The oldest part of Varanasi is a maze of pedestrian streets. Now, Varanasi has been continuously inhabited since about 1200 BC, but you will be happy to know that the old part of the city is not that old, mostly dating from the eighteenth century. Still, the streets are quite narrow. And traffic here–pedestrian and especially motorbike–can be quite as intense and daunting as vehicular traffic in other parts of India, and just as loud. And just as scary. A person could get killed here–but this is Varanasi. At least you’d go directly to Paradise. And too, this is India. It all works out without actual injury.
All photographs in this blog post were taken when I felt safe enough to do so. Which is to say, when there was very little traffic, none of it with wheels.
Here are two young men with a vehicular assault weapon.
And here are a sampling of the kind of narrow streets they might be using it on. Note that these are NOT one-way streets.
I particularly like this last one, which appears to suggest that the street would like to get even narrower, had someone not shored up the buildings on either side.
On this street near the crematorium, wood is piled to the height of a building.
Next, we look at some typical shopping streets. As you can see, motorbikes are everywhere. One nice feature is the benches and seats along the street–suggesting that an exhausted and harried pedestrian might refresh himself by sitting down. And perhaps the tea-wallah will be along in a few minutes with a refreshing drink.
