World Geography 101

The first time my mind went to the banks of the River Ganga was my freshman year of college.

I sat in the back row of my world geography 101 class and cautiously raised my hand when the professor asked us who would bathe in the Ganges given the opportunity. This question was prefaced by a discussion on the river’s polluted nature and the millions of bodies who have vanished into smoke upon her banks.

Unsurprisingly, my South Dakotan classmates of gentle virtue didn't raise their hands. Surprisingly though, I did.

Maybe I raised my hand because travel had never crossed my mind and I figured I wouldn’t have to make good on my proclamation or maybe it was my tiny budding values of cultural respect coming to the surface.

I didn’t know my reasoning but being the only person in the class to raise my hand I was asked to elaborate on my decision. I told them that I didn’t know why I would do it but if bathing in the Ganges was the desire of droves of Hindu pilgrims I figured I should give it a try. I also shared that I figured the bodies were mostly burned to completion before being swallowed up into the river and the likelihood of pulling a human hand out of the mud seemed slim.

I was mostly right on both of those things but today I would have a different explanation for my World Geography 101 class.

I would tell them that when I watched the funeral pyres burn each night from the balcony of my hotel room that I felt comforted because I was watching souls make their way to their next life.

I would tell them the energy I felt from watching locals bathe in her chilling waters in the early hours of the day was convincing enough to pull me in also.

I would tell them that I had never seen a more beautiful sight than when I watched groups of Indian women wash saris as they squatted along the ghats.

I would tell them that the bathing ghats are located upstream from the funeral pyers so your chance of finding human remains nestled into the holy mud is slim to none.

I would also tell them that if I die someday and am thrown into a world of Hindu gods that my bathing in the Ganga will be an excellent insurance policy for a better reincarnation.