I spent a year living in Varanasi and saw the fascinating street life on a daily basis.  It is a village of over a million people that is bursting at its seams.  There are two areas of the city that had me come back time and again.  First, the ghats down to the Ganga (Ganges) river were one of the centers of daily activity.  People washed their clothes there, went for a "holy dip" (as it was called), and even played cricket on the steps. 

The second area that I found interesting was the huge system of "gullies" that connected different neighborhoods.  They were small (sometimes only a few feet wide!) alleyways with the high walls of people's houses on either side.  This is where many old men would sit and gossip while sipping a cup of chai (tea).    

These images were taken with a large 4x5 camera and a 6x12 roll film back.  It would take me 20 minutes just to take the camera out and set it up.  By that point, most subjects had gone on to something else and were not taken aback by my intrusion.