गंगा / ganga

This is the river, mother ganga.


Mosquitos like water. Especially stale, dirty water that is the Ganga in Varanasi. Nothing and everything stops here. Including the boatmen, who are on strike because the government has decided to put a government tax on all boat rides, impeding the transactions from moving quickly from hand to mouth.

Varanasi / Benaras / Kashi
वारानसी / बनारस / काशी

Arguably India's holiest place for Hindu's that often pleads itself as the "Oldest Living City", pilgrims come in flocks to bathe in the Holy Ganga, or ultimately, to die.


While the translucent sky that has impeded Varanasi oriented photography for the past week makes this hard to see; this child is flying a kite. A week ago there was a kite festival. At two rupees a pop, the kite population in Varanasi (especially those dilapidated around electrical wires and strangling dead goats), is quickly exceeding that of the children.


Cricket in India. Everywhere, all of the time.


A hindu swastika (note the orientation). I will presumably refer to this very photo later for arguments regarding Hindu vs. Nazi iconography. And don't trust the painted ones - confused youth/soiled sadhus can get them wrong in their respective desires to make a mark.


Haridwar
हारिद्वार

At the headwaters where the Himalaya's give birth to the Ganga is Haridwar, where the purification element of the water is actually reflected by its physical state.


The fairgrounds by the water were a Hindu carnival. Not that Krishna's love for games and Hinduism's colourful cast of gods and goddesses would warrant anything else.



Rishikesh
रिशीकेश

Essentially the India westerners tend to love, minus the India they don't. Clean air, minimal garbage, few people, chaotic patterned cotton clothes, yoga, ashrams, pristine scenery, and restaurants where you can get brown bread. It's hard not to assume that The Beatles having come here forty years ago is the kicker.

Yeah, it was pretty. Though the notorious monkeys stole my bag of carrots on the bridge.


Ganga aarti (dusk prayers at Ma ganga) were held on a ghat where they were building a new Krishna shrine. I liked watching the crane move and drop rocks by the lotus positioned white body as the most esteemed guru of the greater Rishikesh area waled on (cd available), accompanied on each arm by two western converts.


Rishikesh: sadhus and carousels adorned by spacemen dictators with bright ideas.


This picture has: only one person, no visible litter.


Yar.

नमकिन/namkeen

Though Lays potato chips are gaining momentum with Sharukah Khan slutting himself in their name (with India's Magic Masala and India's Mint Mischief a fanciful alternative to America's Sour Cream and Onion), I am in full support of the indigenous namkeen. In a country where Red #6, Yellow #213 and standards like tartrazine and hydrogenated oil are replaced with - (!?!) - real oils and spices, I'm all for the flawlessly spiced deep fried pulses of Namkeen.


Check it:

Ingredients of Haldiram's Navrattan namkeen:

Gram pulse flour, edible vegetable oil, gram pulse, lentil, peanuts, rice flakes, potatoes, edible common salt powder, spinach, red chili powder, black salt powder, mango powder, black pepper powder, ginger powder, clove powder, mace powder, nutmeg powder, cumin powder, fenugreek seeds powder, coriander powder, bay leaves powder, mint leaves powder, salt ammoniac powder, cardamom powder, asafoetida powder and citric acid powder.

And that's the packaged stuff.

As for biskuts, I proudly select the Brittania Pista Goddam (Missasauga, God damn!) variety, a title whose etymology clearly denotes the British Raj. I think they're phasing them out alongside gradually renaming every city in India. But regardless of circumstance, the Glucose brand just isn't as appealing. That and Wimpy's high class, fast-food burger establishment.

Yar.