Varanasi Favorites

Favorite thing: The places very near to Varanasi that one can also visit are:
Sarnath (10 kms), the holy land where the Budhha preached Buddhism,
Ramnagar (14 Kms), where one finds the Ramnagar fort, the palace of the King with an exquisite museum
Chunar (40 kms), where one finds the Chunar fort, house of Mughal rulers for many generations
Vidhyachal (80 kms), with one of the Shaktipeeths
Chandraprabha Wildlife Sanctuary (70 kms)
Allahabad (135 kms), the confluence of the three rivers, Ganga, Jamuna & Saraswati (popularly called the Tribeni Sangam)

Favorite thing: Sadhu is some kind of religious peoples who want to practice their religious lifestyle in such a way to challenge their ownselves for some attainments for better next life, this is my explaination and what I knew so far. I haven't yet practice such way of lifestyle, nothing to tell you but only watch from a distance and read some from others.

Favorite thing: Second only to cows, Goats are ubiquitous. They are in the streets, sleeping under cars, the are garving cricket pitches, standing in flocks on concrete, they are in Mumbai they are in the Thar desert. Every mutton dish in India, isn't mutton (tender Southdown or Merino leg offcuts), no its goat. Sinewy, grissly goat. They are simply everywhere. But why when they aren't as delicious and not as yeilding as Sheep (Mutton)?

Well it seems that our friend the goat is a pretty hardy and handy chap.

India's livestock is comfortable with 206 million cows, 123 million Goats, 88 million buffaloes, and 51 million sheep. Goats constitute a very important species of livestock in India, mainly on account of their short generation intervals, higher rates of prolificacy, and the ease with which the goats as also their products can be marketed.

Goats are the main meat animals in India; their meat is the most preferred and hence the costliest of all meats and represented almost 37 percent of total meat produced in the country. Goat milk constitutes a little of all milk produced in India; the majority of milk coming from buffaloes.

Fondest memory: The skins produced by Indian goats are considered of very high quality on account of their relatively larger sizes, minimal blemishes, and perhaps high quality processing. The production of pashmina and shatoosh shawls from goats is already a very lucrative and exports oriented industry.

This is why goats are ubiquitous. By the way, before I do sign off on India's Goats. A wee tidbit about pashmina and shatoosh shawls.

Pashmina is cheap, and lovely. And produced from domestic goats. people love it, and thus should buy it. SHATOOSH on the other hand should be boycotted. It is expensive (so only for foreign buyers) and is made from a Gaot endemic to the Himalaya called the chiru.

Actually I heard its against the law to sell shatoosh now. So if you see it on sale, Report it. Don't buy it.

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Fondest memory: The cows are considered the most sacred animal for the Hindus, and this is most obvious in Varanasi, where the holy river Ganges is located..

Cows are everywhere, be in on the road, in the water of Ganges, outside your guesthouses/hotels/dorms etc, even peeping into the restaurants while you're having your meal..

Where there is a cow, there's bound to be some 'leftoevers'.. hehe which is pretty obvious the moment you step foot into the holy land..... the distinctive scent followed by residues on the sole of your shoes...

cheers...

Favorite thing: This is one of the local peoples near the ghats, the way they live. Don't ask me what they do here, it just a photo. I like the way the photo look, so I want to share here. You can see inside the door is always very dark, probably they don't switch on lights at day time or some other reasons.

Favorite thing: In narrow street here, heavy machines are not a good idea, that's why they use man powers for works like this. This is in front of our hotel, I saw them working two days in two peoples carrying tools as shown. Then I saw cows dogs etc walked on it before the cement dry. The third day, I saw some parts already broken and few drops of cow dungs on the new surface.

Favorite thing: Picture is a school and young hopeful students are busy going home after class. The reason I upload this picture was the boat boy that morning told me his father died when he was very young, so he could not read write and had to wash plate at small age until now. Now he can speak simple English and he worked for the hotel in the restaurant for some 3000Rs a month but 1000Rs only after new boss came. So he had to take boat as side income, 200Rs for 2 hours of ride and share 50-50 with boat owner.

Favorite thing: The junction here were controlled by policemen each take turns to do the job. The chairs are for them to sit or rest. Probably traffic lights won't work in this city. There are too many cows, dogs, pigs and small individual vehicles going at different speeds, so maybe policemen are better way for them.