Dying for the Ganges: A Scientist Turned Swami Risks All

This piece first appeared at National Geographic, and was updated Saturday night. G.D. Agrawal is determined to die. "At the moment I am quite resigned to my fate," Agrawal, the 80-year-old dean of India's environmental engineers, tells me by phone from his hospital bed in the holy city of Varanasi. Agrawal hasn't eaten since February [...]