IT is 6 p.m. A couple of Hindu priests and a few men and women wait at the Manikarnika Ghat on the banks of the Bhagirathi, as the Ganga is known in the pilgrim town of Uttarkashi in Uttarakhand. Their heads are turned anxiously in the direction of the river upstream. Suddenly, from a distance, the sound of water running over the rocky bed emanates. This causes a flurry of activity: the priests prepare for the