VARANASI, INDIA

We visited the city of Varanasi for 2 days. Varanasi is a city along the Ganges River and a very sacred place for Hindus. It's approx. 3000 years old and one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. The Ganges itself, while important to the Hindu people, is terribly polluted. Over 89 million gallons of pollution are poured into the river daily. The 400+ million people who live along the river use it as their toilet and waste bin. Yet despite the high levels of pollution, we saw hundreds of people bathing in the river, including many babies.

We hated Varanasi. The narrow streets, extreme filth (streets littered with human and cow excrement) and the massive amount of (sketchy) people made it unbearable. While walking down a narrow street, we had to move aside to allow a funeral procession to come through. They were bringing the sheet-covered body to the banks of the Ganges for cremation. We watched as bodies were dipped into the Ganges for "purification" and then burned on top of wood in the open air. The problem, apparently, is that they don't completely burn the bodies, so when they throw them into the Ganges after burning them, there's a very high level of bacteria or whatever released into the river. One person in my office told me about a friend who was swimming in the Ganges and suddenly got her leg caught in an object which turned out to be a cow carcass.

We ended up spending only a few hours in the city and then escaped to our hotel. It was too much.

The airport (pictured below) was no treat either.

Visit to the Taj Mahal

Lots more photos to come, but we were delayed 2.5 hours on the return from Agra at an Indian railway station, so a bit too late to start posting lots of photos. Our visit at the railway station was an experience - huge rats, beggers, people peeing on the platform, street chlidren everywhere and monkies. Off to Varanasi tomorrow morning and then more photos of the Taj and our visit to Varanasi.

Day 2 - Old Delhi w/ Teresa

Day 2- Old Delhi w/ Teresa

A school bus, Indian style

The narrow streets of Old Delhi

From the top of a minaret

Also from a minaret

FINALLY!!!!

Praying at a tomb in Delhi.

On the grounds of IBM New Delhi.

Rajasthan, India

I spent 2 days in Rajasthan, where I was gathering facts on 2 trafficking cases which I am preparing for litigation. It was a fascinating trip, albeit very hot (approx 120+ degrees). The below sections entitled "Explanation to Come" include photos from the trip.

Rajasthan has a big trafficking problem and there are recent reports of young girls being kidnapped and injected with cattle hormones, causing them to develop breasts earlier. They are then sold to brothels throughout India and the Middle East. Despite numerous reports, the government has not done a thing. In fact, while we were there, we met with an aspiring politician who actually turned out to be part of the problem. He was supposed to take us to meet with families who had first hand knowledge of the problem, but instead he just kind of spun as around, leading us away from any valuable information.

My supervisor (the one on the left)

With Pankaj, a lawyer in our office.

Meeting with a family re: trafficking rings.

Rajasthan.

Explanation to Come