The Day After

Back to Varanasi.......

I decided I needed to conquer my sad state by going back to where I saw all the desperation.

I wanted to go by myself.

It had rained all night and there was mud everywhere by our hotel. The rain had prevented us from taking our sunrise boat ride. Everyone was just lazying around.

I started along the Ganges river path noticing that it was the clearest day since we had arrived.

There were little boys playing cricket everywhere. Laughing. They had to stop the game as I walked by...or I'd wait until the ball was nowhere in sight & I'd run by.

The buffalo's were out in their usual spot eating...not sure what...but they were at the same spot I saw them both days prior.

I stopped at the cremation spot to watch some of the burnings. A local guy came by to talk to me. He explained how they burn the bodies for 3 hours. They also have a person go by once a day to find all the burned up jewlery that they resell at the market.

I saw 2 bodies being burned while I stood there. They first put the wrapped up bodies in the river and wet them...later placing them on the fire. If the family has enough money, the bodies will have flowers on them. This is the reason all the goats, cows & dogs are hanging around...they eat the flowers.

I kept walking further down to the crazy spot where most of the action was the day before. It wasn't as busy.

Along the way I had people try to see me stuff....boat rides...puja's.. floer/candle bowls...postcards...jewlert. I would say no thank you and they would just leave.

No one was persistant with me.

I was left alone.

A little girl walked up to me commenting on how beautiful my hair was. She was about 8 years old and spoke in english. She was carrying a box full of the flower/candle bowls but she never once mentioned for me to buy anything. Her name escapes me now, but she asked me what my name was and where I was from. We had a conversation around her going to school and her 'part time' job of selling the celebration bowls by the river. She was so cute.

Of course I asked her if I could buy one of her celebration bowls. She gave me one without even mentioning a price.

She lit the candle and I placed the bowl into the river.

I made my wish.