City of Light and Darkness

Hello all.

So today was my first day in Varanasi and this place exceeds all of my expectations about it. It's hard to imagine a more urgently present city than this one; I'll try to get some of it across via the printed word.

This city is wild beyond all compare. The old city is like a maze, with tight alleys full of people and cows and shit, temples on every corner with the gods silently gazing into the street, huge water buffalo sauntering down alleys so tight that they barely fit into them and causing massive traffic jams. The monkeys rule the eaves above your head, occasionally tossing things at passerby, plant life is growing in every crevice. No cars, not even autos can reach the inner city, it's all foot traffic, and the place looks like it could fall to pieces at any minute but every inch hums with life and energy. The whole place looks ancient, but in reality I think the very oldest of the buildings is probably around 400 years old or so, but sitting on and in ruins much, much older. Varanasi is reputedly one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, with people living here for at least 27oo-2800 years. And at times one can imagine things as they used to be before our modern, globalized age; especially during one of the numerous rolling blackouts that happen in the evenings, when the narrow alleys go pitch black and the streets are lit by candles and torchlight. One could get lost in the cramped, dirty maze of the old city for seemingly days on end, and everywhere one lays eyes, there is something exotic and amazing to see.

I awoke at 4:30 AM today to take one of the fabled sunrise boat rides on the Ganga. I walked down the narrow lanes of the old city towards the ghats, and all was quiet and still in the pre-dawn glow. We arrived at the water's edge, descended the steps and got into the boat and shoved off. The view from the water of the ghats slowly rolling by is something special to behold. The morning bathers were coming to the water's edge as they have done for centuries, the burning ghats that constantly cremate bodies on the waters edge, the temples and high buildings around them smeared with ash and soot, the yogis and sadhus with their golden bowls filled with Ganga water, some of them smeared with ashes from the cremation grounds, the sun slowly rising across the wide plain to my right.

After, I visited some of the more antiquated and vibrant temples in the area, and got lost in the old city for a while. Then it was off to Sarnath, 10 kilometers away, to see where the Buddha preached his first sermon and officially started the Buddhist faith. The main stupa there is reputed to hold bodily relics of the Buddha himself, and is an important Buddhist pilgrimage site visited by people from all over the world. In true Indian archaeological site fashion, I climbed unhindered to the top of a 2000 year old stupa and looked at across the Gangetic plains; the monsoon was rolling in and the skies were blackening. It poured and the lanes and alleys filled up with water, everything washing eventually back into the mother river.

Now to leave the internet and the 21st century behind and wander my way back to the guesthouse in the pitch black. But I'm not alone, and I can feel the eyes of Varanasi on me as I walk, and it's true that those who come here really do find what they are looking for, even if they didn't know what it was in the first place.