The Ganges Mermaid 

“Triton: I consider myself a reasonable merman. I set certain rules, and I expect those rules to be obeyed.
Ariel: But dad, I...
Triton: Is it true you rescued a human from drowning?
Ariel: Daddy, I had to...
Triton: Contact between the human world and the mer world is strictly forbidden. Ariel, you know that! Everyone knows that.
Ariel: He would have drowned.
Triton: One less human to worry about.
Ariel: You don't even know him.
Triton: Know him? I don't have to know him. They're all the same! Spineless, savage, harpooning fish-eaters, incapable of any feeling...
Ariel: Daddy, I love him!
Triton: No! Have you lost your senses completely? He's a human, you're a mermaid!
Ariel: I don't care.
Triton: So help me, Ariel, I am going to get through to you; and if this is the only way, so be it!’
(from “The Little Mermaid” -1989)

A few days ago this charming and pretty mermaid came to the shore of the Ganges in Varanasi (Benaras).
It was almost before sunset, it was very hot earlier, I guess she was enjoying the evening breeze.
I was sitting nearby on the stairs of Munsi ghat, I took several shots, she saw me, it seemed that she didn’t mind but she vanished in the holy waters before I had the time to show her the pictures...