Varanasi - Another World

Well, if Mumbai is a city of contrasts then Varanasi is on the moon!

No famous buildings to speak of, and no nightlife for westerners, it is all about the atmosphere and the incredible spirituality of the Hindus for whom it is the most important place in the world.

Our introduction to the Varanasi cremation business was on the way in from the airport, where we passed a beaten up minivan with a body tied to the roof, trussed up with coloured cloth like a Christmas present and en route to one of the cremation ghats.

In the evening of our first day we visited an Aarti Ceremony on the banks of the Ganges, and never was the old saying “getting there is half the fun” more true.

We were in an auto rickshaw, the traffic too thick and the roads too narrow for a normal van. We were pummelled, deafened and alarmed in turn as we wove our way through narrow, filthy, congested alleyways on the way to the river.

Then the pummelling auto rickshaw began to look quite attractive when we were forced to walk the last half kilometre or so. More than once we were forced to all hold hands to form a chain to cross roads filled with people intent on our demise. The locals seem to walk through the thickest traffic on the narrowest streets with impunity, but it was a very long walk for we white people.

And the crowds! After the Aarti Ceremony some twenty thousand were expected to go to the temple, and the queue was already some kilometres long.

The ceremony itself was colourful and incredibly atmospheric, with seven stages set up on the ghat and large crowds sitting on the ground in front of them and also crammed into boats moored in the river.

Then of course we had a repeat dose of terrifying, kidney-bruising transport on the way back.

The next morning we were back down at the river by 7:00 to take in the early morning bathing, and the early morning cremations.

The ghats of Varanasi are amazingly picturesque, especially in the early morning light, and it was very peaceful as we were rowed some kilometres along the shore.

We disembarked and walked up through narrow streets, past cows and beggars and dogs, dodging carts loaded with firewood (360 kilos per cremation, we were told) that threatened to run out of control down the hill at any time.

A lot of this we took in rather slowly, as we spent a lot of time looking at the ground, dodging a plethora of different species and styles of faeces.

Back on the river, we saw numerous cremations taking place, not with any whaling or carry on, just small groups of people near the fires doing what their custom and religion dictated.

We were moved by the quiet devotion of the Hindus in relation to the activities on the bank of “Mother Ganga”. It’s every Hindu’s wish to die in Varanasi and be cremated and his ashes scattered in the Ganges, as this frees them from the cycle of death and rebirth (and, I suppose, the risk that in the next life they would come back as a mosquito or something).

Next stop Delhi.Read more