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Wow! What a couple of days Iv had in Varanasi.
Yesterday I had a lazy day. Lounging around the hostel, chatting to different people, concocting a plan for the evening and generally taking a bit of time to soak in the surroundings. The evening however was amazing.
Myself and Callum sought the Lotus Restaurant, as we approached a few voices from darkened alleyways murmured "no Lotus - closed". We wrongfully ignored them and were met by a building site and a few dust covered workers. Determined to find a rooftop terrace with a view of the Ganges we walked the ghats passing the evening ceremony and other religious spectacles along the way. We passed a Sadhu deep in meditation, body covered in various patterns and symbols. Mysterious eyes painted on his eyelids gave quite a discernible appearance. We took a couple of sly pics! Next up was a guy sprawled on the unforgiving floor of one of the ghats side by side with a cow, taking a casually nap together, protected by a fortress of cow s***! Varanasi pushes the boundaries of the conventional at every opportunity.
We climbed a ridiculous amount of steps to the rooftop of Dolphin Restaurant and tucked into a delicious curry...of course! I think this was the first meal to cost more than £1 for 3 days. Varanasi is so so cheap!
Afterwards we catered for our peculiar fascination with dead people at the cremation grounds of the quieter burning ghat. I appreciate how mad that is. We watched as gatherings of people bought their deceased loved ones to be cremated. Unusually a woman accompanied her father and her sobs could be heard for hundreds of metres. The men around seemed agitated and soon whisked her away, leaving only the male relatives who show no sign of emotion.
There was a strange juxtaposition, a clash of historical practices and new age technology as a body lay burning. A family member dressed in traditional robed attire crouched close by blessing the body with hands full of water whilst two other relatives stood near, one texting and the other taking a call. In the background to compound the madness was a feral dog gnawing down on what looked like a leg bone, frantically tearing the flesh. Completely vulgar but watched casually by all around.
We took time to speak to locals about the processes and meanings of each stage. Why the body is dipped in the Ganges first, the pouring of water over the head amongst other interesting processes.
On our route home we passed a small roadside temple, seeing us gawping they called us in. Kids swarmed around us, some keen to talk but most shy. The elderly guy sat us down and embellished us with a traditional Bindi, said to retain energy and strengthen concentration. He told us briefly about his beliefs, the statue that sat above us and about his family. It was a beautiful impromptu pit stop and a fitting end to an intriguing evening. I am starting to get a clearer understanding of the arduous processes these religious people go through. I probably shouldn't however of drank the holy water given to me, realising after it was most likely from the Ganges. Bad move!
I am only now starting to differentiate between the scamming imitators from the genuine religious lifestyles. The two are easily confused upon first encounters but you learn that quite often the scammers mimic these holy men and their rituals and try and charge you for the privilege of the encounters. In fact the real holy men are far more illusive, more enveloped in their religion and would not be seen asking a tourist for a donation for a picture.
We chatted lots of our experiences on the evening and eventually slept rather late!
After a difficult nights sleep I dragged myself out of bed the next day just in time for breakfast. Eggs and toast as per usual but nice enough! Maybe I will be more adventurous tomorrow.
Callum and I set off aimlessly down the busy, filthy roads. Grabbing a plug adapter and a drink, both much needed. We failed miserably at navigating the narrow streets and found ourself strolling the steps of the ghats again. We fancied a Lassi, a yoghurt based food laced with fruits of your choice. It was behind the main burning ghat so we once again took a little time once there to wonder around. It sounds intrusive and vulgar but you have to spend time there to get a better understanding of the processes, the emotions, the reasoning and the beliefs.
I have a slight infatuation with a small sect of Hindu's called The Aghori. Having watched many documentaries and reading many articles about these marginalised people I am kind of determined to find one, and if not to find one at least seek some knowledge. In brief; they are known to recover decomposing bodies from the river, eat the raw flesh, their own faeces, drink their own piss from a human skull amongst many other socially unacceptable practices. The general idea is to prove they are the ultimate being and of such high power nothing can phase them, they show they can overcome any social faux-pax and gain a higher state of both physical and emotional consciousness. They go through various stages, 41 days of meditation without speaking being one, but there are many. They are known to be intoxicated heavily with alcohol and drugs most if not all of the time resulting in all sorts of sporadic behaviour.
Iv learnt that whilst The Aghori were active in Varanasi 4+ years ago, due to journalists, fear of criminal conviction and harassment from tourists they are now notoriously difficult to find, and rarely frequent Varanasi. Gutted, not literally!
Nevertheless we did find one rather intriguing guy, residing in a darkened room overlooking the burning ghat, sat at a fire pit with an evil looking trishula (a red pitchfork) with two human skulls, an adult and a child's. Extremely eerie. He swiped some burning ash across our forehead and I pondered if it was ash from the cremation grounds. Quite possibly.
We were unfortunately surrounded by scammers and touts desperate to tell us what ever we wanted to hear, for a price of course! We soon retreated to the famous 'Blue Lassi'. Apple my chosen flavour which was delicious, the stomach didn't quite agree with all that dairy though, but it was nice whilst it lasted!
On the evening we were joined by an incredibly quiet Taiwanese guy who didn't speak great English but seemed pleasant enough and Maria from the hostel and we all went for a sunset boat ride. It was quaint and relaxing, a far cry from the hustle and bustle of the streets only 100 metres away. We docked on the opposite side of the river on a sandy bank. We chatted with some friendly pilgrims, a nice group of mainly women and had photos. Another humbling experience difficult to put into words but another great moment in a magical setting. We took a ride along most of the main ghats and tried to get some photos in difficult light as the sun dipped behind the symbolic buildings. We had great fun with VJ and the kind guy who rowed the boat, I don't envy his job at all. In my brief attempt I proceeded to spin us round in a circle, very slowly and extremely clumsily!
Afterwards, three of us went for dinner at Kerala Cafe. Ludicrously cheap and tasty it's difficult not to think of this place when the tummy rumbles.
I spent the late evening looking through and uploading some of the many photos from the past couple of days. The experiences have been mind blowing, challenging and incredibly interesting, I still seek more info about The Aghori's and would like to learn more about what drives Hindu's in general in to such extreme dedication which influences their everyday life so vigorously.
Like Udaipur I am loving my time here, but in a completely different way. Wether or not you believe in religion, or even detest it I do on the whole: the rituals, mantras, pilgrims, sacrifices and cremations are quite something to behold. It's actually 1:45am right now and I have booked a sunrise boat ride at 5:30am. Seemed like a good idea at the time. Oh well, sleepy day it is tomorrow then. It's a tough life!
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