Holy Places and Filthy Waters

The travel to Varanasi was less extravagant if one counts hours spend on travelling, compared to my previous journey to Khajuraho and Orchha. I was wise this time to bring a fellow traveller from IIT itself and therefore I never had to catch any trains or busses on my own. As a result, my friend Yash and I reached Varanasi after 10 hours in the train. I should probably not mention that we did get off (Yash's fault, not mine!!!) at the wrong station and once we (well, Yash did see before me) realized our mistake, the train had started to move and we were forced to run and jump on the train again. In the general compartment this time. Men everywhere and almost no room to put your feet. The moment after actually reaching the train coach again, I was very glad to know that I know the fun of running, otherwise, we would have been in deep trouble, considering that the station was in the middle of nowhere and that the time was 03.00 am. Not that I don't like crazy adventures, but even I have certain limits!

I had a great time in Varanasi. This place was like no other place I have been to before. The first morning was spent on photography, a cheap breakfast in the morning sun and walking. People in Varanasi take bath very early in the morning and after that, the procedure of washing clothes begins. I kind of assume that you all are familiar with the concept of Varanasi? The Holy River and not to mention the polluted river... Not that I had any scientific interest in this river, there are no textile dyes in it as far as I know, but the river is in desperate need of some kind of treatment nevertheless. And if not the river, than treatment of the people falling sick after taking bath with generous mouthful of cold water? I didn't take any bath (soory Maya and Johan for this) but I did see people doing it and these peole weren't always shy, if you know what I mean? To this particular issue I have some important points to state:
1) I will not demonstrate this "if you know what I mean" with any pictures - stay calm!
2) When I did experience this "if you know what I mean incident" I never shouted it out load because that would have been rude.
3) Other more decent pictures insted of demonstrating "if you know what I mean" will be provided for my international fanclub. Enjoy!
Varanasi is a very quiet and relaxing city. The drawback may be that other foreign people know this too. Walking along Ganges is by all means a must when visiting Varanasi and a walk to the temple could be rewarding to if one fancies that. Despite the fact that I am an atheist, one gets touched by all these Varanasi people and other Indians for that matter, devoting their whole life to the holy river and all practices that comes with it as far as religion is concerned. The men in saffron clothes are called Sadus and I have met such men before. They exist even in Varanasi and they don't ask for money here as I was accustomed to, bearing the old sadu man in Orchha in mind.

This Varanasi Sadu became my friend. We talked for a while, in different languages of course, but it was nice. Even Sadus have to wash their clothings I realized when I looked to the sky from the narrow streets of central Varanasi in the afternoon.



I also had a boatride in the evening from where I had the chance to see real night arts of Varanasi. You can judge yourself.

In the morning I had a boatride in the sunrise and this gave me an even better opportunity to see people taking bath, but from a different angle this time and since this morning the manager of blogspot.com has contacted me on this matter (I am now referring to "if you know what I mean") and I will therefore only provide one single snap from this particular morning. I know you might be disappointed now but sometimes one has to respect the right of others. The rest remains in other words confidential...

I visited my friends at Agmotex Fabrics this week too. I was ment to go by bike (read motorbike) with the assistant in the lab. I had my gear all prepared, the sunglasses, the look, the cargo pants, my black rugsack. In the very last minute, the factory translater and besides main buyer from the factory, called me on my cell to inform me that he would have to come with us and he would be driving (read a car). As a consequence, I had to forget my prepared bike look, step down from the bike and half an hour later I found myself in an air conditioned car with a half corpulent Indian, discussing the benefits of wastewater treatment on textile dye industries.

Reaching Agmotex felt almost weird, I thought to myself that these people don't have the slightest clue about how many hours I have spent in the lab due to their use of these stupid dyes. So yes, I was mentally upset there for a while but also excited about being there again of course. The place was crowded by men. (Recall that almost no women work here.) I actually had two missions on the site this day, collecting water, which this day was blue if you are interessted, and collecting of....?

I won't tell you more than this, you will have to figure it out yourself. The picture of the particular incident is attached here below. The one giving the correct answer will get a delicous sweet in the middle of November...31 days are left for me in India. And guess where I will be heading next Saturday (to my supervisor's deprecation)?

Hare Rama and goody nighty

Yours forever and long lasting sweets fan

/LindiZ