Django, request.user is always Anonymous User

Question

I am using a custom authentication backend for Django (which runs off couchdb). I have a custom user model.

As part of the login, I am doing a request.user = u

Answer 1

user = authenticate(username=username, password=password) 
if user is not None:
   return render(request, 'home.html',{'user_id':user.id})