37/ 100 Bead Dogs

In Varanasi so much of everyone’s life revolves around the ancient ghats that allow the townsfolk and visitors easy access to the holy cleansing waters of the river Ganges. Now, I say easy access, but you will have to get a bit of practice on your stepper machine before you visit because, unless it’s monsoon season, when the river can be 10 to 15 metres higher, the water’s edge is a long way down from the street-level.

Not only is it a pretty steep descent but the precipitous steps weren’t built in a time where there were health and safety considerations. None of this is an issue if you’re rich, though. Even if you are in a wheelchair you can just use the lift in the ultra-fancy BrijRama Palace hotel that sits incongruously above the river.

The hotel looks very fine – it is inside an ancient building and definitely looks the part – but it is the sheer wealth in and around it that, to me, just doesn’t seem at home in a hugely spiritual place such as Varanasi. At around £400 per night there was absolutely no way even we were ever going to even see that lift, with or without a wheelchair. ¹

To avoid wealthy visitors having to trudge through the narrow and busy lanes of Varanasi to get to the hotel (there is no road access) everyone arrives by private boat. An airport taxi takes you to a different ghat further up-river before you and your bags are ferried downstream to the special pontoons at Darbhanga Ghat. You’ll know you’re in the right place because the staff fastidiously wash and sweep their gleaming section of the ghats to keep them nice and clean and free of manure and bright-red spit. There are even a few potted plants to add a bit of greenery. I guess they can’t ever actually own this bit of land, but I bet they’d like to. To save you having to walk up the steps to the hotel entrance the lift comes into its own.

The lift fascinated me (as you can probably tell). It travels from the lower reaches of the ghat up into the main part of the hotel. However, during monsoon the lower door will be 10 metres below the level of the water. Does the water just flood the lift shaft? Do the mechanical parts at the bottom not corrode? Do they seal the door somehow? Nobody seemed to know. I think I’ll have to do some prying next time I’m there to satisfy my curiosity. Also, I really wanted to use it some days when my legs were heavy after a day of trudging back and forth.

Our host and good friend Sonu grew up with the hotel on his doorstep, although when he was a child it was simply a ruined shell of a building; once a grand palace fortress. As space was short in the streets around that part of Varanasi Sonu and his friends used to play their nation’s favourite sport – cricket – inside the vast corridors of the empty hotel. During monsoon season they would dive from the balconies into the river and hang out in the empty spaces. In 2016 the hotel was bought and refurbished and I doubt there is much cricket taking place inside these days.

To keep the hotel’s part of the ghat clear and backdrop-worthy for their immaculately dressed guests to make a few thousand selfies the staff prevent stalls and hawkers from setting up shop there. This being India, though, they still like to try their luck and we noticed them slowly edging along the waterfront, in the hope of selling something to these people who must seem impossibly rich to them.

They also shooed away the dogs on a regular basis, although their religion probably prevents them from being too hard on the sun-seeking creatures. Unfortunately for the staff who were trying to keep their customer’s shoes poo-free, the dogs in Varanasi are just like the ones here. They have an incredible skill for being in the one place they aren’t supposed to be. In the photograph above these two pups, and the bead seller, were at the furthest corner of the space they weren’t supposed to be, slowly sneaking along the steps, little by little.