Saturday, January 2, 2010

Varanasi. part 2






Day 4 of this magical city. New Year's Eve was a great night to remember. The Ganga was lit up with thousands of small candles, offerings for good health, safe journeys and good luck.... As we stood on our balcony over looking the river watching the candles float by, we listened to the sounds of music coming from all directions.. A puja, in one place a man singing to god in another. It's a never-ending feast of sight and sound.

We decided to go to a concert for our New Year's Eve celebration. it was a concert of tabla and slide guitar.. Then an open mic. which we played at. Our first time playing to an international audience (: It was super fun!!

This was followed by an all night puja (blessing ceremony) on the river. Quite amazing!! Thank God for earplugs.

It’s interesting to come back to a place after 10 years… Varanasi seems much the same to me, except maybe more internet cafes.

We’ve spent the last couple of days doing a lot of wandering, I love the winding streets and the never-ending “new” sights… India is filled with interesting things American eyes have never seen and will never see again. Today, as we were leaving our guesthouse, a sadhu singing to god, was sitting outside. He was singing and singing in the most amazing voice. We recorded a bit and I hope to put it up on this blog sometime. Sadhu’s have renounced the material world and spend their lives praying to god and living off of the kindness of others. This guy was awesome. I would have loved to listen to him all day.

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