An Overwhelming of the Senses

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Wednesday 3-2 to Friday 3-4

Ugh. BUT, on to Varanasi! After nearly 24 hours of traveling on 6 different means of transportation , we finally arrived in the city if Shiva, also known as Baranas and one of the world’s oldest inhabited cities. Also inhabited by many bugs and tiny mice which I later learned shared my bed. UGH!!! Aside from literally being the filthiest city I’ve ever been to, Varanasi was a cool experience. We got a hotel overlooking the Ganges and had a fun time motoring around the city in an auto rickshaw (enclosed motorcycle taxi), going form temple to temple. Sadly, they won’t allow any photographs inside the temples, so it was a quick sightseeing tour. It’s funny how every city in Nepal and India that we’ve been to so far has its own version of a monkey temple. We couldn’t figure out what the actual name of the temple was that we went to in Varanasi, as everyone just referred to it as the monkey temple. We also couldn’t figure out if it received such a name from the numerous monkeys hanging around or if the temple actually does revere the monkey. Sort of a chicken and egg thing, if you will.

We took two separate boat rides down the holy Ganges River: one at sunset and one at sunrise. At sunset, we were able to catch the daily ganga aarti ceremony at the Dasaswamedh Ghat. We likened it to a daily mass – giving praise each day for the Ganges. We figured mass could take a few pointers from Hinduism, however; just to liven things up a bit. In addition to incense and group singing, there were lots of bells and drums, with multiple fire displays! It was quite a mass of people gathered: Indians along crowded along the riverbank to attend the ceremony and boat loads of tourists floating in the river to watch the spectacle. [Nick Note: Seeing it once was interesting but it seemed too much like mass in that it is unchanging. There was a competing ceremony happening at the next ghat (we asked our guide why and learned that it was two competing brothers but could not understand why they were competing) and it had exactly the same actions in exactly the same order. Kindda like watching the same channel on two TVs, one of which had a slight delay. I had to sit through mass too many times for my taste (and my parents didn’t even attend that often) and I hated going to mass when I was little as it rarely changed and I was always waiting for the moment when we give each other blessings so that I would be allowed to run over to my grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins.] Afterwards, we got out and walked around the old city a bit – quite a maze of streets and tons of people everywhere. India is definitely a “trip” with the massive amounts of people here! (Later, in Delhi, I noticed poster advertisements re: human population pressures and diminishing resources. I wonder of that is actually a daily concern for people here, if there really is an attempt at smaller family sizes, or if it’s just wishful thinking on the part of conservation groups.)

The sunrise boat ride was a different experience altogether. In the morning, we witnessed the daily ritual bathing in the Ganges and a few cremations taking place. The Ganges is quite the body of water. It’s a holy river, where people come to worship, mourn the dead, make blessings for good luck (which we did by lighting some candles afloat in the river), cleanse themselves and their livestock, even wash their laundry. But at the same time, it’s where 7 open sewer systems are directly dumped, where people and livestock go to the bathroom, where human ashes are laid to rest (which is pretty cool – funerals are paid for by their weight in wood. Nicer hardwoods are more expensive, but it’s a science as to exactly how much wood is needed to completely burn a human body; so you don’t ever want to skimp out on paying for the right amount of wood!), and where road kill makes its final resting place. We actually saw a floating dead cow in the river – that I was not expecting to see. Supposedly, there have been attempts in the past to clean up the holy river and make it safer, healthier for the Hindus who use it so much, but apparently government corruption has always blocked such projects. So we avoided actually touching the Ganges at all costs but it was amazing to see just how much this river is used and relied upon. On a side note, we did get to see a film crew filming a bollywood movie at Assi Ghat in the morning. Lots of people were standing around to get a glimpse of the stars. We have no idea who the actors are, of course, but the moment one of them came out onto the scene (surrounded by numerous body guards) the onlookers erupted in cheers. Everyone clamored over to see and touch him; it was an interesting spectacle.

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