Wandering Jew going to Kathmandu

I'm in Varanasi, and to my surprise, having a great time. I wasn't sure whether or not to come at first, but my former roommate Lydia convinced me. Ironically, it was because of what she had said originally that made me think of skipping it. She had just travelled in India herself and regaled me with amazing stories. One of them was about how she was in Varanasi and took a boat ride through the Ganges. She looked over and saw a dog floating on a board, chewing and tearing away at something. When they got closer, she saw that the dog was eating a human body. Ewww. Although I loved this story and retold it many times (particularly to people when they were eating) the thought of seeing dead bodies freaked me out. And since Varanasi is such a holy city and site for the cremations or burials in the Ganges, I knew that I probably would see them. However, Lydia convinced me that I need to go visit and I came.

In Hinduism, the body is supposed to be cremated. But since many of the poor here can't afford to do it, they just put the bodies in the holy Ganges. I've been in Varanasi for about 4 days so far, and have seen dead bodies, but it's not as bad as I thought it would be. Originally I envisioned floating corpses with their vacant eyes open. But the bodies are wrapped up and look like, to use Lydia's words, as "hot dogs covered in tin foil". (Bet you'll look at your hot dog in a different way now!) I was walking through the maze they call the streets of the old city when I was passed by a group of men carrying a stretcher with a clothe-wrapped body on it. Then I went to the burning ghats, where many of the cremations take place. When I first heard about the ghats, I thought that they'd be like the ovens in Auschuwitz (well, there are a lot of swastikas around here). But the process is actually quite beautiful. Right by the banks of the river there is a big fire and the bodies are individually placed on them for the fire to totally consume them. To plagarize from my Lonely Planet guidebook: "You'll see huge piles of firewood stacked along the top of the ghat, each log carefully weighed on giant scales so that the price of cremation can be calculated." The process was peaceful and quiet and quite beautiful. Not that I would like to have my dead body treated like that, of course, but I did find it spiritual. (Just for your information, I want to be stuffed, like a deer, so that my body will be entirely preserved and passed through the family, generation by generation. My brother Fred's descendents will inherit me. I'll become a family heirloom. Fun!)

So, like, anyway, now I am headed up to Nepal for a week. At first I wasn't sure about going, with the Maoists and civil unrest and all, but then I figured that it's been a while since I've done anything dangerous, so it's about time! Just kidding, of course. My mother was super-worried so I've been asking around to hear how safe it is. And the answer is that it's not bad, if you stay away from political demonstrations and gun-weilding Maoists. At first my mom said that she didn't want me to go (she wrote an e-mail with the subject line "Kathmandu not for you", because she too loves corny but catchy titles) and since she rarely tells me not to do something, I listen to her. However, she has conceded to my judgement and I'm headed up there tomorrow. And when I get back, I'll try to squeeze in Kolkota before heading back to Mumbai and then home. Home. Has a nice sound to it, eh?