circle stomp

There is an amazingly thin line between perpetrators and victims. It's a line of a similar diameter that keeps the hand, and sometimes fist, of justice from being just as guilty as those it attempts to punish. Despite the fact that society sanctions the job executioners it is still inherently immoral to tighten a noose or flip the electric switch on a defenseless person. Even the super hero role models we all grew up with, when looked at from outside the fantasy land of good vs. evil, existed in a moral gray zone when the exorcised vigilante justice. The police...do I need to even comment?

When we first heard the shrieks coming from the ghat two stories below the Waiter told us to sit down, that people were just preparing for the upcoming debauchery filled holiday called Holi. It was the second round of yells for help that got just about everybody sitting on the deck to jockey for a better view. By the time we were all situated the purse snatching and groping was over but the retribution was just starting. The Asian couple who had been accosted was out of sight and the local militia of fifteen to twenty five people were swarmed in a semi-circle around the Indian man who was pressed up against the fortress like wall of the ghat. Crying and pleading was interrupted by punches and hard kicks to the head. The blows were not the type that were just for show. The dull thuds echoed as if to reinforce what one might have missed from the visual presentation.

The scene degenerated over a period of maybe twenty minutes. The man made a thirty yard dash into a boat of packed with brightly dressed Indians who were headed onto the Ganges to release candles. The echo of kicks and slaps changed to the thud of bamboo poles as my bowl of ice cream was brought from the table to my nose bleed section seats above the event. I snacked on my dessert vaguely contemplating my moral responsibility while a Frenchmen shouted "Hay" like he really meant...something or another.

The police eventually showed up and after more smacking with sticks and an involuntary dip in the Ganges the perpictim was taken away. The response from other travels was interesting. Nobody could condone the actions but somehow felt like the benefactors of brutality. The beating was done in the name of our well being.

On a less depressing note:
the holiday Holi was a day ago. I don't think anybody knows what the holiday is about and if they do know, even more people know that that person is wrong. As far as I can tell its an excuse to throw small water balloon like bags full of toxic paint at each other. It was Awesome. The crew of people I have been hanging out with decided to start the game three days early. Just about everybody in Varanasi decided that no matter where they may be going, there was an easier way to get there if it involved walking by our guesthouse. Once Holi was over and we still had hundreds of bags...well next time some bible thumper jumps on you and asks why the monkeys aren't still coming down out of the trees and evolving, you can tell them its because your buddy Branden hit the furry fucker up side the head and it decided things really weren't so bad up in the trees after all.