Of idyllic landscapes and slow boats on the Ganges

a few boats for fishing

Inspired by Paul Robeson’s Ol’ Man Mississippi, the late Bhupen Hazarika’s most famous legacy is his ballad to the Ganga as being a faithful observer to the paradigmatic changes that take place around it and about it. His passionate appeal to the Ganga to not remain a static observer to the degradation of humanity around it engenders a pathos to the idea of this might river. But the Ganga is no mere observer, as many would argue, that rivers have an organic economy of their own that come into being in the interaction of people around the river with it. This relation often serves to keep the sustainability and coexistence of man with nature within the horizons of the people whose lives depend on the river. Sailing down the length of the Ganga is one way of discovering what it means to live with the river and depend on it for livelihood for years and yet repeatedly find newer facets to its unparalleled beauty.

Beginning from Sitamarhi, near the Prayag at Allahabad, there is a noticeable calmness to the river as we set sail towards the famed meeting point of the Ganga and the Yamuna. The water bears the distinct difference in colour as the soft brown of the Yamuna seems to melt into the thick blue of the Ganga. Devotees take their ritualistic dips and my shutterbug hands are abuzz in the early morning sun. The river offers many beautiful sights to capture, all of which seem to be ensconced within a heavy silence. This reverie breaks as the boat nears any local ghat or other sets of habitations but as the boats meander through the spine of the river, it is the silence of one’s own surrounding that marks a great distance with the madding crowd. 

local sights of Bitthauli

We stop at Bitthauli ghat once to have a look at the local markets and the daily humdrum of a riverside village. Boatmen, fishermen and fisherwomen move in and out of the narrow lanes, stopping at the ghat for some work or the other. Ferries transport people from one bank to the other and rickshaws queued up call out to them loudly. Subdued vitality greets one at the entrance of the fishing village. Customers like their bargains as much as they like their fish and a quick snack while you breathe it all in makes this stop worthwhile.

We travel in one boat while a kitchen boat follows in its wake. Equipped with mattresses, a gas cylinder and a cooking stove, the boat is minimalistic and palatable for the simple traveller. As the day unfolds, the river grows increasingly broad and equally silent, allowing the call of white gulls and the drone of the boat to lull me into sleep. One look around though, makes one sharply aware of the lack of the famous Gangetic River Dolphin, referred to by many colloquial terms, the most common of them being ‘shushuk’. This one species has perhaps been the worst affected by the kind of industrial growth around the river. Polluting factories are known to dump industrial waste without strong pollution checks into the body of the river. Add to that the annual round of Hindu festivals and the daily ritualistic practices at holy Hindu sites like Varanasi and Allahabad that contribute massive amounts of ash, wood, dead organic substances as well as untreated human waste leading to rapid degradation of freshwater life in the Ganga. 

Besides the fall in population of the dolphin due to deaths, the other reason for fewer dolphins is their gradual movement away from the main river body in to smaller tributaries and distributaries. But they face many threats there as well since these are muddy patches with lesser water flow and the risks of getting caught by fishermen is quite high. News reports of dolphins washed up along smaller river banks were not rare in the last few years but were mostly ignored by state authorities.

sunset from the Chunar Fort

These thoughts are pleasantly interrupted by the arrival at Chunar fort. The fort has a tempestuous history – a site of rebellion as well as authority given that it is positioned close to where the Ganga turns southward to continue to its delta. The fort served as a crucial river port and an important frontier location for the Mughal Empire as well as its contemporary rulers such as Sher Shah and Hemu and subsequently went on to become an East India Company holding under William Hastings. The fort’s wide hallways and wells grab my attention and as I walk past stone railings, I can’t help but notice the elaborate network of staircases within the fort. The Ganga flows past the walls of the fort and when the boat pushes back into the river, the boldness of stone architecture again gives way to the silence of the river.

We camp on riverine islands near Chunar, resembling large sand banks which are largely uninhabited. These are mostly resting points fishing boats which stay overnight in the river. The boatman’s wise quips about this river’s multifarious stories and the smell of cooking from the kitchen boat fill up the void left by the milling crowds of Chunar and the world beyond. The fish our boatman caught in the river, all fresh, has now been nicely cooked and adequately relished. By nightfall, from inside our small pitched tents, the river doesn’t look like one anymore. It feels more gigantic, more sea-like. And it is with that image that one can tuck in, the rising tide gently pushing up the nearest bank.

the Ramnagar Fort near Varanasi

The morning is a far cry from the dewy sunlit ones back home. I see the vast expanse of the river island in front of me and the sun at its other end, staring me in the eyes. The Ganga mildly dazzles in the reflected rays of the yellow sun and after munching on some quick breakfast and a visit to the “washroom tent”, we head on to Ramnagar. We reach the Ramnagar fort by early afternoon after some comfortable sailing and this time, a busier ghat awaits us. Home to the royal family of Varanasi, the massive sandstone structure looks intimidating against the bottle green of the river. An afternoon stroll through the lawns of the riverside fort followed by a quiet seat next to the ghat while the evening aarti takes place, a few minutes away from the hustle of the Varanasi ghats, and there is sense of completeness to this river ride. Pottery markets and other craft markets are abundant in the area and a lengthy effort at finding the best in there is what must follow such an invigorating experience.