As dawn breaks over the Ganges flocks of birds fly in to forage in the city. The streets of Benares, or Varanasi or Kashi, the old name of a city Hindus call the oldest city on earth, are narrow, crowded, and busy with the incessant ringing of the bells of cycle rickshaws.

By contrast, the river is a huge calm space, leading into the apparent endlessness of the North Indian plains, a space that seems to go on for ever.

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