Life on the river

An early morning boat ride is definitely the way to get a taste of what living on the edge of the Ganges river means in Varanasi. A bit like sanctioned voyeurism, it is one of the main activities that is recommended in the city for tourists. I must admit I enjoyed the morning trip more than the evening boat ride, in part because the riverside seemed a bit calmer as everyone was going about their usual morning activities. Families and individuals wading into the water at one of the many ghats to become ritually clean (despite the fact that the water is anything but). Wooden boats floating in the water waiting for tourists to schedule a ride. Washer men out scrubbing sheets and laying them to dry on the concrete steps, creating a patchwork of colors. Some sadhus (holy men) sitting down by the edge for a morning meditation. Pot washers and net menders getting to work. The men at the cremation grounds waiting for the first demand for their services and wood. Just a town getting down to daily life despite the enormous number of people who pass through each year.

River obstacles

Our wooden row boat bumps into something with a loud thump. I look over the side and see a bamboo structure floating in the water, a section still solid with mud resembles several arms outreached. A bit of cloth is wrapped around the base. This is what remains of a statue of Durga that got dropped into the river yesterday. It was hard not to notice the groups of devotees that came clapping and chanting their way down the steps of a ghat yesterday evening as we sat to watch the aarti. A group seemed to descend every 5-10 minutes, sometimes one right after another, carrying one to four statues painted up and dressed in finery. The statues started as small as your arm and extended to one and a half the height of the men trying to navigate their way down the steps without endangering their holy cargo. At the bottom they loaded the statue into a boat and set off onto the Ganges river to continue their ceremony for several hours before placing the statue in the Ganges and allowing it to float away. Turns out my visit to Varanasi coincided with the Durga puja.