Varanasi – where do I begin? Like a fungal infection, it
grows on you! It was one of the most
incredibly overwhelming, in your face and intense places I’ve ever had the
pleasure of visiting. I shouldn’t forget that it’s probably one of the most
disgusting places that invades all your senses at once and quite successfully
succeeded in placing me well outside of my comfort zone. Matt’s initial reaction on the other hand,
while still thinking the local streets were disgraceful, was not as shocked as
mine. On some level he expected all of India to be like Varanasi which luckily
isn’t the case.
Maybe this short description will help you imagine Varanasi and
understand what we felt on our first few days there. Rubbish, goats (many of
which are dressed up in clothes), cows, chickens, dogs and a variety of shit
line the street and all combine to create a putrid aroma. Matt’s most memorable
moment was walking home and stumbling across two particularly joyous dogs
feasting on a dead cat. When they realised their midnight snack had been
interrupted, they picked up the limp body by the neck and carried it around the
corner to continue their feast elsewhere. Matt was shattered we didn’t get a
photo and I’m so happy we travelled all this way for that to be his most
memorable moment!! The ‘sacred’ Ganges is the filthiest river contaminated by
all of the above, combined with sewage and dead bodies. The locals still
believe in the cleanliness of the river and utilise the water to regularly
bathe, wash clothes and drink. Our romantic boat ride on what we have dubbed as
‘shit creek’ was severely impaired by our sighting of a dead babies leg, ghastly
white and decaying floating only metres from us.
Despite this horrendous account, Varanasi has a lot to offer
in the way of experience and certainly opened my mind further to accept
different cultures. The public
cremations, although they sound disgusting are actually quite a beautiful thing
to witness and somehow opened my eyes to the spiritual side of Varanasi. We
learnt all about the ritual burnings from a local who explained the different
colours the corpses were wrapped in – gold for old men, white for young men and
red for females. The corpses are brought
down to the river by only the males while women are not permitted to attend
because apparently they lack the strength,
are weak of heart and their tears will make the souls unwilling to leave.
We found it most interesting that not all bodies are cremated but rather young
children, pregnant women, holy men, snake bite victims and lepers are all
pushed into the middle of the river to be devoured by the fish. The
justification for this is that these particular groups of people are thought to
have pure karma and don’t require cleansing from the burning ritual – it also
explains the manky leg we saw.
In the end Varanasi turned out to be an awesome stop, not
only for the dead bodies we saw burning but especially for it’s disgusting
nature which you get used to. It’s a place I’d recommend but not for the faint
hearted. Hope I haven’t put anyone off
because you can’t travel to India without seeing this amazing place. It
contrasts so highly with the other places we’ve seen so far, and that’s what
makes it amazing in its own right.
Ki xx
