Varanasi in Retrospect

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A few comments on Varanasi in retrospect (don't believe Sue Perkins!)

This higgledy piggledy city built behind the Ganges river front which is made up of temples, burning ghats, bathing ghats & palaces.



No cars, and the nearer you get to the river, no motorbikes or scooters either. So you would think it would be quieter. Wrong. Befor sunrise each morning there is a cacaphony of noises from chanting, bells ringing, caged parrots squawking (near the Reedies room), doves cooing (outside my room) and monkeys fighting (never far off).



The streets are not just full of people; there are cows, goats, dogs, buffalo, the occassional cat (with longer legs than in the west). We watched a dog gnawing on a rat yesterday, the kids were fascinated & horrified. At night the dogs bark almost constantly, you hear the odd monkey fight, or bell being rung.



The warren of alleyways that make up this old city area was just becoming clearer to us as we left. A few alleys run in straight lines but most take random turns. It’s hard to tell which alley goes round a few 90° bends and ends at someones house, and which lead to a main alleyway. Sometimes you even go through tunnels lined with snake charmers and sadhu’s after a few rupees.



Even the flag-stones of these alleys are broken or sunken so that you avoid standing on them, for fear of falling in a sewer. Cow-pats and what looked like human-pats are peppered along any path so constant vigilance is needed on any walk.



Combine this with the fact that as you sit in a chai shop there is a constant stream of corpses going past to the burning ghats.



I like the anarchistic layout of the place, it shows that it has evolved over the last 4,000 years rather than being planned by some city planners. The Ghats are kept very clean, as are most alleys. Varanasi is at the heart of the almost incomprehensible religion of Hinduism which I feel you must be born into to really understand.



Overall a crazy, ritualistic part of India, not to be missed!

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Comments

[Alison Jarvis]

City Planning
Nowt wrong with it! (As long as it's done well). Your town-planning qualified sister xx

[Amy Friedman]

mystical to the max
Apparently you've ghat to see it to believe it....