Incredible Varanasi

Outrageously colourful Varanasi
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Varanasi is a firm favourite on the tourist circuit and deservedly so. It is concentrated India, in all of its colour and chaos. Even in our weary ‘we’ve been in India for too long now’ state, Varanasi was unforgettable.

We had to keep trying to keep the mindset of fresh tourists still looking at India with wonder, because Varanasi really is a very very special place and we desperately didn’t want to miss out on the magic of it. In reality, with us being more than a little tired of the filth, beggars, touts and general madness of India, Varanasi was just one step too far and we see-sawed between being amazed and just wanting to run for the border.

Daily wash...we opted for the hotel shower
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Varanasi sits on a curve of the holy river Ganges, or Mother Ganges, as the Indians see the river. The city has ‘ghats’ all along the edge of the river – steps or slopes giving easy access to the river. The ghats are in constant use, with people washing themselves, their clothes and their dead relatives (yes you read that right) in the river. Buffalo and cows wander the ghats and also take the occasional dip in the river. The hoards of tourists board rickety boats to take in Varanasi from the river. Locals board rickety boats to get to the opposite side of the river to escape the tourists (Indian and foreign) buzzing around the ghats.

Doing the laundry
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The colours, the noises, the smells and the life bustling around the ghats is overwhelming, and if it wasn’t for the constant barrage from the chaos that is Varanasi you could spend a magical day just sitting still and soaking it all in.

We reckon there wasn’t five waking minutes that we were just left alone the whole time we were in Varanasi. You are constantly approached by people wanting to sell you a boat trip, postcards, candles, flowers and any other piece of tat you could imagine, other people inviting you to their shop just behind the ghats, ‘holy men’ trying to bless you (for a small donation of course), children, elderly people and the maimed begging for money, and cows stopping right next to you to relieve themselves. Even out on the water, some enterprising locals have created ‘boat shops’ and they attach their boats to yours attempting to sell you even more things that you don’t need.

One of the many holy men at dawn
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Our hotel was right on one of the main ghats and our room had incredible views out over the Ganges. If the madness on the ghats ever got too much we could escape to our room or to the baking hot roof terrace and gaze over the Ganges. From this height, it really did seem to be a spiritual place, and the Ganges sparkled in the sun.

One of the guys who worked at the hotel has lived in Varanasi all his life, and although he wasn’t a trained guide and didn’t speak fluent English a day spent exploring Varanasi with him (Pappu) gave us insights into the city and the Hindu religion that we wouldn’t have gotten otherwise.

A dead body, a buffalo and some laundry...
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It turns out that Varanasi is a very auspicious place to die (you get a short cut ticket straight to Nirvana) , and therefore many people come to Varanasi from all over India when they are old or ill to wait for death.

If you miss dying in Varanasi, the next best thing your relatives can do is to bring your body here after you’ve died for cremation. Cremations are very public in Varanasi. There are 2 burning ghats and the main ghat operates 24 hours per day, burning hundreds of bodies brought to Varanasi by grieving relatives. It’s not cheap, costing Rs8,000 (GBP100) to burn your loved ones.

View from our hotel room
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Poor people who died used to get thrown in the Ganges with a rock tied to their chest, but the government soon realised that with everyone in India wanting to end up in the Ganges, but not many people having access to Rs8,000 at short notice this practice would soon lead to a very overcrowded and polluted river. So there is an ‘electric fire’ which costs as much as you can afford to pay, but is kind of considered to be ‘cheating’ by the devout. Only pure people, for example children, pregnant & holy men are allowed to be sunk in the Ganges sans cremation.

Us on the Ganges
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At any rate, all of the ashes from the cremations inside Varanasi and brought from elsewhere in the country end up in the Ganges. The very rich can afford to get their loved ones put on ice and flown to Varanasi, everyone else makes do with bringing the ashes to Varanasi at some time after the cremation in their home town.

It was incredible spending time by the burning ghats, seeing the bodies being borne on the shoulders of their families through the streets of Varanasi, washed in the Ganges, placed on the pyre and after specific ceremonies being burned. The family waits by the body for the 3 hours it takes the body to burn and after the burning ghat workers have sifted through the ashes for gold rings / teeth etc (which the workers get to keep), the family takes the ashes down to…you guessed it, the Ganges.

The main burning Ghat
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As much as Pappu tried to explain why the Ganges wasn’t dirty (basically because it was so holy it couldn’t be), you can’t help but think that with all of the dead bodies, ashes, laundry, livestock, rubbish, bathing and upstream industries pumping their waste into the river it probably wouldn’t be a good idea for us even to stick a toe in the water. Drinking the water as the locals do would be certain death for our weak Western bellies.

Another interesting insight we got from Pappu was his very strong views on the caste system. The ‘owner’ of the burning ghats, now a very wealthy man, is an ‘Untouchable’, a member of the very lowest caste that was officially outlawed decades ago in India. As Pappu is a Brahmin (the highest caste), he would never go to this man’s house, or speak to him or touch him. He recalls a time when he was younger and didn’t know the ‘rule’ and went into an ‘untouchable’s’ house. His parents found out and wouldn’t let him back in the house until he had washed thoroughly in the Ganges. Pappu said that these people had been born into ‘untouchability’ because of karma – something bad that they had done in a prior life – and so deserved such treatment. Jaw dropping views to us, but such a normal part of Pappu’s and many other Indian’s lives.

One of the many Varanasi Ghats
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Eventually it was time to move on from Varanasi and India.

The next leg of our journey took us on an overnight train to the very north-east of India and the border of Bhutan. Our last night was spent in an Indian border town, another noisy dusty fleapit, and India had its last laugh on me as I spent much of the night with my head down the toilet bowl puking up my dinner. We couldn’t get out of there fast enough and got up bright and early the next day to split to Bhutan across the border which was at the bottom of the high street.