THE BOAT RIDE ON THE GANGES AT VARANASI

Thursday, August 31, 2006

Auli -> Rishikesh -> Corbett National Park -> Varanasi -> Agra

+Previous: First day at the ghats
+Next: At the ghats: bumping into a salesman!
+Go to beginning of the series

On my second day in the city, I woke up early to take the famed early morning boat ride on the Ganga. I walked down to Assi ghat at 5.30 in the morning. There were already many people next to the river. Scouting around a bit, I found a bunch of boatmen waiting for customers. After a short discussion with themselves about who should get me, one of them started a conversation with me. He started in Hindi, but he did not seem to be appealed by my broken Hindi and decided to speak broken English instead! Being my first boat ride here, I did not know much about the place but my guidebook had given me an idea of the prices.

At first, I said vaguely -

'I want to go till the other end and come back'
'That will take four hours. At Rs.150 per hour, it will be Rs.600,' he replied.

The numbers looked way too high. And I did not want a four-hour ride anyway.

'Not for four hours. Let's only make it two hours. One hour for going and one hour coming'
'Okay, I will take you up to Manikarnika ghat. That will be one hour from here. Rs.300 for two hours'

We haggled a bit. My guidebook suggested a price of Rs.60 per hour and he was way off that mark. Finally he agreed for Rs.150 for two hours and we got on to the boat.


During the early morning boat ride

It was just before dawn and the east was turning from dark to orange. There was some activity on the ghats but very few boats on the river. As we moved into the middle of the river, I noticed a kid with a small boat that was just big enough to fit him in. He rowed towards us and I watched him wondering what is he up to. He came close to us, nearly touching our boat and asked if I would like to buy 'deep'. I was mighty impressed with his entrepreneurship and dedication to work. Later while we were coming back, I saw a couple of bigger boat where they hooked on to tourist boats and sold small statues and other souvenirs.


A view of the ghats

Sunrise over the Ganges was beautiful. As the sun moved upwards, more and more people walked on the ghats to have a dip in the Ganges, pray to sun god and perform morning meditations. Groups of men and woman walked into the river, took the customary holy dip, murmured prayers and climbed back up. Yogis sat cross-legged with rudraksha mala. Men and women squatted with eyes closed and hands held together in prayer. The ghats were live with activity.


A hermit in prayer


women praying...

Ganga looked calm and still with little flow in this early summer. My boatman Naresh told me that she flows fast and furious in the monsoons and the water level rises much higher. Sadly, the industrial waste flowing in from Kanpur and other cities upstream ensured that the water was dark, polluted and repulsive. My dream of swimming for hours in the deep waters of the Ganga had to remain unfulfilled.


A woman praying...

After nearly two hours, we returned to Assi Ghat where I was staying. The two-hour boat ride was an excellent preview of Varanasi. I was introduced to the magical enchantment of the religious Varanasi and at the same time was subjected to the stark realities of depletion of the holy river.

Read more about Varanasi on paintedstork.com
* Images of Varanasi
* Travelling to Varanasi from Corbett
* Arriving at Varanasi
* Many perceptions of Varanasi
* First day at the ghats
* Boat ride on the Ganges
* An encounter on the ghats
* Photo Essay: Ganga Aarti
* Life on the ghats
* About Varanasi

JOURNAL ENTRY: FIRST DAY AT THE GHAT OF VARANASI

Sunday, August 27, 2006

Auli -> Rishikesh -> Corbett National Park -> Varanasi -> Agra

+Previous: Many perceptions of Varanasi
+Next: Boat ride on the Ganges
+Go to beginning of the series

I came out of my guesthouse that is pretty close to the river and the ghats. A girl tries to sell me deep - small flower bowl with a wick lamp to float on the river. I see an old woman going around a sacred ficus tree. The tree is colored yellow with turmeric all over the trunk and many small threads circles around the trunk. Making a pradakshina around the trunk of peepul tree, binding a thread around its trunk and smearing turmeric on its trunk is a practice that is followed by women all around India.


A woman goes around peepul tree

I move ahead towards Assi ghat and see several boatmen waiting for customers. A tourist is haggling to get a fair price while the boatman is aiming for the best price. There seems to be an equal mix of tourists and locals on the ghats. A baba chases away a dog that is trying to pull out some of his belongings, and a few seconds later feeds that same dog, unmindful of its deeds. A man is half immersed in the Ganga, praying to sun god. A tourist accompanied by a guide is looking for some bhang and is not able to find any. But I see him on the street next morning, completely doped and acting out of his mind. Several boatmen are asking the people walking on the ghats - "sir, do you want a boat?" There are many boats docked and many more engaged.


A view of the ghats

I move on and see a small animal kingdom ahead. Water buffalos are having whale of a time in the river. Something suddenly surfaces from the water and disappears before I have a good look at it. I presume it is the Gangetic Dolphin, and am glad they have still survived in the polluted water. There is a large population of bank mynahs making a ruckus like they always do. A few parakeets lookout from their holes on the wall. Monkeys squat high on ghats. They seem to prefer top of the buildings to trees.


Water buffalo and Mynahs


I meet a professional photographer on the way. We sit and chat for a while and decide to catch up over dinner. A couple of boatmen walk by and check if we want to go on a boat. A little further, children are playing cricket. The guy with the bat is good; he dishes out two sixers in succession. Sometimes the ball falls in the river and one of the fielders jumps between boats till he can reach for the ball without getting his feet wet. I recalled someone telling me at Rishikesh about street cricket. He showed me an image of a game of street cricket on his camera and said, "for me, this is what the real India is like".


Monkey business!

I walked slowly for an hour, looking around and seeing the Varanasi that attracts thousands of pilgrims and tourists. I was tired by the time I reached Dasaswamedh ghat and stopped for some refreshments. I was about to return to my guesthouse, but stopped for some more time when I realized that a Ganga Aarathi is about to begin. I watched the aarti for sometime, and tired that I was, returned to have some dinner and end my day.

Read more about Varanasi on paintedstork.com
* Images of Varanasi
* Travelling to Varanasi from Corbett
* Arriving at Varanasi
* Many perceptions of Varanasi
* First day at the ghats
* Boat ride on the Ganges
* An encounter on the ghats
* Photo Essay: Ganga Aarti
* Life on the ghats
* About Varanasi

MANY PERCEPTIONS OF VARANASI

Thursday, August 24, 2006

Auli -> Rishikesh -> Corbett National Park -> Varanasi -> Agra

+Previous: Arriving at Varanasi
+Next: First day at the ghats
+Go to beginning of the series

Varanasi has many faces. For some it is a holy city and a must visit pilgrimage. For some it is a place to experience India's cultural diversity. Some come here to learn fine arts and a lot many come in search of making a living.

When I announced that Varanasi is one of the places I am planning to visit, many people had questions to ask. My aunts wanted to know if I am going on a pilgrimage, and my mother snubbed them and responded that I am just travelling(him? Pilgrimage? ). My sister-in-law asked me what I am planning to leave behind in Varanasi. Traditionally, a pilgrim to Varanasi leaves behind something very dear to him, indicating a recessive attitude to earthly matters. I told her that this nomadic has no possession but himself to be relieved of. Not true, of course! Varanasi, or Kashi as it was once called, has been a traditional destination of the spiritually inclined and is a must-do pilgrimage for the devout Hindu. My father insisted that I visit the Kashi Vishwanath temple, and called up every day I was there, to make sure I did. I was there at the night of Maha Shivaratri, a festival dedicated to the lord of Kashi. He wanted me to visit the temple then, but I was deterred by the crowd of thousands who would like to be at the temple on the auspicious night, and preferred to postpone my visit. Pilgrims to Kashi have many things to do beyond the visit to Vishwanatha temple or a traditional holy dip in the Ganges. They make offering to the forefathers in heaven, pray to sun god, perform pooja or just meditate.


Ghats of Varanasi

Photographers throng Varanasi from all over the world to capture the essence of India's religious life. While most of these people come to experience and capture something that they don't get to see in their daily life - like the bathing in the Ganges, the aartis and other rituals, only a few good men manage to go beyond documenting these activities and capture the essence of the vibrant Varanasi. I had long discussions with a professional photographer and made my preparations of what to expect at Varanasi that can feed my camera. But in the end of my five day visit, I realized that one short visit can serve to be no more than an introduction of what Varanasi is. There are other tourists who come here to witness the India in their minds, to learn music and other fine arts, or just to see the place and enjoy a boat ride.


Boat ride on the ganges

Locals never call their city as Varanasi. When I asked my boatman Naresh about how they prefer to call their city, he said it is either Benaras or Kashi, in that order.

"So you never call it Varanasi?"
"No, we don't call it Varanasi"

Pilgrims and tourist have given livelihood to many people like the boatmen in Varanasi. But like everywhere in India, there is more supply of services than demand, and competition is high. You won't manage to take a walk on the ghats without a boatman offering his services. When you walk on the streets, there are rickshaw-wallas who look at you with a hopeful eye. And the variety of merchandise on the streets varies from simple flowers of offering to expensive banarasi silk. Guidebooks don't fail to warn the tourist of the dangers from strangers too. Varanasi is a city of many people, many immigrants, pilgrims and travellers. Some one I met mentioned that the city has a charm that holds people when they come in, and they find it difficult to leave. It is hard to disagree, especially when so many people come to Varanasi just to die on the bank of river Ganga.

Read more about Varanasi on paintedstork.com
* Images of Varanasi
* Travelling to Varanasi from Corbett
* Arriving at Varanasi
* Many perceptions of Varanasi
* First day at the ghats
* Boat ride on the Ganges
* An encounter on the ghats
* Photo Essay: Ganga Aarti
* Life on the ghats
* About Varanasi

REWARD OF TRAVEL BLOGGING

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

So far, I thought of this blog as a means of logging the details of places I have visited, so it would be useful to myself if I want to re-visit the place, or for readers to get information of places they would want to visit.

Only today did I discover another pleasant thing about travel blogging. I was scrolling through the archives of the blog for something and suddenly my mind wandered into those beautiful places I had visited. As I read along, I was carried away to the immensely beautiful Dandeli and to Jog Falls which is back to its full glory now. And all along, I had ignored the fact that diaries are written to cherish those good memories!

ARRIVING AT VARANASI

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Auli -> Rishikesh -> Corbett National Park -> Varanasi -> Agra

+Previous: From Corbett to Varanasi
+Next: Many perceptions of Varanasi
+Go to beginning of the series

My train dumped me at Varanasi City railway station early in the morning. As I walked out of the station, couple of auto-rickshaw drivers walked into me and asked "kahan jaanaa hain?" - where can I take you? Outside of the train station was swarming with eager drivers of auto and cycle rickshaws who were looking for customers alighting from their trains.

I was headed to Assi Ghat - an area with many guesthouses popular with backpacking tourists. My guidebook said that a rickshaw trip to Assi Ghat should set me back by Rs.15, but the first person I asked quoted a 40. My tall backpack gave away my identity of a tourist and I was vulnerable to fleecing. A few more inquiries and some one agreed to give me a ride for Rs 25. I took his offer.

Around the train station and in the new city, Varanasi appears no different from any other city. The roads looked wide enough and most of them had dividers. Cleanliness was on par with any Indian city of its size. Hoarding and shops advertising big brand names of clothing and mobile phones were fairly prominent. A few mid-sized malls occasionally popped up in the middle of 2-3 storied buildings. At 7 am, traffic of any kind was almost non-existent on any of the roads. Only thing distinct that I noticed were the posters of sleazy movies that seemed to dominate every empty wall next to the roads!

But the roads got narrower as the rickshaw moved towards my destination. At some point it looked like I had come to a different place altogether from where I started. There were suddenly more people on these narrower roads, which were also getting much dirtier. It looked like the city was transformed to a world of a hundred years ago. The ad hoardings and the taller buildings had disappeared and the ones around here looked old, worn out and fragile. The transformation was more evident with cross roads morphing into small gallis. And there were a lot of small businesses operating on the road-side. We were in the Varanasi old city area, just besides the Ganges River.

As we moved further, the rickshaw driver, it turned out, did not actually know where exactly is Assi Ghat! He stopped occasionally to ask for directions. He pushed on and on and it turned out that Assi Ghat was indeed very far. When it finally arrived, I realized that Rs.40 was a more reasonable amount and compensated him for his ignorance.

Arriving at Assi ghat was a complete shock that I wasn't prepared for. It was a place filled with filth and garbage all around. I was nearly depressed and wondered if it was a good idea to come here at all. As I walked further, I was more and more convinced that I was at a place where I would rather not be, and was making up my mind to move on from here as soon as I can. But I had to find a place to stay at least for a day before I decided where to go next. This is probably a feeling that every traveller to Varanasi experiences as he arrives. At the end of the first day in the city, I wrote on my personal blog:

"I am now in Varanasi, India's holiest city. For the first time since I am out of home, which is almost a month, my smile faded. Though temporarily - only for a day or so. The city is gloomy and upset me slightly when I arrived. I contemplated on leaving soon, but survived the gloom and started exploring the town. There is indeed something fascinating about the town. Parts of Varanasi has never kept up with time, and its Gallis and the ghats have probably remained the same as they used to be in pre-independence times. It is interesting, beautiful, and crowded. The gloom comes from the dirt and the pollution that seems to be integrated with this place. It is sad to see the Ganga turned into nothing more than a 100-meter wide sewer. It is the same river that looked so pristine and beautiful and I fell in love with, only a few weeks ago in Rishikesh. There still are many things to experience in Varanasi and I shall stay here for a few more day, though I might leave earlier than I wanted to."

Read more about Varanasi on paintedstork.com
* Images of Varanasi
* Travelling to Varanasi from Corbett
* Arriving at Varanasi
* Many perceptions of Varanasi
* First day at the ghats
* Boat ride on the Ganges
* An encounter on the ghats
* Photo Essay: Ganga Aarti
* Life on the ghats
* About Varanasi

COMPILATION OF POSTS ON RISHIKESH

I have written in brief about my first visit to Rishikesh here. That was in 2005. I made another visit in 2006 and I stayed for a longer time.

1. Arriving at Rishikesh.
2. Walking around Laxman Jhula
3. Ganga Aarthi at Rishikesh
4. Photo Essay: Babas of Rishikesh
5. Rishikesh to Kaudiyala
6. About Rishikesh

Also see: My Rishikesh photo album

COMPILATION OF POSTS ON AULI

My first visit to Auli in 2005

1. Auli photo album - 2005
2. Write-up on skiing in Auli

My second visit to Auli, 2006

1. A back-breaking journey: from Rishikesh to Auli
2. First Day at Auli
3. The days of Skiing
4. Spending time in Auli
5. Trekking and walking around
6. About Auli
7. Auli photo album - 2006

A FEW WORDS FROM "SHANTARAM"

Wednesday, August 09, 2006

I started reading Gregory David Roberts' novel, 'Shantaram' yesterday and came across this paragraph in the first chapter. This is part of a conversation between tourists arriving in Bombay.

"This is Gotham City man. The street kids here have more ways to take your money than hell's casino...

'It's a city thing man,' the short one explained, 'All cities are the same. It's not just here. It's the same in New York, or Rio, or Paris. They're all dirty and they're all crazy. A city thing, you know what I'm sayin'? You get to the rest of India, and you'll love it. This is just a great country, but the cities are truly fucked, I gotta say.' "

I don't have any opinions to quote on the topic, but a harsh yet interesting description..

Romancing and Rejecting Indian Railways

Monday, August 07, 2006

My first long journey in a train was when I was probably 13 years old. It was surely an exciting and interesting way to travel when compared to the only other means I knew - buses. I had discovered a spacious and relatively luxurious way to travel. And I had loved the idea of travelling for long hours, with landscapes rolling back, and brining new places and new structures that were once ahead of us, hour after hour. That first journey was along the coast of Kerala and I loved having to encounter rivers that we frequently crossed, the rivers that were on their way to meet the Arabian Sea. The villages, the lush greenery and the paddy fields and coconuts trees weren't really new to me, but what had amused me was the population density that I had not seen before. I had loved the experience of seeing new things. We, a bunch of kids always tried hard to loose sight of the elderly to sit next to the door and watch the receding landscapes and indulge in the pleasure of wind hitting us as the train kept speeding. I did not make many train journeys later as a kid, may be another one or two in the next few years.


On a charming toy train

As I grew up, I hardly travelled beyond distances that could be covered by a bus and the train journeys were only a distant past. In 2003, I made another journey from Bangalore to Siliguri via Chennai and Kolkata. When I started, I remembered those pleasing journeys I undertook as a child and looked forward to reliving those memories. But what I did see was definitely not what I was looking forward to. There were two set of people who ensured that the journey was unbearable - the first set was we passengers and the second was the railways themselves.

A lot most people travelling in the train seem to find it delighting to dirty the train. I was shocked to see that the berths booked by large travelling families used it not just for sitting and sleeping. It added up as kitchen as well as wash area! It was hard to watch people callously wash their hands after lunch right below their berths and let the water flow freely in the compartment. And garbage was thrown inside or out of the window without much thought. Garbage and plastic was always there adjoining the track no matter how long you travelled. It was depressing to see all that.

The Indian Railways seemed to be eqully enthusiastic about keeping their property dirty. I searched and searched, and found it difficult to believe that there are no dustbins in the compartments. I was forced to use a plastic bag to store garbage, but had no choice but throw out of the window the wet disposables like coffee cup. It hurts to do that; I stopped consuming coffee in my further journeys. The stations are dirty and the railway tracks are dirtier. Howrah station on the way was depressing. Basic amenities like restaurants are missing even in larger stations. The food served in the train is not very appealing either and you don't have much choice but to consume it. Railways seems to be hard at work to make the journey as miserable as possible. But the convenience of space and comfort and the pleasure of watching the world outside the window still remained.

I haven't travelled first class or AC yet, and have been told that they are much better and convenient. But each time I made a decision to travel in any of these classes, at least for the sake of experience, I end up thinking hard and taking a flight instead. Fortunately, not all routes suffer from the same problem and there are places especially in the south where it still pleasant to make a journey by train. A journey on the Konkan railway is something I have been thinking of, and am looking forward to seeing the rail route from Mysore to Mangalore opening up. But in general, I still long for the experience that the trains can offer, and yet find it difficult to choose trains against flights. But I hope the days come when Indian Railways truly works to make our journeys memorable and pleasant and I can return to making the journeys I always loved.

What is your take on travelling in trains?

COMPILATION OF POSTS ON CORBETT NATIONAL PARK

Friday, August 04, 2006

Compilations of the posts on Corbett National Park, starting from arriving at the park, experience and leaving the place.

1. Arriving at Corbett
2. First day at Corbett: safari day trip to Dhikala
3. Corbett: In the nature - A struggle between fear and love
4. The desperate tourist's tiger hunt
5. Photo Essay: Landscapes of Corbett
6. My Days in Corbett
7. Encounter with Pachyderms
8. Information about Corbett National Park
9. Moving on from Corbett

A DAY OF TRAVELLING WITH INDIAN RAILWAYS

Thursday, August 03, 2006

Auli -> Rishikesh -> Corbett National Park -> Varanasi -> Agra

+Previous: About Corbett
+Next: Arriving at Varanasi
+Go to beginning of the series

After Corbett, my next destination was Varanasi. My options were to take a slow train from Ramnagar to Varanasi or take a bus to Moradabad, and then take a faster train to Varanasi that would drop me there in half the time. I chose the later.

I did not have much to do in Ramnagar on the day of departure, so I decided to leave early and take the bus to Moradabad. My train was scheduled to leave Moradabad at 4.30pm but I was there as early as 1pm. I could not find any clean restaurants anywhere close to the station and decided to eat something at the station and rest for a while. That is when I realized that I had high expectations of India's train stations.

Moradabad is a fairly big station, with four platforms and anything like a thousand people in the station at any point of time. I entered in and searched for a restaurant, and was surprised to see that there wasn't any! It was hard to understand how Indian Railways decided that travellers in a busy train station like this did not need to replenish themselves! There was a small dark and dingy shop where a sign read "refreshments". But all that they had for sale was a few biscuit packets, mineral water(thank god!) and chai. And even the biscuits were of just one particular brand that did not enthuse me much.

So I decided to go hungry. I picked up a magazine and walked into the waiting room to kill time till the train arrives. After ten minutes or so, a railway-uniformed lady walked in, and went around with a register to everyone in the room. She came to me too, asked me to fill in my name and ticket details and asked me to show my ticket. I wondered why are they doing all this and asked her -

"Yeh kis liye?" - What is this for?

She did not seem to be in a mood to respond and bluntly said "because you are here at this time!". I gave a puzzled look and started scribbling into the dusty pages of the register. She loosened up a bit, smiled and asked me if I had never travelled by train. I replied that I never waited in a waiting room!

Looks like the railways were guarding the waiting room as very precious asset! They wanted to ensure only people with an outbound ticket were seated in the room. And they had even hired some one to just sit there, check everyone's tickets once in a while and make entries in the register. Did one of our netas come up with this idea to create more jobs?! I am not sure if they think waiting rooms are such great places that people all over would flock in to sit there, and there is a need to restrict these invaders! And this jealous guarding of their property seems to be in the blood of the railways. A year ago when I wanted to use the cloakroom in Haridwar, the person in charge denied the service because my ticket to the evening train was starting from Dehradun and not Haridwar. And all this despite the cloakroom being a paid service!

And then there is furious licensing of the economy of the platform. The fruit vendor with a cart in the platform had a seller's license plate with a license number stuck to his cart. The man carrying a fruit basket had a license too and so did the small condiments shop and the magazine seller. There was nothing you could do without a license inside the station. I wonder what all bureaucratic and under-the-table processes would one have to go through to acquire one of these precious licenses! May be the fruit vendor was station master's son's friend's maid's son, or may be he had to make an initial investment that was much beyond just buying fruits! And all this would have been done, starting with an ad in the national newspapers inviting applications or tenders to sell fruits in platforms and plenty of other paper work that would have kept our babus busy!

By the time my train arrived, I was hungry and decided to at least eat some Bananas. I wasn't very keen to eat the dinner served in the train and could not have managed to go hungry in the night too. The train arrived on time. I got in and was alarmed to see someone already seated on my berth. But he quietly made way for me and sat down in a corner. A little later, I wanted to stretch and asked him to move to another seat and he obliged without complaining. As the train moved forward, the TT came, announced my berth number and asked for my ticket. He did not bother to check the tickets of many others(including the guy who was on my berth) who did not seem to have a ticket. His business, it appears, was to check if the legitimate ticket holder actually had his ticket, and ignore rest of the people! People came and went at every station and a good number of them did not seem to have a ticket. I was fortunate to have an upper birth and was not disturbed by this flow.

Footfalls in the compartment came down considerably with the nightfall. Inside of the compartment fell silent as people started getting under their bed-sheets one by one and the only sound that could be heard was the monotonous "dug-dug" of the speeding train. I pulled out my sleeping bag too and spent rest of the night half asleep and half awake, anticipating the next few days at India's most ancient and holy city. I stepped out on the platform of Varanasi City station at 7am the next morning, again, right on time.