By nandan on October 31, 2008
Richard Gere kissed Shilpa Shetty in public and had to go to court. It happened during an AIDS awareness program where Shilpa Shetty, a Bollywood actress, was the hostess. Richard Gere has been working with lots of NGOs in India that educates people about AIDS. He came on the stage and started kissing Shilpa on [...]
Posted in Hindu culture, politics | Tagged kiss, sex
By nandan on October 29, 2008
Inflation is killing India nowadays. Everything is at least twice as expensive as the usual price. It was Diwali yesterday but it didn’t fell like the Diwali five or six years ago. Usually people like to buy lots of crackers, buy new clothes, bring something new to their homes but this year everything was so… [...]
Posted in politics | Tagged india, inflation in India, Varanasi
By nandan on October 29, 2008
It was Diwali yesterday and I enjoyed it a lot. I had invited a few couchsurfers to celebrate Diwali with me. I invited two US students and two British travelers. They came to my home around 6 o’clock and were just sharing their travel experiences of India. Later uncle Udo also joined us. My mother [...]
Posted in Hindu culture | Tagged Diwali Varanasi
By nandan on October 24, 2008
A 55 years old guy from Auckland wrote me through couchsurfing about 3 months ago. He wanted to know about Varanasi. He said that he wanted someone to travel with him. Once he asked me if I would like to be his tour guide for all of India. I was so excited about this, and [...]
Posted in Groovy Ganges Guest House, Medical services in Varanasi | Tagged family stay varanasi, guest house varanasi, home stay varanasi, hostels varanasi
By nandan on October 22, 2008
One girl name Abbie from Pittsburgh contacted me through couchsurfing asking about Hindi classes in Varanasi. I suggested her to go to Mr. Virendra Singh. She had written to Bhasha Bharti, but Bhasha Bharti did not reply her. I asked Mr. Singh if he had time for another student, and fortunately he had one hour [...]
Posted in Groovy Ganges Guest House, Studies in India | Tagged Hindi classes varanasi, hindi lessons varanasi, hindi teacher varanasi
By nandan on October 20, 2008
I have been hosting a student from Germany. His name is Udo, he is 58 years old and wants to learn Hindi in Varanasi. Uncle Udo contacted me about a month ago. He got my email address through hospitality club profile. Uncle Udo used to be a professor of German. He has worked for different [...]
Posted in Groovy Ganges Guest House, Studies in India | Tagged Hindi classes varanasi, hindi lessons varanasi, hindi teacher varanasi
By nandan on October 15, 2008
Now there is a problem again with the tour guide training program, which was supposed to start on October 6th. Now the Guide Association of Jaipur has sued the government for organizing the tour guide training program for only 45 days. They say that the government should again organize this program for four months, as [...]
Posted in politics | Tagged tour guide india, tour guide training program, tour guide varanasi
By nandan on October 9, 2008
It was last day of Durga Puja yesterday and I went to see the Durga pandals (tents) with my friends. I have been going to see the pandals for the last 10 years. We usually leave home at 9 o’clock and wander to different pandals at different places, which takes almost the whole night. We [...]
Posted in politics, terrorism | Tagged durga puja, festivals in Varanasi, terrorism, terrorism varanasi, Varanasi
By nandan on October 1, 2008
I went to Gwalior on the 27th to get counseling for the tour guide training program. I reached Gwalior at 10.30 AM as my train was delayed by 2 hours. Counseling was to start at 3pm so I had almost 4 hours to visit the city. I had already heard about Gwalior fort so I [...]
Posted in Travel | Tagged gwalior, tour guide exam