Category Archives: Volunteering in varanasi

Hindi Lesson

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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.

Australian Hindi Student

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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

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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

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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

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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.

Hindi class

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Anna is from Germany and she came in contact with me through my blog, as she was very much interested in Indian bollywood movies and  She said that she could understand the recent ones better than the old ones.as new bollywood movie are having conversation in English.

She was interested for intensive course as she had a very less time in Varanasi she was just here for three weeks.she was doing four hours of intensive Hindi class.since she is old so i told that i can come to your hotel for having the class.She decided to meet for two hrs with me and another two hours with my wife so that she gets the opportunity too talk with Indian women at my place and she was trying to have conversation with my neighbor.

One day she told me that she wanted to have her class on boat therefore I called my boatman we had boat ride on river Ganges with my wife ,son and my sister.it was festive mood at the assi ghat as one of the celebration of den kashi mahotsav and she wanted to see the one of most famous singer of bhojpuri language Manoj Tiwary ,hotels staff has told her about him.we went to gathering it was over crowded and we were there untill he came.I translated for her as the song was in bhojpuri .

At the weekend we all together went to see the movie kurban as it was the part of Hindi course she tried to give the summary of movie .what was movie all about and what was the story.

In the three weeks she improved a lot and I really appreciate her learning skill.in the beginning did a crash course and later on we were just reviewing .it was great experience with her.

Intensive Hindi Class

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Hi Everyone It is my first opportunity that I am teaching a Hungarian student.his name is Adom wesp from the capitol city of Budapest.The day when he called me I was so busy therefore I could not meet him and we decided to meet next following day.as he is new comer in varanasi so he could not come directly at my place .

Our first meeting was in vatika cafe near assi ghat and we decided to have class .as his stay was not for longer period in Varanasi.so he asked me if i have time three to four hrs in a day Monday through Saturday. he is doing pretty well and he is very much interested in leaning writing and reading the Hindi.

I recommended teach your self Hindi book of Rupert Snell for reading and writing.now he can read Hindi well but he is slow in writing.he is just here for two and half week.tomorrow he is going to khajuraho.

Aussie Hindi Student

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Stephanie Roach is from Australia she came in to contact with me through my blog and she wrote me mail as she was interested in learning Hindi .when she came to Varanasi with one of her friend or fellow traveller.he had been in Varanasi for long time and he works for tour operating company called Intrepid.as Stephanie has more faith on her friend so he wanted to enquire about other teacher in varanasi .

fortunately he used to learn yoga with teacher in Varanasi his name is kameshwar pathak near main ghats. we know each other for long time .pathak ji also recommended for me only she became very happy.as i provide for the accommodation facilities for my student.Stephanie was interested in family home stay accommodation so she asked to me.

I took her one of my friend’s house near  crossing Assi and she liked place and started learning Hindi.she is enjoying a lot with family and made village trip with family.she will be here until January and she is interested in doing some volunteering work with NGO particularly for orphanage and education.I make her connection with little star school where she is happy to work for the kid’s education and welfare.

Fall semester Group in Varanasi

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Dragons fall semester groups are in varansi.they arrived in varansi on 27th of october and started learning hindi from the next day of arrival.usually when students used to arrive in varansi they had some free time for getting in to the city or for fitting in the city but this time student were so excited for learning hindi that they started earlier.as usual this year also they are twelve students with two instructors.

one of the instructor is the same of last year her name is Debi but we have one new instructor whose name is Dan and i do not know their full names.I have already divide in to two groups of students as in smaller group they can lear more faster than in large group.two students are doing the credit so i have queses em every week.so far ia have taken two queses .

Students are doing very well and up to now they have learned many random phrase ,seven ko construction present habitual tense.present continuous tense .simple past .imperative ,used to construction, past continuous tense and want to constructions.

They also started reading Hindi script and some of them are writing in Devanagari script.however it is little difficult  for writing.

Online Hindi course

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For two weeks I am teaching Gabrila  online through skype .she is my old student from the vision of India semester programme of where there be dragons.she lives in New york city in U.S.A.she wanted to continue her Hindi as she is studying international development.how ever it not my first experience.I have already taught some of my old students from vancouver Canada and states.First day I had great experience with skype as there was not any problem but one the second day there was a little problem with Internet.

Now she is taking four hrs in a week.every Friday and Saturday we meet on 7.30 pm according to India time.I have already sent some teaching stuff on her email address and which she has got the print out and we work both together.how ever i have recommend her teach yourself by rupp snellbut once she will have confidence in speaking Hindi