Waste

Varanasi, India

My liking of India is burning off in the immense heat, along with the liters and liters of water I’ve been downing.

We made it to Varanasi by taxi from Tala which totaled an 8 hour drive. The roads were missing huge chunks of concrete causing the taxi to bump and jerk its way along, making all of us nauseous. The trains have been jammed-packed due to summer vacation for schools and all of India is traveling right now. To avoid staying any longer in Tala we managed to talk a taxi driver down to a bearable amount and shared his car with a French couple who kept us entertained the whole way.

Varanasi lies on the Ganges River and is considered to the Hindu the holiest river in the world. It’s so holy that it hovers, along with the city, above the earth, one local explained. To me it is the filthiest place I’ve ever been too. The streets and alleys are littered with cow and dog shit and general sewage. It’s impossible to walk and look at the sights at the same time because you constantly play hop-scotch along the paths to avoid all the garbage. I stepped in a hole with black, murky sewage water and felt instantly ill. This place is beyond anything I’ve ever seen. I have to walk around with my scarf covering my face because of the smell.

Not only are the streets filthy but the river also. At one end you have the “burning ghats” where, those who can afford it, get burned at the edge of the river and then pushed in the water (no photos allowed).  The burning never stops. There is an eternal flame that all the bodies are lite from which has been burning for 3,500 years, they say. After they get pushed into the river they are called River Souls. We saw half lumps of dead bodies floating in the river on our boat tour. Birds use them for rest breaks. What is even worse, not 100 meters away people are swimming and bathing in the same river!

Just to show us how “holy” the water was our boat guide reached his hand into the water and took a big gulp.  ‘How do they not get sick’ you might ask. Their bodies build up immunity to it after decades of bathing, swimming and drinking it. People can live in this filth because it’s inside of them. They consider themselves holy to be able to withstand the pollution. The city has the same population of Los Angeles so the streets are swarming with bicycles, taxi’s, rickshaw’s (three-wheeled motorbikes) and people.  All are either honking their horn at you or running into to you. It’s madness that I cannot tolerate. 

Hindu’s believe that cows are sacred and that they carry human souls. They are free to roam the streets as they like and live off the garbage people throw down for them. The dogs, on the other hand, are the souls of the sinful people reincarnated. These dogs are sick, hurt, mangy, starving, wounded and often bleeding. I can hardly walk down the street without tears in my eyes seeing these poor creatures knowing that I can’t do anything for them.

Varanasi is the holy city of garbage. No matter what someone tells me about India I will always remember this city and immediately feel sick.

I think 48 hours is a good amount of time to spend in this city. That gives you a chance to browse their beautiful silks and get a feel for the city. We spent four days here. After the second day it took all of my strength to leave the hotel. Food was the driving force and we, unfortunately, didn't stay at a place with a restaurant.

Cows feast on garbage and throw it right back onto the ground.

Bicycle rickshaw's waiting for a fare.

Hop-scotching

Always in the way.

Cow dung and motorcycles. These bikes tear up and down the alleys, honking angrily at people.

But they have really beautiful silks.

This photo is a bit too small to see the wound. His front leg is very hurt. This is one of hundreds, maybe thousands, of sick dogs on the streets.