City of Varanasi

To the east is the Ganga, glinting gold in the rising sun and wearing a necklace of rowboats. Here she is wide, slow, heavy from bearing the weight of all that we can no longer hold: the prayers and the wastes of the living, the ashes and souls of the dead.

Next come the ghats, a long series of stone steps baked warm in the sun. The ghats are for bathing in the sacred water, for washing clothes and drying them in the sun, for burning bodies cloaked in colored cloth and flowers, for nightly puja-prayer ceremonies, for selling things, and hanging out to rest and chat after the day's work. Above the ghats are rows of homes, guesthouses painted with pictures of the gods, and rooftop restaurants where I eat while watching the comings and goings: water buffalo immersed in the Ganga with smiles on their faces, moored boats, green parrots nesting, holes where rats live, chai stands, men pissing on walls, hawkers, kids playing cards, dogs barking or sleeping in the dirt...

Then comes a tangle of tiny streets, footpaths really, cobbled and covered with cow dung, scurrying mice, spit, trash, mud puddles and marigolds. They lead to homes and little shops, temples, cafes, street food stands, and fruit carts. They widen westward like tributaries and pour out into the big busy roads full of pedal-rickshaws like princess carriages, scooters, huuuge cows, honking cars, vendors maneuvering their carts through the dust, and shops of every kind.

This city is sacred. A place of hot sun and cool water. Beauty and ugliness. Life and death.

main road

After getting so used to seeing cows everywhere I'm remembering to really appreciate the novelty now that my return to the U.S. draws nearer. In Varanasi I've seen the biggest bulls I've ever seen in my life. Wayyyy bigger than the one in the picture. Like the size of 6 humans together!

pedal rickshaw one

pedal rickshaw two. fit for a princess

I hope I never get over the beauty of clotheslines

mailbox + shiva shrine

Durga Deva, powerful protectress

cup store

marigolds one

marigolds two

cow breakfast

construction

goodnight Shiva.