Varanasi is full of revered cows. They are everywhere, and where there are cows there is cow patties. Add all the dog patties and human patties then you have a big patty problem. It only takes one or two moments of inattention to the pavement in front of you for disaster to strike.
Despite all this stuff it is an amazing scene, a treat for all your senses.
We were warned about Varanasi in our guide book, about touts and various other unpleasantnesses. After Lucknow where we seemed to be the only foreign tourists, this place seems like a piece of cake. There is a good tourist infrastructure and it seems to be a pretty safe place to walk about. Our hotel is great and we are perched above a never ending drama being enacted on the banks of the holy ganges.
We must not forget that for a lot of India this holy place is where they come to die and a trip here to make an offering and wash yourself in the horribly polluted Ganges is a high light in their lives. bd
Well personally, I don't know how to start...Varanasi is a show stopper... a mind boggling, eyepopping, sensory exploding experience that leaves you wondering about the future of the world and your place in it.
Varanasi is the longest continuously inhabited city in India and is one of Hinduism's seven most holy cities. It must be one of the best places in the world for people watching. Rituals of life and death take place continuously and in public.
A ghat is the name given to series of steps leading to the holy Ganges. It is here that pilgrims arrive to bath away their sins, offer puja (respect, prayers, offering), sip some of the holy water and take some home in a plastic decanter, meditate, wash clothes, do yoga, get or give a massage, sell flowers or religious paraphenalia, play cricket, wash and brush a cow or just sit around sipping tea.
Throw into the mix numerous sadhus or holy men with begging bowls, snake charmers, the touts and con artists, and the beggars....hundreds of beggars.. enough to make you cry...the sick, the old , the disabled, lepers without digits, amputees, children and mothers with newborns.
Some Hindus come here to die believing that they will achieve moksha or liberation from the cylcle of reincarnation. Families bring their dead here for cremation. This takes place at the burning ghats with strict rituals. It is a sobering site and a nonstop process.
Yes...then there are the sacred cows, the dogs and the monkeys and if you are like me, you end up feeling like a tiny speck in the universe and thinking there is no place like home and I am so fortunate to have been born in Canada.
We have been staying in the old part of the city, where most tourists stay and it feels old..a maze of disorienting alleys where you never know what you are going to run into. This morning we were sipping our lassis when a funeral procession went by, the body, swathed and draped with bright cloth, carried on a bamboo stretcher by outcasts called doms,down the alleyway to one of the burning ghats.
Why come here? If I suspend judgement, it is endlessly fascinating, sometimes magical and always mystical. Seldom have we seem so much devotion, so entertwined in daily life and religious belief. Tourists like us wander the streets watching, listening, and smelling life here. The colours of the saris, the repetitive beat of Indian music, mounds of marigold wreaths, the sweet overwhelming smell of incense, the smoke from the burning ghats hanging in the air....time to get my karma in order?
ys
Those were our impressions in 2014 just after entering India for the first time. Things are a little different now. First of all it is spring summer season . It is bright and sunny and hot.When we were here last it was cold foggy and drizzly.Sadhus were around on our last trip but now there seems to be hundreds of them. A part of the old town has been demolished and they are building some monster visitor centre. It seems the town is a little cleaner but that might be due to the weather. Seems there is a very big police presence compared to the last visit. Political turmoil comes in waves and usually involves religious extremism and violence. Here in India the police forces don't pretend to be your friend. Being outnumbered a zillion to one, they try very hard to intimidate and instill fear in the masses.
Once again we are ensconced in our lovely guesthouse perched on the banks of the Ganges. We have an amazing view from our rooftop restaurant. I plan to chill out for a while before our return to Lucknow and I suspect difficult trip to the border and back to Nepal. For some reason we have yet to take a picture. Some will follow later.
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