Varanasi - quintessentially Indian / Agra - magnificient Taj

2005-06-10, Varanasi, India

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After a few days that we took off in Delhi we were back on the road this week again. Last sunday our nighttrain took us to Varanasi which is not only supposed to be one of the oldest cities in the world but the holiest place for Hindus all over the world as well. Thousands of pilgrims come here every day to bathe in the sacred waters of the Ganga and to pay their respects at the temples that stretch all along the riverside ghats. Furthermore many cremation grounds are here to be found since those who die in Varanasi or those who have coosen to die in Varanais are guaranteed the so-called moksha which is the liberation from the cycle of death and rebirth. So, as you can imagine this place is leaving us westeners with quite different emotions and feelings once you have been faced with images like jolly kids having their fun in the river, people giving oblations to the river or corps that have been burnt at the cremation ground and now are getting plunged into the sacred waters...

After Varanasi we were heading for the last leg of our India trip - the Taj Mahal in Agra. And despite all the hype and the hoopla, the beauty of this place is so overwhelming that you are getting amazed and astonished over and over again. All its beauteousness and elegancy arises especially at dawn and dusk.

...and almost by the end of our visit of the Taj we bumped into a crew of film makers that all of a sudden wanted us to be in their movie. Very soon after we had agreed to that - basically we just did it for fun - it turned out to be the last day shooting for the movie "The Namesake" by Mira Nair ("Monsoon Wedding") and it did not take long that we got introduced to her to get instructed for our scene. By then it emerged that she wanted to have a couple in that scene so she decided just on Karsten to co-star... and now it was up to him to redo that scene over and over again. After more than 15 takes everything was finally fitting to Mira's ideas and a long shooting session was finsihed :o) The movie is due to be released during some european festivals in spring 2006 and is planned to be released in all major cinemas in autumn 2006. So watch out :o) .... Last night then we returned back to Delhi where today we will enjoy the remaining time with shopping & some more sightseeing before tomorrow morning the time has come to say good-bye to India.