Varanasi, India

The night after my visit to the Taj Mahal, we traveled on an overnight train to Varanasi (my favorite city in India, so far). The train was sketchy at the very least. The windows did not have glass, but they had metal bars. There were eight people in each section and the beds folded down from the walls. The train smelled pretty bad and there were people everywhere. Luckily, I was very tired and slept during most of the ride. We boarded the train around 9pm and did not arrive until noon the next day. The train was late by several hours. The next morning, we were offered breakfast from a salesman that didn’t have any shoes on. I did not have breakfast this day. I also did not use the restroom on the train because it was more than disgusting. Two of my friends that traveled with me did not sleep at all while we were on the train. This was not the most enjoyable experience of my visit to India, but I am glad that I had it. It makes me appreciate other forms of transportation more.

My visit to Varanasi was worth the terrible train ride. Varanasi is amazing. It is a perfect picture of India. We had the first day for free time. We went to a mall and watched a Bollywood film, which was in Hindi, so we could not understand it. It was funny, though, to be in the audience and see how Indian people responded to movies. They were very into the movie and even talked during it. It was interesting to see. We left at intermission, which was over an hour into the movie. Bollywood films are an average of 3 or more hours.

That night, we went toward the Ganges to see the ceremony in which the river is put to rest for the day. We never made it. We were walking down a road with tons of vendors on each side. We were also told that there was a festival going on that day (apparently, India has festivals almost every day). They celebrate the holy days of all major religions, so they have many festivals and holy days. Anyway, on the way there, we met this man that was quite nice. He took us on what he called a “short cut”. It wasn’t a big deal because there were many people in the streets we were walking down until we got to one alleyway that was sparsely populated. My friends were like, let’s go this way ok… I started walking with them until I turned around and noticed a man that had been kind of following us and he was on his cell phone. As soon as he saw me see him, he shot out of the alley. Then, I told my friends that I had seen some of our friends that we were trying to meet. They had no idea what I was talking about and it took a bit of odd persuasion to get them to realize that I didn’t want to go down there. We walked back the way we came and found some people that looked like they spoke English so that we could lose the guy that had been leading us. We ended up talking to some eastern Europeans who thought we were nuts, but helped us out. About five minutes after we got to the main street, all of the lights turned off. This happens every night in this area of India. Everyone was used to it and expected it. We still have no idea what would have happened if we had gone with the guy down that alley. We stopped at this nice lady’s stand and bought some necklaces and things. She had one of the few stands with a generator for supplementary electricity. She gave each of us bracelets for good luck. I have not taken mine off since. I don’t really believe in luck, but I like that the bracelet was tied on by a woman in India.

The next morning, we got up very early and went for a boat ride on the Ganges at sunrise. It was amazing. This was the most poignant picture of India. The sun was very bright and the river was busy with people bathing on the sides and boats rowing up and down the river. I expected the river to smell badly, but it did not. It was very dirty and you could not see through it at all. The Ganges River, however, is one of the most sacred places for Hindus. There were gats on the side of the river, which are places that people pray to various Hindu deities. People were on the bank washing clothes. The river was alive.

Some children sold us flowers with candles placed in them to light and send up the river. They told us to wish or pray for someone and place the candle in the river. I did this and made a silent prayer for my family, friends, and this journey.

We also saw the section of the river where people go to burn the dead. They have a particular ritual for completing the cremation. First, they take the body into the river, open its mouth and fill it with water. They submerge the body in the river. Then, they let it lay on the bank for a few hours to dry. After this, they cremate the body on a wooden platform and spread the ashes in the river. There are variations to this depending on the financial stability of the family. An interesting thing about funerals here, though, is that nobody can be sad at them. The sadness is thought to follow the loved one into the next life. Therefore, families cannot mourn their loved ones at their funerals.

Varanasi was quite an awesome place and taught me a lot about Indian culture. It was amazing to me because I have seen documentaries and pictures of the river and the city, but to actually be there was incredible. I felt like I was in the Channel One documentary, which is where i saw Varanasi for the first time.