intro-दक्षिण

The City of Light, Varanasi/Banaras/Anandvan/Avimuktkshetra, is an experience that everyone in this world has to go through, twice. There is too much to Varanasi which cannot be seen and experienced in one trip. Our 10 day college course in Varanasi was a short amount of time to fully absorb what this city has to give, but it was definitely enough time to open our eyes to this amazing city.
I mentioned before that this city is an experience. You just need to put yourself there, and the city will take over. Varanasi happens to you.Varanasi is a package experience, from the lovely Babas you meet there to the public cremations in the ghats to the vibrant gali life, each part of it presenting a totally different life from the other, this not something any city can give you.
What struck me the most in Varanasi was the Ghat life. This city is one of the oldest cities in the world, and the only city which has had a consistency in its city life. The sights you see in the ghats are most likely to be similar to the ones that you would see there 3000 years back. Let that sink in.
 In my journey I have tried to put myself in the position  of the people of Varanasi; and experience the place through their eyes. It was very difficult to do this but the perspective I experienced was worth the effort; and hopefully I can reflect my experience in you.

Also, a reason why I could enjoy this city so much, looking past the noise, the crowd, the traffic, and the chaos, was Diana L Eck's book "Banaras : The City of Light". It is a brilliant book, introduced to me by my Achan; the Varanasi experience would not have been the same without it.


[Starting the blog with this picture. My favourite shot from the journey which, I feel, shows exactly what I was trying to say earlier in the introduction]

Hello Varanasi, Goodbye sins.

[Another entry, another photo]

Our journey began with an early morning flight, everyone was dazed and not in a state of mind to think about what awaited us in the City of Light. The first sights of the city gave an impression of any other Indian city - traffic, noise, cows, chaotic streets, people, and more cows. Honestly I was too tired to keep my eyes open during our journey from the airport to our BHU guest house. From whatever I saw, half asleep or half awake (yes, there is a difference), this is the first impression I formed about one of the most impactful places I have visited.
We spent most of our time in the BHU campus. It was huge, HUGE. The campus was a big part of my journey and did have an impact on our opinion of the city and its people.
Every single local we spoke to had this admirable and heartfelt attachment to their city. When they talked about Varanasi, every word of theirs dripped with pride, it was a delight to listen to them.
                I looked like an obvious outsider for some reason, and my brilliant hindi speaking abilities just made it clearer to them of the fact. So everyone I spoke to started random conversations with me, and all these random conversations revolved around Banaras, how beautiful it was and how this city was the greatest in the world. It was touching to see the pride and love with which they talked about their city and the faith they had in it.
I am glad I had these conversations with a few people before I actually went out exploring Varanasi, it really helped me understand and appreciate the place so much more . The love that the people felt for the city - this is what I want to find in Varanasi. The same exact same feelings for the city that these people have cannot be replicated in me but I decided that during the course of this journey my aim was to try to get an essence of it, and after my journey, even though it was short, I can confidently say that I have found that essence in me.

Something I drew the day before leaving for Varanasi

Oh My Ghat.

Varanasi is among the oldest cities in the world, and the only city which has been consistent in its way of life. That is the beauty of Banaras. This can especially be seen in the Ghats, where the life has practically stood still. Not looking at the infrastructure of the place, including the "Old Temples", which are in fact quite new compared to the age of the city as Varanasi being the most influential and impactful city has been conquered countless of times so most of the initial architecture has been destroyed and reconstructed making any of the structures we see a relatively newer construction. But this is not the case when you look at the Ghat life, the sights you see today are very similar to the ones that could be seen more than 3000 years back.
Before visiting Varanasi, I had read all about the Ghats and the stories of individual Ghats. The place didnt strike me much in the beginning, but the effect of the Ghats when you actually see it through your own eyes is something which cannot be put down on paper. If you are looking for beauty or serenity or cleanliness, the Ghats is not the place to be, it is more than all that - those are just the superficial layers  which once you pass through opens up into a whole new world.
Each Ghat has its own story, Harishchandra : Story of how humble honest King Harischandra gave up everything he owned and his family to stay true to his word, Manikarnika : The Sweat of the hardworking Vishnu made a puddle into which Parvathi's earring fell in, Tulsi : House of the great Indian poet/writer, and so many more. Every Hindu local of Varanasi will have a favourite Ghat, it's amazing to see the passion they have for it. Especially during Dev Deepawali festival when around 4 lakh people stormed through the Ghats in celebration - Each Ghat had their own set up and music, and they'd try to beat each other in terms of the volume and the genres of music, some ghats had Disco music with hardcore bass beats, while others had Religious music playing.
Another thing that struck me was how comfortable everyone was with the way of life in the Ghats. From Children running around flying Kites next to bodies being cremated to Babas smoking Marijuana in front of everyone. It's like everyone has become so accustomed to the life that it has no effect on them anymore.
After being in Varanasi for 8 days, I feel like I have reached also reached a level of acceptance of the Ghats, and developed the love that the people feel towards them.
For me, the Hanuman Ghat will always be close to my heart, as that is the first Ghat in which I took a dip in the holy Ganga. The dip which put me in the same position  in which thousands of others who come from all over India and the world are in. The first dip in Varanasi, the same dip someone like me must have taken 3000 years back, I am in their exact same position - I felt like it was just the Ganga and me. Who knows, maybe a thousand years later someone will take a dip and have the same realization I was having during my escapade. I now know why people come here, my dip in the Ganga was the most important part of my journey in Varanasi.
Interestingly, the hyper boy I met during my dip who showed me around the Ghat  was called Angad, we were in the Hanuman Ghat. :)


You cannot understand and appreciate the beauty of the Ghats as an outsider or by reading all about it, you need to be there at that moment and not think about the consequences of anything. You are going to see a lot of dirt, lots of men pissing on the walls of the Ghats, Marijuana everywhere, garbage, dirty cows, cow dung, buffaloes bathing with devotees, dead bodies floating in the river, sewage drains - This is all part of their way of life, and you just need to accept it as it is and look beyond all of this. Bring out the Varanasi in you as I have and I promise you; it will remain with you forever.

Random Journal Sketches

Random Sketch

Swagger

You go to the Ghats, you have got to sketch
Ghats at night

Harishchandra ghat images.

Drew this on the flight back

Shudh Hindi Yo.

Any place you visit it is the people that makes the city what it is, and the people of Varanasi are a delightful bunch. You'd find a very mixed crowd over there, different ethnicity, different religions, different regions. So to understand and appreciate the place I went and talked to as many people as I could.
 I am a Malayali, and people, being little ignorant nincompoops, think that us Malayalis have terrible Hindi, it is very irritating. Yes I have confused the word nimbu for nariyal, yes it takes me a minute to figure out what a simple sentence means, yes I have listened intently when asked a question (not knowing that a question was being thrown at me), yes I act like I understood every word of what someone was saying in Hindi when I have no clue what was being said.... Ok maybe the ignorant nincompoops  were a little tiny bit right. What I want to say though is that my primary aim of this journey was to see Varanasi through the eyes of its people and to achieve that I had to get to know the people, and these lovely people ONLY SPEAK SHUDH HINDI. I cannot comprehend non-shudh Hindi, so you can imagine the trouble I had with the shudh Hindi.
All said and done, it was a different experience trying to communicate with them and sharing stories with them. Even though there was a language barrier; the emotion with which the people spoke about their city did come out in their speech.

The Hypocritical Aarti.

It's quarter past 6, there's an unusual excitement in the Ghats. People are whizzing by you in a hurry,  it's like you are stuck in the middle of a children's park, there's excitement in all directions. Some of the Ghats started getting filled up with people, mostly foreigners and tourists. Everyone was there to watch the "Aarti" happen. It's a really old ritual which happens every day at 6:30 PM. The ritual per se is quite old, but the show which was put on for everyone in the ghats is a relatively newer function. We see a bunch of brightly coloured, well coordinated men on a platform "performing" the age old Aarti. It's quite a sight. The smoke from the lamps of each of these bright men twirl up to form a huge majestic cloud of smoke and the sizes and shapes of the lamps keep changing as we go further into the function. The audience love it, all the photographers (including myself) are having a semi-photographic-orgasm. I mean, who wouldn't come to Varanasi and not experience and boast about their thrilling Aarti experience, which I can honestly say lived up to its expectations.
The only missing element being the locals of Varanasi, very few of the Banarasi population showed up for the Aarti. This got me thinking, and after this experience one of the topics of conversations I would strike up with the people there were about the Aartis. I found out that this present Aarti charade was only introduced 20 years back, before this all the ghats had was a small simple Aarti function. This sprouted a lot of questions and skepticism in my head. I know that I am not in a position to form a judgement about their daily rituals, but I am at liberty to dislike the whole setting for its lack of cultural and historical value, for it's tourism and advertising. Well, just one of those things that stuck with me during the trip, so there.
To consolidate my dislike towards this function, I will put up a picture I took of it, thereby portraying my hypocrisy - for which I unfairly blame the Aarti performance.

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Some photos of the City of Light

camouflage

:)

Interesting sight

Ganga maata

The night life

Center 

Early morning fishing