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Ganga Worshippers playin
The river worship ceremony takes place every night on the Dashashwamedh ghat.
Sion and Niki Anyone who read my (Sion's) year 12 creative writing piece of the same name will already have some idea of what Varanasi is like. Another of India's many holy cities, it is situated on the River Ganges or 'Mother Ganga' as the locals call her, and is composed of a maze of tiny alleyways, backstreets and the world-famous ghats or steps that lead down to the waters edge. The most infamous is Manikarnika, the burning ghat where the deceased are wrapped in robes, dippped in the Ganges then cremated on funeral pyres in full view of a crowd of family members, the handler and preparers of the body and many fascinated/horrified tourists. It is believed that dying in Varanasi offers the soul moshka - liberation from the cycle of life and death and is a highly sought after, there are numerous 'hotels' lining the ghat where the elderly wait to die. It is also a very costly departure and the firewood is carefully weighed and priced.
The rich cultural and religious practices and traditions that are still steeped in everday life here make Varanasi one of the most fascinating places I've been to in India. There are river worship
Crowds on the ghats
Locals gather to watch the ceremony. ceremonies every sunset on the Ganges, processions of dancing worshippers parade through the streets and sadhus flock to visit this holy city. Its in incredible to be able to experience the lively and complex Hindu culture first hand. We found a hotel right on Dashashwamedh ghat (the main ghat) so we only had to walk out our front door to be assailed by these amazing sights, sounds and smells...some not so pleasant. Floating dead cows, babies, and limbs are not uncommon sights in Varanasi, but the locals don't seems to be preturbed by the rust-coloured water and dead bodies. Twenty metres from the burning ghat you will see kids swimming and playing in the river. Their blind optimism seems to give them immunity from disease and the stench of the Ganges doesn't make its water any less holy in the eyes of Hindus.
After a whirlwind three day visit (which Niki spent mostly in bed from a shocking stomach bug) we left Varansi for Haridwar. To our astonishment we headed down to the main bazaar to find that the throngs of pilgrims, tourists, beggars and locals had vanished and the streets were completely empty, not a rickshaw to be
heard, only the cows were left. We found out that the Utter Pradesh state election meant a complete roadblock in all of Varanasi. It was very strange to see a city over a million come to a complete halt, and while its nice not to get harassed by rickshaw-wallahs when walking down the street, it was definitely very eery, silence is unheard of in India.
The road blockage aso meant we couldn't get a rickshaw out of town untill 6pm, when we headed to Varanasi junction and booked into a retiring room to await our 2am train, for the start of what would be a very, very long night. Our 2am train turned into a 6am train, which was meant to arrive in Haridwar at 4pm, but got there at 11.30pm! As you can imagine it was a bit of a nightmare, but we got through it without losing it and we finally made it to the mountains (well the foothills...almost) Anyway, we'll let you know when we finaly get around to writing our other blog, which is very overdue, sorry, we've been recovering from our horror train and India's blessed stomach bugs.
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