Life, Death and Blue Lassi in Varanasi

We're tourists in India, so of course we have to have Lassi.

And in Varanasi, "Blue Lassi"is the original 75 year old TINY "hole in the wall" lassi shop.  Here they make Lassi in  the original way - grinding the spices in a mortar and pestle, making their own yoghurt overnight, and serving this delicious concoction in a terracotta pot.  And today's Lassi of choice was Pomegranate.  I'm no expert, but this is the best I've ever had.

    

This shop is so small, that the man making the Lassi, sits cross legged on the window ledge, facing a bench in the laneway on which he makes the Lassi's

The man who serves the lassi, has to go outside to the laneway to collect the order. 

Interior

You can fit 15 people at a real squash

Blue Lassi, just happens to be in a tiny little lane, quite near to the Manikarnika ghat on the Ganges.
And in Varanasi, Manikarnika ghat is the main place where people are cremated.

So here we are, sipping Lassi, laughing and talking about silly things as tourists often do.  Then a few men walk past less than 2 metres from us, carrying a makeshift stretcher with a dead person wrapped in cloth.  Straight after are more men and another body on a stretcher.  And another.
And 5 minutes later, another.

Of course, this lane goes straight to the cremation ghat, and 200 people a day are cremated at this site, so why wouldn't they come this way?

As a  tourist in India, I so often feel we are living this frivolous existence while Indian people are getting on with a very real struggle of living and dying.  

Our delicious lassi's