Varanasi

A combination of nightmare sleeper trains, crooked touts of all description and some would say an overly ambitious travel itinerary, left us feeling pretty angry at the North of India on more than one occasion. It really is the most stressful place I’ve ever been to at times, the epitome of frustration occurring when having to hard bargain for bog roll! Not really the kind of mindset we wanted to be in when arriving at Varanasi, arguably the most chaotic place in this most chaotic of countries. However, we were determined to cast our bad feelings aside and immerse ourselves in this unique city.

Things didn’t start off too well when our auto driver dropped us off in the completely wrong part of the old city. This led to a crash course on Varanasi’s perplexing labyrinth of narrow alleys. Colourful people of all descriptions cram the claustrophic walkways making it a real struggle to find our way. What we needed to do was drop off our heavy backpacks then dive back into all this joyful mess. The problem, however, was finding the Ganpati guesthouse, the alleys kept leading us onto Chowk Road, a congealed mess of rickshaws, bicycles and people with the worst dust and horn honking yet. And that’s saying something. I didn’t think it was possible to have a least favourite road, but this monster has filled this dubious title. We literally had no idea how to get to our destination, India has a high number of people with English skills and usually someone will come to your rescue. However, here even the auto drivers had little or no English skills and despite them constantly surrounding us to take us somewhere, anywhere our attempts quickly melted down into public frustration and plenty of shouting and swearing. Eventually we found someone to point us back into the confusion of the alleys armed with the vaguest of directions and 15 minutes later, we somehow, by sheer fluke, found the tranquil haven amongst all this pandemonium that is Ganpati guesthouse.

Thankfully, events from here dramatically improved, starting with our balcony, which overlooked the famous ghats and the snaking river Ganges. Ghats are public bathing areas which are prominent throughout India and an important part of communal living. Varanasi, being the holiest city in India, features the daddy of all ghats, a huge network stretching for miles along the Ganges. After finally chucking down our bags, we got down amongst the ghats and soaked up all the random action that is offered here. As Varanasi is the centre of Hinduism, pilgrims throughout India visit here to cleanse their sins, offer pujas (prayers) and wash their clothes in the holy water. In addition to all this action, there is plenty of boat-touting, hand-massaging, postcard-selling and weed-peddling men to deal with, but the positive activities at the ghats more than make up for it though. As we strolled along trying to take in all this visual excitement, other aspects of daily life began to rise in prominence the further we walked. Men tenderly bathed their buffalos and goats, whilst women did the family laundry, the lifeline of the Ganges the heart for all manner of domestic deeds. Other sections of the ghats are consumed by inpromptu cricket matches, complete with haphazardly propped bamboo wickets.

The individual ghats are renowned for different activities, some solely for prayers and offerings, some for washing but the most impacting of these have to be the burning ghats. Here, a constant stream of public cremations unfurl, for a Hindu, being burnt here releases them from the perpetual cycle of reincarnation. This is where Varanasi is most affecting, the pile of burning wood in the distance reveals itself as a flaming corpse upon closer inspection. At first, I found this to be an unsettling experience, but the lack of emotion displayed by those nearby (grieving most occur in privacy beforehand) , makes the event almost commonplace and after witnessing this a few times seems ordinary, or just another crazy component in a crazy place.

Wandering back at night-time, the ghats are even more atmospheric, painted Sadhus smoking big chillums, white Western hippies playing wok like instruments and wailing like banshees, fire and puja performances and boat cruises and floating candles, make Varanasi even more special. Faith in India has been restored by this truly unique and mesmerizing place.