Morning rituals

Part 2: Poverty’s woes, charred human toes, and slithering foes: Come one, come all, to the Varanasi circus.

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February 28th 2010
As I opened the glass panels of my window to watch the sun set that evening I was startled by a fat, wrinkly lizard sitting upside down on my screen. At first I was calmed by the fact that he was out and I was in, but then my eyes adjusted and I realized that both of us were in, and had he been able to hop off the screen he would have landed on the tile floor of my room. “Ohhkay, I’ll just c ... read more

Asia » India » Uttar Pradesh » Varanasi

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The Indus Valley civilization, one of the oldest in the world, dates back at least 5,000 years. Aryan tribes from the northwest invaded about 1500 B.C.; their merger with the earlier Dravidian inhabitants created the classical Indian culture. Arab in... ... read more