| Along the Ghats of Varanasi | |
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Fear
& Loathing: Reflections of a Swedish journalist
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By Ingvar Oja
My driver Ramesh
was waiting for me at the crack of dawn outside the main doors of the Varanasi
hotel.
We moved slowly along the narrow lanes of the holy city, driving as close to
the Ganga as possible. And then alighting from the three-wheeler
to find our way by foot, in semi-darkness, passing a number of shapeless piles
of cloth lying on the floor. Ramesh explained:
"They're old people
who've come here to wait for death. Varanasi
is said to be the best place to meet death."
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| Crowds jostle in the narrow lanes of the old city |
"Do you usually go down to the river to bathe?" I asked Ramesh.
He immediately understood why I'm asking.
"Sure, but not so often these days, because the water is so filthy. And I never take the water in my mouth. The river may be holy, but not the bacteria. You know that. I saw that you wrote down what Mahant ji had to say about the Ganges and the filth that flows by here," says Ramesh with a smile.
Ah yes, Mahant ji.
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| Priests along the ghats await the arrival of the devout |
A few days earlier
we had visited Dr. Veer Bhadra Mishra, the Mahant (religious leader)
of an illustrious temple near the Ganga. This hereditary calling has been in
his family for over 400 years.
But Dr. Mishra is not only a Mahant; he is also Professor of Hydrology
at the famous Benaras Hindu
University in Varanasi. That night Ramesh and I listened intensely as Dr.
Mishra presented revealing statistics about Ganga pollution; statistics coming
from a learned man who knows a lot about spiritual purity, and even more about
man's tendency to befoul his own environment.
Next page > The
Business of Death > Page 1, 2
Acknowledgement: For many years Ingvar Oja has written about Asian affairs for the Swedish morning daily "Dagens Nyheter" in Stockholm. This article originally entitled "Fear and loathing along the ghats" was published at CleanGanga.com — the Varanasi-based Sankat Mochan Foundation's e-zine on the campaign for a clean Ganges. Text and photos reproduced with permission.
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