Backing up a lot to Ganga Arti

Ganga Arti is a puja for the Ganga and it is so cool to watch. We have been two times to see it. One time we went with my grandma and my aunt and the other time we went just the four of us we went the four of us. We sat close to the top of the steps that go down to the Ganga. The other time we sat close to the bottom of the steps. Well maybe I shoud tell you about what it is like. The first thing to do is to go down to the river then sit down and you get to wach the puja which is made up of five or six men all doing the same thing at the same time. So what they do is ( I do not remember the order) blow through conch shells then they use a fan that is made out of peacock feathers and a cool handle. After that they use a somke thing then lets out lots of smoke in lots of directions. Then they use a fire thing that has lots of little lamps that are lit. Then they fan again then a copper pot that has a fire going inside. Then they use a big brush like thing that is made out of cotton and the same handle as on the fan. ok now I will put the one picture that I can find. I’m sory that I do not have more if I find them I’ll post them.

Sorry

I am sorry for not posting for such along time. As some of you know I have just moved to Pune and we all like it here. All of you who are thinking about coming should come when I am here. Things are all so nice and easy. For example there are street names that work, so to tell some one where we live is "Prabhat Road, Lane Nine-A, Neelakant Apartments" (That means "blue throat". That is inportant beacuse Shiva is blue. Shiva is an important god in Hinduism.) So as you can see there are address other then "behind whatever". We cannot be charged too much for rickshaws (a kind of a taxi, how lots of people get around). Well, we also have internet in the house so I will post alot more soon!

The Waterfalls

Yes there are waterfalls in Varanasi! And we went to them. They are about two hours from where we live (by car).Only Dad and Ben and I went. Mom stayed home. In the dry season the waterfalls are no so wet. It was more like a shower then a waterfall. One could climb around by it and run through it if they wanted. We did not run through it but we did climb by it. There was a new kind of monkey the kind that you do not see every day. They had longer tails and they were just different. There were a lot of pepole and we do not like to go in crowds beacause we are white people and they try to take pictures of us and they pinch Ben’s cheeks and some times mine, so we try not to. So we did not get to climb much the first time. We went down to the waterfall part but after we had eaten lunch we went back and we could climb a lot more and it was a lot of fun.

KITE DAY

Kite day is lots of fun. It was on the 14 of January. The adult men go up on the roofs and fly kites and fight them with the kites from the other houses. If you win you yell "Wo Cuttay!" which means 'that one is cut'. And the girls dance for the family. I did some dancing with my friends on the roof. It was fun. What we did for kite day is we went up on the roof and took picture of all the kites. On are roof there was a big roll of tape like you see at a store and a whole lot of kites because if your kite gets cut it is lost. Some kid will chase it and get hold of it. Lots of kites lots of fun lots of loud noise!

hip hip hooray

the grandma and the aunt of awesomeness came with lots of things for us which was great and we got to go to lots our favorite places with them like ganga aarti and ramnagar and godoulia (the galis a.k.a.the old city) and some things that we had not done before, like going for a walk on the ganga and a boat ride too. Sorry no pictures.

This is me playing the harmonium.

These two pictures are at my teacher's house which is where I have lessons . The baby on my lap is her baby. The baby's name is Rumi. She is so cute. I get to see her on all of my lessons. My teacher's name is Gupa.

this the greate Manju ....

this Manju who cooks lunch and dinner for us . She is the mom of two who she brings so that the four of us can play.