Umbrella

Early morning on the ghats

An early wander with the 50mm to see if a morning blip was possible...it was but the WiFi has been down most of the day so....but the light here just after dawn is astounding...it makes an hours wander worth setting the alarm for..,and it's getting hot so early afternoon is become inactive....almost...

Much less insane day. The corpse returned to dead man's ghat, as it's been renamed, this morning...it had gone last night....but sanity was restored, which is to say that a game of cricket was going on beside it....later a group of 8 or 9 year old kids had taken the idea and were wandering around the ghats trying to extort holi money from all and sundry....later, he'd gone...
The holi preparations are already insane, the amount of wood awaiting flame is astounding, some roads out in the real world are half blocked off already, along the ghats it's a case of another day, another pyre. I've never seen anything like this. I can quite believe that the clothes you wear in the morning will be shreds by lunchtime....and you know the fever will be higher tomorrow as the excitement level builds....and I think that's the time to leave here, maybe north for a couple of weeks and then wander down to chennai....
And today?
Hmm...usual....
Went for a wander for cash and the possibility of a light bag, the backpack being a liability in the alleys and a pain to get into...lunghi has no pockets...and so, after a morning coffee....there's little rush here, it's pleasant to be able to wander along to assi ghat and drink one or two nice coffees slowly....I do believe I've slowed down....and then go along that road because I haven't yet...and then into a shop where I spent a couple of lovely hours talking to the owner, Suresh, about all sorts if odds and sods....why do you think people come to india ? he asked...I got my bag though...am afraid that I look like a bit of a hippy....and then wandered off with a free headscarf as I'd forgotten my hat and a Chilean woman scolded me for it, so suresh gifted me head cover.....

This afternoon the neverending jam continued...five of us took a boat across the Ganges, with guitars...so, there I had my swim....also got a mouthful of it, so took my drink, although an accident I think it counts...it tastes utterly foul...but regardless...after the last week I'm now, theoretically, physically and spiritually cleansed....and then the jam wove on as the sun set beyond the old city, some clouds tonight, gracious curves of pink, and then the first lights, half moon above and the first flower candles floating downstream...how wondrous again...and the music is such total joy....mostly me and AJ and a couple of days in we're getting used to each others style.,,today was the first real improvised thing as opposed to just playing chords at each other...the sunset song was "loverman" me on chords and aj offering up some sublime lead sounds...
It sprung up again in a folly bluesy mode back at the guest house.....