Futuristic cum medieval

I have this idea that Varanasi is the town where they thought of Bladerunner. The whole place feels like it's built on the ruins of an ancient civilisation where everything worked, but now people keep things running with generators, bits of string and generous application of the Hand of God.

The city feels like it is also supporting about 10 times as many people as it was designed for... every cupboard has a family of ten living in it, and people travel in vehicles patched together from pieces of scrap metal. Everyone wears blankets to protect them from the cold, and at night the air is filled with smoke from cow-dung fires, the noise of thousands of bicycle bells ringing and the crackle of electricity fizzing along rusty wires.

It is the holiest of cities and has the scariest traffic in the world. Getting home was always an adventure. Can't wait to go back.

jo
- posted by Jo @ 28.12.03