To say we were both a bit homesick and exhausted spending Thanksgiving traveling from Nepal to India is an understatement. Our train arrived in Varanasi around 8 AM, and we were ushered into a bicycle rickshaw that an 80 year old tiny Indian man hopped on to bike us (me, Andrew, and all of our stuff) to the area of town we were staying. After little electricity, and the 26 hour transit time, I was barely able to call my Mom to wish her a Happy Thanksgiving before she fell asleep the night of (in America). In India, it was 10 AM, and we just walked into our lovely, I mean, LOVELY guest-house/NGO in Varanasi. A guesthouse that has electricity, internet, hot water, breakfast, lunch, and fellow travelers who don't hesitate to strike up a conversation with you, and most importantly give you tips on the post office, yoga classes, you name it… Our friend Claire recommended The Kautilya Society to us, and we owe her a big hug (and maybe some palak paneer), because we needed some warm fuzzy feelings after the past couple of weeks.
We decompressed. Ate a HUGE lunch. Showered. Slept. And then as dusk started approaching, we set out to explore some of the city. We meandered through the side streets leading to and from our guest-house, we ran into friends we made on the train from Gorakpur, and we ended up at The Ganges.
Before it was dark, walking along the river felt kinda like walking along Lake Michigan in Chicago. Some people walked their dogs (that were pets), families sat along the edge of the bank, and there was a gentle calm that wrapped around everyone, that feeling you get when you're kinda on the outside of a city looking in. Only in this city, giant oxen nonchalantly walk past you, Sadhus sit covered in ash and wrapped in bright gold giving out good luck (for a price of course), a woman walks into the water to bathe, and candles float past full of prayers and wishes.
When it's nearly dark, and you realize the ghats are lit up, lights are reflecting into the water, and it hits you that you are in India, standing next to the holiest river in the world. It makes every 24 or in our most recent case, 26 hours of travel totally worth it. All of the stress of broken down buses and culture shock and stiff shoulders melts away when you're staring at something so foreign and beautiful and in this case, holy.
We walked towards the lights and found ourselves amidst a huge crowd of people (mostly Indian) watching the evening puja. This is basically the evening ritual along The Ganges. From my understanding, each Ganges puja ceremony also incorporates an Aarti Ceremony as well. I found this most fascinating because these giant copper lamps were held up and rotated around. I kept thinking about how my arms would have been quivering holding one of them above my head, but these guys have more practice and didn't seem to have a problem with it. Upon researching what the significance of the lamps was, I discovered that it's moved around in a circular form to illuminate the god or element (in this case, water) to greater see the face of the diety. Kind of like the Christian version of "This Little Light of Mine…" but, much cooler. Ok, obviously I have some more learning to do about Hinduism, so please don't take offense to my comparison and curiosity when it comes to Hinduism. "Religion class" in my 12 years of Catholic schooling consisted of Catholicisim. And Catholicism only… I have some catching up to do. (If you have any good world religion book suggestions, please let me know!)
We attempted to find The Brown Bread Bakery for dinner, Andrew read about it on Trip Advisor and then Lonely Planet that it was highly recommended. The restaurant we showed up at was an impostor, but it served up some great curry and offered a lovely night view of the city.
