In this photograph taken on August 23, 2024, resident Gulab Bai (R) talks to her friend and co-resident in the Kashi Vaas compound of Mumukshu Bhawan, a hospice for salvation seekers in Varanasi. Some stay only days, others wait decades, but the crowds of elderly Indian Hindu devotees are calm and confident that their one-way pilgrimage to death will deliver everlasting peace. Smouldering funeral pyres line the Ganges river in India's holy city of Varanasi, where thousands of Hindu faithful travel to each year from across the country to spend their final days by waters they believe to be sacred. (Photo by Niharika KULKARNI / AFP) / To go with 'India-Religion-Death' REPORTAGE