Varanassi or
Trip Start
Aug 28, 2006
1
10
13
Trip End
Oct 24, 2006
Varanassi, India
Tuesday, September 19, 2006
Varanassi was very dirty and it was difficult to understand why people were so comfortable with it till we read Osho: "This life is like a waiting room at the station. Who bothers about the waiting room? Your train will be coming and then you will be gone. So make it as dirty as you can! Who bothers? You are here only for a few minutes or a few hours so do all the nasty things that you can!"
An alternative explanation that we have been toying with is that now that the caste system has been done away with (theoretically), the "cleaning" classes have been liberated to do more interesting things but the previously advantaged are still not cleaning things up - it seems a gap may have been created!! Rant over...
There are many amazing sites in Varanassi from the innumerable "Ghats" (gates) on the Ganges (most memorable being the Crematorium ghat where locals are cremated in an unending stream), the temples that are always packed with visiting pilgrims all dying to catch a glimpse of places they have probably dreamt of their entire life. Security was quite tight after Mumbai terror attacks with lots of police at every site.
Of course everyone comes to wash in the Ganges which has tremendous spiritual significance for Hindus and the multitudes who perform rituals at the river each day are quite moving. We took the obligatory dawn boat trip on the Ganges and I must admit I felt a bit like a voyeur watching so many people take a bath - for some of them it's a daily ritual!! Of course no foreigners dared go in as they would definitely get sick.
Our only refuge was the German bakery, there are at least 4 of them in each town we have visited so far, but this one was actually run by a German!! The excellent staff at this establishment made us feel so at home we were tempted to move in because even our guest house, right at one of the ghats, had the unmistakable Varanassi stench.
