Benaras revisited

Years back, I went to Benaras (Varanasi) for the first time. It was a wonderful experience. I recall when I was coming back, I walked up to the river and told her that I would come back again and again.

To keep the promise, I went for the second time. This time around the year, weather is very hot. It was really difficult to roam around the ghats. Still, we tried our best.

This time my primary focus was not on the ghats and I was going through the alleys. I walked down the old areas adjacent to the ghats. Went to the place where they were weaving silk sarees.

Very often I was chatting with people and on one such occasion, we met one Bengali poet who had settled in Varanasi decades ago. He runs an inn called Kumiko Guest House near Pandey ghat. He was very friendly and allowed us to see his marvelous house. I was lucky to get to hear some of his poems. Those were very much in sync with the preachings of modern science and the origination of life.

It was only in the evening, I was able to come to the ghat side again… children were playing cricket, guys were flying kites, it came back to life again..

On a distant ghat, little far from the crowd; kids from the alleys have come together to dive into the water and chill.

One of the kids named Kalim got very enthusiastic when he got a glimpse of my camera. I was not in the position of making a choice thereafter. He was shouting at me from different locations and I was running one step to different one to click his diving photos. It is always fun to work with children and they truly made my afternoon!

As the evening approached, people started to gather near the main ghat, Dashashwamedh. The evening prayer (arati) at the main ghat is something which needs special mention. It is a spectacular thing to enjoy and relax for around an hour. It is very systematic and I find it mystic too. I have been watching the arati number of times; in fact all the time. The priests keep on changing some parts of the process to give a new flavour all the time. This time I saw that the young performers were wearing different colored clothes. People from all over the world are experiencing it everyday. They even participate in some of the chantings at the last phase. Another interesting thing to notice is the increasing number of camera or handycams. Last time I have not seen so many photographers; this time I was having a tough time to get a corner.

To be continued…