Having finally recovered from what ails me, I must say, Varanasi is an amazing and beautiful place. Just like everywhere in India.  Our hotel has an amazing view of one of the quieter ghats, and I see people bathing in the (murky at best) water all day, every day. There`s shit in the street`s and garbage constantly dumped from balconies, but every time a pilgrim passes a holy cow they stroke the fur and touch their forehead muttering a puja. It`s worth it, the hop-skip-jump avoiding of cow patties as we walk, the yelling and hassling of the varanasi tourist shuffle. Today I volunteered at a school and helped prepare lunch for the children. I finally learned how to properly peel a potato. To think all these years I was peeling the skins away from me.And there are puppies living underneath our hotel, and I don't know what to do, they live in a garbage heap and there mother is sick and has no milk to feed them. I think they are starving. I bring them curd (yogurt), but what happens when I leave. I think about them at night sometimes. This is life, yes. And there are many dying and starving puppies in this city. These particular ones I am taken with. Its a bad habit I picked up in Mexico.[slideshow]