Banaras – Lost in the Bylanes - II

The Kullad chai

The next day, we were joined by four others, who’d reached early morning on a train which was almost 14-hours late on schedule! We had our lunch at a Bengali restaurant, which served chicken. It tasted okay. After having lassi, we were back at the ghats. We took a boat ride, from Manikarnika ghat, where pyres burn all day long, to Assi ghat. Looking at the ghats from the boat was a whole new perspective. A lot of movie scenes played in my mind as the eyes navigated one ghat after the other. It was somehow nostalgic; I felt that I had been here before! After the boat ride, we went to see the evening aarti again. I got better seats this time, and a few good pictures of the rituals. It was 45-minute long again, and I was getting a hang of it. We left soon after the aarti. My dinner consisted of papdi chat and an overdose of sweets. We came back to the hotel where I had thandai, while the others had bhaang. We talked for a while, and played guitar before I went off to sleep.

Next morning, I was up at 7:30 AM and left for the ghats on my own. After walking around the place for a while, I sat down at one of the ghats, which was less crowded. I sat there for a couple of hours, singing, clicking pictures and writing about the journey so far.

Ganga Aarti in the evening

I had lunch at the temple. The food was served in South Indian style. After lunch, we went shopping, and I got a couple of things to take back home. Since my friend was a frequent visitor to the place, she gave me a tour of the bylanes of Banaras. Everyone else was leaving tonight, while my train was scheduled for the next day. Everyone else left to get their packing done, while I went to get some late-night dinner for myself. I spotted a guy making egg-bhurji right in front of my hotel, and my dinner was sorted. A cup of tea later, I was back at the hotel. We said our goodbyes, as everyone left at 11:30 PM. (Their train was late by more than 6 hours again).

Chet Singh Ghat

I came back, and slept at 12:30 AM and was up by 4:00 AM. I went back to the ghats, and roamed for around half an hour. This time, I had my camera with me. This is where I had started three days back and this would be my last memory of Varanasi, until I come back the next time. I clicked pictures of the morning aarti this time. While roaming around the place, I heard someone reciting shokas in the mic, which seemed like a perfect background score to the entire setup. I got my ‘jump shot’ as well, when the sun was rising, and I took one last boat ride. Seagulls gathered around the boat as the boat-paddler scattered food and called out to them with a long “Aaoooo” unlike Amrish Puri’s “Aao, aao”, in DDLJ.

When I got off the boat, I sat down and did a quick rewind of the past three days before finally bidding goodbye to the Ganga. After getting sweets packed to take back home, I came back to the hotel, packed my stuff and called a cab. My train was on time again, 10:25 AM. I finished reading ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns’ during the journey; got my guitar out and had a jamming session with the railway employees and a few passengers outside the compartment for about an hour. It was fun and worked as an ice-breaker. The next morning, we were talking about Varanasi – what’s good and what isn’t. Since most of them were locals, they gave me details about the place, and also told me about the places to visit near Varanasi.

Graffiti

I reached home at 2.30 PM the next day. And mom had prepared fish for lunch. As I ate my lunch, my thoughts wandered back to the vacation that I had just had and they were lost in the by lanes of Varanasi.

This visit was special, and it changed my opinion about the place. I just thought it was a photographer’s delight, but expected the Ganga to be dirty, and the place swarming with holy men trying to extort money from the pilgrims and tourists. But I couldn’t have been more wrong about the latter part. I was pleasantly surprised to see the various measures taken to keep the river and the city clean. The results were there to be seen.

And Varanasi, Banaras or Kashi, whatever you choose to call it, it has survived the test of time so far. The zigzag, narrow lanes, the ghats, the graffiti on the wall, they all have a story to tell, if you can listen to them. There are ancient shops, selling items for prayers, sweets, Banarasi silk sarees; there are tea stalls and of course, the famous Banarsi paan-wallah. They all have aged, gracefully. And the city, it has a beautiful soul of its own!