Good Karma, Small Price

Just returned from a multi-day trip across India. We left Sunday night on a 14, turned 19 hour with delay, trip from Calcutta to Varanasi. This is one of the holiest cities in India and many Hindu people pilgrimage there as a religious rite. It is home to the Ganges River and is considered the "City of Shiva". It is a place where death and life come together. We arrived haggard and tired to a small train station on the outskirts of the city. We negotiated a rickshaw and settled into one of our 'India indulgences', the Ganga River View Hotel, our oasis amidst chaos. For a slightly elevated fee, we enjoyed a beautiful room, hot water and good food. Ann and I sent the afternoon walking from ghat to ghat and watching people. The bright colors of ongoing celebration and festival perfectly lined the jagged waters edge.

In the evening as we walked back from town a man yelled, 'boat, small price' and motioned us over. He offered a 1 hour ride down the river to observe various religious rituals for a minimal rupee price. We accepted and followed down to the river edge thinking he would be our boat captain. Much to our surprise, and accidental support of Indian child labor, a young boy probably only 10 or 11 jumped into the boat claiming he was 13 and made a 'good wage'. Our guilt and the incoming night cloaked us as we watched from afar ceremonies of cremation, Hindu prayer and chanting. The experience was both intense and surreal. The next morning I took a solo boat trip on the river with another suspiciously young boat driver. The rising sun provided a soft warm glow to hundreds of bodies bathing in the holy river. As I walked back from the boat children came up to me selling candles wrapped in banana leaves to float down the river. 'Good karma, small price' they said in perfect English. I had to smile and buy one. Hey, any good karma I can get is good, and for a small price....how can I resist? As a side note, personally I wouldn't dare put even a fingernail in the Ganges because of the high pollution. I watched farmers lead cattle down irrigation channels filled with pus and slime and almost bubbling with toxicity. These channels went into the river that was equally disgusting. There is an environmental movement to clean up the river that I fear will be faced with many challenges because of the line that wound be crossed between government and religion. It will be interesting to see how that plays out in upcoming years.
We left Varanasi around 1800 for another long night trip to Agra and the TAJ MAHAL!!!