“My mother is 82 years old. She is a very active person, spiritually speaking. Since she was a child, she and her family used to bathe in the Ganges which for us is a sacred ritual here. They lived on the banks of river Gange, so it was convenient, plus the Ganges was the main source of water available.”
Today, she is the mother of a scientist and she understands the state of pollution of the river and the need to safeguard our main source of water. However, when it comes to daily ritual practice, she still bathes in the polluted waters of the Ganges. For her and for millions of other people, its waters still have the purifying effect, even if when she returns home she takes a long shower with soap!
“During the journey you are taking, you will discover many other people who are experts in ecological problems who, at the same time, consider these water still capable of healing anything. Plastic is the secondary problem here. First, we must work on the secular ideas that we have and that create our reality ”.
These are the words of Dr. Ashok Ghosh, president of the pollution control body of the state of Bihar, whom Alex and I met during a stop in the city of Patna, Bihar.
Written by
Kunal Chowdhury
Kunal Chowdhury (aka Totem) is a freelance filmmaker, writer, line producer, editor, and copywriter. He lives between Kolkata and Bombay.