On new years day, Mike and I finally got unstuck from the industrial exhaust-filled unfriendly-urban trash-dump city of Bhopal to the calm and tranquil village of Sanchi. At dawn, we climbed the the singular hill overlooking vast landscapes of vegetation from the Great Stupa Mount (you Arch 170 students will remember.)
Facial exressions neatural expression
Unlike the smiley people of Thailand, the neatral expersion on people faces is akin to looking directly at the sun. Its uncommon for adults to smile, like in old western photographs of miners. This is why all those photos of Indian people you've ever seen look like they've lived a life of hardship.
Ganges River
The Ganges River is where one type of Holy meets another. It is a sort of town common, where ceremonies take place, paying homage to Allah or wash away sins. The river is also used for laundry, bathe and receives 21 cities worth of sewage. A 2009 study found that there is 300 times the fecal matter in the water than is safe to bathe in.
I watched motionless as a body, ritualistically wrapped in clothe, was placed on top. When a few logs fell from the pyre, a mans arm slumped out. The cloth covering the man receded into ash, revealing a mans face carved with age. After 3 hours of burning, the remaining piles were shoveled into the Ganges, 200 meters upstream from where the cities raw sewage is dumped and 500 meters up from where the locals come to wash clothes and bathe.
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| India Day 24 - 28 less Christmas |
