Street Photography in Varanasi 🇮🇳 People and Urban Animals

Canceled the flight to Tbilisi, Georgia, going to Pokhara, Nepal, don't ask me why - too psychological, too complicated. 😖 In the meantime, it's quite hot in Uttar Pradesh, so I switched to wearing shorts a couple of week ago, and I really enjoy wearing featherlight clothes all day.

Weather forecast for Varanasi according to Google Weather

Feel like a helium balloon without 3-kg jeans on me; back to real tropics, love it.

Sharing 24mm shots from walks on March 13 and 14.

Jangamwadi Road, outside of the old town - for a change. A busy street full of rickshaws waiting and working, full of locals and Indian visitors who came to see the Varanasi ghats.

So much is passing by you - colorful garments, faces, emotions.

And everyone is too busy to pay attention to a guy photographing strangers.

Back to the lanes, the girl asked me to photograph her, I did it quickly, and she was busy too and left immediately, softly smiling.

Religious art; India is #1 in the world from this point of view, imo.

Varanasi without monkeys isn't Varanasi... Did I tell you I have a personal ones? Yeah, they visit my room's barred window. and we observe at each other from a 50cm distance almost daily. Fun!

A short visit to the ghats:

Boys are participating in a sort of ceremony.

Indian kids love smiling, but not these guys, lol. Though it could be my fault - I turned back suddenly and photographed them - they probably got scared, little creatures.

Siesta.

Those colorful Indian temples and holy cows.

Coconut seller with her impressive coconut machete.

Another trash eating cow.

Doggy. They prefer sleeping on elevated surfaces. Dogs sleeping on motorbikes is the norm here.

Probably, too many died below hoofs and tires - evolution.

Guys. 🙂

And this is my stray friend Sonya, whom I've been feeding for a month every day:

She is quite feral, doesn't allow to stroke her, and even don't make me know she recognizes me. However, one day, I was late with the treats, and - as a guy from the staff told me - she sneaked into the guesthouse and came to my room's door and was waiting for me. 😄

Hope you liked the set, dear reader! Stay tuned - more posts from South Asia is coming! 😎

The photos were taken with a Nikkor 24mm f/2.8D (except for Sonya's image) on a full-frame DSLR Nikon D750 on January 13 and 14, 2026 (except for Sonya's image), in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India.