Thursday, March 12, 2009

Babas, Monkeys, Tailors, Churches, Man-Eating Lion-Gods, and an Unhappy Holi


Since Haridwar is considered a holy place, many saddhus come here. Saddhus, also called Babas, are Hindu holy men who live a wandering lifestyle, often begging food to sustain themselves and following ascetic practices. Some accomplish amazing feats such as rolling on the ground for thousands of miles to reach a pilgrimage site, holding one arm in the air for decades, or sleeping on a bed of nails. Others seem to mainly enjoy smoking hash and hanging out on the banks of the Ganges. I can't think of anything analogous in American society - these guys can be either holy men or shady characters and are often both at the same time.

After Haridwar, we spent an uneventful night in Dehradun and then went on to Mussoorie, a hill station at about 2000m. India has many hill stations, all built by the British to escape the harsh summers. Nowadays these function mainly as tourist towns and honeymoon retreats. While in Mussoorie, we met really nice family who ran a small tailor's shop / convenience stand. Above is the eldest brother, with his sewing machine.

This is the younger brother, who spoke excellent English and offered to help Stephen learn Hindi.
The Landour Language school, founded by the British in 1870, is a well-known place to learn Hindi. It's about a 3 km walk from Mussoorie, up on a hilltop - very peaceful. Stephen may study Hindi here for a few months after Adrienne goes home.

This man invited us into his home for chai and showed Stephen a nearby flat that he may rent.
We arrived in Rishikesh on the eve of Holi, a rambunctious Indian holiday where people throw brightly colored powder at each other and generally act crazy. On the morning of Holi, we thought we could just walk a few minutes to have breakfast without suffering too much abuse, but we were wrong. A few steps from our front door we found out about the ugly side of Holi - it's not only color that people smear on you, sometimes it's car oil. Not nice at all. After that we stayed inside until it ended.

The next day we went out to explore the town. Here's a view of Rishikesh, also a holy site on the Ganges.

There were a ton of monkeys hanging around a suspension bridge across the Ganges, just waiting to snatch food from passersby. We saw popsicles taken, and chips and biscuits devoured. This little guy's already a pro.

A half-lion avatar of Vishnu named Narasimha. He represents divine anger, and is connected to the Holi festival.

2 comments:

deeder said...

You're in India! Looks like fun!

Anonymous said...

I think it is a holiday I would like to avoid! The country is really colorful - both visually and figuratively!