...so we turn inland and there find the Well of the Earring, where as he noted, one can find “Temporary Cleansing from Sin”.

As we have seen and will see again, holy sites fall in and out of fashion and fashion has rather shunned the Well of the Earring of late. Shailesh confirmed Twain’s view that at the time it was “unutterably sacred. It is, indeed, the most sacred place in Benares, the very Holy of Holies, in the estimation of the people.” It is still “a railed tank, with stone stairways leading down to the water. The water is not clean”. But whereas he saw “people always bathing in it. As long as you choose to stand and look, you will see the files of sinners descending and ascending—descending soiled with sin, ascending purged from it”, now it looks like an empty and unloved municipal swimming pool out of season. One really needs a Japanese-style face-mask to descend the steps and peer into the stagnant bathing pool which is so filthy and trash-strewn that even the most unquestioning devotee must think twice before dipping into this particular sin-cleansing bath.

Shailesh sees I am verging on the horrified and says, “It’s not always this bad. In the rainy season the tank fills from below and some people swim in it.”

“Some people?”

“A few.”

“But surely it must just back up with sewage?”

“It’s a question of faith,” he says and shrugs.
(The Indian Equator)