Back in India.
Varanasi really is a holy city. There is something very magical about this place.
We visited the Burning Ghat (Ghats are steps leading into the Ganges), where bodies are taken to be creamated. They say a dip in the Holy Ganges will liberate you from rebirth.
Only men carry the bodies because the women cry. The corpses are covered with bright orange and red cloth, the color and other garments varying according to caste. Every few minutes, a new body would come and there was a line of about five, waiting to be burned. It takes about three hours to be fully cremated, and only the immediate family waits around.
No pictures aloud.
It was very ordinary. Very human. Directly next to the burning ghat on either side there are people bathing, women washing clothes, and children playing. We westerners would get very sick from this water, but there is a beach-like atmosphere, and many residents of the city spend time by the ghats.
On the other bank, it is miles of empty, sandy floodplanes that are filled during the monsoon.
Our hotel is underneath a music school and I can sometimes hear people practicing tabla.
Cows and cow shit everywhere.