By bluerasberry on 2011-03-21
Pradeep left on March 18. I had a lot of fun with him and I told him he would be welcome back anytime. I did not want him to go but he was concerned about returning to Mumbai to get a job on salary. Salary jobs are easier to get in Mumbai than Varanasi, definitely. […]
Posted in India, work | Tagged money
By bluerasberry on 2011-03-11
Last time I was in India I tried to like the kind of food which is currently most popular in Varanasi. This was a mistake – their food is unhealthy and not suitable to my tastes. Furthermore, I do not believe that it is even traditional and assert that despite what locals say, they have […]
Posted in health, India | Tagged food
By bluerasberry on 2011-03-08
I really enjoy having Pradeep around. He accompanies me almost everywhere and tells me about Mumbai and asks me about Varanasi and Seattle. It is my nature to engage in conversation for longer periods of time than most people can tolerate but so far Pradeep seems cool having me pump his brain for the entirety […]
Posted in gay stuff, India | Tagged culture
By bluerasberry on 2011-03-05
I said, “Why don’t you come live in Benares at my place for a while?” So Pradeep from Mumbai Gay Pride got on a train and came 1600km to visit me from Mumbai. A couple of days ago was Shivratri. I was really sick but Nandan had made special arrangements to go backstage at Tilbhandeshwar […]
Posted in festival, India, religion | Tagged Hinduism, sickness
By bluerasberry on 2011-02-22
I was giving Nandan a tour of Wikipedia and one of the entries he wandered to was for Baba Keenaram Sthal. I did not recognize the name of either the place or the founder so Nandan started telling me their history. Later that evening I went for a walk and ran into both Attila and […]
Posted in gay stuff, India, religion | Tagged sex, temple
By bluerasberry on 2011-02-20
I went to meet with Arun Pathak. He lives at the monastery for the 23rd Jain Tirthankar’s birthplace, which was a detail Nandan had not mentioned until we arrived. I first read about Pathak in 2005 before I ever even made plans to visit India. This was in relation to his Deepa Mehta Water protest. […]
Posted in education, India | Tagged Arun Pathak, politics
By bluerasberry on 2011-02-20
The temple complex at Khujaraho shows the best Hindu carvings I have yet seen and I would recommend the place to anyone is interested in the subject and has time to spend a day there. I had heard a lot about the erotic carvings there, and they are interesting, but there are maybe 10-20 erotic […]
Posted in art, India, tour | Tagged architecture, monument
By bluerasberry on 2011-02-20
Nandan and I visited some places around Bhopal. Madhya Pradesh as a state seems more livable than Uttar Pradesh as the population seems lower, the roads are better, the cities and countryside are generally cleaner, and the government does more to make things easier for tourists. We visited this zoo called Van Vihar near a […]
Posted in India, tour | Tagged waste
By bluerasberry on 2011-02-20
Nandan and I stayed at this hotel called Ranjeet. As far as hotels go it suited my needs but I want to mention that it had a ground floor restaurant with a lounge singer every night. He had a cassette deck and a bunch of tapes and a microphone. He sung old Bollywood songs. Many […]
Posted in encounter, India | Tagged music
By bluerasberry on 2011-02-20
I wanted to visit the site of the 1984 Union Carbide disaster. I also wanted to visit whatever major NGO was working with the survivors. This is why we went to Bhopal, the capitol of Madhya Pradesh. I expected that affected people were still living in the area. I also expected that these people had […]
Posted in education, health, India, legal, non-profit | Tagged death, pollution, school, toxic waste