Yesterday I witnessed the arrival of the monsoon for the second time in the last fortnight, this time in Varanasi (aka Banaras|Kashi).

I was walking in a small lane, half way from my guesthouse to my tabla teacher, when I had to stop to take some pictures of the incoming clouds. You can see the result on the right. Shortly after that shot it started to pour down like crazy and despite my umbrella I got soaked from head to toe within seconds, the contents of my wallet and my travel notes suffered the most. Within minutes the lanes were transformed into torrents. Luckily my camera did survive, but I did not dare to take pictures during the downpour.
Today I saw a picture in the morning paper taken at the Dasaswamedh Ghat (also called Main Ghat). It showing massive amounts of water rushing down the steps of the ghat. It looks incredible.

When I was sitting there soaked to the skin, I thought at least the lanes will be clean afterwards. But it did not stay like that for long. Just a few hours after the rains stopped, the lane looked again like a garbage dump. This is one of the things in India I will never be able to understand, how can one do this to ones own living space?