A TRIP TO ANOTHER WORLD

Varanassi in utter Pradesh India lived up to its name for me,
The city of lights. The lights were of another planet.
A planet whose streets were rammed with the same hustle and bustle as Delhi or Bombay but for me I felt complete peace, surprisingly as the room we were staying in was dark and subterranean and next to the burning ghats. Spending my days wandering the steps or ducking down some alley or other getting conned (by choice I have to say) to look at someone’s finest silks, the finest in all India, chatting to the sellers on the steps. Going out at night, on to the world’s most polluted river, the Ganges, a river full of decay , absorbed by the nights cremations. The lights of the fires dancing on the river and the candles floating down it reminiscent by sight not sound of apocalypse now as martin sheen turns the bend in the river
After the discoveries of Hampi, the feelings, sights and smells of this city will stay with me forever, early morning mist across the river banks .the chants of the people at the burning ghats, families carrying wood for the evening fires all day 1000 years of smells and dirt. Dying in varanassi is for the Hindus said to be a direct route to heaven, for me I believe it was a direct route to karma and the start in the belief of my own spirituality.