“Like I said, it’s interesting,” Laurie responded. “But it’s overwhelming to my Western sensibilities.”

“It’s like being in a number of centuries all at the same time,” Jack commented. He watched a nearby Indian snap open his mobile phone.

The boat ride had been a good idea. For several hours as night fell, they lazed up and down the coastline, mesmerized by the activity on all the ghats, but particularly drawn to the Manikarnika, with its ten to twelve funeral pyres. Silhouetted figures could be seen stoking the fires and sending forth explosions of sparks and smoke into the night sky. Along the waterline were huge stacks of firewood, some of it rare sandalwood.

Slightly elevated above the firewood was the pit where the pyres were built. Above the pit were steps leading up to a sheer masonry wall. Topping the wall was a cantilevered balcony as part of a large conical-towered temple complex. Beside the temple was a squalid palace topped by a nonfunctioning clock tower. Thanks to the fires and the frantic action, the scene projected an image akin to the apocalypse.

It was thirty-five minutes after ten that Laurie’s cell phone rang. She’d looked at the time before she handed the phone to Jawahar. She could see it was an Indian number.

Jawahar spoke in Hindi, and only very briefly. He handed the phone back to Laurie.

“Your bodies have arrived,” he reported. “The Brahmin has them in a small temple off that large balcony you can see from here. He said we have to come right away.”

“Let’s do it,” Laurie said.

As the boatman oared them in to shore, Jawahar told them they were going to disembark at the Scindia ghat, because females were not allowed at the water’s edge of Manikarnika ghat or at the level of the funeral pyres.

“Why on earth is that?” Laurie asked.

“To discourage wives from leaping onto husbands’ funeral pyres,” Jawahar said. “Traditional India didn’t make life easy for widows.”

When they landed, Jack and Laurie were fascinated by the huge Shiva temple tilted and half submerged in the Ganges. Along with Arun, they walked over to gaze at it while Jawahar settled up with the boatmen.