Banaras day two

This was written this morning, much has happened since then.

What an increadible, vibrant city, city of siva, city of light, city of the roaming cow--all Indian cities are the city of the roaming cow--city of insane westerners seeking enlightenment, city of the ganga, the dirtiest holy body of water in the world. (today, I was walking along the ghats, and disturbingly saw a baby floating in the ganga, mouth frozen in perpetual cry. They don't burn the dead babies before giving the mover to Gagaji, because they are not polluted.)Yesterday got first intro to Banaras, you can feel a rush of life in the streets and on the river here. Hat chai on Assi Ghat (where the program house is near) saw the nightly fire puja, and had dinner at a pizzerria. Pizza not good after Indian food, completely bland even overloaded with garlic, but i'm glad we ate there because the owner (Govin-ji) invited the four men of our program (we've since grown to five with the late addition of George) me, Nate, ben and our leader Adrian, back to his home above the pizzeria for a very informal jam-jam session of tabla and serengy. Govin was a masterful tabla player--the man is muchly mafia connected and has nothing to do all day besides own AssiGhat and practice the tabla. Two drums sing like athousand drumcircles under hummingbird fingers. I will begin to learn to play tabla on Monday. The serengy is a tradiitonal Indian instrument, but it's poorly made, so prof. serengy players just use a violin, held upside down sitting on floor, balanced on the arch of the foot, and played very impolitely. Much more emotion conveyed. Best music I have heard ever. Indain approach much better--much less repetition and more freedom and more emotion.

Chai is delicious and westerners who think they can make it at starbucks are highly delusional.

Eating with your right hand makes food better and soul happier than a fork ever will.

Washing yer ass with water much more sanitary than just shmearing it with toilet paper. Sorry to offend the polite company that this blog keeps, but I thought it was important information that needed to be shared.

Bucket showers good, too.

Everything is better here. Especailly the cowdung, which is holy, and smells much better than peopledung.

Had a crazy ride from the trainstation yesteray. One skinny indian working the gearshift and breaks and gas, another skinny indian sitting on top of him steerinmg. Missed everything by inches. Much use of horn. Every inch of streetspace given over to life or its waste, every moment filled with horns and bells and shouts, life is chaos and always watching reveal the laid back quality of Banaras, selves getting entertained by crazy citybrothers. This chaos knows no boundaries, and never dies, just flows, into temples and holy places, into houses and hovels, into the ganga itself.

Too much words
love
jed

First night at homestay family, completely open and glad to have me. I feel shy and awkward, but happy. need to learn Hindi quickly. Two broters speak English, two fathers don't and mostly ignore me, mother sits and tries to teach me hindi amongst much charming giggling and happyness.