One trip in 2008 with some friends visiting Mumbai – Goa – Rishikesh – Delhi – Varanasi – Vrindavan. And in each place we stayed way too short, I was unprepared but totally passionate about everything .. what a people, culture, colors, smells and stories to tell.
Lord Krishna god of compassion and tendernessso many deserted buildings and shards and dust – hardly people around – Mathura / Vrindavanearly morning after a dark and sweaty night I had to discover the banks of the Ganges in VaranasiI went from one Ghat to the next one along the Ganges, watching the scenery with incredible light and people doing meditation, playing games or listening to fortune tellers – Varanasi, IndiaTo carry water to the sea .. Water is the center of everything .. literally here: everybody and everything ends up in the Ganges. Here the beautiful and the ugly, hope and despair, the holy and the profane, problems and solutions – Varanasi, IndiaChess you play together – Varanasi, IndiaEverybody wants to be a part of the future .. drink it boys (and girls but not in this picture) watch, copy, adapt, transform and grow. This tableau vivant looks very much like West Side Story (1957) but it is Varanasi, IndiaI lost everything my beloved friend fell in love with an Indian prince a marriage was quickly arranged, the friends betrayed all connections were past and precisely on this divine moment that day eternity touched me gently and all the heaviness washed away Ganga made all pure. – Varanasi, IndiaThe Varanasi Ganga Aarti ritual with diyas, chants, incense, flowers and a repeating choreography – VaranasiThe Varanasi Ganga Aarti ritual with diyas, chants, incense, flowers and a repeating choreography you never want to end. – Varanasi, IndiaThe Manikarnika Ghat early morning where the bodies are cremated since the 5th century. The fire has always burned at this holy site (ghat) for many many centuries.
