Purple Travel
[June 18 2015]
Bathing in the River Ganges, Varanasi
Like many in the last days of their life, we came to Varanasi for the river. ‘Mother Ganga’ as she is called is a winding expense of water offering safe passage in death for the bodies burnt by her banks, and a source of life for the city. At first light the river gives off an eery dusk and colours the building and first bathers of the morning with a blue-ish light. As the day moves on whole families come to the bank of the river to bathe, brush their teeth, learn to swim, flirt, wash clothes, wash pots and pans, pray and release the bodies of the dead all into Mother Ganga from the banks of the city, sharing space with the cows, dogs and monkeys swimming in the heat of the midday sun.
Text and photo Daisy Walker
