It’s one of the ghat on the “holy” river Ganga … but looking at it – it doesn’t really look like holy (atleast not any more). Just look at the colour of the water …. it’s mud colour – n still people are bathing and washing their clothes. It seems useless to clean one self or clothes in this dirty water …. those body or clothes might be much cleaner than the river water. Actually this is not a temple ghat and people who live near these ghats bath here …. i guess mostly workers. These worker – they live in rather very poor condition … i guess for them surviving in todays circumstance is a greater challenge. But on the other hand i have seen the “well off” people take bath at a normal ghat … so is it really their emotional attachment to this holy river or they do not really care in which water they’re dipping in !! In my personal opinion i wouldn’t get in that water … if i have to feel all that holistic – i would rather go to Rishikesh or somewhere above on the same route. i was watching a program on Discovery Channel on the river Ganga … n they say the holy water starts to get polluted from Haridwar. So the “Mother Ganga” who is to clean people’s impurity is now impure itself. Off course we (spl. notherindian) are at fault including the government … they (govt.) should impose strike rules on industry and public – not to misuse it ! By the time … the polluted water reachs West Bengal … it looks like this. No wonder my mother says when she was young … the colour of this river Ganga was different – much cleaner n clear. With time things can go worse or turn towards betterment …in this “Go Green” period – i guess the futur of this holy river doesn’t seem to get better or cleaner – sad !
Wonderful line up. We’ll be linking to this excellent write-up on our website. Sustain the nice creating.
Not sure how old your mother is, but I left Calcutta in 1967 and I recall the Ganga water to be as murky as this and I did bath in it when ever we went to Kali ghat with my mother. The Ghat is used for funeral pyres and the remains are all washed in to the river, scavengers come and get the rest. This is nothing new it has been going on for eons.
It is said Maa Ganga can cleanse anything even the most un-pure pollution.
If you collect the water in a jar you can watch the sediments settle to the bottom and the water will become clear. The muddy water in Calcutta is caused by the amount of clay in the soil and the turbulence of the water. You will not see this upstream as the amount of clay is nil, in the local soils. The Ganga is polluted may be more or less than 1967 but the action of the clay suspended in the water does have a cleansing factor. You may find the water you bath in now from your tap not to be as clean as you may think.