Your Friendly Philosopher & Guide

It seems there are some 2000 temples in Varanasi alone – many tiny and few prominent. Except for the town region rest of the places still is lurking in bad economic conditions. Most roads have small shops hardly showcasing 4-5 soap bars and 3-5 jilebis to sell. I wonder how they manage to run their family with the money they would probably make selling them.

I was barefooted and so was my mom. We got down from the auto and kept our head straight. It wasn’t time to feel yuck about what was lying on the way – dung, stray dogs, rotten food, and banana skins. We followed the auto guy through a dark lane, and I could see some bright sun light on the other side of the tunnel. As we stepped further I could finally see her – quite wild and too beautiful to take your eyes off – the river Ganges!

We were standing on the footsteps of Kedar ghat, where there is a prominent temple of Lord Shiva. This particular ghat is well known among the South Indians - as you can find South Indian purohits, South Indian mutts and also South Indian food here. And there is no need for you to know Hindi to communicate.

Few guys approached us to ask if we needed boats to see the ghats! I was a bit taken aback. Why would I need boat to see them? I thought that ghats were far from each other and would need some driving and walking to reach each one. But it wasn’t so. All the ghats are on the single stretch on the bank of river Ganges. And each ghat is just 50 metres away from each other. Hence if you take a boat you can cover the whole of ghats in not more than 30 minutes.

Few of the prominent ghats are –

Harishchandra Ghat – where dead bodies are burnt day in and day out. This ghat is also considered to be the place where Raja Harishchandra worked

Dusasmedha Ghat – where Raja Dasrath is believed to have performed yagna with 10 horses

Manikarnika Ghat – again a ghat where dead bodies are burnt

Kedar Ghat – known for its Shiva temple

Vishwanath Ghat – where the famous temple of Kashi Vishwanath, Goddess Annapoorni, and Kala Bhairav are constructed – these temples happen to be highlights of Varanasi

I wasn’t happy with the rates the boatmen were quoting hence avoided dealing with them. As I stood there staring at the river Ganges I could spot something floating - someone who was wearing a normal pant shirt and kind of bloated. My god – it was a dead body! I was a bit shocked and asked these boatmen what is that? And they casually said – you know people living in the nearby villages are very poor and they don’t have money to do the last rites. Hence they throw the body of their close ones into the river.

Not that I wasn’t aware of this phenomenon of dead bodies floating on river Ganges but then to seeing for yourself is quite a scary experience. I was taking time to digest it, and was wondering about the story behind that person who was dead – did he have a normal death? Or someone killed him and threw him? Or he died accidentally? As I was occupied in my thoughts the boatman continued – sir we will charge Rs 500 for both of you for the boat ride (he had come down from Rs 1400 to Rs 500). Is that ok? As if nothing happened!

To be continued….