So, it seems we’ve arrived in ‘real’ India – the one you see on TV where the streets are where you live, work and socialise and where the river is the place the whole city goes to complete their daily chores… We have arrived in Varanasi, the Holy city.
It’s amazing how you can be on a boat, surrounded by hundreds of other people also on boats watching a ceremony that is basically half an hour of bell ringing and still feel very peaceful and alone. Although the ringing of the bells is supposed to concentrate the mind, it somehow allows your mind to completely switch off – for a moment I thought of nothing.
The evening boat trip down the Ganges (worshipped as the goddess Ganga in Hinduism) really showed off the religious side of India, the phrase “the Ganges is the lifeline of the Indian People’ was emblazoned on walls along the riverside. The Ganges really is the source of life to them. The burning ghats (cremation grounds) and death itself is just matter of fact here, we saw a corpse being walked through the street and people didn’t even give it a second glance. It is apparently a dream of many, especially those in Varanasi, to die in Varanasi purely so that they can be ‘fed’ to Mother Ganga as it acts as a direct line to heaven. There are 2 burning ghats along the river, an older one which has both wood burning and electric cremation points and a newer (more expensive) one that is purely wood and much bigger. There are 5 types of people that are not allowed to be cremated here; babies, pregnant women, lepers, those biten by a snake and holy men, instead, their body is wrapped and dropped directly into a deep part of the river.
The sunrise boat trip showed the life of India, real everyday life – the daily ritual of bathing, washing clothes and even having a hair cut in the Ganges, the riverside was packed with people going about their everyday business with apparent visitors from the South holidaying in the Holy City, standing in the sacred river, praying towards the sun.
Next stop is Agra, to see the Taj Mahal. Election fever has well and truly hit Varanasi, bad timing on our part as the city has come to a bit of a standstill eventhough there are still people everywhere. We have an 8 hour wait until we catch our sleeper train…
