< p>[#image: /photos/53e306a3c2d3f39d3610fdf0]||||||< br>< em>Man overlooking the Ganges from Varanasi in early March.< br>Photo: < ahref="http://www.ahmedeldin.com/">Ahmed Shihab-Eldin< p>< ahref="/perrin-post/2007/04/new_blogger_joi#comments">By Tara Kyle< p>Our sister blogger < ahref="http://www.concierge.com/cntraveler/blogs/materialist">The Materialist, back from < ahref="http://www.concierge.com/cntraveler/blogs/materialist/destination_india/index.html">two and a half weeks in India, was telling us today that, of all the places she saw, it was < atarget="perrin" href="http://www.varanasicity.com/">Varanasi, Hinduism's holiest city, that moved her the most. Varanasi came up because of a post we saw on one of our favorite travel blogs, < atarget="perrin" href="http://www.worldhum.com/weblog/item/indias_spiritual_backbone_end_to_end_explorations_down_ganges_river20070402/">Worldhum, about a five-part series < atarget="perrin" href="http://www.npr.org/">NPR is airing this week, < atarget="perrin" href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9358334">"The Ganges: A Journey into India." On a 1,550-mile trip beginning in the Himalayas, < atarget="perrin" href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=2101062">Philip Reeves chronicles the complexities of a nation where burgeoning economic might coexists with abject poverty. The Ganges, which now hosts < ahref="http://www.caravantraveltalk.com/whitewater-river-rafting.htm" target="perrin">rafting trips for India's growing middle class, remains a key symbol of India's contradictions,particularly along its 7 kilometers passing through Varanasi. < p>Coincidentally, several classmates of mine at Columbia University's School of Journalism were just in Varanasi too, < atarget="perrin" href="http://www.coveringreligion.org/cs/ContentServer?childpagename=CoveringReligion%2FJRN_Page_C%2FCRHomepage&c=JRN_Page_C&p=1165270042587&pagename=JRN%2FCRWrapper&cid=1165270042591">to report on India's religious traditions. In her daily dispatch, < atarget="perrin" href="http://www.coveringreligion.org/cs/ContentServer?childpagename=CoveringReligion%2FJRN_Content_C%2FCRDailyDispatch&c=JRN_Content_C&pagename=JRN%2FCRWrapper&cid=1165426924434">"A Sacred Space Soiled,"Columbia grad student Neha Singh Gohil describes the dangers (typhoid,dysentery and polio among them) facing those whose faith compels themto bathe in the Ganges' polluted waters, and the battle to clean it up.< p>< atarget="perrin" href="http://www.ahmedeldin.com/"> [#image: /photos/53e306a3c2d3f39d3610fe00]||||||< br>< em>PUJA guesthouse along the Ganges River in Varanasi, India.< br>Photo: < atarget="perrin" href="http://www.ahmedeldin.com/">Ahmed Shihab-Eldin< p>You can read < atarget="perrin" href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9288620">Reeves' diary and listen to all five of the < ahref="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9252214" target="perrin">NPR< atarget="perrin" href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9252214"> shows at < atarget="perrin" href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9252214">NPR.org.< p>For English-language local perspectives ontopics ranging from public health and taxes to literature and film, check out the < atarget="perrin" href="http://www.desipundit.com/">DesiPundit Indian blog directory, including a recent entry addressing < atarget="perrin" href="http://www.desipundit.com/2007/03/25/crime-and-karma-in-varanasi/">"Crime and Karma in Varanasi."