aBe PaZoS SoLaTie

At Varanasi

Wed Mar 9, 2011

Image

I am now typing texts I wrote on paper during last weeks. We had no Internet connection so I couldn’t share these before. I don’t know if the color in the images are good or not, this monitor looks totally yellow. I will re-upload them later if they don’t look right.

March 2nd. Our friends from Ukraine and Russia leave the city one day after their wedding. I write from Everest cafe, 20 or 30 meters above Ganges river. I lost A two hours ago and I still haven’t found her. I walked next to the river and I saw dead people burning on top of piles of wood. I saw huge piles of wood waiting for dead people. Cows and bulls wonder around and swim from one shore of the river to the other. Dogs and goats accompany their bigger quadruped friends. I can’t understand why some worship cows but kick dogs. This morning when I was returning to my room after shower I saw three monkeys running out of my room. One of them, a female, looked at me defiant. Down here people are washing bed sheets in the river and drying them under the sun. The washing happens by smashing them against stones.

This cafe is quiet, unlike the area with the wood and the burning. The heat from the sun and the fires was suffocating. Smoke and shit smell from huge cows made me feel like fainting. Mistreated dogs look at people with fear. Sometimes I hear one cry when someone kicks him. People ask for money and I fail to find reasons to give. Teaching would be more helpful. Places are dirty, full of trash, shit and pee. Someone must have left those items there.

Categories: photo text Tags: river washing clothes observations Places: india