Bathing in the Ganges at Varanasi. On the highest steps of the ghats, a few goats forage amid the garbage for food. Beyond the temples and riverbank laundries, hundreds of crematory fires still burn. As the sun slowly rises on 9 December 1995, the Ganges and its waterfront surge with a tide of activity. Hundreds of chanting priests and pilgrims bathe in the waters.
Tourists take pictures.
Dhobi wallahs pound their laundry into submission. It is just after 6 a.m. Not far away, pilgrims of another sort are hard at work. At a makeshift warehouse in a government compound near the edge of the city, health workers and volunteers are taking inventory of hundreds of insulated containers of oral polio vaccine, destined for various city and rural locations. Varanasi area Rotarians have supplied 40 vehicles for vaccine delivery, with eight more on standby.