areyafarkinseriousorwhat...

Dawn on the Ganges: sun rising gently; river calm; sadhus calm; dunkers and washers calmly dunking and washing. Time for a movie no? The spirit of Bonnie-doon is alive in Varanasi.

The rising sun, a slanting pole, a bundle of things

A scene seen from train

Another scene seen by foot

Timepass

I love the time people seem to have in India to hang out and yarn with their mates. This bloke was chatting away to the bloke in the next shop..... slowly.... not more than a sentence or a grunt every minute. I sat opposite and wondered what they might be talking about. I guessed 'yeah me missus keeps telling me to clean the back of the shop, but I always tell her to mind her own friggin business.'

Train addict

I'm completely hooked on the simple thrill of staring at India through the doorway of a slow-moving train. On this day, somewhere in rural Uttar Pradesh, the sun rose and lifted the mist gently off the fields. The air smelled rural and good as people moved slowly into their day. An unremarkable moment, and truly magnificent.

The windows on India's trains have a thick tinting which lend the world outside the glow of a 1980s colour tv.

This kid lept on the train as we rolled slowly through the outskirts of varanasi.

Varanasi...

...was beautiful beyond words.

The poetic sorts talk of the luminescence of the ganges at dawn. I add nothing, but say only .... they weren't having you on.