भारतीय संस्कृती और परंपरा

नमस्कार । भारतीय संस्कृती में मृत्यु के बाद क्या किया जाता है और इसके क्या तरीके हैं ? इसके बारे में WHERE THERE BE DRAGONS के विद्यार्थियों ने डोम परिवार के एक आदमी से सवाल पूछा और मैने इस बात-चित का अनुवाद किया

विद्यार्थी: – How long have you been working at cremation ghats

आदमी:- He started at the age of eight years working at cremation ghat with his grand parents as this is his traditionally livelihood.

विद्यार्थी: – How does he feel about doing this job and does he feel discrimination in social life?

आदमी:-:-No,there is no discrimination in society he sits with respected Brahamn and have a chai together.second respected cast “Kshatriya” also talk with him and the social life is not disrespectful.

विद्यार्थी: -What do you think about you child’s future?

आदमी:-:- I am sending the kids in english medium school .we don’t want our kids to do same profession as we get effected from burning dead body at cremation ghats.because different kinds of person die with different disease so our body get effected and sometime we get sick

विद्यार्थी:-How do you get your turn for working at ghats?

आदमी:-:-There are ten thousands Dom working in varansi and these people are not only from varanasi .they come from different parts of the U.P. so every one gets a day for working at ghats and this decided by the king of the Dom.

विद्यार्थी:-Why the mankarnika is much more busy than this one?

आदमी:-:-Both burning ghats have region and marnkarnika cover much more longer part than harschnadra ghats.suppose if a deady body belonging to B.H.U.are or surrounding then it can not be cremated at Manikarnika ghtas.that is why mankarnika is much more busy.

विद्यार्थी:-In Hinduism who are not cremated ?

आदमी:- Five people are not cremated .these are great saint ,One who has leprosy,snake biting,one who died of chiken pax,follower of vaishnow(the kind of sadhu who holds tridandi and wear saffron colors)

विद्यार्थी:-what are rituals while cremating body at ghats? and how long does it take to burn whole body?

आदमी:-First of all when body get to the ghats .it has to be Beth in ganges and meanwhile the person who has to give the fire (in Hindu rituals mostly eldest son has to give first fire) will get saved his head and will wear a white dhoti.and “Dom” will make wooden chita on which body will be kept and the one who is giving the fire will ask for the fire with “Dom” and he will make circle and other friends and relative will also give the last piece of wood and make circle
Normally a healthy body take three to three and half hour but if body contain water or some medical treatment then some time it takes much time.
Regarding the rituals when body is almost burnt some boy hit at the head of the body it symbolize that body has completely burnt and “Dom ” gives rest of the flesh to man to offer in Ganges..In Hinduism it is said that if person pass away his ashes is offered to the Ganges and he gets out of his all bad karma.and get salvation.
After that the man get fill water port and pour at the place where body was cremated and last port of water he keeps on his left solider and throw at the place and he writes there 9 + 4:= 13 so there are 13 days rituals has to be performed at home.

विद्यार्थी:-How is electric crematorium different from wooden cremation?

आदमी:- Rituals is the same this is much more cheaper and it is Government project to stop the pollution but and unknown dead body and poor people are mostly cremated but rituals is the same.

विद्यार्थी:- what are the average number of Dead body cremated each day?

आदमी:- Including all three it around one hundred twenty five body are cremated everyday.

Hindi class

Ruth is a student from Minnesota From United States of America .Now she is in India for studying Development of Indian Economy.

She came in contact with me through the internet recommendation.she wanted to learn Hindi in Varanasi intensively as she did not have time .

How ever she was able to speak basic phrase because she is staying Rohatak in Hariyan with one o Indian family.she was interested in taking two hrs class each day.she continued for one and half week later on she went to kolkata.

Usually i give my teaching package to the students she completed my first teaching material within that period of time.

Now there is good news for those learner who wants to learn through skype class so now you can pay me through paypal account as she helped me in getting my paypal account because she is also going to learn Hindi when she gets back in America.

Now learner do not have to pay extra amount through western union and it is very easy and simple.

Hindi Class on Skype

Marion found my blog online for learning Hindi via skype.She is from Vienna Austria but currently she is living in Italy.

She is former student of Indology and Ethnology from University of Vienna but she could not finish her study from there.her passion for learning Hindi is still with her so she tried to find online hindi class via skype.

According to Marion her job and duties never permit for making journey to India for learning Hindi so she thought to start through skype.
She called on my skype account and we talked for long time regarding the class ,Time differences ,how many hours per week and mode of payment and so on

We decided to meet for four hrs per week at the weekends as she has the much more better for her and for me as well.On the first lesson the Skype was horrible that day we called each other almost four to five times but it was slow.she was loosing her Patience saying that is it usual for Skype like this ? I said no this is your luck after some it worked nicely and we had wonderful class .

This way she is improving her Hindi and Now she could communicate in Hindi with couple of daily useful phrase .This time she is England and she will be back for Hindi on 11th of April on skype .

Hindi class and Indian Culture

Namaste friends ! These days I am teaching hindi to two students from Germany .these two students are students of Berlin University ,Germany.they are students of south asian study programme .

They came to know about me through internet.theirs name are Carolin and Shabina. however they know some  Hindi .Shabina could speak better than Carolin.

As they are here just for two week so they want to learn as much as possible.mostly we are talking during the class.during our conversation they are very much interested in knowing about Indian culture such as cremation rituals and its performance.they also wanted to know how a “”DOM”” ( a cast who cremate body at the ghats) is important for Hindus rituals.

They are learning two hours per day and in this class they are reading and translating story book.some time they are also doing exercise for practice

They need a certificate for showing in the university so that they may obtain credits.I will be writing the details of hours they learnt and their performance during the class

Hindi Lesson

Darrin Commerford is a photographer from U.S.A currently taking picture around varanasi and also he likes to visit untapped place surrounding Varanasi.

He has started learning Hindi two or three weeks ago .he works basically on dally conversation and phrase .and also he likes to try to have the test of Indian chart (a very spicy with different kind of ingredients) he wanted to learn how to say i want one more sweet one as he likes to eat pani puri.

These days he is travelling to Rajasthan so in the last class he wrote couple of phrase which he can use during his travel in Rajasthan.such as how to say is this vegetable clean before it was made. and so on

He will be back after one week then he will continue his learning.

Centro Risorse India

Centro Risorse India is an organization working with collaboration with ca foscari university Venice,Italy.this organization facilitate by providing Hindi learning opportunity for Italians in varanasi.

This time I am teaching few students from this organization.some of the students are taking 18 hrs a week and some are five to six hrs.

Alberto a Hindi student started with me and he was really very hard working and dedicated for learning Hindi also he was having patience of learning Hindi.

I finished two book with him teach your self by snell and one of mine book which was advance level of Hindi.we also did exercise with practice book.

with the help of this book he came across with different kinds of proverb and saying in Hindi such as “”ANDHA KYA CHAHE ,DO ANKHE”” It means what a blind is needed two eyes.

This way he improved his Hindi speaking and different expressions.

Australian Hindi Student

Margaret wrote me mail in the month of November telling that she is interested in joining my Hindi course.as she said she got my information from wiki travel.I wrote her back that i will be available for her to teach Hindi.She is not beginner as she was learning in evening class in Sydney.she told me that she is very much interested in Indian culture.

Finally she arrived in Varanasi on first of January and I called in the hotel Ganges View if she can meet me for the lesson.at time varanasi was almost freezing so it was very difficult for her to have class in such cold.she told me that she want to take rest for few days.

On the fifth of January she called and wanted to have class.I went to hotel and I asked with prakash ji one of employee of Hotel Ganges View.She was standing at the reception when he said this is your Hindi teacher .having seen me she kept watching my face I don’t know why.I think my age seems to her too young to be Hindi teacher.I greeted her by saying Namaste and I said this is Binit as we had email conversation but we did not see each one.she said hello to me once she heard my name.

It was my first lesson with her she asked me how do i teach and what is my method.she told me that she has already finished chapter 8 of teach your self in Sydney.but she can’t speak.her big confusion was “want ,want to and should ” construction .she often get confused with “mujhe chai chahiye, or mai chai pina chahti hu,mujhe chai pina chahiye” .I explained her chahiye and should is “ko” construction and it will be used with oblique pronoun and want to is tense from of present habitual tense.

After getting the explanation she was very happy and particularly she was not confidence enough to make conversation.we were mostly talking on daily basis conversation.Besides this she was talking about village life how do people get work form local government,how a village get develop so on.but i did not know why she was asking about my village,what kind of my village is.Later on she told me that she is helping a family in Devaria district and that family was her auto rickshaw driver family.

She learned until 14th of February between this time she went to Devariya to see that family .she went to Jaipur to visit her family but she is still taking classes with Skype.

Waste Management In Varanasi

This year I am working with Eliza Smith a student of University of Wisconsin in Varanasi as Research assistant.Her topic of research is waste management of Varanasi.for this we interviewed some employee of municipal corporation of Varanasi.

First day we went to Nagar Nigam that is called municipal corporation and there we talked with some officer and they showed us the facilities and the cart which is provided to the sweepers.we also came across with a project called “J.L.N.U.W.M.S.”.This is central Government project and it is to be started very sooner or later.We talked for while and learnt about the waste management.

She asked the question with officer how garbage cause death of the animal .the officer answered that people put metal such as blade or dangerous item in the plastic with leftover food.and animal eat it and get sick that cause the death of animal.One of officer said the municipal corporation is coming with iron hand for free moving of Animal on the road.I asked personally if there is any law and order for moving animal.he said if animal will be caught moving free on the road then they will be caught and owner of animal will be fined some amount but so far I have not seen any time catching moving animal.and It not only cause the getting sick of animal as well as they make traffic jam in Varanasi.

We had to interview the doctor of veterinary hospital near by kabir chura.I had been many time in that area but i was not aware about this hospital.so I had to ask many time with local people to find exact location.Even local people was not aware with this veterinary hospital.One of the guy told us are you looking for “ghora hospital” that means it is the hospital of horse.Finally we reached there and had some conversation with doctor regarding how animal got sick due to garbage.

One day she called me and said that she wanted to interview the present mayor of Varanasi regarding the same.and she had already made appointment with her.we reached to jal sanstah which is called water supply place for the city and having reached there I called him that we have arrived here.and after few minute he came to his chamber where we were waiting for him.she had few question with him regarding the responsibility of cleaning and waste management of the city being mayor.and he responded for the same .it was my first time that I had chance to ask some question for the city cleanness.he said that recently municipal corporation has started public awareness programs to keep the city clean.

Hindi Student

Jake Zenn is student of Law from Washington D.c. united state of America.He wrote me mail in the month of September .we had very less conversation I think just once or twice as he was interested to join my Hindi course.we agreed for the class and all.

Between this period of time there was no any communication between us and I thought he is no interested any more.but in the month of December he wrote me  if I am available for tutoring him in Varanasi.I said yes I am available.

Upon arriving in varanasi he called me and I went to his guest house in shivala where he was staying.I took him to my place and we fixed up the timings of the lesson.and from following next day we started class.He could make the conversation in Hindi all what he wanted to improve his fluency and to increase vocabulary.mostly we had conversation class and using the new construction and new vocab.He was doing quiet well and he used talk in restaurant.

Every day after his class he used to play with my son and both they became friend and he gave a “dridle” to play him.I did not know what is a dridle and he explained me that it is a jewish play or something.

Watson Fellow

Brian Dolphin is a pitzer college student and watson fellow from united state of America.He is travelling many countries and study about the nature of music.He came to India from Nepal and started learning Hindi with me as he could speak a mix language of Nepali with Bhojpuri.

I asked him how many hours in a day you want your lesson he said that he wants three to fours hour a day.we started with two hrs a day .one hour he was meeting with me and for another hour he was meeting my wife as he was very much interested in folk music and devotional bhajan.they used to sing and they were translating the bhajan.he never studied with book as he said that he had never learnt with reading the book and other learning materials.

When ever I was giving the language construction and expression and I was saying him to write  down he used to say in sweet Hindi language “”LIKHNA NAHI PARTA HAI””that means I do not need to write .he used keep in his mind.He promised me if forget then give me the punishment.

Here I would like to say every student and researchers if you have opportunity to interact with locals and other street worker who are not related with tourism activities ,It is really going to work.Brian always in touch with such kind of people.many times I had seen him talking with such people like eggs sellers,Rickshaw repairing man.and other people abstain talking with these people.

Brian adapted indian culture in very lees of time and he practiced Indian way of living like eating habit,greeting in varanasi way saying “mahadev”,chewing world famous beetle of Varanasi.He hardly used to go to eat American food as he became habitual eating indian food.

One day he asked why i have three rings in finger and it was just astrologer advice .I have faith in these kinds of things so he also insisted me to take at astrologer.we went there and greeted him in indian way by touching his feet.by that astrologer got socked as it is not common when a western greets touching the feet of elder.Astrologer told him about his past ,present and future in Hindi mostly he could understand what astrologer and where ever he could not then I was translating for him.