A BRIGHT DAY

January the 9th

Today morning, for the first since we landed, the sun is almost shining behind a very very tiny curtain of fog. How nice, let’s have a cold shower !

We decide to be “tourists” today and say yes one time to have a trip on a boat over the Gange. Since we left Aridwar, we have set up an action plan which is to never say yes if we are asked, but to ask by ourselves from the silent ones the service we want to get. This applies to rickshaws, restaurants, hostels, water bottles, any business related shop, tchai… Basically this applies to every thing in India. So far it is definitely the best way to do it for us… if we weren’t so difficult. It can take us up to 15 minutes to decide on a rickshaw and we have been walking sometimes a lot because of being unable to say yes or to find somebody silent and sympathetic to ask from. But overall, we still believe in this plan of action. We are girls with plans (also called control freaks).

So, we plan to take a boat and we have noticed on the day before the right area (the Assi ghât, a bit off the tourist track) to ask for a boatman man. But as we walk by many boatmen, we are not quite convinced. Some are too old, and it’s hard to ask an old weak and skinny man to carry us around. Some are too eager to take us, and we obviously don’t like it. Some are scary looking, and we want to be safe. As we cannot choose between old, eager and scary, we decide to take a tchai. But now we need to find the right tchai… And then comes the new angel. He didn’t ask us to come to him, so we come. We ask for two tchais and are overwhelmed with the taste of it, not too sweet, real milk and a lot of ginger. Heaven. For the first time ever, we have a conversation of more than 3 sentences with a tchai man. And he teaches us how to make tchai his way… His mother is here also, preparing fire, a very beautiful old lady. Those people were so true and sincere, only looking forward to exchange with others. We needed it. Thank you master.

Still thinking of getting on a boat to feel the Gange from another perspective, we start our quest again and walk round and round our area for a good 15 minutes. After a long thinking process, we decide for the old man with the red jacket. He is old but strong and he runs so fast if he has to catch a flying object. Being on the Gange is not so special as we could think, even though the colours, the view on the city from there, the feeling of the water are great. But being with this man on his boat is something priceless. We try to talk with him, but words are missing. So we communicate with smiles and looks. A silent exchange. We reach the other shore after 10-15 minutes and land on a desert line. There is almost nobody, the grass hardly grow, only signs of people are to be seen (shadows or objects left behind). This whole shore is part of the Gange during the Monsoon. It is only where the Gange never runs that vegetal life explodes green and vibrant. How come this holy river, symbol of life and death, only leaves grey sand behind itself ? Being alone, feeling the space, finally you can breathe. It’s funny how quickly we can get used to anything. The faculty of adaptation surprises us all the more when we realize what we adapted to. This silence is not a silence, it exists mainly because there was so much noise before. As we get back to our boat a conversation in Hindi happens somehow – thanks to Bollywood movies - with our driver. We learn he has four “very good beta (sons)” and three daughters now married and in saree at home. We leave our man, quite happy with our choice, when he shouts at us and points in direction of his son. The son comes closer, smiles and asks us “do you want marijuana ?”, followed in echo by his two brothers. Very good sons indeed !  

Our man