for the lack of cappocinos and the abundance of flies. I had a sweet lime soda, which seemed to attract even more flies. By the time we left, there were at least fifty flies spread across three tables. I know I sometimes have a tendancy towards exaggeration, but in this case it is completely unnecessary to spice up the the story. Fifty is a good estimate.
I forgot to mention, we ate lunch at the Bread of Life and it was amazingly scrumptious. I have not tasted such good food in a long time and I thouroughly recommend it to anyone visiting India, let alone Varanasi!