Pure

Sorry for the delay in writing. I have been in Varanasi, a very holy place, the city of Lord Shiva, but a crappy place for electricity and internet! The city has rolling blackouts every day but you never know when or how long they will last. Even though my hostel had generators, they only power a few things with them. As you can imagine, routers and modems aren't on that list.

So this post may be long, but I want to catch you up since leaving Agra last Saturday evening, September 12th. I had passage on a night train reserved (remember the ridiculously expensive ticket??) which meant I was to sit on the platform in the dark at the Tundla Junction Station waiting for the train that was surely to be late. I sat reading The Poisonwood Bible, trying to seem sublimely unaware of the people staring at me, the only non-Indian on the platform, in a town the size of a peanut compared to Delhi, when a man walked up and leaned right over my book to see the script on my page. Oh shit, my paranoid-female alone-traveling mind shouted...he wants to make sure I'm an English reading American before he throws me in front of the next train....I smiled and asked him if he'd like to have my book. (Sorry Aimee, I know it is yours) He smiled a big, huge smile with his eyes and mouth, and said no thanks.

I reflected on my intention not to always be on guard while here. It is tiresome, and most importantly, it creates missed opportunities for interaction. People are curious about me, just as much as I am about them, and besides, the constant stares and pointing fingers in these smaller towns makes me feel like a movie-star, even though I look more like the paparazzi!
So anyway, I was shocked when a man walked up and said Hello. In a blink I saw the light skin, light eyes, backpack, and the same caution that I see in other non-Indian eyes here. I felt like standing up and hugging him, an American, at the train station in the dark, in tiny Tundla India! Colin had been in Japan for 3 years teaching English and had decided to stop for a bit in India before returning to the states. He & I crossed paths at the perfect time: after I learned what I CAN do on my own. We became traveling companions as we ventured onward to fascinating Varanasi.

Varanasi is an incredibly travelled to place by Indians. It is here, on the riverbank ghats (steps) of Mother Ganga (pronounced more like Gaun-ga, no hard G's), that Hindu's come to be purified by the water, pay respect to their ancestors, place the ashes of their loved ones, and obtain moksha, release from the cycle of rebirth. The main road stops well above the water, and an entire city is there, accessible only by foot, sometimes bike, within the weaving corridors called galis. We arrived early, when the sky was still holding onto its last moments of night. Weaving through the maze of galis was peaceful and quiet. There were no cars and very few people. When let into the courtyard of our hostel I went immediately to the balcony to catch site of her, the crossroads of the physical and spiritual worlds, the tears of Shiva, the Ganga:

We secured a boat to get closer to her. It took only a few moments of watching the people around me to understand the passion with which Hindu's revere this Goddess River. I had never seen water so visibly degraded and full of discarded items, including a huge decomposing cow within 30 feet of bathers. I had also never seen dedication to, attachment to, and belief in, as well as love for, a river, like people feel for this river. Legend says Ganga was ordered to earth by Brahma to cleanse the souls of the son's of a King who needed to go to heaven. Ganga didn't want to and decided to fall heavily on the earth, i.e flood it, but Shiva slowed her down causing the water to fall as streams. When she returned to the nether-world she left behind the river to purify the souls of the unclean. Ironically, Shiva is the destroyer, Brahma is the creator.
Remember that Hindu's feel about their Gods, mainly Shiva and Vishnu are worshipped, exactly the same way you feel about yours and great faith is put into the purifying powers of the Ganga.

Now here is what I want you to think about: (I write the following with great respect and only to help you understand what I saw and read)-
The water is brown, in many places with the bubbly-film build-up you see when E. coli is present. I read there are 30 large sewers discharging into the water right here, and the water is septic. There is no dissolved oxygen, and samples show the water to contain 1.5 million fecal coliform bacteria (from poop) per 100ml of water. In the US, our standard for considering water to be polluted is 1000 coliform bacteria per 100ml of water. Ok.
Everyone I asked in Varanasi about the Ganga told me how pure the water is. They told me they bathe every single day in the river, brush their teeth, wash their clothes, collect cooking water, and swim (which is the least of their worries considering...) No one I asked said they had EVER been sick from the water. Your body has natural flora and billions of bacteria running around in your guts. Their flora is adapted to this, but I wonder how many people make the connection between fatigue, malnourishment, and other indirect effects of one's body constantly battling critters that bombard it every day from the water?
Or could it be that the water is spiritually pure?

The collective prayer of thousands permeates the ghats with peace that you can feel and touch with your mind. I strongly respect and honor the moments I witnessed as I photographed them for you. I watched a family burn their deceased loved one on the banks of the Mother Ganga. I witnessed the intimacy of families bathing and praying. I made an offering in tribute to my ancestors and felt them all around me. I do not doubt the spiritual power of this river.


I have considered the dichotomy between the physical mess of the river and the spiritual love and connection people feel for it. If it is so loved and so revered, why isn't the connection made between keeping it clean and the health of the river? And why in Delhi & Agra do people say the Yamuna is so dirty but in Varanasi say the Ganga is so clean, when they are both so polluted? Religion and necessity must play large roles in India, same as in the US. Their religion doesn't allow them to make the leap- sound familiar?

Anyway, I love India and I'm having an amazing time. Thanks for reading.
Namaste