Baby, it's cold outside?

Perhaps not cold enough to be wearing thermals and layering on the sweaters but that's what my body is telling me. 

I seem to have caught the bug that was passing through the group of friends I was traveling with in Varanasi. The weather was also quite chilly there (and in Kolkata). Add to that the general tiredness that comes with hopping across the country and you have a sniffling Tina.

This may sound stupid, but I am kind of glad. Working for myself means that I am really bad at drawing boundaries. I will work late into the night, on the weekends, on public holidays because if I don't do the work, it won't get done! And I haven't quite figured out the 'balancing act' yet.

So being sick is, I guess, my body's way of telling me to just take a break! And I am grateful for that. Now if I can just be obedient and do that, I should be able to shake this off in no time.

As much as I have enjoyed the time away from my computer over the last week, I can't wait to start working in Lightroom again. There are pictures from two events, a Wilbur concert in Varanasi, and general Varanasi pictures in queue and I am really looking forward to sharing them!

I also have many many thoughts to blog about. Quite honestly, I can't get Varanasi off my mind. So difficult to organise my thoughts about this ancient, incredibly beautiful mess of a city, the amazing experiences we had there and the people we met!

As a person who always notices and analyses environmental issues in her head wherever she goes, I'm actually quite surprised that I didn't come away from Varanasi with complete hopelessness. The river is dead. Completely. There is absolutely no life in the Ganga flowing through Varanasi. All that is in the river is dead. Dead flowers, fruits, vegetables, plastic... even bodies (yes, very disturbing, but unfortunately true and sometimes visible). Sure it can still look beautiful, but it's a deceptive beauty.

And yet, something about the deadness of the river reinstated something that I strongly believe in. That even in the darkest places, from the absolute pits, redemption can happen. And though it makes me sad and even angry to see that we as humans have no respect for creation and conservation, Redemption will come. No matter how dark it gets, the Light is always brighter.