Varanasi and Aarti

 

Wandering the back alleys in Varanasi.

January 24, 2026, Friday

We have been told to expect the unexpected in India. When we arrived at our last-minute hostel after 11:00 pm last night, we learned we can only have the rooms for two nights. We also learned we are on what they call the third floor, but Americans call the fourth flour. There is no elevator. The stairs are very steep! Fortunately a young hostel assistant carried our two bags up for us. 

Just as we were drifting off, a very loud and long fire firework display started at midnight. Varanasi is loud and has a busy street just below our window. We heard horns and honking all night long. At 2:00 am, they started blasting music and chanting. It was quiet from 3:00 am - 5:30 am when a very long series of bells started chiming. We learned it is the city's early morning wake-up call and it happens every morning!

We attended class with the students at 10:00 am. Notice the peacock feathers in the display. The peacock is a symbol of Sarawati whose festival kept us up in the night.

The pollution is quite bad in the city. It stings my eyes and I can even taste it. We wore face masks when it was particularly hazardous last night. We learned in class today that Varanasi is an important and sacred city to Hindus. They believe that if they die in this city, they will escape the cyclical nature of life and gain salvation. People come here to die and some people come to spread their loved one's remains in the Ganges River. And some come to bathe in the river and practice other rituals. But importantly, a lot of the noise last night was because today is a festival honoring the Hindu goddess Sarawatti. She is the goddess of wisdom, arts, learning and music. It is also the reason the hotels are and hostels are booked!

There are lots of cows wandering the roads and alleys.

We've seen two people on the streets with their snakes.

View of the Ganges from our lunch spot. We had a group lunch with the students at pizza restaurant! Goutam's friend owns it.

After lunch with Elisabeth and Goutam.

Every morning and every evening at 6:00 am and 6:00 pm, there is an Aarti ceremony on the Ganges River banks. Goutam arranged for us to have front row seats! We got there 45-minutes early, and we people-watched and turned down the constant stream of peddlers who came up to us selling trinkets and tea.

At the beginning of the ceremony, the head pujari chanted each of the names of the Hindu deities. Then the audience responded by chanting praise to each of them, raising and lowering the hands as they spoke the words.

A few selected people (we think they may be benefactors) stood in a line. They were given the chance to perform some of the rituals themselves. This man is holding the fire, and he would wave it in a circle before passing it to the next person.

After the opening ritual, a group of people lined up in front of us. Many of them were couples. They removed their shoes and stood on a cloth mat. The ceremony used five items that represent the five elements. Bright yellow flowers represent the earth, holy water from the Ganges (which they sprinkled on themselves and put in their mouths, fire represented by the flames, air symbolized by the smoke and space represented by the cloth. 

This woman is taking her turn with a different flame. The handle is in the shape of a cobra.

The people were sent back to their seats and all of the pujaris gathered at a center table where they chanted and continued to praise the deities.  

The pujari has a pot on the table filled with holy water from the Ganges. He has placed an offering of bananas to them.

Each of the pujaris stood on their own platform and performed a series of synchronized rituals to music. First, they blew on a conche shell. The noise marks the beginning of the ritual and purifies the environment. The sound it makes is supposed to sound like the meditative "ohm".

This is what it sounds like.

Here the pujari is purifying the atmosphere by waving this urn around in a circle. Only men who are part of the Brahmin caste can act as pujaris.

Goutan had us slip out before the finale hoping to avoid the crowds. But it was the most crowded throng of people, motorcycles and stray animals we have been in. He somehow bargained for enough rickshaws for our entire group.

He took us to an amazing local restaurant run by yet another friend. He is working it right, we have all decided we want to go back to every place he has taken us. This is paneer masala. It was so good!

FWP Chennai Style

 

January 23, 2026, Thursday

Abid told us that once Pongal was over, it is the start of the new year and wedding season. He said that Indian weddings can last for five days, and the party goes on and on. He told us we should take the opportunity to pop in and take a look. We asked if that would be strange and he says everybody in India talks about crashing a wedding. He said it is called "FWP", which stands for free wedding party. It's a thing. Karl said, "We already tried "FPP" free Pongal party, so why not?

As we were going back and forth to our hotel room, we kept running into different members of a wedding party. We met the groom and he invited us. We met the photographer and he invited us. We met the father of the groom and he invited us. So we decided, why not?

Entrance to the party venue. This was just an ordinary hallway earlier in the week.

Photo opportunity spot for an afternoon event.

We came back in the evening and this was the hallway transformation.

The guests were just coming in from a 2nd floor dinner. The evening activity was what they called a carnival. They divided the room into two teams, one for the groom and one for the bride. The groom is the man on the left with the polka dot shirt and white classes. They passed out light sabers and they blasted loud music and turned off the lights and waved them around.

Then they had an MC who led the two sides of the room in some group games. We met the bride, and the mother of the bride. Everyone was thrilled to have us there and the photographer took lots of pictures of us. 

It was a competition to see who could make the most noise. After that game we slipped out the back door. It actually put us into the shopping mall! 

The hotel staff threw us a farewell party.

We fully recommend E-Hotel for your next trip to Chennai!

Our farewell lunch with the group was another Thali meal. Some of the dishes were too spicy for me.

Checking into the the airport, we had to show our passports to just get in. The hotel packed us sack dinners. Security let us through with full bottles of water and juice boxes. 

Just when we got on board, Emily got a text saying the hostel we had booked for this leg of our trip canceled on us. She quickly reached out to our local assistant, Gautham, who booked us in a different hostel last minute. The students and Elisabeth were all staying in a different hostel but they didn't have two extra rooms, so we are at a different location.

 

 

Mahabalipuram

 

I'm standing by this monolith to give perspective for it size. It is named Krishna's Butterball.

January 21, 2026, Tuesday

We were supposed to be served breakfast at 6:30 this morning in the hotel, but when we got down there a few minutes early, it was empty! So, Karl tried to get things hopping and fifteen minutes later they pulled out the toast, cereal, fruit, juice and a few hot dishes came rolling out. We planned to get on the road by 7:00 am to avoid the heat, beat the traffic and hopefully get to Mahabalipuram before the crowds. It was a good plan. 

Students trying to nudge the Butterball down the hill. It didn't work.

Mahabalipuram is a world UNESCO site of 7th-8th century temples carved out of monoliths. Some are made of granite and some are carved in sandstone. Our tour guide led us to five in chronological order. Krishna's Butterball was the first.

The local tourists were very interested in us and wanted to take pictures together.

This is the cave-style shrine. It houses a shrine for the three important Hindu gods we have been learning about: Brahma, Shiva and Vishnu. Our guide compared them to the Holy Trinity. Brahma is the Creator, Shiva the Preserver and Vishnu the Destroyer. Their combined roles represent the Hindu cycle of birth, life, death and rebirth.

Karl was trending with his water bottle carrying technique, but it didn't seem to take off.

Arjuna's Penance

This relief sculpture depicts a story of Arjuna, a warrior, who performs several acts in order to obtain divine weapons from Lord Shiva. The scene is carved on two large monoliths. 

Krishna Mandapam

The pillared hall in front of the shrine is called a mandapam and was added in the 16th century. The interior carvings were made in the 7th century showing Krishna lifting the side of the mountain to  protect the cowherders.

The bus couldn't take us to some of the other sites, so we hired an auto rickshaw to take us. This one held five of us!

Five Rathas

Rathas in Sanskrit means chariot or cart. Our guide told us that each of these five rathas were carved in a different style of architecture. Scholars believe they were practicing to learn unique styles of architecture before they used them in other locations. This site was their laboratory for architectural design.

This lower portion in front of the Shore Temple is believed to be the place where they offered sacrifices.

This temple sits on the shore of the Bay of Bengal, hence the name. It was built in the 8th century. Some of the carvings have elements that look Egyptian, Chinese, Greek and Assyrian. Scholars say that these elements show that the trade route brought outside influences into India as much as Indian spices and later cotton were brought to diverse locations.

Reclining Vishnu carving in another location.

There are many reclining Buddhas in Southeast Asian temples and the idea for that design may have come from this part of South India.

We were standing in line to get into one of the sites and it was a line of our students and a line of young Indian students facing each other. One of our students was talking and started doing the six seven gesture. The young boys were watching her and they all started immediately doing it back.

We had a nice lunch in a local restaurant. We gave it a thumbs up for the recommendation.

Group shot in front of the restaurant.

We climbed to the top of an old lighthouse for the view.

We stopped at a beach on the way back to Chennai. The sea is too rough, so swimming is not allowed. But we wanted to stick our feet in the Bay of Bengal.

Fort St. George and St. Thomas Cathedral Basilica

 Portrait gallery in Fort St. George

January 20, 2026, Monday

We had class in the morning and then a free afternoon to explore a little bit. We went first to Fort St. George. It is on the same piece of property that also houses the state government offices. So, we had to go through security to be allowed in. I ended up having to be patted down, and Karl had to show his passport and then give his phone number. There were armed police everywhere. Then we walked to the museum only to discover you cannot purchase tickets at the site. You have to buy them online. So, they gave us the QR code but it wouldn't work on our phones. So, they just kept shaking their heads like they didn't know what to do. We stood there for about ten minutes while they kept saying "just wait" and a tour guide showed up with a couple. They let us pay him the entrance fee in cash plus ten rupees commission (11 cents) and we got in!

Porcelain with the East India Company's trademark. This dishware was used for their official functions.

The fort was built in 1644 and completed on the patron saint of England's St. George Day, so they named it Fort St. George. The building we were in was the first bank of Madras but also the upstairs housed a public meeting hall. The fort was large fort establishment with a moat. It grew into a small town and was the headquarters for the East India Company. The museum today holds a collection of cannons, guns and swords, paintings, coins, early prints and the first Indian flag.

Lord Cornwallis

Lord Cornwallis was appointed the Governor General of India in 1786. He tried to stop corruption within the British administration. But the relief sculpture on the pedestal depicts Tippu Sultan surrendering two of his sons as hostages to the British to guarantee his compliance with the harsh terms of a treaty imposed by Lord Cornwallis. One son was ten years old and the other eight! So, the placement of the statue later on became problematic for the British because of their harsh treatment of the local population.

Queen Victoria

The paintings in the portrait gallery were of well-known British royals but the provenance of the paintings was not explained. 

The original palace of the Prince of Arcot.

This etching caught my eye because when we visited the Prince of Arcot's palace, we learned the British took his land and palace away and gave him his current land and home, which looks very English. This palace looks Persian.

First Indian national flag.

This flag is the crown jewel of the museum's collection. It was first hoisted in 1947 symbolically at Fort St. George. It is 8 feet by 12 feet and made of silk. It was the first flag flown after independance.

St. Thomas Cathedral Basilica

We took an auto rickshaw to see the St. Thomas Cathedral Basilica. We learned there are three Basilicas in the world that house the remains of one of Christ's apostles. Doubting Thomas came to India in 52 CE.  He taught and traveled and was finally martyred (speared) in Chennai on a hill in 72 CE. His body was entombed here and the church built upon the site. There are also apostles buried in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome and one in Spain for James.

The nave.

A 16th century statue of Mary brought from Portugal.

St. Francis Xavier spent many hours praying in front of this statue. He attributed many miracles to her. 

The lancehead the killed St. Thomas is encased in this box.

We could not take any pictures of the piece of bone housed in a separate small chapel that belonged to Thomas. They had a mannequin lying in a sepulcher to help you envision that he was entombed there.

Our auto rickshaw driver who took us back to the hotel was a character. He is showing a rally that happened today for the movie star who is running for office. He tried to take us to a store that sold "temple art" but we told him we weren't interested after we got out and looked inside. He wanted to take us more places but finally got the idea we were done.

I had paneer steaks on a sizzling platter for dinner. I can't get enough paneer!

Two henna artists came to the hotel tonight because the students all wanted to have it done.

They have to let it dry for three or four hours, which is going to make it a late night for some of them.