The amazing abstract beauty at the polluted Varuna River
The soap suds floating on the river's water saddened me.
The day I crossed the Varuna River.
During one of my last trips to Benares, we crossed the Varuna River. I remember crossing it en route to Sarnath and exploring the river on the way back to the principal town.
We stopped the auto-rickshaw, and I watched the suds as they floated along the water's surface to the confluence of the Varuna with the Ganges River. I believe that authorities have cleaned the river since those days. Still, I'd like to highlight a few critical points about rivers. I will confess that I had given little thought to rivers until I read a brilliant book called "A World of Rivers: Environmental Change on Ten of the World's Great Rivers" by Eileen Wohl. The book opened my eyes—and my brain—to the complexity of river systems, and I wonder why I didn't give the book a five-star rating on Amazon. I promise to reread the book.
The image at the top of this post shows the basin of the Ganges River, excluding its minor tributaries.
Even minor tributaries pollute the main river.
When googling information about the Varuna River, I noticed people refer to it as a 'minor tributary' of the Ganges. Yet, suppose you examine the map I include in this post. In that case, you may understand that this minor tributary has minor tributaries of its own, which implies that the Ganges River has major, minor, and micro tributaries.
Allow me to take the discussion further. In 2014 CE, or around that time, the prime minister stood for elections from Varanasi, claiming that 'Mother Ganga' had called him to the city, and he vowed to clean the river. My friends have informed me that the government has invested in equipment to clean the river near the main ghats. This action is practical because it is visible, and many people visit the ghats. A close friend informed me that authorities had prohibited washermen (dhobis) from washing clothes for their clients on the riverfront. While this action has affected their livelihoods, it will not eliminate their business; they will continue to wash elsewhere and dump the wastewater into the river at a safe distance from the authorities. They will become invisible.
When I gazed at the suds flowing on the water's surface on their way to the Ganges, I understood that the civic authorities could not–and cannot - do more than pay lip service to the river cleaning drive. The Varuna River meets the Ganges away from the main ghats, and the soapy waters will pollute the Ganga as it flows downstream, away from Varanasi.
A river represents a complex system.
River systems are complex systems that exceed the comprehension capabilities of most people. Most of us in India will sing hymns to the river, calling it 'mother,' and then dump our pollutants into the waters. If we now wish to clean rivers from their source to their final destination, 'tech geniuses' will rub their hands with glee, sniff out business opportunities, and declare that artificial intelligence has the answer. Where human intelligence fails, artificial intelligence and machines will step in to fill the breach. Why do we need humans?
Photography at the river’s shore.
I climbed down to the riverfront and squatted on a couple of rocks, intending to photograph the waters at a close distance. After several minutes (and I ignored my two friends calling me from the road above), the beauty of the sun's reflections on the water hit me between my bushy eyebrows, and I saw the abstract patterns forming right before me.
In an earlier post, I urged you all to keep your camera in your bag when you arrive at the scene and to observe what is happening around you. If I had whipped my camera out at the start, I would have missed the abstract drama unfolding before me. While I knew I could create a few excellent color images, I always knew that my brain would drive me toward black and white.
I created a short video, which I published on YouTube and included the link here, as well as posting the video itself in this post. The voiceover is an English voice, and I used Epidemic Sound to create it using my voice – technology is advancing!
What did I see when I rose from the rocks?
I don't remember how long I sat squatting on the rocks–maybe fifteen or twenty minutes before moving to another set of rocks. Looking down, I realized my bum had been floating six inches above a pile of human excrement, and while I photographed the pile of human waste, I refrained from posting the image here.
Take care of your physical fitness! While my body is renowned for its inflexibility, I can still squat, which helps — and has helped!
A digression into my conflicting emotions.
Conflicting emotions ran through me that day. On the one hand, I raged at the abuse we were heaping on 'Mother Nature,' and the beauty of the abstract patterns mesmerized me. I realized, again, that you can find beauty and photo opportunities everywhere. You must keep your mind open to the possibilities surrounding you.
If memory serves, I was down at the waterfront for almost thirty minutes, and when I looked up, I saw my two buddies flapping their arms like tired windmills. When I climbed up and got into their autos, I saw their faces were red, and I put it down to their irritation. It was November, and I doubt they were dying of heat stroke!
I hope I have convinced you of the truth of the principal thrusts of this short essay. The first is that river systems are complex, and we cannot hope to understand them unless we study them well. Second, while using dredging equipment is an excellent idea for cleaning sections of rivers, it cannot clean the entire river. It is better to educate people and advise them to stop polluting the waters. And last, beauty exists everywhere, especially in the unlikeliest of places. Stop your nose if you must, or be blessed with a poor sense of smell like I am. But keep your eyes peeled, your mind still, and your senses open to the possibility of such opportunities.
Nature will always reward you well.