As a child, many million years ago, one of the nicest things that used to happen to me was attending PC Sorcar's Magic Show , an annual feature back then. Dad, Mom, brothers, some cousins, uncles etc we'd all go and get goggle eyed at the sheer magic.... Sorcar, ever the stage master, would leave us spell bound with that special trick "Waters of India"..
Not so many million years ago, in fact just around last month, during the Dussehra, I was in Varanasi - Benares, Kashi.... call it what youl will - a kind of a family gathering, siblings and mom (hopefully dear departed Dad looking on from up above with that rather silly looking smile that sometimes crossed his gruff face). And a trip to Benares is certainly incomplete without that mandatory dip in the Ganges, she being the holiest of our many sad rivers. And God knows, the promise of a cleansing away of accumulated sins (of which there have been far too many to ignore) ensured that we (brothers, sisters-in-law, et al) took the plunge.
Not once, but twice, even thrice, some ten or twelve times, each time coming up for a gasp of air before plunging in again, eyes shut firmly to the floating mass of flowers and bits of cloth (Dussehra, after all, does have its own visarjan frenzy up north).
No, it was not piety that solely guided our dipping .... blame it on the Keralite genes that flows though these collective veins and the sheer weight of nostalgia, we see a body of water, we take a dip. And so, we bathed in the Ganges...
First at Allahabad (at the Triveni Sangam)..... and then again at Sitamarhi..... and yet again in Varanasi...
..... because these are our holy rivers
Despite the pollution, despite the muck, despite it all, simply because the water was REFRESHINGLY COLD, had a surprising nip and chill, a surprisingly strong current despite a placid external appearance... and enjoyed it to the hilt.
But, yes, honestly? We revere our rivers and pollute it too, at the same time, in a manner that defies logic, defies understanding, we treat our rivers (and our environment) in a manner that is beyond shabby, beyond description and yet, continue to revere, pray and worship.....
See the picture here: http://epaper.indianexpress.
Holy?
PS: At Sitamarhi, we'd just spent a blissful 30 minutes frolicking in the Ganga and were towelling ourselves dry and changing clothes on the river bank. A mere hundred metres away, a few people came and floated downriver the carcass of a white cow....
Holy river, holy cow!!
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