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Indian Diary of other not-so-smart travellers

 
 
ossobuco
 
  1  
Reply Wed 5 Oct, 2005 06:57 pm
Thanks for the summary.
0 Replies
 
brahmin
 
  1  
Reply Thu 6 Oct, 2005 09:40 pm
Steve (as 41oo) wrote:
And lets hope for all our sakes he stays there.


yes he will.

these days the jobs come to us.
0 Replies
 
brahmin
 
  1  
Reply Thu 6 Oct, 2005 10:35 pm
Steve (as 41oo) wrote:
well I'm sorry I didnt discover this thread earlier, because Brahmin is clearly an intelligent lad, and I'm sure would be most friendly, providing you are of the right caste, religion, race, colour and nation.


nope.

none of that is needed. i have friends of all kinds, in all continents, some real life friends and some virtual.

all thats needed is a spine.

which ofcourse you have not, since unlike the germans even, you continue to deny the mass murder (in australia and on red indians) and wholescale loot (india and other colonies including the aforementioned) carried out by your ilk on all of humanity and try to defend them with crappy arguements.

you'd just a spineless and bad loser, no better that that michael dude who got banned.


Quote:


well for anyone who missed the last few illuminating pages, but mainly for my own entertainment

I said

You can get violent extremism and intolerance associated with most religions, Hinduism included as I suspect you well know.

Brahmin replied

nope.

one broken mosque (which initself is built after razing a temple) and one riot...is NOT equal to crusades, inquisition, witch burning, genocides of natives in 2.5 continents, pogroms, holocausts, latin american cathocalypse....

learn to carry your cross (excuse the pun).

(not that hes got anything against christians of course)


if i point out the GENUINE attrocities that christians commited, then it means i have some thing against them??

whah !!

what flawless pom logic !
Quote:

which places us right up there with those who carry out genocides, pogroms, crusades, butcherings, inquisitions, wholescale looting of natural resources (aka colonialism), holocausts, with those who justify slave owning in southern usa with choice quotes from the bible..... ???????!!!

bleh just bleh !!!

(so there is it, you heard it from the holy cows mouth, Hindutva violence amounted to a broken mosque.)



yes.

and christianity's violence ammounted to greated misery, murder and loot than the islamic violence.

ask a red indian, aussie aboriginal or german jew for confirmation.
Quote:

you guys dont know math - thats the problem.

for example,

6 million/ 3 (taking graham staines' case) = 2 million.


thats the factor - 2 million, by which you guys out do us at butchery !



besides, i thought i had already acknowledged the miniscule number of pitfalls on our part.

(thats that broken window again)



yes one of only 3 broken ones we have, together with the graham staines incident and the gujrat riots which had a group incineration as a trigger incident.

Quote:

Then Brahmin (for reasons best known to himself) goes off on one about English extermination of the Jews:-

the english accuse the palmach/irgun of blowing up the king david hotel in israel and killing maybe a dozen poms - while they never ever admit that they denied entry to a million fleeing european jews ...so the english actually helped the holocaust happen, by doing their bit.


yes.

you havent a choice but accept that england did their bit to sandwich the jews when they turned their backs on the jew's plight.

i have jewish friends who lost their grand parents cos of your ilk, to confirm that.

Quote:

But not to be outdone, yes you've guessed it, the Hindus were massacred in larger number (but by Muslims this time)


hindus have always been massacred by all and sundry.
we cant fight well like you secondary semetics can.

since you have so conveniently excluded the links that i used to cite the attrocities (and the harvard papers i included to expose your ilk - EDIT_ please see the end of this post for the links again) here are some of them again -


http://www.atributetohinduism.com/Islamic_Onslaught.htm

http://www.mantra.com/holocaust/

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/185285457X/026-2409012-4767609

http://www.apol.net/dightonrock/inquisition_goa.htm

Quote:


I said " We had at maximum 250,000 "colonialists",

yes. thats why gandhi was an imbecile.

he failed to see that india was just one Den Bien Phu style war away from
getting freedom from england.

(here Brahmin regrets that Indian independence was not achieved by the slaughter of the British and not through Gandhi's peaceful methods)


it was achieved by neither peaceful methods nor by slaughter.

but by the threat of a fight.

what i regretted is not that we didnt slaughter your ilk, but that we could have done it a good 20 years before 1947, had it not been for gandhi and his useless (not un-lofty... just useless) tactics.

http://www.ihr.org/jhr/v03/v03p407_Borra.html (pls read the whole of this)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3684288.stm

Quote:

I pointed out


"We were against Hitler and the nazis, many Inidans supported them I seem to recall"


yes. i dont mind indians going after nazis but indians dying in europe in ww1 and 2 to save the very english who hammered us !!!?? thats just rediculous.

we should have attacked the brits in india, during ww1, when they were already stretched, and gotten out independence in 1915-ish instead of waiting till the ww2 took the wind out of the raj.

and if you do mind indians not having saved as many english lives from germans as we could have, then we could not care less.

(about now he really gets into some sort of delerium)


i did not .

you got into some confusion though. people can go check in the islam Q&a thread.

and the english were not against the nazis until the nazis threatened the english.
till then the english were very content to sandwich the jews and protect their colonies in transjordan.

stop trying to deny history like a shameless pom.


Quote:

you tried to allege that we sided with nazis. -- "
you tried to defend deindustrialization. ----couldnt.
-------------------- introduction of english. ----""
-------------------- the sandwiching of jews. ---""
------------- defend colonization with rail, telegraph etc. -- couldnt (long before you, the raj tried to prolong their stay with rail, telegraph.. and COULDNT)

everything was spoilt for a good 100 years or so, by the time you left after looting india hollow

it matters jack what you think of a billion strong country. you aint the buddha !!

the blood of a couple billion is in your hands
you come the sort of spineless scavenger people
poms never are !!

even germany bowed her head in shame for their nazi days... but poms never learn.

poms !

(the british empire) was a nazi-style misery-machine and a spineless thing.


yes.
i supplied all the evidence.
harvard papers that corroborate the loting of india's wealth etc.
and the red indian and aboriginal genocide is proven by their absence !!
as is the slave trade proven by the presence of blacks in usa.

so learn to carry your cross.

Quote:


But, I said gently, "we did not treat people like Leopold did in the Congo"

to no avail...


yes of course !!

just cos the japanese were better at manchuria than the nazis were at auswitz, dont mean they (japs) were saints.

besides i dont see how the beligians being the blood thirsty cut throats that belgians are, gets the wealth thirsty poms off the hook.

Quote:


you treated them worse !!!

the 6 million who died in bengal thanks to your dads.

japs (b4 ww2) are like a dream compared to poms.

taking slavery to dizzy heights and squeeziung every last drop out of it.

who the hell asked you to begin it eh ??

poms are the most uncivilised people on the planet.

speaking of nazi, the poms also did their bit to sandwich the jews - cos the poms didnt care about nazism and its dangers as long as their colonies were left untouched. so what if a few million jews die after we sandwich them !!

poms deserve a dose of their own medicine as do beligians and dutch. the jews deserved no stick. but for ww2, 90% of the colonies would still have been under the scavengers.

for every pom that died, on the other hand, some or the other native's death was avenged.

russia had not intervened, then a lot more poms would have died (much to our glee). too bad germany could not get her priorities right - they should have left the innocent jews well alone and fried poms instead.


so rip.


you dont like history much do you ??

who caused the bengal genocie pray ??
and the slave trade to keep the mills of manchester well cupplied with cotton?? belgians that too ???

Quote:

which prompted me to say

"You know its excitable chaps like you who go a long way to re establish national and racial stereotypes which most of us have long since left behind."

but (I should have guessed) Brahmin said

i am not exitable.

i answered everything levelheadedly.

and tell me how is the wholescale colonisation that your forefathers did and off which pomland still lives of, any lesser than the stick you got from germans during ww2 ?? serves you right.

you resorted to name calling cos i exposed you and your scavenger ilk and showed how you guys are no better than nazis, no better than leoplod, (I do like that name, Leoplod, first policeman of the Belgian Congo Smile)



yes.

historical facts again.
and i dont mind having scredwed up the name of some murderous king.
Quote:


oh dear he's at it again

so say your prayers and count your days.


so again, rip !!

poms !!

have used "n" number of exclaimations and questionmarks.. like i do again here to eneble you to figure out my psychological makeup some more...!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I asked another participant
"are you another hindutva-nazi..."


"another" implies there's one here already !

Quote:
and guess what, Brahmin thought I was talking about him, and replied


lmao pom !!!

you couldn't hold a candle against the evidence i presented that disrobed your criminal forefathers !!!

and so now i am a hindu-nazi... when nazi is precisely what your scavenger dads

the secondary semetic idelogical blood brothers are the bane of india's existance. and if these two murderous cults ever joined the dodo someday, it'd be tough to find a happier person than me.

dont see how poms are any less nazi.

as ever i get it absolutely right.

thou art the progeny of bloodthirsty cut throats.

to a third party I explained the meaning of the word pom

" It should be pohm, and no one takes offense at it anyway, although he means to be offensive."

to which Brahmin replied


sure i do.

you deserve that, your entire scavenger ilk of poms deserves that

you are just a spineless bad loser, and the epitome of a pom.

so rip.

all done your your ilk .



yours is the scum of the earth.. and the most spineless too!!!


even germans have owned up their crimes... but poms keep denying theirs !!

scum !!!!!

spineless liar !!!! (my first personal attack.... there's only so many lies a person can take)

(thats a good one dont you think, my first personal attack...Smile)

pom!!

we wont forget, let alone forgive your beggar ilk that came to loot our country hollow.


so rip and dont answer back.


that is truer than the gospel that one kind of secondary semetics claim to be so true.

thats cos while the latter cant be proved, the former (ie. the historical attrocities i posted about) have proofs galore. germany's apology for their attrocity needs not proof either.

the poms are yet to apologise for the jalionwallah baag massacre.

Quote:

By this time I had to confess to our Hindutva-not-really-Nazi that his worked up spittle flecked posts only caused amusement


what it caused is frustration. which is why you sneaked in here to this thread to do what losers do best. why couldnt you hold your own in that thread eh, when i raped your ilk of all that they use to cover up their many crimes ??


spineless loser !!

Quote:

to which we got the instant answer


i am not worked up.
................................................................
Whose responses are always judicious and thoughtful, ever mindful not to cause offense.



yes.

dont know about the judicious and thoughtful bit, but always spot on and always backed by evidence.

and i could not care less if i cause offense.

we take our pitfalls head on and never try to deny that we broke a mosque.
germans never deny that they had a nazi past briefly.
turks are on the verge of officially accepting the armenian genocide.


what you damnpoms gonna admit your crimes on humanity eh, both in terms of human lives and looted wealth ???

which red indian, black slave and tasmanian are you going to apologize eh?? your forefathers havent even left one of them (tasmanian) alive - so i guess the only time poms can apologise to them is when poms are themselves exterminated and go where ever it is that exterminated genocided peoples go to. bon voyage !!!



you know what, your response is excatly the same as that american muslim Michael, who used to point out other's mistakes when his many attempts to deny the attrocities of turks, suicide bombers and such like were exposed. how does the belgian attrocities negate the pom crimes???


the ideologial siblings are no different, both equally bloodthirsty, and just as dangerous as the mongols. infact a lot more.


of well !!!
another bovine attempt by another secondry semetic, and a pom at that - to hide the many many crimes and attrocities of his forefathers.


harvard paper 1


http://post.economics.harvard.edu/hier/2004papers/HIER2039.pdf

another link.... not very technical, but not very irrelevant either and full of "horse's mouth" quotes -


http://www.atributetohinduism.com/European_Imperialism.htm
0 Replies
 
the prince
 
  1  
Reply Fri 7 Oct, 2005 01:25 am
Brahmin, disagreements, and putting yr point of view across can be done without insulting other people or calling them names.
0 Replies
 
vinsan
 
  1  
Reply Fri 7 Oct, 2005 05:55 am
the prince wrote:
Brahmin, disagreements, and putting yr point of view across can be done without insulting other people or calling them names.


I agree there ....
0 Replies
 
Steve 41oo
 
  1  
Reply Fri 7 Oct, 2005 06:25 am
On another thread Brahmin you advocated killing people. You regret that Indian independence was not achieved through slaughtering all the Brits. You call me a spineless pom, but your posts speak volumes about your true character. You must know that you are on the brink of getting banned from a2k, moderate your language or you will be.
0 Replies
 
brahmin
 
  1  
Reply Fri 7 Oct, 2005 09:12 am
the prince wrote:
Brahmin, disagreements, and putting yr point of view across can be done without insulting other people or calling them names.


yes.

if you read the "islam q and a" thread then you'll notice that i politely stated at first that the english reduced india from being a very rich country to the poorest in the world in a record 100 years.

when he tried to deny that and defend the many many economic and genocidal ils of colonialism, that i lost my cool somewhat.
0 Replies
 
brahmin
 
  1  
Reply Fri 7 Oct, 2005 09:31 am
Steve (as 41oo) wrote:
On another thread Brahmin you advocated killing people. You regret that Indian independence was not achieved through slaughtering all the Brits. You call me a spineless pom, but your posts speak volumes about your true character. You must know that you are on the brink of getting banned from a2k, moderate your language or you will be.



i never advocated killing people.


self defence is not killing.

yes. india could have won independence in one DBP style war involving the slaugttering of brits who came illegally to colonise india. when the vietnamese killed the french in DPB - it was not slaughter. just the right thing to do. to throw out the oppressor.

slaughter is when the english killed innocents all over india especially in one gruesome incident when a civilian gathering in jalianwallah baag was gunned down mercilessly.

thats slaughter.

slaughter is also what the poms did in australia, in nz, in usa and the belgians did in congo and the japs did in manchuria.


your typically brit refusal to admit the crimes of your forefathers, whilst taking care to blame all and sundry for their crimes (eg. the germans for their nazi past etc) tells a lot more about your spineless character, than does my lament that india did not win her independence a god 12-15 years before she actually did at the cost of one BBP style war (also given that about 3 times the number of indians died in any case in british hands and while fighting to save britain in the 2 world wars and against japan in burma. you dont mind that ofcourse, cos indians deserve to die while the killiong of a british is "slaughter" !!!).




if a2k bans me for not towing your line when you denied the bengal famine, the jewish sandwiching, the many other crimes that your people perpetrated in 4 continents against many many voiceless victims - then i have nothing to say.

its funny, how europe demands turkey acknowledge the armenian genocide before thay can be alowed into e.u.... but when it comes to admitting their zillion crimes on humanity, they not only deny them flat out but try to list the positives that came out of acts like the slave trade and the aboriginal genocides, not to mention the reduction of the wealthiest of countries (both african and asian) into the poorest.


i am proud i did not tow that line, proud that i called your bluff and proved each and every one of them with inarguable evidence.


remember one thing, a2k can ban me - but the truth is out there.
0 Replies
 
Steve 41oo
 
  1  
Reply Fri 7 Oct, 2005 10:06 am
brahmin wrote:
i lost my cool somewhat.


You sure did brahmin. Now I am going to resist the temptation of quoting back to you the various names and insults you have hurled at me, because as I think you might just be learning, there is no future in that.

So I will return to the point that divided us. You contend that the relative de-industrialisation of India was entirely down to British colonial rule. I said Britain also introduced many aspects of "high technology" of the day eg. the railway and telegraph systems, besides introducing the English language and our system of law. My general point was that whilst colonialism per se is hard to defend, there were aspects of British rule that benefitted India.

Moreover in the Harvard reference you yourself supplied, on the particular issue of Indian de-industrialisation, the authors make it clear that in their opinion there was a deeper underlying cause of it (whilst not discounting the effect of abolishing import duties), and that was the relative decline of the Murghal empire.

Now I was going to say that if you wish to continue this discussion in a sensible and reasonable way without resort to personal invective, then I would be pleased to read what you have to say. But sadly I dont think you are capable of doing that, and therefore as far as I am concerned, this issue is closed.
0 Replies
 
brahmin
 
  1  
Reply Fri 7 Oct, 2005 10:50 am
Steve (as 41oo) wrote:
brahmin wrote:
i lost my cool somewhat.


You sure did brahmin. Now I am going to resist the temptation of quoting back to you the various names and insults you have hurled at me, because as I think you might just be learning, there is no future in that.



i did... but not much.

besides i never lost my spine..... which you lost entirely.

so dont try to say that i just insulted your ilk (i didnt actually - i called them exactly what they were - murderers, ooters, genociders and scavengers) - i also disrobed you and all colonisers.

Quote:


So I will return to the point that divided us. You contend that the relative de-industrialisation of India was entirely down to British colonial rule. I said Britain also introduced many aspects of "high technology" of the day eg. the railway and telegraph systems, besides introducing the English language and our system of law. My general point was that whilst colonialism per se is hard to defend, there were aspects of British rule that benefitted India.


and my point was not that the brits didnt introduce trains to india - but that they introduced it so that they could loot more effectively by transporting stuff to the ports quickly.

that they introduced irrigation so that they'd harvest more crops - to send back more shiploads to england.

basically i pointed out that everything they did, including introduce cricket - for the self same reason of dividing the indians, of increasing their degree of colonization (aka looting) and furthering their uninvited stay.



Quote:

Moreover in the Harvard reference you yourself supplied, on the particular issue of Indian de-industrialisation, the authors make it clear that in their opinion there was a deeper underlying cause of it (whilst not discounting the effect of abolishing import duties), and that was the relative decline of the Murghal empire.


the damage caused by the mughals does not get the english off the hook, nor disprove that even during the mughal presence and misrule india had a good 25% of the world's economic output in 1800 which in a 100 years your forefatrhers reduced to <2%.

the mughals caused damage yes - but so did you and a lot more.

Quote:

Now I was going to say that if you wish to continue this discussion in a sensible and reasonable way without resort to personal invective, then I would be pleased to read what you have to say. But sadly I dont think you are capable of doing that, and therefore as far as I am concerned, this issue is closed.


so far i am concerned it is closed too.

i proved all my points - you tried to cosy up with chicken tikka massala when you were pinned, then denied having tried to defend colonialism and even denied the other crimes and induced me to speak my mind about what i think of your people.

and then tried to sum it all up by saying that all i did was resort to personal invective.


but its not important that you admit your crimes on humanity.
other less spineless people than you do it, and history does it too - and thats what counts.


so rip.
0 Replies
 
Steve 41oo
 
  1  
Reply Fri 7 Oct, 2005 11:53 am
You argue like a frustrated child.
0 Replies
 
brahmin
 
  1  
Reply Fri 7 Oct, 2005 01:05 pm
you argue like a shameless pom.
0 Replies
 
Steve 41oo
 
  1  
Reply Fri 7 Oct, 2005 03:10 pm
Well good morning India

I hope you all have a really wonderful day except in the immediate vicinity of Brahmin where I'm sure he will create his own local and extremely personal hell.
0 Replies
 
brahmin
 
  1  
Reply Sat 8 Oct, 2005 12:38 am
well the hell was created by the beggars of pomland.

we were doing fine before his scavenger dads came and looted more wealth than england ever had or will.


liosten pom, in 50 years you wont exist and will be back in the bottom rung where your ancestors always belonged.


meanwhile you can join the combat18, spineless racist scumbag.
0 Replies
 
Steve 41oo
 
  1  
Reply Sun 9 Oct, 2005 12:15 pm
I really dont know if you think you are being clever by refering to combat 18. I know who they are and what they "stand" for. My only comment is why does an Indian have knowledge of them if not through some common interest? Combat 18 (1= A and 8= H, ....refering to Adolf Hitler) are violent fascists.

The same can be said of certain extremist hindutvas such as Savarkar, an admirer of Italian and German fascism.

Are you an admirer of Adolf Hitler Brahmin? Certainly some of your posts would make sense if you were.
0 Replies
 
McTag
 
  1  
Reply Fri 28 Oct, 2005 10:58 am
India story on the Beeb site today

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4312024.stm
0 Replies
 
G8VHB
 
  1  
Reply Tue 20 Dec, 2005 01:30 am
Hi, Brahmin.

I just returned from my 7th visit in 10 years to Goa.

You said in your post "I reached the other end of Calangute beach and there, there was a sort of backwater, where the sea came back in and metamorphosed into a thin stream, that cut back into the sand and then into land. Across it, was an open air restaurant and striking rock formations, into which the waves were splashing with unfailing rhythm. After some deliberation, I decided to cross that "river" and explore the other side. Damn, the other side is always so tempting. I felt, that I just had to go there."

You were now in Baga and a couple of miles outside of Calengute. In case you ever go back there is a covered bridge over the "Baga" river about 200 hundred yards up stream. There is the riverside hotel 2 star and the 5 star Royal Goan hotel just up stream.

Later you remarked on visiting Lario's beach shack "It came to a little less than 150 bucks in all and I paid and left Lario's......I was feeling like most pythons do, after swallowing an entire goat. I still hadn't put on my sneakers back and was barefoot yet."

You made a good choice as Lario's is one of the best beach places to eat in north goa. The name Lario is from the combined name of the owners Laura and Mario. I hope you are talking about 150 rupees rather than dollars otherwise people might just get the impression that lario's is expensive.

Today 1 british pound = 80 rupees, one US Dollar would be about 50 rupees.

take care and enjoy India

Mike
0 Replies
 
McTag
 
  1  
Reply Tue 20 Dec, 2005 02:03 am
Yay

Fort Kochi

http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c277/Tags1/114_1461.jpg
0 Replies
 
brahmin
 
  1  
Reply Sat 4 Mar, 2006 10:48 am
thanks GHV8B.

yes its 150 indian rupees i am talking about... thats about 3 usd.


i hope the mods will allow the next link -
i was searching for pics about india, and found this other forum which has some STUNNING pics about india - here - EDIT: MODERATOR: LINK REMOVED


i just returned from a trip to Varanasi and Khajuraho last week. I may post about those trips once i have written an account about it.
0 Replies
 
brahmin
 
  1  
Reply Sat 4 Mar, 2006 03:14 pm
well i took a hurricane trip to Varanasi and then from there to Khajuraho.

i didnt have much time since i had to come back in time for my new job - only i came back to learn that the offere letter hadn't come yet - so i might as well have taken a longer trip.

Anyway - here's how the varanasi leg of it went. day one = 22nd Feb 2006

the train pulled into varanasi early in the morning, after stopping for an hour almost at Mughal Sarai (station near varanasi). If i knew that there'd be an hour long delay, I'd have gotten down at Mughal Sarai itself and taken an Auto Rickshaw to Varanasi.

I didnt do that - instead we crossed a bridge and pulled into Varanasi station. Future travellers - make note - try to keep a camera handy - for its possible to take a wonderful picture of the whole semi circular Ghat arrangement of Varanasi from this Bridge. i didnt know - could not pull my camera out in time.

Anyway from the station, i took a 20 rupee Rickshaw ride to Godhulia. Foreigners can expect to pay slightly more - but not more than 100 bucks for 2 people and 50 for one (i was travelling single).

Varanasi has lots of Ghats - but about 3 of them can be reached by road (ie. a main road opens into those 3 ghats. The other ghats are reached by walking along the river bank or through VERY narrow winding lanes. For the uninitiated, a Ghat is a sort of Staircase like embankment on the river banks. Varanasi has some 100 ghats). the 3 that have a metalled road openning into them are the Assi ghat at the southern end of Varanasi, Scindhia Ghat at the northern end, and the Dasaswamedh Ghat at the centre of the whole Ghat array. Its into this ghat that the road from Godhulia opens into.


Godhulia is a sort of crossroad. There's one road that goes parallel to the river (and therefore parellel to the array of ghats) and that road is criss-crossed by another road that heads perpendicularly into Dasaswamedh Ghat. The crossing of these 2 roads is Godhulia.


About Dasaswamedh Ghat - the name means "fat of 10 horses" (das= 10, aswa=horse, medh= fat). It was here that King Dasharath, the father of Rama (Raam), the hero of the epic Rayayan (and the person deified as the 7th incarnate of Vishnu) carried out a Yagna or "fire sacrifice". And into the holy fire was poured the fat of 10 horses. Thats how the ghat gets its name - since a Das-aswa-medh Yagna was carried out right here by King Dashrath. Google can give you more info - of not, then the local guide in Varanasi or Lonely Planet can tell you more.


I paid the rickswah wallah ("wallah" is used like the "man" of milk-man) and walked into the crowded and DIRTY (varanasi is the holiest and dirtiest place in india - it simultaneously epitomises 2 things thats everywhere in india - religion, spirituality etc AND filth, crap and lack of hygine) Dasaswamedh ghat. The Day begins early at the ghat - there are 100's of boats in which people take a ride along the river during dawn. Varanasi looks magical during sunrise.

When I arrived there, it was about 8.30 in the morning and the boat crowd had already dispersed an hour back. Now was the time of the morning pujas. Devotees come here from all over india and the Pandits (priests) do a puja for them - for a fee ofcourse. To beat the heat they use a sort of umbrella plugged into a stone slab.


I sat and had a look around. Lit a cigarette - near me a group of japanese tourists had just finished taking a (holy) dip in the dirty and murky waters of the ganges river and were towelling themselves. Suddenly i head a sort of band party. Some middle level "guru" was on the prowl. Holding umbrellas over his head were foreigners (whites) dressed in white traditional indian dress (kurta-pyjama). He was surrounding by indian and foreign disciples alike.

The Band party was blaring out some sort of music while 2 guys were holding a banner which declared what sort of guru the person was and which temple he was associated with etc. And behind them was the Guru himself with about 20 er..satellites. Thats as many as jupiter.

They went from the Dasaswamedh Ghat to the neighbouring Dr Radha Krishna Ghat and then the guru sat down in a prearranged place which was already readied for a Puja. Dozens of urns, adorned with flower garlands and topped with coconuts were arranged near a brick and fiddlestick fire altar, for a puja. The guru sat and chanted prayers, while disciples intoned after him. Some waved a fan over his head whilesnt others stood hoilding an umbrella over him.

I was taking pictures with my newly bought (actually exchanged for old one) camera mobile phone. Alongside me were others too, all trying to get the right angles for the pictures. There was one short haired white lady right beside me dressed in a white salwar kameez. She looked so dignified and at peace with the whole happennings. i think she was the resident photographer, along with being a disciple/devotee that is.

I even recorded a small 15 second or so clip of the puja and then left the place. Sat in the shade on a staircase/ghat and sipped tea ("chai" in india). There was not much i could do but wait for some more time - i needed to go to an internet shop - all of which open at 10 or later. In the meanwhile I decided to go towards the Vishwanath temple.

Now this is the holiest of temples in Varanasi and dedicated to Shiva - the hindu destroyer god. The hindu trinity of gods says that god appears in 3 "roops" (or manifestations). the Creater is Brahma, the preserver is Vishnu and the destroyer is Shiva. Basically it means that every thing in the universe has a beginning, a life and then an end. And that God manifests Himself as creater (whence he is called Brahma), preserver (Vishnu) as well as destroyer (shiva).

The Vishwanath temple is a Shiva temple. Vishwanath is an attribute/name given to Shiva. Vishwa means world or universe and Nath means lord. "Lord of the universe" is one of the many attributes given to Shiva. This temple is very controversial because Aurangzeb the mughal maniac, tried to destroy it and erect an mosque in its place. The mosque still stands beside the temple (which the lobotomised gandhi took to be a symbol of hindu-muslim unity - that they have their religious places side by side).

This site is the second in order of importance (after the Ram Janam bhumi temple of Ayodhya) in the demand list of hindus for the erection of a full fledged temple, doing away with the illegally and forcibly built mosque. And hence to prevent another Babri
Masjid breaking like fiasco, there are arm guards posted round the clock around the Vishwanath tempe and accompanying mosque. The sights of men in uniform carrying carbines standing outside a temple is uncommon to say the least !!


Typically like Varanasi, the way to enter the temple is after negitiating a mile long lane, about 3 feet wide at its broadest. The whole length of the lane is lined with shops of every kind - silk sarees, puja articles, clothes, condiments, devotional music shops, et al. And every 20 meteres or so, stand a few policemen with guns and walkie talkies. Ofcourse every 20 metres or so, one can also find an ox or a stray dog - but then this is varanasi - the place that cant be described in words.



I didnt plan to enter the temple just now - for i hadn't taken a bath or changed my dirty train clothes - but wanted to walk up to the entrance of the temple complex all the same. Went till there and then walked back again. 2 nice ways to get a hang of Varanasi - half an hour at the ghat taking in the early morning activities of Varanasi and then, walking through what must be the most hallowed 3 feet wide and mile long lane in the world.

At about 10, I walked back towards Godhulia and tried to locate a cybercafe. It took some searching and I was getting frustrated. Ultimately I got into a richshaw and asked the rickshawwallah to take me to one. Which he did. There i took some print outs from a floppy disk i was carrying with me. IT had Varanasi and khajuraho maps, as well as all the info i had gathered about varanasi, Sarnath and Khajuraho from various internet sites. Equipped with all that info - i set out to find a hotel.


more later.
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