Floating Lamps at the Ghats of Varanasi
A big crowd gathers every evening at Varanasi’s Dasaswamedh Ghat to witness the colourful ritual of Ganga Aarti. Soon after the Aarti ends, a handful of visitors walk down to the river to light a lamp, put it in a leaf bowl and float it down the river.
I had long been wishing to photograph the beautiful warm lights floating down the river as it gently lights up the faces of people bending into the river. In all my earlier attempts, I was either not equipped with capable photography equipment or was trying to photograph from a wrong place. Things fell in place during my last visit a few days ago. I had the right equipment, found the best locations to get the photographs from, and luckily enough there plenty of people who were releasing these lamps into the water.
