By Clayton Simpson

I saw a bunch of bodies in flames each time I passed through the burning ghats and a handful of processions including that of what must have been a Brahmim (or higher caste) person for there was more ritual and fanfare involved in the affair. A few wailing horn players preceded the body; they were actually quite good in their mournful jazz style. There was a larger than usual group of people following. There were more adornments on the corpse, even balloons. The women intersected the procession in the alleyways at one stage to grab at the adornments and burst some of the balloons. The corpse was circled and prayed to before
being put to flames.

Otherwise in Varanasi I saw a couple of major Hindu temples, did my best to keep from stepping in cow shit and stay out of the cows’, buffalos’ and goats’ way in the alleyways and indulged in a few bhang lassis.Bhang, a form of mulched-up marijuana, was being sold by a "government authorised" shop for a few rupees. Terribly potent, it distinctly flavours your lassi and most times sent me into a deep sleep with a whole body stone.

Calcutta was bustling. I stayed a few days and caught ‘Devdas’, the new Bollywood blockbuster that cost something like 8 million rupees (or perhaps it was US dollars) to make; the biggest budget Indian film ever. Lavish production, polished, a love tragedy for masses, enjoyable. They were certainly packing ‘em in.

I visited the Victoria memorial, a grand old European building, that showcases an extensive history of colonial and modern Calcutta, a bunch of fine portraits of Indian leaders include Nehru and a
brooding Ghandi and little else. Calcutta was the
centre of British rule before the locals got uppity
about freedom, independence, human rights and all that stuff and then it was moved to Dehli.

Made my way on train to Agra, home of the Taj Mahal. I first saw the Taj from afar in a rickshaw from the train station and then from the roof of my hotel. It is majestic, a counterbalance to the sea of humanity that is a few hundred metres away in the Taj Ganj area. Thankfully for future residents and visitors, underground piping for the sewers is currently being built. Agra is a polluted city and the Taj shows some of the signs of that pollution in the staining of its white marble. It’s still the most beautiful building though; photos can be seen on my website at http://photos.yahoo.com/claytonsimpson

There is some effort being made to reduce pollution
with electric motor vehicles and encouragement being given to using cycle rickshaws rather than motorcycle rickshaws.

Agra fort is quite a structure also, in a similar vein
to the Dehli Red Fort. I believe the story goes that
the Shah Jehan had built the Taj as a mausoleum
housing his beloved dead wife. His son overthrew his rule before he had a chance to build a complementary black marble Taj to house his own body when he died. Jehan was imprisoned in the Red Fort for 8 years where he met his death and was also interned in the Taj alongside his wife (unfortunately spoiling, in small fashion, the symmetry of the Taj).

Dehli and passage to Old Blighty was a short train
ride away. I had mixed feelings about leaving India.
It was, after all, the main reason why I started
travelling in the first place. I’d intended to stay a
lot longer (and not to visit Nepal) and I wanted to
see a lot more of the country. But the heat and the
dust were hard to bear. The drizzling rain and
coolness of England was a relief. And I had wearied a little during my two months in this part of the world. My enthusiasm to go and see everything that there is to see in each place has waned. I take a much more relaxed and easy paced approach to things now. But, in
part, that’s the reason why I started travelling in
the first place... to relax, to take things at pace
less hectic than my ridiculous level of everyday
working activity in Australia. It’s a nice state to be
in.