Varanasi is so gritty and in your face. I am fascinated by this city and everything is so natural and cyclical. When I first arrived, I walked out of my hotel and down to the ghats. I am staying right next to a burning ghat where bodies are burned 24 hours a day. I can smell the smoke from my hotel room. One of the first things I saw in this city was a body wrapped in some cloth being tossed onto a fire. It seems like that should have phased me, but it didn't. There are hospices near the burning ghat where people come and stay, waiting to die.
Last evening I took a boat ride down the river at dusk and we stopped on the other side and got out to walk around. There lying in the sand was a human skull. Right next to that, men bathing, and a group of boys were running around in the sand flying kites. They even let me take the string for a minute and I tried to fly the kite, not so successfully.
This morning on my boat ride, I looked into the water and floating next to our boat was a body. Maybe this is insensitive for me to photograph these things, but I am fascinated by everything taking place next to each other.
Bodies are burned, bodies are washed. People are cleaning their clothes and setting them out to dry, people are relieving themselves in the river. They are selling food, lighting candles, throwing flowers, offering puja. Little boys swim up to our boat to say hello. All of these things are happening on top of each other.
A couple of guys were trolling around in a boat this morning watching television. I don't even know how that is possible. We have power outages constantly in our hotel and yet they are watching television in the river.
My country is way too sterile... and at the same time, there is no way I am going to even dip a foot in the ganga. I was laughing last night as a bit of water splashed up from the boat and hit a foreign girl in the face. She unloaded most of her water bottle on her skin and mouth trying to wash off the toxic river. (Apparently, not a believer in the holy water.) But with the latest newspaper report of fecal content in the ganges, I don't blame her.
2 comments:
I remember seeing a guy cremated in Nepal and watching his body ooze into the river.
Also, my brothers rafted the Ganges once. They all took a tiny drink of the water, just to say they did it. I think you should too.
Finally, my high school english teacher found her husband on the ganges. She said when he flicked his hair coming out of the water like Ariel in the Little Mermaid and she saw a rainbow form from the spray, she knew he was the one. Just saying, you should watch out for your EC.
uh, ixnay on the rinkday... unless you wanna ieday...
jenni keep strong out there and don't let the heat get to you. your post was awesome and in a weird way, makes me regret that i didn't go to veranassi. well, its a nice 45 degrees in seattle, but i am tireder than i have been in a long time... but made it back to work safe.
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