Holy Mother Ganges!

Indian dryer
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Though I had never heard of Varanasi by name once we arrived it was obviously the place that I had seen in books before we left. It's main feature is the expansive steps that run from the old town to the river. The steps run alongside the city for several kilometres while the old city itself is perched above the river on the steep western bank. It is almost impossible to navigate the narrow alleyways which branch off in all directions and are the only way into the densely populated warren of shops, hotels and apartments. Something like a steep concrete embankment at a sports stadium the 'ghats' as they are called in Hindi are the place where people congregate to wash, to meet and to perform religious ceremonies. These Hindu ceremonies always involve a combination of fire and water and the most memorable for me was the funeral. First the body is taken, swaddled in orange cloth, through the lanes of the old city, usually by leprosy sufferers, to the waters edge where they are bathed in the  holy waters of the Ganges before being placed on a large pyre of burning logs. The body slowly burns to the bone before being placed on a small raft the size and shape of a stretcher and allowed to float towards the sea.

Colourfull India
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It was sobering experience for us to watch this take place and I will never forget the sight of the body blackened and stripped to the bone stiffly protruding from the large, intensely hot fire. For us as westerners it would be unthinkable to have our family or friends so publicly and (for us) gruesomely 'put to rest' but, things are different here in India and it was an experience that I am glad to have had though it was not something I enjoyed at the time.

Varanasi was an example of India's seemingly contradictory treatment of their holy mother the Ganges river. On the one hand it is revered as a cleanser of sins, and a giver of life as the main source of water but on the other sewers run directly and untreated into the river and twice a day people come to throw their rubbish (mostly plastic) into its waters. It is hard for me to understand how a holy place is treated with simultaneous love and disrespect. I didn't ask anyone this specific question so I can only speculate that the people are unaware of the environmental problems caused by rubbish and sewage or believe that their holy mother will be able to deal with anything as a powerful spiritual force. Perhaps though it is just a simple case of practicality as rubbish collection and sewage treatment outside of the main centres is non-existent in India so there isn't much choice. "When in doubt, chuck it in the Ganges" would seem to be the motto in Varanasi.

Refuse centre
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An overnight train would take us to Kolkata for our final days in India, a month had seemed so long but was already over.