Page 30 - india

A family makes a fiery offering on
the steps of the ghat. Opposite top:
Scavengers look for anything of value
left over from the cremations. Op-
posite bottom: For the living, washing
clothes is still necessary and, in this
case, a business in the Ganges.

to miss out on seeing such a strange sight. a woman it's the hips, and for a man the burned, so along with the cows, children
Jalsain is the main burning ghat, and as the lower back (don't ask me why), and these are and pregnant women they're tied to a rock,
bodies are brought in by relatives on stretch- just chucked into the river for the dogs to rowed out into the middle of the river and
ers, entirely covered in garish red and gold fight over. Meanwhile the ashes are sifted by dumped overboard.
fabrics, the clockwork efficiency of the sys- a man called the Watchman for gold and sil- That sounds just fine, but Indian ropes being
tem seems at odds with the importance of ver, which he gets to keep, and then they're Indian ropes, these bodies soon find their
the occasion, for being cremated and scat- scattered on the water (or, rather, shovelled way to the surface, and due to the gentleness
tered in the Ganges is the Hindu equivalent in for the river to wash away later, as there's of the current in the non-monsoon Ganges,
of being buried in Westminster Abbey. so much ash). The whole process is surpris- they can hang around for quite some time
ingly efficient and hygienic; after all, crema-
After the relatives wash the body in the tion is the cleanest way to dispose of a body. before the birds and dogs finally get to them.
Ganges for the last time, simply by dipping During this time they tend to drift over to
the covered body in the river, it is placed on But there's a bit of Indian logic that makes the east bank, which probably explains why
top of an orderly pile of logs by the workers all this cleanliness irrelevant. Not everyone there isn't a great deal of housing there, daily
(untouchables, the lowest caste of all) who is burned at the ghats, oh no. Holy cows, dead body delivery not being up there in the
neatly stack more logs on top before lighting children less than twelve years old and preg- estate agent's list of desirable attributes.
the pyre. It doesn't take long for the fire to nant women are not burned because they It doesn't seem to bother the locals, though.
catch, and at any one time you can see two are already considered pure (in the latter Despite the regular parade of dead humans
or three bodies burning steadily in the river case it's the baby who is pure) and the whole and bloated cows floating past, everyone
breeze, giving off a smell that's disturbingly point of the fire is to cleanse the soul on its still bathes and drinks at their local ghat.
reminiscent of a barbecue. way to heaven, so cremation isn't needed; On top of the obvious health issues raised
also, lepers and people suffering from other
A typical body takes three to four hours to diseases ('People with poisons in their body' by bathing with the dead, there are plenty
burn, but there's always something left; for of other hygienic faux pas, such as the man
was how one chap referred to it) are not

30 Wine Dine & Travel Spring 2014