Varanasi, city of beauty vs. ugliness

Today I went in to get Mr. Gupta to for his lunch that was delivered as usual from home.   Mr. Saha told me, say this to him in Hindi, he will be shocked and surprised.  So I knocked and went into his office and said “Buk leghit, challyeh Khana Khana Hey!”  (“I’m hungry, lets eat lunch!) –he and two guys were in his office and burst into laughter but said Marni, we are talking about an incident today that is very upsetting—one of my BEST friends (of Mr. Guptas) owns several gas stations in Varanasi.  He has a guy that has worked for him for 10-12 years, a long time, who takes the cash to the bank three times a day—the overnight money he takes at 9 am, then 12pm, then at 4 pm he takes the rest of the day’s cash to the bank for deposit.  He has done this same routine (on a motorcycle—mistake number one, you should always be in a car) for many years.

Pastoral scene of grazing cows, goats, dogs in varanasi

“Today, he was attacked by three men in black head wraps with guns and they shot him two bullets in the chest and murdered him, took all the money, and started to try to get away.”  This all happened in front of a huge crowd, like right in front of their faces, and they grabbed two of the guys, the crowd started picking up stones, bricks, wood scraps, and they beat the killer and one other guy until they were near death.  They took the gun, shot the rest of the bullets (maybe 4 left) up into the sky to empty the gun.  Now, the police began to arrive.  The crowd ran away, not wanting to be caught as the “killers” of the murderer.   The third killer got away by running away through the crowd.  The police captured the two killers that the crowd had apprehended and took them into custody, beating and torturing them until they gave up the name and address of the third guy, whom the police found and found with the money and captured him.  The two guys beaten by the crowd will die, say the doctors.

Obviously we have horrible murders every day in the US, but somehow this was so much different, with a crowd of people that would catch and beat the killer right there because they witnessed it and there was NO question as to who did it, etc.   I told them, in the US they would never do that, capture and beat the killer, no one would ever step in and do that…I found a visceral pleasure in the fact that people would take action like that. 

So I hope to find an article in the local paper tomorrow on this event.  Everyone in town knew about it, I went shopping for some scarves and silk after work and all the people at the shop knew about it, its all over town in seconds.  I might take a look at youtube and see if anyone caught it on their phone…

Amazing.  So—to all those who I have previously recommended traveling to Varanasi as a destination of a lifetime,  and extolled the holiness and sanctity of the ganges and the ghats, in the last 5 years it has become increasingly dirty, corrupt, disgusting and dangerous.  Siddharth, who is about 30, belongs to a city council type group of young business people who are working to improve the city, the trash, the crime, and all corruption.  They say it will take maybe two generations or two decades for them to overcome the current standard of living….til the older laissez faire generation ages out and dies…. I am going to attend a “Saturday night social” party thrown by their group tomorrow with Siddharth and his wife, all the new generation that is working hard to change their ancient city.  And of course there is karaoke and drinking, and I bought a new kurti tunic- gold and black--that is spectacular.  So I can’t wait.

Wow its never dull in Varanasi.