THE NEW YORK TIMES
Photographs and Text by Michael Benanav
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A man dressed as Vasudeva — the father of the god Krishna — carries the baby deity to safety in a re-enactment celebrating Krishna’s birth in a Janmashtami parade. |
With around 10,000 cases reported daily, India ranks third in the world in new coronavirus infections, behind the United States and Brazil. The city of Ahmedabad — the largest metropolis in Gujarat, one of the country’s hardest-hit states — lags only Mumbai in the total number of Covid-related deaths. Though my first glimpses of India were in Delhi and Rajasthan, my experiences of the country were largely superficial until I got to Gujarat — the country’s westernmost state, which sticks like an elbow into the Arabian Sea. [
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Men wash before prayers at the Jama Masjid, an impressive 15th-century mosque in Ahmedabad’s old city. |