On the way over to the ghat.
Today we went to the river for sunset, and the आरती (aarti), which is a prayer ceremony performed by Brahman in the evening and morning at the Ganga. This ceremony has several important aspects: fire, music, fire, costumes, and bells. Although the ceremony has been expanded and dramatized for tourism, it was still interesting to hear and see everything.
Today we went to the river for sunset, and the आरती (aarti), which is a prayer ceremony performed by Brahman in the evening and morning at the Ganga. This ceremony has several important aspects: fire, music, fire, costumes, and bells. Although the ceremony has been expanded and dramatized for tourism, it was still interesting to hear and see everything.
However, the ceremony did not proceed as planned for two reasons: (1) rain and (2) power outages. Early, the ceremony did have to stop because of rain, and it was continued after the rains stopped (about 10 minutes later). This shows both the power of the rain, as well as the vulnerability of all activities to natural occurances. The aarti also did not proceed as planned because of the power outage. As you may or may not know, black-outs are quite common here, and can happen for many hours or just for a couple of minutes (one example is a museum ticket that I have that says “sometimes power failure is regretted.” Another example is that the power has gone out during the course of me writing this post). Almost as soon as the ceremony completed, the entire area that we were in went dark, and we had to use the convenient torches on our phone to navigate. More importantly, though, this shows the gravity of the situation- lack of power can just shut everything down, more or less.
On the tourist and commericialization of holy practices note: it is an interesting combination of commercial and reality. While the aarti makes money for both the people involved, and the boat owners who take you around on the river, it also has a very real element, as shown by the number of people who participate actively in the ceremony, and the fact that everyone does get quiet at the appropriate parts of the ceremony. At the same time, there are huge advertisements next to the ghat where the ceremony is performed, and people are asking you for money, or for your picture.
After the ceremony, we went to a fancy Japanese restaurant and talked to one of our managers- Jay. He told us some stories, including stories of his interactions with snakes at home (he’s from the south). Apparently, he used to catch snakes all the time, including poisonous snakes like cobras! Things are definitely pretty crazy here.
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