Varanasi- WOW! City of Temples! Happy Holi

OMG! had to shed a tear last night on the evening boat ride down the sacred Ganges river. i arrived yesterday just in time for Holi, a big Hindu holiday, where they celebrate by thowing colors on each other and worshipping and burning fires everywhere and dancing! (Google india's picture today is a bunch of baskets of color just like they sell in the market place). The evening ride in a small boat on the sacred Ganges was beautiful. i felt so honored to be there, to be part of their holy day and celebration, to see in person the things i had only seen or heard about. This is also where the Hindus come to dip and burn their dead. There are 2 crematoriums burning bodies by the river all day and night, so i saw that amazing ritual. We came back early in the am to see the sun rise- Spectacular! People also wash themselves in this same river, so we saw that by boat as well.

Varanasi (or little India) was my first real taste of India- the india you see in the movies. When i say the streets are teeming, i can't even describe, the cars, the dogs, the people, the bikes, the cows, the marketplace, the temples everywhere, the motorcycles and they are all coexisting and moving together. It is so crazy amazing and no one seems to be fighting or yelling (although honking is clearly a frequently used form of communication)or running over anybody. At one pointlast night, my guide and i had to get out to walk to the river and my heart and eyes and mind were so alive!!! My energy was really feeling their energy. I thought christmas time at Macy's was a scene; that is nothing cause there are really no moving cows in Manhattan.

I have to say i am digging the whole cow thing. I mean they are everywhere and they are sacred so basically they are just out amongst the general population, doing their thing. I was thinking, do we revere any animal like that?- i thought yes, our dogs; and some folks' dogs do run the house, but we don't just have dogs out runny the world.

On the diversity front- love love love seeing the affection that men show each other. men everywhere, with their arms around each other, little boys being affectionate with their buds. When did we get so homophobic that men lost their ability to show affection like that? Also lots of staring at me by Indians, but not as severe as China- i don't know what part of it is the foreign thing, the black thing, the tall thing, the blond/gray hair thing, or woman traveling alone things- or all those things put together- whew,I guess i am something to behold-- it is interesting.

On the fashion front- well, yesterday i dug in my luggage and came up with an outfit that looked a little more presentable- even an indian woman gave me a compliment. Also, black is not "in" here at all, i had on some black pants and black scarf and felt offensive. Color is in everywhere and i love it. I thought black folks were the master of bling, but the indians, got the bling and the style and the spark down. even really poor women look really decked out sparkling in bold, gorgeous reds and oranges, coming from the market and on bikes. i wonder if that is the same as poor black folks and their cars (let me stop). Peace and Happy Holi