Tourist Guide Licence

Ministry of Tourism government of Utter Pradesh has trained 220 sport guide in varanasi with special attention for kumbh fair which is taking place at Allahabad. we had to go under training which was organised by utterpradesh tourism department.we got the provisional licence.

Pooja offering in Villages

Hi, Friends sorry for late updates from my end.

Like every year this year also I went to my village for Holi celebrations. Holi is the festival of colors, and in the villages very year people celebrates the festival and make special pooja for their ideal deity  or I can say every family has one traditional deity which family has been offering pooja for generation to generation.

There is one strange tradition for making pooja offering goat sacrifice.and this pooja takes place two times in a year, so every year more than 40 goats sacrificed. I asked personally with locals and this is what tradition has been following for long time and by seeing this new generation adopt this.

But what I notice there that young people are not very much interested while goats were being sacrificed they moved out from there, because they could barely see this.

I talked to the older persons of my village regarding stopping this tradition and they replied me by saying that their deities are like this they want blood in offerings,which can not be stopped.

Vasant Panchami

Vasant Panchami (वसन्त पञ्चमी) is a Hindu festival celebrating Saraswati, the goddess of knowledge, music and art. It is celebrated every year on the fifth day (Panchami) of the Indian month Magh (January-February), the first day of spring. Traditionally during this festival children are taught to write their first words and most educational institutions organise special prayer for Saraswati. The color yellow also plays an important role in this festival, in that people usually wear yellow garments, Saraswati is worshipped dressed in yellow, and yellow sweets are consumed within the families.

Every one pray goddess Sarswati to increase the knowledge of their particular area of work .this is the festival which is celebrated by everyone. Students get the statue of goddess Sarswati in school and they make a special pooja which last for two day.

It is believe that by worshiping goddess Sarswati people gain intellectual power and wisdom. And special kind of prsad is offered to goddess. This is also the beginning of spring

In Varanasi Holika is kept at a place which will be burnt by social community just before the day of  Holi. from this day people get palnts and wood to this place and make it big until the day of burning so this is the a starting part of the Holi.

Goddess Saraswati

Her expression is so serene and calm even as She is majestic. She is seated on a white lotus in Padmasana, adorned by a pure white silk sari, has a book in Her lower left hand, Her lower right hand showing the chinmudra, Aksharamala in Her right upper hand, and Amrithakalasam in Her left upper hand. Both eyes are full of compassion. The vehicle assigned to each of the three goddesses also symbolically represent their special powers.

Goddess Saraswathi is the consort of Lord Brahma (Lord of Creation) and is the Goddess of wisdom and learning. Saraswati is the one who gives the essence (sara) of our own self (swa). She is considered as the personification of all knowledge – arts, sciences, crafts and other skills. She has a beautiful and elegant presence, is pure white in colour, clad in a white sari, seated on a white lotus, representing purity and brilliance. She has four hands representing four aspects of human personality in learning; mind, intellect, alertness and ego. She has the sacred scriptures in one hand and a lotus (a symbol of true knowledge) in the second. With her other two hands she plays the music of love and life on the veena.

She is dressed in white (sign of purity) and rides on a white goose (swan). The swan is known for its peculiar characteristic of being capable of separating water from milk, indicating that we should possess discrimination in separating the bad from the good. The seat being a lotus or peacock implies that the teacher is well-established in the subjective experience of truth. When sitting on a peacock she reminds us that wisdom suppresses ego.

हिंदी विद्यार्थी

अंकुर वारधवान एक हिंदूस्तानी लड़का है जो कि अपने माता और पिता के साथ आस्टरेलिया में रह्ता है ! वह  एक हिंदूस्तानी कंप्नी के लिए काम करता है ! जैसा कि वह बता रहा था की उसके परिवार मे उसको छोड़कर सबलोग हिंदी बोल सकते हैं ,इसलिय वह हिंदी सीखने के लिए बनारास आया था !

उसके माता और पिता मुम्बई के रहने वाले हैं ! लेकिन वह आस्टरेलिया पैदा हुआ है तो इसलिये उसको हिंदी नहीं आती थी !

वह बनारस में सिर्फ दो हफ्ते के लिए था, इसलिए हर दिन दो घंटे सीख रहा था !

Hindi Classs

Anna Nies  is a German  student and  friend who has been coming to Varanasi for past three years to just study Hindi.

Every year she does intensive Hindi course three hours of instructions every day. This time I arranged accommodation for her in hotel Haifa however she was very much interested in staying in hotel Ganges view but they were sold out of that particular date.

As it is my outside Hindi instruction to watch Hindi film together with student and student try to give the summary what is going on in the film.

She did this outside Hindi instruction course and she learnt Hindi for two weeks.

Hindi Lessons

Shalom and Rachael they are husband and wife from  Mexico.They were traveling India for four months so they decided to learn Hindi before they start traveling in India.

They got my contact Information while browsing in internet and wrote me email requesting for Hindi class.I responded them and then wrote me back for conforming the class.

They were doing very intensive Hindi course three hours of lessons each day in two sessions.Rachael was originally from India so she picked up faster than her husband.

One day I asked them why they decided to learn Hindi with me their respond was they wrote emails to few people but my respond was fast enough and they continued  for two weeks.

Bharat Vikas Sansthan

June is the student of Anthropology  from Australia .she came to Varanasi to learn about the children Parliament in Varanasi and also for learning Hindi.She was staying in Ganpati Guest House in old city of  Varanasi.

She was in Varanasi for two weeks and  taking two hours of Hindi lessons  everyday.One day during the class she told me that she wanted to visit NGO Bharat Vikas sansthan in sigara area.she was struggling to get  clue for this NGO. however she had a little idea about this NGO.

I had allready taken some students at this NGO  in past so I know the founder Rajeev Srivastav of this NGO. I called him and took appointment for her .Next day we went to Bharat Vikas Sanshthan  where she met the Rajeev Srivastav and other staff.

She had seen on the television in Australia about children parliament election so she was very much interested in talking in Details about this organization.we sat there for a while and had a nice talking with children.The elected member of parliament was on internet.

Meanwhile I had to go to mountain with Bridge Year Princeton Programme so I could not continue with her but she used to come to meet my wife for reviewing Hindi what he learnt with me .

My visit to Sarnath

Two weeks ago I went to visit Sarnath with one of my friend to see jeevan dip school.It is a social organization working for blind girls for their uplift in the society.

I did not know about this school however I have been several times to sarnath. but one of my elder brother and friend Dr.Alok took me there. I was very much excited to see the girls how they study!

Actually when I was under my high school i studied about the script of Blind they learn but I really did not understand how did  it used to work? when one of employee  took on the tour of the school.we visited from class nursery to 6th.Girls stood up to welcome us and they recited some poems and reading of the lesson and what ever they have been taught on that particular day.

I was so surprised to see them how nicely they can study and learn the things through this script.

After that he took us to computer room where students learn how to operate computer without seeing .Computer Instructor sowed us using computer through voice.It’s make sound what ever command they press.

I am so happy to visit this school who soever go to visit Sarnath must try to get chance to visit this project.

HINDI LESSON

Dariya is a french student working in varanasi as her Dissertation on women in jail.she came in contact with me through the internet.She was also learning kathak with a teacher from Banaras Hindu University.

She started with one hour of lesson everyday but later on she began to do two hour everyday from Monday through Friday.we were doing very intensively from my own mae teaching stuff and we were reviewing through Teach Yourself by Rupert Snell.

Once she was able to read Hindi books I used to give her child

COUPLE HINDI STUDENT

Atila and Dora is a couple from Budapest capital of Hungary .Atila had already been to varanasi last year in the month of November.This year both came in  the month of March and started learning Hindi.

They were staying at my friend place  in Bhadaini. Atila and his wife both were doing volunteering work with Loksamati in Mehdiganj .This is a NGO working against cocoloa company for the welfare of the villagers.

Atila was teaching Emglish for the children in Loksameeti’s school and Dora was assisting him in making lesson plan.

They were very flexible with timings and we used to meet five days in week for thelesson .in the beginning they were learning just to speak but later on they also started learning Hindi script.however they had taken few lesson in Budapest before coming to varanasi.

They were here for five months up to July mean while my sister was getting married therefore I had to go to my village for the weddings.so I could not continue teaching them and they were also spending time by visiting different parts of India.