| "Varanasi is another holy Hindu city, holier than Mathura, larger and more
crowded, on the Ganges. The pictures show the temples and the so-called
'burning ghats,' the places where the dead are cremated, along the
shoreline. I took an old wooden boat, rowed by a man named Choonoolal,
several miles upriver to Ramnagar where I tried to interview the
local maharaja. On the far shore of the Ganges, we came across the humble
funeral pyre of the wife of a man named Shova Yado, Milkman. 'He faced the
Ganges and said some prayers. Then , holding a sheaf of smoking straw, he
walked around the pyre five times. I continued to watch and to photograph,
my own bare feet marinating in the Ganges holy waters. The husband used
the burning straw to set the pyre alight. And at that point, I was asked by the funerary
participants to take a picture of the bereaved man next to the burning pyre,
and to send it to him. It would be the last picture of him next to his
wife, I was told....I sent a photograph. I hope he got it.'" |
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