I was going to say something about being "off the beaten track", but in fact this track is the most beaten of any track in human history. You'll probably have seen the Kumbh Mela and other Hindu pilgrimages in the news. Literally hundreds of millions of people are on the move.
I myself am completely indifferent to all religions, but still it's quite touching to see the lengths, physical and financial, that people go to in order to fulfil what they perceive as their spiritual duty. That said, bathing in the Ganges is one thing, but the tradition of dunking yourself in it, and indeed drinking from it, is deeply problematic. Partly because the Ganges is full of sewage, and partly because the Ganges is full of corpses. I suppose people can risk their own lives if they really want to. But encouraging your children to do the same is downright criminal.
Also there has been some awful loss of life in stampedes and crushes. Rest assured I'm staying safe. The problems arise when people are rushing for unreserved seating in second class trains, which is not how I roll, or at the actual ghats (riverfront steps) themselves, which I haven't been able to get near because the streets start to get blocked off before you're within a mile. Hence the total absence of impressive pilgrimage photos below.
The main pilgrimage destination is Prayagraj, which is vaguely like the Hindu version of Santiago de Compostela. But India's 'spiritual capital' is Benares (otherwise known as Banaras or Varanasi) and I spent a couple of nights there. I think I was the first-ever foreigner in that AirBnB apartment. Not only was there no TP, there wasn't even the upside-down shower hose option. Just a plastic jug, and a tap. Fortunately I always carry my own stash of TP.
Madhupur isn't on the pilgrim trail. It's a small town of only about 50,000 people. For me it was just a place to break up the long train journey. There my status was elevated from 'Minor Celebrity' to 'Actual ET The Extra-Terrestrial'. I stayed in a posh hotel on the edge of town and when I went for a brief walk along some country lanes, a car stopped and a guy hopped out just to ask for a selfie with me. The car in question was in fact a fairly plush SUV. I suspect he was a local political bigwig, with all the indirect earning potential that entails. And no doubt by now there's a Facebook page where that joint selfie is captioned "Constructive Meeting With British Ambassador!!!".
In Patna I took the posh hotel option a step further and had a couple of nights in the Taj. One can't rough it all the time, can one? But the downside of Patna is that it's in the state of Bihar, which has a) an area roughly equal to Portugal, b) a population roughly equal to Mexico, and c) an availability of legal alcohol exactly equal to zero. Yes, you read that right. No booze at all. Not even in five-star hotels. So it's time for a pilgrimage of my own, a spiritual quest to the nearest bar, which means getting back on the train.
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| Taj hotel |
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| "Amateur cricket at dusk" is going to be a recurring pictorial theme in this blog. This is in Patna, on the Maidan, a 62-acre city-centre park for public sports & recreation. There's a cafe at the top of the building in the background: see Edd vs Food below. |
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| Ganges beachfront in Patna |
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| From the house of WHAT now? I asked the head waiter for clarification but he had no idea. I'm hopeful that it's just an autocorrect thing. |
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| Posh country hotel in Madhupur |
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| Rural peace outside Madhupur |
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| Pilgrims heading home. Benares railway station at 5am. |
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| Edd vs Food #157 Murg Kohlapuri chicken curry with potato/onion/paneer kulcha bread At the Lighthouse Cafe in Patna, on the 17th floor. In the background is the Maidan (see cricket picture above). |
