Tag Archives: guesthouse guest

Chicago guest learns Hindi

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An anthropology student named Adam Sergant from University of Chicago came to my guest house for a month. He also wanted to learn Hindi with Bhasha Bharti like Lane and Dave. Adam wanted to learn Hindi with Bhasha Bharti for his whole stay, three months, but  Bhasha Bharti didn’t have that much time so he decided to learn in Varanasi for a month then move to Masoori for another two months.

He had already learned Hindi with Virendra Singh at Wisconsin University so his Hindi was so so.  I asked him about why he was not learning with Virendra Singh in Varanasi so he said that Virendra Singh is in the US every year during summer time to teach students at Wisconsin University. He comes India only in winter with the same students he teaches at University in Madison. Adam used to go Bhasha Bharti for 6 hours a day.

His classes timings were not convenient for him, 8 to 11 morning and 4 to 7 in the evening. He went there for almost 15 days and decided to leave early because he had to do some research regarding his future work in India. He was doing PhD from University of Chicago and was interested in labors at construction sites.

Adam had great time in Varanasi learning Hindi with Bhasha Bharti. He said that teachers were not best but not bad either. Adam had few complaints about the dirt in classroom. He said that his chair was right under the fan and the dust would always fall at him from the fan. His overall experience with Bhasha Bharti was good, he was happy with them.

He left to Delhi to watch construction sites for his future project. He gave contact of my brother in Delhi so that he could hear something from a local person. After spending 2 days and eating Delhi food, Adam got sick. He was admitted in hospital for 3 days and got 4 drips. I dont understand why Delhi’s food is so bad. Even I had some problem when I ate in Delhi last time I was there.

Some how Adam reached Masoori to learn Hindi with a school. He had arranged his accommodation through his school so he was quiet sure that he will get a place to stay for two months. But when he reached at the place he was supposed to stay, he found that door was locked. He contacted the house owner and owner said that they have shifted to Dehradoon for next one month and would not be able to host him.

Again Adam contacted me look for housing in Masoori. I had a friend Dehradoon so I contacted him to look for some nice place in Masoori. It took three days to him to find a home but Adam had already found a place to stay. Adam cancelled his Hindi classes and left Masoori early because of some family problem.

Biologist takes Hindi class

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A 61 years old scientist named Dave from Fresno, USA came to my guest house for a month. He wanted to learn Hindi with Bhasha Bharti. He was in love with Hindi. He had spent about 3 years in Madhya Pradesh, India working for US Peace Corps in 1960s. He knew very good Hindi, a lot better than the people who go to Hindi classes for months. He had scheduled his classes from the US so he was sure that there will be someone to teach in Varanasi.

He got a message from Bhasha Bharti, after he had arrived in Varanasi, saying that his classes had been canceled. He wrote them asking the reason but they never replied. We went together to Bhasha Bharti to request them to let Dave learn with them but they were not interested at all. Dave was so sad, he didn’t know what he would do for the next one month in India. Finally he decided to visit the village again where he used to live working for US peace corps.

I asked few people about other Hindi classes in Varanasi and came to know about a professor named Virendra Singh who is a professor of Hindi at Wisconsin University, Madison, USA. We went there to see if he could teach Dave. He was really a nice person, he became agree to teach Dave for one hour everyday. Dave was hoping for at least 4 or 5 hours of classes everyday but Mr. Singh had already lots of students from  Wisconsin University so he could not give more than 1 hour.  But it was better than nothing.

I was so happy that Dave got a professor. I asked Dave about Virendra Singh’s ability to teach and he said that Virendra Singh is best Hindi professor he had ever met. I also like him a lot.

US Marine tours Varanasi

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One American Marine retired officer came to my guest house for one week. He had contacted me through craigslist before 3 months of coming to Varanasi. He was writing a novel and wanted to stay in India for one year. This time he just wanted to visit and see the place where he could stay in future. I was so excited to host him because of his job, I thought I will learn a lot from him about American Marine.

He hired me for two days as his tour guide. I gave him tour of Benares and he fell in love with my city. Benares made him remember of his childhood time in New York. He said that New York also had the yellow lights before 60-65 years as we have now. After my job was over, he started wandering in city on his own. I was little scared about it because he was 70 years old, but he was so energetic. Once we had to go somewhere and I found him sleeping that time so I asked him if he was sleeping and his answer was- I sleep when I die. I never want to forget this sentence.

But there was a problem with him that he started eating a lot of street food which made him sick. Once he ate over 1 KG of yogurt and 12 bananas at a time and got really sick. He got cough and cold, his BP and Sugar was so high that I had to take him to doctor and doctor said that everything was just because of that extra yogurt and bananas. Finally he left Benares after one week which was quiet relaxing for me.

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.