Category Archives: Groovy Ganges Guest House

Tourist in Varanasi meets a Pimp

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I had a tenant from DC named Nick Chang. He was a Taiwanese but had green card of USA. He was a software Engineer. He was a Buddhist and wanted to visit few Buddhist sites in India. He wanted to visit Sarnath so I suggested him to hire a auto rickshaw for round trip. But he was uncomfortable doing it because he thought that he would not be able to meditate if somebody was waiting for him. I knew that it could be a hassle for a foreigner to deal with our auto rickshaw driver so again I suggested him to take a auto for round trip but he was not interested. I called Raju, the driver whom I hire always, to take Nick to Sarnath. Raju left him at Sarnath and came back.

Returning time Nick hired another auto which was quiet expensive than Raju’s auto. Nick said that he had reserved the whole auto but rickshaw driver let other people come. It was not so bad but definitely not good either. Driver stopped auto at railway station for a while saying that he wanted to buy something and when he came he had a young girl with him who also sat next to Nick. Driver started auto and this girl started touching Nick. Then driver asked Nick if he would like to sleep with that girl. Nick immediately said No but driver was kept telling him to go with that girl.

First he asked for Rs. 5000, then 4000,3000 and finally his last price was only Rs. 1000 for an hour. Nick never wanted to go with her so he never seemed a interested party to driver. Finally he asked for Rs. 500 to spend sometime in auto and Nick again said no but this driver just wanted Nick to buy that girl any how.

By the way when driver felt that Nick would not buy the girl, he stopped auto about 3 KMs before the place where Nick had to go. He said that his auto had some problem that he could not driver it any more. He said that Assi, where he had to go, was only 3 minutes of walk from the place he had stopped auto. Nick just wanted to get rid of it and he thought that Assi was really 3 minutes of walk so he left the auto. But he had to walk for over 30 minutes to get to my home.

Nick was stressed with his first day in Benares and I was shocked to see this new form of prostitution in my hometown. I had heard about prostitutes at Railways station but never realized that they are this much active and auto drivers are their touts.

Traveling girls drop in

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A girl from Colorado named Erin wrote me to meet in Varanasi. She was friend of Krista whom I had work with in Benares. Erin came up with her one other Czechoslovakian friend named Katerina. Erin was a social activist and Katerina was a student. Erin works with a NGO that works for homeless people. They wanted to stay in my house as paying guest but I could not arrange it because there was renovation work going.
She stayed at a guest house near Shivala ghat. The owner of her guest house brought them to my place. Erin and Katerina wanted a boat ride on Ganges. So they asked their guest house owner first who wanted to charge them lot of money. They asked me and I got them a boat for 5 times less than what guest house owner wanted to charge. She bought a bottle of whiskey to gift to guest house owner but he didn’t except it because he was angry about why they asked me to get them a boat.
Erin told to guest house owner that she had bought this bottle because he is her friend but he said Erin to give that bottle to me because I was her better friend. It seems like he was very very angry at me, better I don’t meet him again. Finally Erin switched to another which was near my home. We wandered together in Varanasi, enjoyed my friend’s wedding. We used that bottle of whiskey which she had bought to gift her last guest house owner.
Roli did heena work on their hand. They wanted to look like a Indian girl and wanted to wear a saree in the wedding. Bunti gave them her saree and helped wear it. They were looking nice. We danced a lot in Babalu’s wedding party. I wanted them to be safe so I suggested them to return to hotel before late night. By the way we returned to the hotel around 12’o clock night but hotel gate was closed. We knocked the door a lot but no body came to open the gate.
Finally I offered them to stay in my house. My house was not ready to host any guest but we didn’t have any other option. They came to my home and slept there. I took them to lot of places in Benares. It was great fun wandering with them. Erin left to Amritsar alone. Katrina was still in the Benares but never contacted me again. I don’t know where she left.

Options for Studying Hindi in Varanasi

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A lot of foreign students come India to learn Hindi and most of them either go to Masoori or Varanasi. They say that there are only three good Hindi schools in India and Varanasi and Masoori gets most attention. An student of University of Washington named Lane Rasberry stayed at my guest house for five months. He was in Varanasi to learn Hindi with a school called Bhasha Bharti. He wanted to outsource chemistry research to India and do his PhD research with some Indian scientist. He used to go to classes two hours a day/ five days a week and pay Rs. 200-250 per hour which was a lot more than what I used pay to learn English.

He wanted to learn Hindi with Bhasha Bharti for his whole stay but decided to leave early because of some reasons after 2 months. Later he started practicing Hindi on his own in a Hindi speaking environment in my home. He started learning Hindi by my family member’s help, specially my father. He was still looking for a teacher for Hindi classes but wasn’t able to find one. I also tried to find a teacher but I was never ever satisfied with the people who claimed to be a good Hindi teacher for foreigners.

We tried few teachers but none of them were able to satisfy either Lane or me. One of them was a queen and would talk about himself more than teaching Lane. Lane went to my English teacher and as I told him that Lane pays Rs. 200 per hour to Bhasha Bharti, his mouth became water. He was trying to make Lane come to him at any cost but I thought it was better to go to Bhasha Bharti if he had to same fee. Finally I left going there to avoid his pressure on me to bring Lane.

Leaving time his Hindi was good enough to express his feelings. He could understand better than he could speak. I had no problem understanding his Hindi but he still needed lots of practice. I don’t know if he will be able to practice Hindi in the US or not. Lane told me about Skype and it was great idea to help him practice his Hindi even he is in the US. I would try to communicate him in Hindi through Skype.