Varanasi

In Varanasi 

Afternoon walk in the area of the hotel folowed by the evening out on the tiver on a boat for the sunset ritual in honour of Mother Ganga ( the Ganges river and also symbolic in this case of our forebears). The ritual involves floating little bowls containing a candle and flowers on the river.

The Alka hotel is on Meer Ghat - a Ghat is a landing place or jetty. This part of Varanasi is on a very steep hillside that has hundreds of buildings clinging onto their prime location for all things spiritual and all things tourist. Around us here I have seen dozens of guest houses, yoga studios as well as mysterious places that emanate the smell of incense and the sound of sanskrit-chanting seekers. The smell of incense is welcome because this city, unlike Delhi, is living up to the stereotype that Indian cities smell really bad. 

Varanasi dates back to 1500 BCE and has been continuously inhabited since then and has been a sacred site for much of that time. Hindus believe that, if you are born here then this will be your last incarnation and you will go straight to heaven. If you die here then, too, your path to heaven is direct and you will no longer incarnate. Visiting here and bathing in Mother Ganga erases all bad Karma. So this place is pretty special.

And filthy.

But special.

We are on the steep hillside leading down to the ghats or jetties where boats tie up, people bathe, cows walk around, people are cremated and people do rituals in the river. Access to the hotel is through a maze of winding, narrow alleys, sometimes as narrow as a meter. In these alleys pedestrians must compete with large groups of pilgrims, cows, motorcycles and bicycles for space. Lining the sides are thousands of small shops selling everything a pilgrim, resident or tourist could wish for, from expensive Banari silks to soap. Open urinals and food stalls sit happily side by side. This is old and this is India.

When we arrived, we were dropped off at the closest point that a car can get into the old city. We were met by porters from the hotel who took some of the luggage and led us into the maze. Later we went out with a guide to be shown around the area. Hectic!

The ghats are a total culture shock. There are huge cows and bulls all over the place, goats eating left-over flowers from rituals, dogs scavenging for anything and all of the above are pooping everywhere. Added to that all vertical surfaces are used as urinals by the working, holy and spiritual people who frequent the ghats. Some local people have come up with clever ideas to stop the habit: they have painted images of the various Hindu gods on the walls. Those walls are pee-free. Other people are planting shrubs at the base of the walls and providing sand-pit urinals for the people. I have no idea where the ladies do theirs.

I chatted with a Baba or holy man but all he wanted to talk about was Mandela. I was thinking I'd find the answer here and all I get is Madiba Magic. Many of the bearded and bedraggled holy men seem to spend much of their time begging. I'm cynical. I'll meet a few more and see what's up.

Meanwhile, in Hindu schools all over the city adherents rise in the very early hours of the morning and start chanting the vedas. This practice goes on into the night. Day after day. Perhaps these are the truly spiritual people of the ghats?

Death is very close here. The smoke from the burning ghats hangs over the whole area while the plumes from the fires draw thick lines through the haze. While we were out walking, we had to get out of the way several times as bodies were carried past by chanting teams of men, walking very fast towards the river. The bodies are covered in white cloth and then adorned with brightly coloured, shiny cloth. They are carried on simple bamboo stretchers. When the cremation takes place, the stretcher and bright adornments are taken off. We also saw the piles of wood on their way down, all pre-packed in various sizes from kindling to big logs. 

At Varanasi, they cremate 250 to 300 people a day. A body takes around 3 hours to burn, leaving only the big bones.

Making dosa - our favourite street food and there was a chai store right next door.

Varanasi alley

Sweet shop with the best traditional sweets

Beggar lady with limp baby

Then there was a visit to a Vishnu temple. I received my first blessing from a temple priest - 'Om Vishnu namaha'.

This is a Durga (mother goddess) temple where I got Jenny's black string blessed. Mera suggested this to be the best place for such a blessing based, I guess, on Durga's role as a protector against the evils of the world. The bells were painfully loud and the colour scheme quite something.

After that we went for lunch at Burger King,  India style.  Even Meera was impressed by the excellent Indian vegetarian food. Awesome.  I don't think it has anything at all to do with Burger King as we know it. They have ancient Egypt-themed interior. Very strange.

Yoga in Varanasi

Abrie, Monica and I went to yoga this morning,close to the hotel down a warren of alleys that had me wondering how I would reverse out of it. We took an intermediate class based on the fact that we 'do' yoga at home. Bad Decision. This teacher is tough and really, really good in her own ability to do the poses. Poses we thought we could do punished us badly as she held them longer or did variations and repeats. Much sweat and burning later we booked for the next day's beginner class. A yoga class is a must in Varanasi and there are plenty of places offering yoga.