About the cremation, apparently bodies must be cremated within 24 hours of the person passing away, which makes for a steady stream of bodies and funeral pyres and there are stacks upon stacks of wood for the burning. A body requires 350 kg of wood in order to be completely cremated and the process takes 3 hours to complete. Wood is expensive and so a local group takes donations to help pay for those who can not afford. Varanasi is said to be a most auspicious place to die, and many Hindus believe that if they are spread in the Ganges then all of their past lives' sins are washed clean and they are relieved of the burden of reincarnating for another cycle. Because of this many come to Varanasi at the age of 65 and simply await death... volunteering their time to serve others, and begging. Babies are not burned, nor are pregnant women, because a child is born clean and has not had the chance of life. Sadhu's are also not burned as they have cleansed themselves in this life by abstinance from pleasures. These bodies are all simply floated out into the river and sunk with stones. Women family members are not allowed at the burning Ghats because there is still the fear of Sati (expectation by a family that the wife throw herself on the burning pyre of her dead husband) even though it has been outlawed for years.
Every night in Varanasi some city cultural/religious organization puts on a puja at the main Dasaswamedh Ghat for all to experience and participate in the blessing of the mother Ganges. The ceremony begins after dark with a blast on a conch shell and involves 7 men dressed in pink/orange tunics with ivory sashes, accompanied by a harmonium, a tabla player, and some chanting, and going through a repetative circling with various instruments of faith and devotion... a flaming candelabra, burning incense, a peacock feather. All manner of tourists, both Indians and foreigners, locals, beggars, street kids, cows, goats, and sadhu's are present. It's the most spectacular people watching in India. The sadhu's circulate with offering plates for donations and try to swipe your forehead with a spot of red powder every chance they get. We tried to avoid the blessing but, despite our wishes to be damned, Jen and I were saved by Mother Ganges.
There are street kids everywhere down at the Ghats, most of whom are hustling for a Rupee, and most of whom are both beautiful and sad at once. I saw this one girl (10ish?) with her two brothers (pictured below... the boy in the middle is making a face, that's not how he looks normally fyi) each of the three days we went to the main ghat. I think she lived there. We also saw a woman who looked unmistakably like their mother each time... she was often floating around nearby but was mostly uninvolved in their doings. The kids were sweet but definitlely toughened by the necessities of their lives. The girl got into a fist fight with a slightly older and bigger girl right next to me and, although her mother quickly came over to stop it, I could see that there were many complexities to the heirarchical social structure and territories. One morning I watched as the girl dressed several cuts and scrapes herself... one on her upper inner right thigh, another on her left ankle, and a third on her left arm. From somewhere, to my great surprise, she produced an antibiotic ointment along with some gauze and medical tape, which she used quite deftly to clean and dress the wounds. Each of the kids said hello everytime we saw them, and they didn't ask for anything after our initial meeting, only a smile and a handshake and maybe a funny face with a laugh and then they were off. They seemed happy, intelligent, curious, open, strong, and it was only me that felt sad. Had it come to it, I would have defended these kids as if they were my own.
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