Delhi, Varanasi and Mumbai, 15.11.03
Hello Everybody
Well, well, well, after some nice and rather cold days in Delhi I took an overnight train to Varanasi... one of the most sacred places for Hindus, with its holy river the Ganges. It was a very exiting experience, and due to the fact, that I was already used to the indian dirt and its sometimes extreme religious culture, I enjoyed it very much. But the things you see there are more than just breathtaking...
Let me explain: The River Ganges, or Mother Ganga as the indians call it, is probably one of the most polluted rivers in India, never the less, it is holy, and a bath in it is considered to wash away all your sins, and the water itsself is also sacred, so it is quite usual to drink it or to brush the teeth with it or to wash your clothes in it. And only some hundred meters stream upwards, there is one of this burning Ghats where they cremate the dead bodies, and put the remains into the river (the remains are not only ashes, but for a cremated men the part of the chest and for women the part of the hips). For the fishes to eat, so that the fishes would than pray to an apropriate god and thank him for the food and this would lead to the direct transport of the cremated's soul to nirvana , without beeing reincarnated and without the suffering of another life on earth, or at least to the mercy to be reincarnated as a human beeing instead of a dog (dogs have a very miserable life in india).
But it wouldnt be india, if even this last ceremony for a human beeing would not be big business... it needs 360 kg of wood to cremate a body, one kilogram costs about 150 Rupees, so the costs for the wood are about 50000 Rupees (equivalent to a new motorbike or a second hand car, the minimum wage in india is about 150 Rupees a day), and then they also have to buy the holy fire, which glimmers in a special fireplace just above the Ghat, and it was burning there for several hundred years (so they told me). Well, at least this holy fire have no fixed price, they are just supposed to pay as much as they can afford.
Well, if the dead person was a holy men, or a child under a certain age or some other exception, there is no need to cremate the body, because this body is still considered pure, so what they do is just wrapping it in some cloth and fix it to the bug of a rowing boat and row to the middle of the river and dump it...
Well, they dump everything in it, almost all the wastewater of the city, and most of the rubbish...
And in this water, people are bathing, drinking it and washing clothes. So this shows how strong the religious believes are in this place, cause it is just against common sense to do so.....
And as the cream on the top, you have from time to time some skinned cow's carcasses floating down the stream, but they want do any harm, cause they are themself holy animals....
But the nice thing about Varanasi is, that people are very open minded and friendly, and they try to explain you every ritual performed in the river or on the Ghats, they even propose you to take photos of a cremation (which I kindkly refused) you just have to buy some kilos of wood for the poorer people who obviously cant afford it, to get the permission....
Even if the city is considered holy, this doesnt mean that it would be clean, those narrow lanes of the bazaar are littered with rubbish and cowshit, and if someone down at the river feels some need, he just does his business against the wall on the riverside...
This place was just beyond my understanding
But it was worth a visit, probably one of the most impressive and fascinating places in India, but you are losing a bit your appetite to eat, which doesnt matter, cause the food was the worst I had so far in india.
After Varanasi I spent some more days in the best guesthouse in Delhi, Hotel Chill (Hyneks Flat), before I left for Mumbay (Bombay) where I am now, and it is probably the best place to get aclimatised for back home in Switzerland, It looks really like a western city (at least Colaba, where I stay at the moment), and also the prices are rather european than indian.
So, this will be the last of my newsletters, I hope to seeing some of you soon back home in Switzerland
Martin