more india craziness broken down

we are in rishikesh, it's pretty far north from the chaos and stifling heat of delhi and varanasi. it's really peaceful here at the feet of the himalayas--not much to do but take long walks along the winding roads and paths in the hills and practice yoga. we've been attending classes twice a day and it's been a really different experience for me--practicing outside in the sunlight with our eyes closed.
i'm feeling much more comfortable and safe here then i did in any of the cities we've been to. there just seems to be this intense macho/misogynist vibe in many places--the more peopled they are, the more intense it is. i really felt threatened in jaipur, delhi, and varanasi. guys would just glare at me on the street--the women in hindi and muslim societies are veiled by the sari or the burka; they seem pretty invisible in some ways. a taxi driver, (a guy of course), explained that indian men feel it's their right to stare at western women because "indian women are shy, western women aren't", then he told us something like, "if a man and a women are kissing or touching each other in public, other men think that they will get to have a turn with her", what a load of creepy crap. and although i've never left any hotel wearing less than a long sleeved shirt and long pants or a long skirt, (even in the 100+ degree desert heat of rajasthan), and i never wear makeup, and the most affection emerson and i ever show to one another in public is hand-holding, or kissing on the cheek, i got this palpable, repulsive feeling that lots of guys were looking at me and thinking, "whore". like because of who i am it is their right to give me hateful/lustful looks. it's pretty sick. i was afraid to go out alone in most places--even in broad daylight.
it's much different here though. because of the proximity of the tibet and nepal borders there seems to be more of a gentle buddhist influence. after three months in south east asia it feels familiar and comforting.
so here's a funny story:
we spent three days in varanasi--which was awesome, but i don't think i'll ever return. one night we took a sunset boat-ride on the ganges--the view is amazing, the west bank is lined with ghats and at any given time bodies are being burned, loud ceremonies and festivals are going on, people are bathing and rinsing out their mouths with the water--which by the way is septic at this point in the river's course, 30 sewers empty into the ganges in varanasi alone--little kids are swimming, and at one cremation ghat we saw a guy tossing the charred pelvis of a woman into the river--a few yards downstream this old man was bathing and rinsing his mouth, and a bit further these kids were swimming and they thought it would be funny and good-natured to playfully splash emerson and i. naturally we were horrified.
on our last day we took a boat-ride at about 5AM--this is the best time to go because the rising sun illuminates all the temple ghats with this striking pink light. we saw the usual bathers, (on any given day, 60,000 hindus bathe in the holy waters of the ganges). so we asked our boatman if anyone ever got sick from bathing--especially now when the river is so low the water is practically brown sludge--we were thinking typhoid? cholera?
he looked at us like we were ignorant for even proposing such a question--nobody ever got sick from bathing in the ganges, EVER, he assured us. he told us that even he bathed every morning, and we had to admit, he looked pretty healthy. a few minutes later, as we were enjoying the view, we noticed this big plastic bundle bobbing in the water right by the boat.
"what's that?" we asked.
""dead body", he answered nonchalantly.
"oh....... why is it wrapped in plastic?" we wondered.
he shook his head, "crazy people."
yup.