Articles by Rohit Ghosh

In Varanasi, it is death that gives one that sense of normalcy. The rising flames from the pyres at Manikarnika Ghat on the banks of the Ganga are as much a sign of the city’s spiritual legacy for all Indians, as they are that life and times in this holy city are as ordained. When the flames die, as they have died now, it indicates that something has gone very wrong. The common sight not so long ago, on the stretch from Lahura Beer crossing to Maidagin, of a corpse wrapped in shiny shroud atop a vehicle, has become a…

One corner of the open railway yard at Alambagh resembles a foundry. Strewn with pieces of scrap metal of different sizes and shapes, one can hear sounds of metal being hammered, sawed and cut and the intermittent crackle of the welding torch. But peep in, and you soon realise you are in a roofless studio where sculptures are being crafted from waste metal. In one corner you see an incomplete sculpture of Lord Buddha, and next to it, quite unexpectedly, a model of a fighter jet. Close to it, you can see artists giving final touches to a metallic dragon…