By nandan on April 20, 2010
My tour guide training completed in December and my license was printed in January. Now Ministry of Tourism office in Delhi asked me to bring a police verification certificate from my local police station. Police verification certificate certifies that there are no legal cases against me. Actually they had provided a proforma also and I [...]
Posted in Corruption, Varanasi | Tagged character certificate, Corruption, india, Indian police, Varanasi
By nandan on March 25, 2010
I worked with a photographer named Jane Becker from Canada. She wanted to photograph widows and hospices in Varanasi. Since I had already worked with a researcher from University of Venice who did research about widows in Varanasi, I already knew where to take them. About two years ago I worked with a research from [...]
Posted in Business, Hindu culture, Varanasi | Tagged ashrams in varanasi, benares, dying in varanasi, hospices in varanasi, kashi mukti bhawan, moksha in varanasi, research assistance varanasi, translator varanasi, Varanasi
By nandan on March 3, 2010
Posted in Hindu culture, Varanasi
By nandan on March 1, 2010
Holika is a festival which is celebrated on the Holi eve. It was on the 28th of Feb. this year but I could not attend it. This festival has a very interesting story behind it. It is said that there were two brothers named Hiranyakashyapu and Hirnakchya. Both of them were evil souls and [...]
Posted in Hindu culture, Varanasi | Tagged hindu festivals, holi, holika, Varanasi
By nandan on February 15, 2010
I am working with a musician named Josh Massad on a project called world through music which is about teaching music and other subjects through music. Josh travels all over the world and teach music to kids. When he works in the US, he teaches African and Indian music to American kids, when he is [...]
Posted in Business, Varanasi | Tagged education program varanasi, music varanasi, translator, translator varanasi, volunteer varanasi
By nandan on February 13, 2010
It was Shivratri on the 12th and I was super excited for it. Shivratri is the biggest festival of Benares. Actually it is celebrated because it is wedding anniversary of Lord Shiva. There are more than six thousand temples in Varanasi but 11 out of them organize a wedding parade of Lord Shiva. The parade [...]
Posted in Hindu culture, Varanasi | Tagged bhang, bhang lassi, bhang thandai, mahashivratri, shiva, shivratri, Varanasi
By nandan on October 25, 2009
I came in contact with a Hungarian guy, Attila, who is a computer engineer in Hungary and volunteers for a Hungarian NGO (www.afroaid.hu). This NGO runs a child sponsorship program in Africa. Attila wanted to volunteer in Varanasi. He wanted to come to India next year with his wife for a year and was interested [...]
Posted in Business, Varanasi | Tagged bonded laborers, child adaptation india, child laborers, chlid adaptation in varanasi, Varanasi, volunteer
By nandan on October 1, 2009
After completing the classroom teaching and orientation tour, now I am supposed to do field work for two months in my local town. I wanted to choose the subject LGBT tourism because nobody has done it before in India and it was a good opportunity for me to relate my NGO and the research I [...]
Posted in Business, Studies in India, Varanasi | Tagged tour guide varanasi, tour varanasi, Varanasi
By nandan on June 9, 2009
Yesterday it was an important day for the God Jagannath’s temple. Many people all over India go to the Jagannath temple and make the God bathe with water. This happens for the whole day and in the evening time it is said that the God gets sick because of this all-day-long bathing. Usually people offer [...]
Posted in Hindu culture, Varanasi | Tagged Rathyatra, rathyatra festival india, Varanasi
By nandan on May 15, 2009
Lok Samiti organized a group wedding of 32 poor couples again this year on 10th of May. It was again a huge event where more than 8,000 people were present. I reached there around 1 o’clock afternoon time and saw all the families preparing for the wedding; people were so excited. Lok Samiti had organized this [...]
Posted in Varanasi | Tagged dowry, group wedding, Hindu wedding, mehdiganj