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    Kaleidoscope City: A Year in Varanasi
    Kaleidoscope City: A Year in Varanasi
    Kaleidoscope City: A Year in Varanasi
    Ebook201 pages3 hours

    Kaleidoscope City: A Year in Varanasi

    By Piers Moore Ede

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    About this ebook

    Situated on the left bank of the Ganges, in the state of Uttar Pradash, Varanasi is one of the oldest continually inhabited cities in the world. For Hindus there is nowhere more sacred; for Buddhists, it is revered as a place where the Buddha preached his first sermon; for Jains it is the birthplace of their two patriarchs. Over the last four thousand years, perhaps no city in the world has stood witness to such a flux of history, from the development of Aryan culture along the Ganges, to invasions that would leave the city in Muslim hands for three centuries, to an independent Brahmin kingdom, British colonial rule, and ultimately independence.

    But what is the city like today? Home to 2.5 million people, it is visited by twice that number every year. Polluted, overpopulated, religiously divided, but utterly sublime, Varanasi is a living expression of Indian life like no other. Each day 60,000 people bathe in the Ganges. Elderly people come to die here. Widows pushed out by their families arrive to find livelihood. In the city center, the silk trade remains the most important industry, along with textiles and the processing of betel leaf. Behind this facade lurk more sinister industries. Varanasi is a major player in the international drug scene. There's a thriving flesh trade, and a corrupt police force that turns a blind eye.

    As with Suketu Mehta's Maximimum City Piers Moore Ede tells the city's story by allowing inhabitants to relate their own tales. Whether portraying a Dom Raja whose role it is to cremate bodies by the Ganghes or a khoa maker, who carefully converts cow's milk into the ricotta like substance that forms the base of most sweets, Ede explores the city's most important themes through its people, creating a vibrant portrait of modern, multicultural India.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBloomsbury USA
    Release dateApr 21, 2015
    ISBN9781620405581
    Kaleidoscope City: A Year in Varanasi
    Author

    Piers Moore Ede

    Piers Moore Ede has worked as a farmer, boat driver, surfing instructor, poetry teacher, and baker. He has travelled widely, and contributed to many literary, travel and environmental publications including the Daily Telegraph, the Times Literary Supplement, Ecologist, Traveller and Earth Island Journal. He is the author of Honey and Dust, winner of a D.H. Lawrence Prize for Travel Writing, and All Kinds of Magic. www.piersmooreede.com

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    • 4/5
      Varanasi is one of the cities in the world that has been inhabited for around four thousand years. Situated on the Ganges, it is the focal point for a number of religions; the two patriots of Jains were born there, it is where the Buddha preached his first sermon and for Hindus there is no place more revered. Those four millennia have seen a lot of history too, invasions, colonial rule and independence have all influenced the city.

      This is a huge city too, home to 2.5 million people, over the course of a year it will welcome 5 million more. Thousands bathe each day in the sacred, polluted Ganges. It is the destination at the end of people’s lives too; they come here to die, or to be cremated on the pyres alongside the river. On top of all that the city is the centre of a large silk and textile industry. There is a darker side too, not only is corruption endemic, but there is a thriving drug trade and prostitution is rife.

      It is this city though, that draws Ede back there to stay for a year. He spends some time with people to bring the city alive to us reading it. The book is intense as I imagine the city must be and Ede’s writing manages to transport you to this madly alive and vivid city. You prickle from the heat, the smells and noise assault your senses, you know that this place is where religion, culture, life and death all come together in one swirling mass of humanity. It is a book that is well worth reading, he has managed to bring a human perspective to a city that is one of the largest on earth. Will definitely be reading his other books.

      First book from the #WorldFromMyArmchair too.

    Book preview

    Kaleidoscope City - Piers Moore Ede

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