Kaleidoscope City Quotes

“Traditionally it is only children, holy men or the victims of snakebite who forgo the cleansing flames of the burning ghat, but with the city now so overcrowded, some simply carry the body to the river, find a convenient point and cast it in. Many horrified tourists, afloat on the river for a view of the waterfront, find themselves agape at the sight of a distended human corpse. All of this adds, too, to the rising pollution of the Ganga, whose waters only the most devout would now consider pure.”
― Piers Moore Ede, Kaleidoscope City: A Year in Varanasi

“Every fire on this ghat is lit from a dhuni (sacred fireplace) that has been burning continuously here since Satya Yuga. It is not for anyone to bring their own matchbox!”
― Piers Moore Ede, Kaleidoscope City: A Year in Varanasi

“Had supposed India was essentially unfathomable: it was too fast, too swiftly changing to yield to any categorisation. In Varanasi, however, I found a city whose spirit seemed to denote the whole.”
― Piers Moore Ede, Kaleidoscope City: A Year in Varanasi