Hurry Burry Spoils the Curry
So said a roadside sign on the way up to Darjeeling in West Bengal. I think it means ‘Slow Down’, but it struck me as a particularly unusual and indirect way of advising drivers.
But I’m getting ahead of myself.
Having been sort of forced into returning to Jaipur and Agra when we didn’t really want to, I started to doubt whether I wanted to go back to Varanasi either, as at this point we really wanted to go somewhere new. In the end, though, we stuck to the plan and went to India’s holiest city for a second time, and were very glad for it.
It’s hard to describe Varanasi to someone who’s never been there, but I’ll try anyway. The city manages to simultaneously teem with both life and death, and no where else in India (or anywhere in the world that I’ve been to) is the very rawness of humanity on display as it is here, from people defecating right in front of you on the banks of the Ganga (next to cows doing the exact same thing), to hundreds of people bathing in the same river at the same time, to seeing dead bodies literally burning on the banks of the river right as you walk past, a sight that is possibly the most arresting and thought-provoking of my life to this point and one that never fails to astonish me. It’s a dirty and in many ways disgusting city, yes, but it is always fascinating and you can’t help be moved by it.
Having stayed in the alleyways of the old city last time, this time we stayed north from that area on the river itself, with a seven-roomed window that gave us magnificent views over one of the bathing ghats of the Ganga and allowed us the rare and precious opportunity of being able to observe India at peace without participating in it.
Somewhat revitalised, we headed northeast to Darjeeling, over 200m above sea level and the springboard for tomorrow’s expedition to Sikkim, a small state bordered by Nepal to the west, Bhutan to the east and Tibet (or, as the Chinese like to call it, ‘China’) to the north. Already in Darjeeling we are seeing different faces (of Tibetan and Chinese origin) and a different type of atmosphere than in the rest of India, and hopefully this will continue as we head further north and visit the Buddhist monasteries of Sikkim.
I’m having some problems uploading photos lately, but hopefully I’ll be able to put some up when we return from Sikkim.
Tags: Asia, burning bodies, Darjeeling, India, Sikkim, South Asia, Varanasi
Nick