Adventures with Julia

November 1, 2011

We woke up on Halloween in Varanasi fully rested after 10 hours of sound sleep.  We were to join our group at noon in the lobby and decided to spend the morning working with our electronic gadgets—downloading and editing photos, receiving and replying to email, googling information and working on posts for my blog.  After days of being unable to get on the web, it felt good to do some catching up.

Over lunch we got briefly acquainted with the group.  There are 13 of us including our guide, who likes to be called Daisy.  About half of the group are from California, one is from Minnesota and the rest are from the east coast.   There are 3 men and 10 women.   All appear to be in their 50’s and 60’s, reasonably healthy and able.  It is too soon to make any opinions.

After lunch, we took the group bus to Sarnath, the place where Buddha preached his first sermon after achieving enlightenment.  There was a large collection of temples, stupas, shrines and monasteries commemorating the event, considered one of 4 major sights in Buddha’s life–including where he was born, where he achieved enlightenment and where he died.    Several groups of pilgrims were praying at the sight and gave the place an aura of sacredness.   For us the shrine included the largest stupa we have ever seen.  It is made of solid brick going back to the fifth century and is at least 150 feet tall and 100 feet in diameter.   We walked around the stupa clockwise and encountered more groups of chanting pilgrims along the way.  We also visited the attached museum, where we saw the emblem of independent India—four highly polished, sand stone lions seated in a circle facing out ward. Copies of this emblem are printed on the rupee.   I learned the five hand positions of Buddha while at the shrine.  They are: 1) the meditation pose with one hand laying in the other; 2) the granting protection pose with Buddha standing with palm facing out; 3) the blessing pose with standing Buddha’s palm flat down; 4) the enlightenment pose with Buddha seated and his finger tips touching the ground; and 5) the preaching pose where two fingers of each hand are working together to untie the knot of darkness.

From Sarnath we drove back to the hotel to make a quick bathroom stop and transfer to cars for the drive to the Ganges River in the heart of the city.  We were able to get close, but had to walk the last half mile or so through the throngs of tourists and pilgrims.  Although Varanasi is considered the oldest living city in the world, 7000 years, the infrastructure has not kept up with population growth which is now well over 3 million.  There is not enough of anything including roads, water, sewer, trash removal and housing.  People are so packed together near the center of the city, that it was almost claustrophobic to walk around.   “Teaming masses” is a phrase that really fits.

About half a mile from the river we had to get out of the cars and walk as they could no longer move forward.  Although the street was intensely crowded and noisy with motorbikes honking and people walking toward the river, there was no pushing, or angry behavior.  We felt perfectly safe in the crowd.  There were a number of beggars, but they did not hassle us.  Even the vendors were not very pushy.  Colorful neon lights and street lamps lit the way.   It was har to get good photos as everyone was on the move and there was no break in the crowd.  I tried anyway.   The biggest on slot  was to our olfactory systems.  I was aware of incense, smoke, dust, urine, dung, body odor and cooking food.  Some of the ladies in our group were bothered by the smells and wore masks.  We just sniffed away.  All part of the scene.  Finally we arrived at a point where the road begins to slopes, steps appear and the street gives way to the  broad river bank, composed of irregular, concrete steps, wide open landings followed by more steps down to the river.  People covered every bit of the space.  The scene was colorful chaos.  We carefully picked our way through the crowd, while taking in all the sight and sounds.  There were thousands of people and more coming arriving every minute.  Most folks were finding places to sit on the steps, while others , including us, threaded their way to the boats lining the bank of the river several deep.  We walked across several boats to get to ours then paddled out into the river to reposition ourselves for a good view of the coming ceremony.  We were barely in place when the sun set and the ceremony of putting the Ganges to sleep began.  Each of several ghats, or platforms that protrude out from the steps, were decorated with colorful fabric and garlands.  On each one was a young priest, dressed in golden robes from the waist down.  They first blew conch shells to announce the beginning and then proceeded to go through a very scripted set of rituals using incense, brass candles, tiered candelabra, gas torches, more incense and finally peacock feathers.  All the while, there was singing and chanting amid the clash of cymbals, gongs and horns.  Much of the time they faced the river which was good for us boat people.  Part of the time they faced the throng on the steps.  From our position there was a lot of haze from smoke and incense, which gave our photos a surreal glow.  I sure hope I got a few that tell the story.  The glowing light made it difficult.  This ceremony, which lasted a hour, is performed every evening after dark 365 days a year to masses of people, both tourists and pilgrims, who often wait much of their life to come here for this event, which is a spiritual highlight for Hindus, who believe the Ganges is a sacred river.  Once the ceremony is over, people hang around or retreat the same way they arrived.  We walked back to where our cars were parked and then proceeded back to our hotel for dinner.

This event was a major highlight of our trip, but the next morning, before sunrise, we repeated our steps to the banks of the river to watch pilgrims and locals come the river to bathe and make salutations to the rising sun for another major highlight.  We were back in the boat again and floated up and down the river for the entire length of the 70 ghats, two crematoriums and multitudes of bathers, who were oblivious to us tourists passing by in front of them.  In the daylight it was easier to get a sense of the steps, platforms, piles of wood needed for cremations on the burning ghats, not to be confused with the performance ghats, which were separated by a good distance.   This scene was slower paced, less crowded, much quieter and, in my opinion, more spiritual than the evening ceremony, which was more spectacle.  During both events we each received a small paper bowl filled with marigolds and a candle and were instructed to light the candle, make a prayer and float the candle on the river.  Both times I watched my candle float out of sight in the relatively fast moving river.

Finally we had our fill or the Ganges, went back to the hotel for breakfast and then flew back to Delhi in the afternoon of November 1, 2011.  We did not go the the Trident Hotel as planned, but instead were upgraded, by surprise, to the 6 month old business Oberoi in the Gurgaon district of town.  Gurgaon is a completely renovated area that was tenements 10 years ago and is now all high rise office and apartment buildings.  It is also near the airport.  The hotel was beyond our highest expectations.  The eye-catching exterior is made of polished aluminum, glass and shallow blue water pools.  Inside the spaces were wide open with lots of vertical glass and minimalist furniture.   Our suite was quite large, light and airy and yet inviting and comfortable.    All I can say is that everyone in the group loved being there.  We were sorry it was only for one night.

Out at 7:30am the morning of November 2, we began our bus journey for the next 2 weeks.  The bus was just big enough for all of us, but without much room to spare.  So far, it is the first thing about this trip that I do not like.  We spent 5 hours on the road to Agra and arrived at the Agra Oberoi in time for lunch.  The hotel is very nice, although not a splendid as the Gargaon Oberoi.  Each room has a view of the Taj, albeit a partial view in our case.    It was very nice to be able to visit Agra again after over 40 years.