Deep Diwali and floating the River Ganges


Children creating a butterfly shape with dia candles

Dias

Deep Diwali (the ghats lined with more than 5001 earthen (Dia) candles

A flower shape made from real flower petals and more dias

Ashby-this morning, on our boat ride

People bathing as we passed by

This morning at 6am, we took a boat ride on the river, . The experience was really very haunting for me...It started with the rotting corpse of what looked like a cow and then led to maybe a hand full of other corpses including a small child, an adult human and a few more cows. The child was not as bad considering the body was still fully wrapped in cloth, but the adults body will remain in my mind for a long time. The reason this haunting image will not leave my mind anytime soon is because its face and feet were exposed and crows were pecking at it's flesh! I have realised that its the faces of these deceased people and animals I've seen in the water and at the ghats, that have disturbed me the most! So far I have seen dead cows, dogs, monkeys, rats, birds, and people (laying in the street, on the railroad tracks, bobbing in the water, and burning in the ghats) and it is all a bit overwhelming really...