Banaras – Lost in the Bylanes - I

Shooting from the train
My train left at 12:35 AM on Friday, right on time - destination: Varanasi. I had a side-upper berth. The guy on the lower berth slept throughout the journey, waking up only to eat. He seemed well-prepared for the 27-hour journey.

               Varanasi had been on my wish-list for long, and when my pen pal from Kolkata, Debmitra, asked me if I’d like to visit the place with her, I agreed. The tickets were booked soon after. And I was on my way, finally!

One of the many doors
at Ramnagar Fort
               The train journey was quite uneventful. I clicked a few pictures, read ‘Tinkle’ and ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns’. I got off the train at Varanasi junction, at 3:30 AM, bang on time! The bookings were made at ‘Hotel Pragya International’. My friend and one of her friends had reached the previous day, while we would be joined by four more the following day. I got myself a tea first, before freshening up in my friend’s room, since mine wasn’t ready to be occupied yet.

Ramnagar
               We left for a walk along the river bank at 4:00 AM, still very dark. There was not a soul on the road except for a few policemen and a couple of tea vendors. It was serene outside, the calm before the storm.
After walking for a while, we reached the ghats (river bank). And I saw her, black as the night sky, with a white mist hanging over her. She was calm. This was my first sight of the Ganga at Kashi. We walked along the ghats till we reached the ‘Assi ghat’, where I got to see the Morning Prayer. It was a great spectacle. The seven young priests were going through the rituals, with well-lit diyas, conches and other props and a group of young girls reciting the prayers. Since it was very early in the day, there wasn’t much of a crowd around. I hadn’t carried my camera since I just wanted to see what it was all about before starting to click. After the prayer, we got ourselves tea, and sat down on the steps of ‘Assi ghat’. The sun was just starting to rise. Visibility had improved, and I could see the Ganga clearly now. Colorful boats, flocks of birds gliding over the river, and dispersing as a boat approached and hordes of people having an early morning bath in the river, trying to wash their sins away and tourists with their cameras. A crowd of sadhus (holy men) had scattered across the ghats, smoking, or extorting money from tourists.

Sarnath
After a quick breakfast, we were back at the hotel. My room was ready. I had a single-bed room for myself. Although it was a little cramped for space, it was clean, and equipped with basic amenities – but the TV wasn’t working. I freshened up quickly, and it was time for a tour of the place.


Chai
The Ganga
We hired an auto-rickshaw, and after bargaining a little, settled for Rs. 650 for the entire day. First on the list was the Banaras Hindu University (BHU) campus. It is huge, with the Kashi Vishwanath temple within. We explored the place a bit, before heading to Ramnagar Fort. The ticket cost was Rs. 50, but it wasn’t maintained too well. The best part about the place is a balcony that overlooks the Ganga. After going around the fort once, we left for our next destination – Sarnath. Sarnath is supposed to be the place where Gautam Buddha found his first five disciples. It is a holy place for Buddhists. An impressive Buddha statue stands at around 90-feet tall, and a Stupa was excavated at a nearby archaeological site which is 128-feet tall. I liked this place the most out of the three that we visited. The structures were maintained well, and the place had a lot of history to it. We returned by 6:15 PM for witnessing the evening prayer (aarti). The crowd was there too! It was difficult to find a place to stand, we eventually did find one. This was at the Dashashwamedh ghat. After the aarti, we roamed the lanes of Varanasi, gorging on the street food and chai. I tasted some of the best rabadi ever. And I tasted bhaang for the first time, although in very limited quantity.

The next day, we were joined by four others.. Click here for the second part.

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