Thanksgiving in Varanasi: "The Beating Heart of the Hindu Universe"

Thanksgiving Reflection in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India

I just received a message from my mom saying “Happy Thanksgiving!  We will give thanks for you,” coupled with an email from the Watson Foundation wishing fellows happy holidays and even though we are most certainly spending the season with different customs, it will certainly be memorable.  That being said, it is strange to think that my family is consuming a delicious heritage breed turkey from Vermont alongside stuffing (with local sausage, cranberries, nuts etc.), mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, green beans, squash, turnip etc. without me.  Meanwhile, I am currently in the city of Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh in India, also on a bit of a holiday and few day break from my Watson research.  So I will take a moment to reflect and give thanks.  First and foremost, I am thankful for my family.  I miss my mom, dad, and sister an indescribable amount and even though we didn’t converse very often when I was going to college a state away in New York, I certainly feel very far from them now.  Without their love and support, I certainly wouldn’t find myself where I am today.  Naturally, they were nervous when I received this fellowship (namely worried about my safety), but ultimately, they have supported me through every endeavour over the course of my life.  Besides the other obvious points of gratitude including my boyfriend Jack and my best friends from home, I am of course deeply grateful for the Watson Fellowship.  Sometimes I think about how fortunate I am and it’s overwhelming – the fact that I am able to travel the world, see places that previously were only part of my wildest dreams and on the cover of National Geographic, ask questions about those issues that light my heart on fire, and meet incredible people who have give n me a window to intimately view beautifully foreign cultures.  This really is a once in a lifetime opportunity and for that, I give thanks.  

So just to give you an idea of where I am now, Lonely Planet travel guide describes Varanasi or “The City of Shiva” as “The Beating Heart of the Hindu Universe.”  Along the Ganges River, it is a deeply sacred and spiritual place and pilgrimage site where Hindus come to bathe daily in the holy waters (“to wash away a lifetime of sins”), perform puja (essentially offering respect and praying), and cremate the dead bodies of their loved ones along the riverside in a deeply ceremonial ritual before spreading the ashes over the river.  All of these intimate acts take place completely in public on the 80 some-odd “ghats,” which are the steps leading down to the river.  The Ganges is extremely important to Hindus as a holy river (“Great Mother” - “the river of salvation, an everlasting symbol of hope to the past, present and future generations”), which makes the extremely pollution even more tragic.  “The Ganges River is so heavily polluted at Varanasi that the water is septic – no dissolved oxygen exists.  The statistics get worse.  Samples from the river show that the water has 1.5 million faecal coliform bacteria per 100 ml of water.  In water that is safe for bathing this figure should be less than 500.”  Moreover, it is the most auspicious place to die as a Hindu because it is the nexus and crossing over point of the physical and spiritual worlds and death in Varanasi gives you a better chance of achieving “moksha or liberation of the cycle of life and death” (says LP).  I have had an interesting experience here so far: taking a sunrise boat ride on the Ganges, seeing the “burning ghats” of Harishchandra and Manikarnika, visiting a Jain temple, eating various forms of street food, and just generally walking up and down the banks of the river taking photos and people-watching.  Activities that take place along the river aren’t exclusively bathing, praying, and cremating but also include playing cricket, doing yoga, begging, chewing and spitting paan, selling and eating street food etc.  It’s definitely an overwhelming city and had this been the first stop on my Indian itinerary, I may have run and hid, as LP also writes, “Brace yourself.  You are about to enter one of the most blindingly colorful, unrelenting, chaotic and unapologetically indiscreet places on earth.  Varanasi takes no prisoners.  But if you’re ready for it, this may just turn out to be your favorite stop of all.”  After having been in India for more than three months, it really does feel representative of India on many levels from the spiritual and religious presence, pollution and waste disposal problems, crowds, noise, chaos, open defecation, cows and livestock roaming the streets and riverside, delicious street food etc.  It is an assault on one’s senses, as the stench of human and animal waste (as you try to dodge massive piles of dung on the road and ghats) may mix with the delicious aroma of samosas or the curiously revolting smell of human flesh burning (the smoke is another story in terms of hazards to breathing).  It has also been a strange experience for me because like Leh, Ladakh, the old city has narrow winding alleyways and it is a large mix of both tourists (both Indian and foreign of all ages) and people who are actually living out their everyday lives here.  I met my friend Raj (who is staying in New Delhi but is from a village in the state of Bihar) in Varanasi for just two days before we head off to Darjeeling, and finally, I will go overland to Bhutan.  But basically, being with an Indian (who is also a Hindu albeit not very religious) colors my experience in a much different way.  Because he speaks Hindi, he can fend off the touts, the people trying to sell us souvenirs or offer us the “best and cheapest” boat tour.  He knows exactly what to order at restaurants and how to speak with the hotel managers who don’t understand English.  Coming to Varanasi makes me feel like I am teetering on the edge of being a tourist and being an inhabitant.  By no means do I claim to be an expert in Indian culture or to have any true comprehension of the crisis of poverty and hardship here, but I do feel like I have been able to closely observe and experience the beautifully rich culture (e.g. politics, food, dress etc.) through my rural and urban homestays.  I also acknowledge that I am much closer to a tourist, but my quotidian activities feel far from touristy.  That being said, I become disoriented when I meet other travelers, since it has been a very long time since I’ve encountered them.  So I try not to laugh or pass judgment when I see Americans or Europeans dressed in Ali-Baba-style genie pants with a massive Canon DSLR camera dangling from their neck because it would be hypocritical of me, since on some level, that is also myself: attempting to blend in by embracing the clothing and saying, in a poor accent, “Danyavad” (thank you in Hindi).  Yet there are also those travelers, albeit far and few between, that do not even attempt to intermingle with the local culture, for instance, wearing sleeveless low cut shirts with shorts or exhibiting public displays of affection such as kissing in a very conservative place.  To me, this just feels blatantly disrespectful and wrong, never mind that it makes so many people feel uncomfortable. 

One of the other curious things about Varanasi that reminds me a lot of my safari in Tanzania is the strong element of observation.  Foreigners (and some Indian nationals too) come here merely as spectators.  We cannot fully appreciate or understand the intimate acts unfolding before us.  For instance, we may find ourselves startled if we are bumped into in a narrow alley way by a member of one of the lowest of caste (known as “doms”) carrying the dead bodies wrapped like mummies on bamboo stretchers.  LP writes, “The corpse is doused in the Ganges prior to cremation.  Huge piles of firewood are stacked along the top of the ghat, each log carefully weighed on giant scales so that the price of cremation can be calculated.  Each type of wood has its own price, with sandalwood being the most expensive” [though people also desire wood from mango trees].  We may stare curiously as men and women alike take a dip in the filthy water or as they chase away cows from rummaging around their shop or munching on the festive flowers that adorn a corpse, or as people perform puja or the ganga aarti ceremony.  But largely speaking, foreigners are not Hindus and obviously not Indians, so it is not possible for us to 100% understand, so we can only watch and attempt to take it all in.  But similar to the Maasai cultural boma tour on my safari, it felt strange to watch other humans and to know that there is a huge market for cultural tourism.  Of course, it is different because the Maasai on the safari were actually putting on a show, whereas the Indians here are just carrying out their daily practices.  But still, the natural curiosity and propensity to watch feels a little bit exploitative, especially when I think that the reverse relationship does not exist.  That is, most Indian people are not in a position to pay exorbitant amounts of money to fly to the U.S. to watch Americans take showers or go to church (and I question, would they even want to?).  So I feel that all travelers (and tour companies etc.) should make an effort to make tourism more environmentally-friendly as well as culturally sensitive.      

Night time in Varanasi

One of the burning Ghats

Burning a body at the ghat

Firewood for the burning ghat

Sweet paan on the street (beetel leaf and candies)

Sunrise on the Ganga (Ganges River)

The larger of the two burning ghats

Depressing pollution

Yes, those are hotel bed sheets drying on the dirty ground

Goats and parrots

South Indian street food

Enjoying breakfast

Winding streets of the Old City

Cow blocking the door of an Internet cafe

Stray dogs chilling

Blue Lassi - home of "The Best Lassi in Varanasi"

Blue Lassi treat - coconut and banana

Dashashwamedha ghat where priests are performing aarti, the evening prayer

Rickshaw

Pani puri (street food) - Wikipedia: "It consists of a round, hollow puri, fried crisp and filled with a mixture of flavored water ("pani"), tamarind chutney,chili, chaat masala, potato, onion and chickpeas. It is generally small enough to fit completely into one's mouth."

Before we let the candles go in the river

Sunrise on the Ganga