Page 31 - india

bathing ten feet from another man who's
pissing in the river, all of which is enough
to make you more wary of the Ganges than
you are about strangers calling you 'friend'
and salesmen who offer you their 'best price'.

This is a shame, because the Ganges in Va-
ranasi isn't the mud-slicked quagmire you
might expect from a river that has had to
struggle its way through thousands of miles
of Indians using it as a moving rubbish-
dump-cum-sewer; in fact it's a pleasant deep
blue, and it's only on closer inspection you
see all the rubbish collected on the banks
and the human detritus piled up on the
eastern side.
Closer inspection was what I had in mind on
my penultimate day in Varanasi. I've wanted
to take a walk along the Ganges for some
time, and not just because the Ganges is so
famous; it's surprisingly elusive for such a
long river, and most of the well-known cit-
ies in India have nothing to do with it.

Setting out from my hotel, I walked south
down the west bank to the rickety pontoon
bridge that spans the Ganges during the dry
season. One glance and you can see why it
isn't used in the monsoon; it's got enough
holes and leaks to make it a scary proposi-
tion even if the Ganges dries up. On the oth-
er side of the bridge, over on the east bank,
is the Ram Nagar Fort, and being a sucker
for forts, I made straight for it as the sun be-
gan to get serious.
I fell into conversation with a well-spoken
man called Ram who hailed from Andhra
Pradesh. With his shaved head (apart from a
tuft at the back) and tika mark he was obvi-
ously a Hindu, and he began to explain why
he was in Varanasi.

'I have just committed the bones of my
mother to the Ganges,' he said. 'That is why
I have my head shaved; the eldest son has it
done as a mark of respect.' easily afford the wood, but I do wonder why The east bank of the Ganges is a false one;
so many western tourists come to Varanasi. dry, cracked mud stretches for a couple of
I offered my condolences, and asked him if What is the attraction for them? They are hundred metres back from the water's edge,
being buried in the Ganges meant his moth-
er was now in heaven. not Hindus, so it can't be for the pilgrimage.' until it reaches a gradual rise where the veg-
etation can survive the monsoon without
I didn't tell him that it was probably the
'Yes,' he replied. 'If a person's bones are bur- sick attraction of watching people like his being washed out. I spent the first part of
ied in the Ganges at Varanasi or Allahabad mother burn, and instead waffled on about my walk in this scrubland of trees, grass and
then, as long as the bones remain in the riv- the amazing streets of the old city, the seren- severe heat, a beautiful environment that is
er, that person will be in heaven. And with ity of the Ganges and the multitude of cheap a total anathema to anything living.
bones, they do not float, so he or she will hotels. The only drawback was the heat, I The sun beat down on my bush hat, push-
remain in heaven forever.
said, which is why the number of tourists is ing sweat out through my clothes, down the
'Many American Hindus come here to be far less in the summer. back of my daypack and into my eyes, and
cremated,' he added. 'I suppose they can it wasn't long before I wistfully thought of

Wine Dine & Travel Spring 2014 31