JOIN USUnfazed foreigners flock Ganga ghats again
Yet foreigners by and large remained undeterred by the incident and were seen wandering at the ghats of the Ganga fearless. Even a cursory look at the ghats revealed that foreign tourists were enjoying their walk along the crowded ghats.
“I am not scared at all,” said Aros Sedegren from Sweden who had come to the temple city on Tuesday itself with his friend. “We have been at the ghat since morning on Tuesday. We left around 3 pm,” he said. “It appears to be aimed at creating a scare among the foreign tourists,” he added.
“It (the blast) can happen anywhere in the world,” quipped Jane Hendrickson from Melbourne in Australia. Varanasi “fascinates” Jane and she “simply loves to take a walk along the ghats of the Ganga.”
Jane, however, received calls from her worried parents and she sent an e-mail to them to assure them that she was safe.
For 20-year-old Haizea from France, who has been learning Yoga here for the past two weeks, Banaras, as Varanasi is popularly referred to, is “very strange” and “very peaceful”. She also plans to stay here to complete her course.
“It is very sad that a girl lost her life and many others injured… but we are not scared,” said Maria Gomez from Valencia in Spain, who arrived here on Tuesday. Maria said she was asked by her friends and locals to stay indoors after the blast.
A subdued Ganga aarti at the ghats
The usually grand Ganga aarti at the Shitla Ghat in Varanasi was a subdued affair on Wednesday, reports DHNS.
The Ganga Seva Nidhi, which holds the aarti at the ghat, on Wednesday performed a “symbolic aarti” with only one earthen lamp. Usually a series of earthen lamps are used in the aarti, which could be watched from even from across the Ganga. Barely a hundred people were present to witness the daily ritual, which on any other day is attended by thousands. Even among them, the media persons outnumbered the devotees. Some foreigners were also present for the aarti, which lasted for only a few minutes.
“It is very sad that the blast has impacted the aarti, which is a daily ritual at the ghats and is one of the major attractions’’, said Ravish Kumar, a local resident.