The Rains Came Down & The Floods Came Up..

This is a photo I took a few months back when we took some friends on a sunrise boat ride on the Gunga ('River Ganges'). This is at a place called Assi and it's a great part of town to hang out. It's got some good places to eat, some semi-decent guesthouses and along the Ghats* there's plenty of 5 rupee chai wallas* (roughly AU$0.092) where you can sit, have a drink and just take it all in. 

Take a look at that line of orange flags in the background of this image that are on the right hand side. The ones above the guy on the right holding his washing. The ones way up high, far away from the river side.

 

Because they're the same one in this photo. The ones on the right hand side, blowin about in the morning breeze. And yep, that's the Gunga way down there behind them too.

Because those are the same one on the right hand side of this picture that I took 2 mornings ago. Torrential rain in the northern Indian states is traveling downstream and causing the worst flooding Banaras has seen in the last 10 years.

You can see the sign for the Pizzeria in the above image, I managed to get across and get just inside the top level of it to see the damage. Below is an old photo of the top level where orders are made and the food is prepared in the wood fire or tandoori oven (the seating is on both of the now completely submerged lower floors).

  

And this is a current photo of the top level.

Likewise, these are some before and after shots I took from the the roof of our friends pad.

I feel so strange about these floods.

Part of me finds the whole thing terribly exciting.. and I guess it makes sense. I've never seen flooding in a city like this before and seeing areas I'm so used to walking, sitting and hanging out in being covered by 50 feet of water is wild, it gives these areas I know so well a completely different feel and actually makes some of them more clean and green and peaceful. 

But the other side of me can't get past the reality that these floods are wiping away peoples lives. I don't mean people drowning in the rising waters (though that's certainly a possibility), but that hundreds of businesses are completely flooded out, a friend told me that some of the larger houses and building complexes near his house that were constructed on the sandy banks of the Gunga have partly collapsed into the waters, and countless homes, particularly of the poorest of the poor have been waterlogged and gutted. Our sweet helper Rina told us that the water in her house came up to her waist and that a large amount of their possessions have been ruined. I imagine that this is currently the same story for literally thousands of poor families who have settled their lives on the banks of the Gunga. If you're the praying kind,I'd encourage you to take a few moments and pray for the people of Banaras as many of them are going to be doing it particularly tough for the time to come.

* 'Ghats' = The stone steps that descend into the water that run the entire length of the city
* 'Walla' = Literally translates as 'the one,' used here to mean "The Chai guy"