My passage thru India

(Apologies to E.M.Forster) Alas, all good things come to and end. My time remaining in India is now counting in hours and those are airport hours to boot but at least they have good internet here.

So I promised to tell you about the Taj Mahal. In a common colloquialism of the area-Not Possible. Sorry, that's a place you have to see for yourself to understand the granduer. It's not just the structure. It's the location, the grounds, the fountains. . . It's the Taj!
The evening of the day of my visit was a nearly full moon. That would have been great had prior planning been done. The five days around a full moon the city of Agra goes into a lock down from sunset until 11 PM. Folks who have planned ahead can book a visit to a the Taj to see it in the moonlight or book a reservation at one of the rooftop restaurants. For that booking you get a half hour on the roof during the moon time. On our last night, we headed out of the restricted area before lockdown and were able to get seated at a rooftop restaurant and had hoped to get our moonlightshots but we were thwarted by the first cloudy night in Agra since the monsoons!

We departed Agra on the night train bound for the holy city of Varanasi which sits on the Ganga (you'd say Ganges and you'd be wrong!). Our Temple On The Ganges hotel was not exactly a temple nor on the Ganges but we could see the river from the rooftop. After an washup from the train ride we took a walk along the ghats and to the market and that evening took a boat ride down the river to see one of the holy ceremonies. Lots of offering to lots of goods, music, prayers, incense and fire. As we headed back up river we hugged the shoreline because it was easier for our two rowers and this also provided us with a close up view of the many funeral pyres burning on the nearby shore. This is what I meant by saying the Veranasis is just to die for. If you die in this holy city, your soul goes directly to Heaven and you are released from the cycle of reincarnation. Your earthly remains are burned on the pyres and your ashes thrown into the holiest river Ganga. I think you can bring deceased persons who died elsewhere to Veranasi, too but their souls will follow the reincarnation route until further notice, I guess.

The following day I saw more funeral pyres alight. It is a very busy place for this activity. There's lots more to do in Varanasi but I tried to restrain my spending except at the Bread of Life Bakery and Restaurant. They served pancakes! As a holy city Varanasi has restrictions on non-veg, alcohol and such although, the nice little Mormon Grandmother in our group manager to score a bit of hooch for the younger set (they were all of legal age!)

Our last day in Varanasi, I avoided the ghats and funeral pyres and instead found a beauty shop for an overdue haircut. The good thing about a haircut is that even a bad one will grow out.

The last night train of the trip brought me to Kolkata that you'll want to call Calcutta. Whatever. Our group was greeted at the train station by the sight of a deceased man lying on the sidewalk. I've seen lots of folks lying on sidewalks throughout India. It's sometimes the most convenient place to take a nap. This man was not napping. Nuff said

From that sobering sight the only place that seemed appropriate to visit was Mother House, the home and last resting place of Mother Theresa. A walk through the comprehensive museum of her life can make anyone think about how little they have accomplished!

So, it was quite somber end to my visit to Incredible India (that's from all the tourist literature) and I think it's going to take time for me to process it all. Throughout Europe, I had some sort of based to start from to absorb all that was around me but not so India. I've got a new book and movie list to begin when I return home to help put some of this in some kind of perspective. In the meantime, I'm going to keep moving ahead because I have six more equally as alien countries and I'll be covering those six in about the same time as I did for all of India. I fly out tonight at 2 AM bound for Bangkok where I'm going to treat myself to three nights in a 4 star hotel (It'll cost about the same as a Super 8) before I begin my next Intrepid Tour. In the words of Beans, the Muleskinner "Pray fer me".