The Imam Bargahs

We visited two Imam Bargahs (or Imambargahs, or Hussainias), a large one (bara) and a small one (chhota).

Imam Bargahs are dedicated to the prophet who was the grandson of the prophet Mohammad. In fact, this is the point where the Sunni and Shiite Muslims disagree- who is the next prophet after Mohammad?

Shia Muslims believe that the next prophet was the Hussain Ibn Ali, the grandson of Mohammad, who was killed in battle. The purpose of an Imam Bargah is to celebrate his life, which they do once a year on the day that he died. On this day (Ashura), everyone goes to the Imam Bargah for a large gathering, and afterward there is a parade when models of buildings are carried through the town. At the end of the parade, the models are buried in the ground.

The bara Imam Bargah has a couple of interesting features.

First, the entrance. You enter in through a huge gate and then through a smaller gate and gardens to get there. Although it may not have been landscaped in the past, the location is still beautiful, and seeing greenspace of any variety here is always comforting.

Here's a picture of the front of the building, including an appropriate "no spitting" sign. 

Here's another great sign:

 If you can't read it, it says "to spread filth is the nature of animal. We are human"

Second, the Imam Bargah itself has incredible acoustics in its main hall. I took a picture of the ceiling so you can see what’s going on:

In terms of what the acoustics actually do, they allow you to hear someone whisper from across the hall, much like a kissing arch, if you are familiar with those. 

Thirdly, it has a labyrinth on the upper floors. I’m not sure exactly what was happening before, but they decided to build the labyrinth (which is really just a collection of tunnels and not much of a large maze) because the building was too top-heavy. I think that they were taking things out of the top, but it also could be for reinforcements from the roof. It was pretty unclear when we were there. However, now it’s just a tourist attraction, and it enables you to go see all of the sights of Lucknow from the roof. Here are some pictures that I took:

 Some arches in the labyrinth.

 The view of the great outside.

 Arches outside and graffiti.

 A view of the top of a mosque (aka minaret) and a clock tower.

The last thing that I really liked was the bathing well. Although it is no longer open for bathing, it really is a beautiful place, and the architecture was just phenomenal. 

Check out that beautiful stone.

 

The Chotta Imam Bargah. First, this is in the old part of Lucknow, which has windier and smaller streets.

While this Imam Bargah serves a similar purpose to the other one, it is quite different. One way in which it is different is the landscaping. The Imam Bargah included a pond of water, which is a sign of beauty in architecture (think Taj Mahal).

The building also differed architecturally, as the decorations were in script, which I personally find quite beautiful. This is quite unlike the stonework at the other Imam Bargah. 

Something that both of the places shared were the tradition of collecting chandeliers from different places and displaying them there. I took a couple of pictures of the ones that I found to be the most beautiful, and here's one.

 It was nice to see some other religious centers while here, and I’m glad that I went!

Some final pictures to dwell on:

A pretty building at the chhota imam bargah. 

The sun is beginning its descent by the chhota imam bargah.

Fasting and Festivals

The other day I had a conversation with my Hindi teacher about fasting, which I found quite fascinating. So here are some facts:

Not all fasting is giving up all food. It is often giving up essential foods, though, like rice and dal. There are also restrictions on other foods, like grains and salt. During times of fasting, it is most common to eat fruit or nuts.

Women often fast during this month (on Mondays) in order to show respect to Shiva. Some women think that this fasting will get them a good husband. (For more information, go back to my post about Guru Purnima). There are also times when only married women fast.

I am less sure on the times when men fast, if they do at all.

On a related note, we also discussed celebration of festivals, which was really interesting. If you have a family member who dies on the day of a festival, you stop celebrating that festival as a family until someone is born on the day of the festival. For example, Prastuti’s family stopped celebrating a festival through worship because someone died during it, and now they only practice the fasting portion, and would begin to celebrate through prayer if someone was born on that day.

Cantonments

We stayed on the Lucknow military cantonment while we were there. While a military cantonment is somewhat similar to a military base, I thought that I would talk about some of the differences.

First, the area is not as restricted access as in the US. Although it does take a permit to get into almost all of the buildings and courtyards for the buildings, the roads are free for anyone to use (or so it seemed to me). However, there are some hours of restricted access to the roads for everyone.

Second, the area seems to function more as a residential area and base rather than just a base. This means that the cantonment has a government central school for children to attend, a college, and many houses of families (not just military barracks).

In general, the place reminded me of BHU here, which means it had a large university/military feel. However, the military is omnipresent here, so it could be that I am somewhat desensitized to all of the guns and military personnel that you see everywhere from street corners to shopping malls. However, I would argue that the military was a much bigger presence in Lucknow than in Varanasi.

The Museum at the Residency

Although we were not allowed to take cameras in the museum (so no pictures), I’d like to comment on a couple of things that I found interesting and amusing.

First, the museum is meant as a museum celebrating Indian independence, and therefore includes pictures of Indian heroes and celebrates the siege of the residency, almost ironically, as it’s located inside the location where the enemy stayed. However, more strange to me was the collection and what it included. While it was celebrating Indian efforts, almost all of the art included was British lithographs, many of which represented Indians in a very bad light. It seems to me that the museum was trying to present a message that was against the collection, while still supporting the collection. Perhaps they could be more up-front about their collection being from the British. Subjects of the lithographs were mostly buildings and houses though they did include some with people.

Possibly in an attempt to make up for this problem, the collection also included new paintings of heroes of the time, as well as a large diorama of the siege.

Other things in the collection included stamps, coins, artifacts (cannonballs, swords), and a model of the residency complex. However, one of my favorite things to see were the labeled holes from cannonballs. I think they added a really nice touch to the collection as a whole.

The Residency

The first place that we went to in Lucknow is called the Residency (spelled Rejidenci in Hindi transliteration- the ‘j’ and ‘z’ songs are often confused in Hindi, or the ‘z’ sound doesn’t exist, the closest letter being ‘j’).

Regardless, this site was quite literally the residence of important British officials. It’s where the Commissioner (aka Governor of Lucknow) of the East India Company for the region lived. It was built by the Nawab (uslim rulers of princely states in India), who were thrown out when the East India Company took control over Lucknow. It’s located on the top of a hill, making it a prime location for the British in terms of a military advantage, which they, of course, needed (especially in 1857). In 1857, there were a series of mutinies across India, often known in the West as the Sepoy Rebellions. This conflict began for several reasons, one of which was the cartridges used for gun powder, which was said to be made of pig and cow fat (which violates both the Muslim and Hindu traditions, respectively). Therefore, participating as a soldier in the British army (hired as mercenary types) caused soldiers to violate their religious beliefs. Obviously, this was not the only cause of rebellions, and there was a certain degree of discontent with the British anyway, but this was the final straw for soldiers, beginning a wave of revolt across India. In the museum that we visited, this was recognized as the 1857 War of Independence.

During this War of Independence, the entire complex was held under siege for several months, resulting in the eventual withdrawal of the British from Lucknow. Many buildings were shelled, which you can see in the pictures of the complex that I’ve included below. 

 the arches at the mosque inside the residency complex.

 you can see the damage on the residence here. Look at those cannonball holes!

 more arches at the mosque- so pretty!

Why visit Lucknow?

History- Lucknow is the capital of UP, and was also the capital of the area called Awadh under colonial rule. As a result, there is a lot of evidence of the colonial rule, including a site that we visited. However, Lucknow seems to absorbed much of the colonial culture as well, especially in terms of the importance of bureaucracy in Lucknow (in comparison to Varanasi). Additionally, there are other remnants of the colonial era, such as Christian churches, wide and clear streets, and Christian schools.

Demographics- Lucknow has a very large Muslim population (Shiite). This community thrives in Lucknow, and also has a lot of history, as you’ll see with our visits to the Imam Bargahs.

Crafts and Handiwork- Lucknow is famous for its Chikan embroidery. This embroidery is made out of a couple of different stitches, and can be recognized as from Lucknow. They also are famous for doing shadow- work, in which you see the back-side of the embroidery on the outside.

Lucknow

This weekend (tonight) I'm going to Lucknow! It's a town in UP where our director, Nita Kumar, is from. It also was an old colonial center for the British, and is the capital of UP. I think it will be interesting and cool to go there, even though we'll only be there for about a day and a half really. I'll be back on Tuesday.
It would be the best if they have good birthday cake, but I've given up hope on attempts at Western sweets here (including chocolate). The best thing I've had here is definitely apple pie from an American recipe. Only 40 rupees, 60 with ice cream!

Morning-Time Adventures

This morning (after my run and shower, of course) at around 6:35, I decided to go on an adventure, which involves many fun photos, and beautiful scenes.

To begin, I found these pretty flowers. Pretty colors!

I then went to the a wishing tree at a small temple close to the school. Our guru, Naval Krishna sir, assures me that the tree is magical, and that you always will have your wishes granted there. I took a couple of pictures so you can understand what a roadside temple looks like:

I then went over to the ghat closest to us- that’s assi ghat in case you were wondering, and was going to stop and get my favorite tea (honey-lemon-ginger), but the shop wasn’t open yet. Most shops don’t really open until 8am or so, despite the fact that the streets are bustling at 7 or earlier depending on where you are. People are out the earliest closest to the Ganga and temples for religious reasons.

Here is a picture of the area close to the river.

Here is a sidestreet close to Assi.

A poster for the movie that we saw (Delhi Belly). Note the tagline, which is literally: S#!T happens.

I then walked around over to a mall, encountering the commercial side of life and a great sign.

I like to think of myself as a “professional,” personally.Definitely not professional though...

I also ran into some monkeys (always a mildly terrifying experience). In the olden days, monkeys were protected (just as cows still are), as they were considered to be the reincarnation of Lord Hanuman. However, to quote Jay (one of our friends here), “they became such a nuisance that no one believes that anymore.” He also thinks that people have stopped taking cow protection as seriously, and gives the examples of trucks that take cows out of cities. 

Here are some monkeys:

I also stopped by a very famous temple in Varanasi, but didn’t go in because I forgot my scarf to cover my head. I’ll go there soon though. I took some pictures, at least. 

I stopped by another temple as well, called the Shri Satyanarayan Tulsi Manas Mandir. As you can see from this picture, it’s made out of this beautiful white stone, and they have a small gardens. One interesting thing is that this temple is more of a Rama-Hanuman temple, and less of a Shiva temple, despite the fact that Varanasi is a Shiva place. The temple is also pretty new, being blessed in 1964. 

I also had a chance encounter with some greenspace, even though it was covered in trash (see foreground):

On the way back, I got to see a cow chilling in my favorite building, and I picked up some jalebi as a breakfast treat for everyone at work. Nom nom nom!

The Wheels on the Bus go Round and Round

Our bus is an interesting thing, which is to say there is never enough room on the bus. Generally there are about 5-10 more people than there are seats assuming that you seat the standard 2 person per bench. This means people are sitting in weird places and 3 to a seat (which there really is not room for), and that it gets hot in there. Let your imagination run free: here’s a picture of the bus. 

Social Studies

I am very interested by social studies in India for children, especially after class today.

Briefly, I’ve been teaching my seventh-graders about dialect, so today we learned the Banana Boat Song (aka Day-o, day-o, daylight come and me want go home…etc.). I was teaching them about the origins of the song, and we had a slight issue when I started talking about the slave trade. Some general confusion ensued, and I entered the realm of teaching world history to my seventh graders.

Afterward, I asked to look at a social studies book for grade 9 (from the teacher), and it had a lot of information about India (which makes sense), but there was almost no history. Instead, it mostly contained information about the different regions of India and seemed to be a primer on physical geography and climate/weather information rather than a text on social studies and history. I also talked to a couple people about their education, and they said that the emphasis was not really on history, with the exception of India’s national liberation struggle and India’s colonial history. He said that, outside of Indian history, they learned about the American Revolution, Russian Revolution, WWI, and WWII, which I find interesting. Of course, one cannot rely solely on one person’s memory of high school education, but I forgot about how wide the common knowledge gap really is here.

Musical Games!

 One thing I’ve been working on with the kids recently are clapping games. Besides the fact that little kids really don’t have great senses of rhythm, it is very enjoyable to watch both teachers and students alike struggle with the intricacies of Miss Mary Mack. Unfortunately, I realized that all of the words to Miss Suzy had a steamboat are entirely inappropriate for my second-and-third-graders.

The kids also really love the Hokey Pokey (who doesn't?), but we’re still getting the hang of left and right…

Photo-bombing

This is a little bit of a leftover from the weekend, but one interesting thing for me was the number of photos we managed to take with tourists. Since almost everyone in Pachmarhi was a Indian tourist, we took so many pictures with everyone (sometimes complete with ridiculous raingear, including plastic rain fedoras, shower cap-type things, trash bags, rain suits-yes shirts and pants, and plastic loafers) until our smiles were sore. At the end, our newly converted friend from the hotel also wanted a picture. He brought over a friend to take some pictures, and we also took a couple from my camera for your viewing pleasure.

Violet, our friend, Michelle and Me.

Bollywood Music

Over the weekend, I also had the great opportunity to get acquainted with some Bollywood hits, including some music videos. Here are some links for your viewing pleasure (note that many of the music videos are direct clips from the way that the songs appear in the movies):

Hale Dil from Murder 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Px7q1fLfG8E

Character Deela from Ready

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbnifKg0iSM

Bhaag Dk Bose from Delhi Belly

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eh1O8a-vs0s

Phir Mohabbat from Murder 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3n0KPChPXB4

Oye Oye from  Double Dhamaal (in English if you’re into that) (I’ve also heard people sing this song in public)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppWguiDSLl8

I hate you (like I love you) from Delhi Belly (in English mostly)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-feLAiIHwcU

And an oldie but goodie:

Pain of Disco from Om Shanti Om (highly recommend)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oV-4SOAsy40

 

Note: I also heard these on our hour and half long ride to and from Pachmarhi from the train station, so yes, they really are popular. And yes, I really do plan on listening to them and dancing around in the future. It’s going to be a blast.

Trains!

The Indian way of travel is by train (ironic, because Gandhi says in Hind Swaraj that the fast movement of trains accommodates evil rather than good). On the way to Panchmarhi, we travelled in 3AC, which means that there are 6 bunks per “compartment,” and air-conditioning! We travelled back in style in 2AC, which means there are only 4 bunks per compartment, allowing for each person to sit on his or her own bunk comfortably without hitting his or her head.

I should have taken some pictures of Varanasi Junction, a rough and crazy place, but I did not.

Another interesting point: trains here tend to run on “Indian time,” meaning that they are running on time if they are 20 minutes late. Although our train to Panchmarhi started at Varanasi (and thus started actually on time), we arrived in Panchmarhi an hour late. On the way back, the train was initially only 20 minutes late (thus, “on time”), and we arrived in Varanasi almost 3 hours late, which was fine by me because we were supposed to arrive at 4:30am.

Waterfalls

One of the most beautiful things about this region are the famous waterfalls. We saw a couple of these famous waterfalls, as well as other waterfalls in general. One interesting thing about the waterfalls here are the seasonal nature of waterfalls. Some waterfalls only exist during monsoon season, while larger waterfalls may get down to a trickle.

We saw silver falls, a single-drop waterfall that was very incredible, although we could not visit it up close (see above).

We also went to fairy falls, named by the British after a beautiful woman.

Finally, we saw Bee falls, a waterfall by which millions of bees make their home in the summer (remember: right now it is monsoon season, not summer, so there were no bees there).

Apparently, honeycombs would fill this entire wall (see below).

Bee falls looks like this:

A note on bathers: There are many bathers at waterfalls in general, as they provide a place to be clean. Water often has a symbolic cleansing power as well, such as in the case of the Ganges (which is why Varanasi is such a popular pilgrammage spot). However, most bathers/almost all are male, because modesty for women is so important here. Men are permitted to walk around in their underwear at waterfalls though. 

Here's a pretty picture of a tree by Bee Falls:

Curating Museums

We visited a small museum at the park in Pachmarhi, located inside the old Bison Lodge. There were definitely some interesting objects in there, and it was a place easily distinguishable from American-style museums. Here’s a list of some of the objects, some with pictures:

-          a stuffed tiger. Yes, this is as close as I ever want to get to a tiger.

-          a tiger skeleton (note that the ribs are held together with tape)

-          preserved animal parts and fetuses 

-          various medicinal fruits and roots

Another thing that you won’t see in an American museum: a monkey chasing you out of it! (no picture: I was too busy fearing for my life).

Some mountain views

There are many beautiful valleys and mountains surround Panchmarhi, probably due to it’s location on a plateau surrounded by mountains. Here are some views of the mountains as seen from the park on a foggy day:

Temples

Pachmarhi is a town with many temples in caves. We went to three of the main ones.

The first one that we went to is arguably the most famous: Jata Shankar. Although much of the shrine was underwater because of the monsoon season, it is dedicated to the Shiva, one of the three principle deities in Hinduism. A symbol of Shiva is the trident, which explains the tridents in the pictures. We also received blessings while at the temples, which include these red and orange bracelets on my arm:

We also visited two other cave temples.

One of them was beautifully ornamented on the outside with marble floors. Although many (or most) temples contain beautiful stonework or beautiful stone in general, the work at this temple was beautiful and green. However, this place was also infested with many monkeys. These monkeys in particular enjoyed coming terrifyingly close to people.

The third temple was the smallest and hardest to enter. In order to get to this temple, you had to squeeze through a small tunnel, which apparently is only held open with wooden or bamboo sticks, to reach an opening at the end. Despite the difficulties of entry, it was very beautiful, and I really enjoyed going there.