By nandan on December 15, 2009
It was my cousin’s wedding on the 12th of December and I was so excited for it but fortunately I could not attend it as I had to be Gwalior for my written exam and interview for tour guide training. The wedding was on the 12th and it was my exam on the 13th, the [...]
Posted in Exorcism | Tagged indian wedding, Varanasi
By nandan on November 1, 2009
There is a Yadav family lives next door. There are six members in the family- three girls, their parents and grandma but none of them work. Grandma is a retired nurse and gets pension and they have rented a few rooms in their house which is the source of income for them. I don’t think [...]
Posted in Exorcism | Tagged exorcists, ghosts, 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 15, 2009
I am hosting a FulBright scholar, Megan, who is doing her research from University of Pittsburgh. Her research topic is tawayaf culture. She has rented a whole flat and will stay till June 2010. We discussed a few things about tawayaf culture in Varanasi. I already knew that Lucknow was the most famous place of [...]
Posted in Groovy Ganges Guest House, Hindu culture | Tagged red light district varanasi, Tawayaf, Varanasi
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 August 31, 2009
Finally half of the training is completed. Now three weeks of classroom teaching and one week of orientation tour are left and after that I will have to do my field work. I am so excited for my field work. I talked with the other participants of the program about my field work on LGBT [...]
Posted in Business, Studies in India | Tagged eco tourism, LGBT tourism india, rural tourism, tour guide india, tourism india, 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 25, 2009
I have always been interested in the people who feel like they are affected by bhoots (ghosts) and destroy their lives going to some baba or exorcists to get rid of the ghosts. I have always wanted to hear more about ghosts by people who say that they are somehow affected by ghosts or have [...]
Posted in Exorcism | Tagged Exorcism, ghost, india, Varanasi
By nandan on April 22, 2009
My cousin is going to get married soon, maybe in December this year. My relative who has a permanent job in a bank is too much interested in getting people married. He knows several families who want to get their daughters and sons married. He asked my uncle to get his son married with one [...]
Posted in Women in pain | Tagged dowry, hindu weddings, indian wedding, Varanasi
By nandan on April 5, 2009
The election for central government is coming soon and the political world is so hot nowadays. Benares has always been a very important place for Indians but this year Benares is something special because of the big names from different parties going to participate in the election. Benares has become a center of attraction for [...]
Posted in Corruption, politics | Tagged elections 2009, india elections, Varanasi