India is My country - Benaras

Benaras, Kashi OR Varanasi, a rose by any other name………..well you know the rest. But, this was a magical trip to say the least. So, something about this city was inviting. And an almost impromptu trip was planned to this magical city.

Nope, wasn’t meant to be a religious trip by any stretch of imagination. Most certainly a gastronomical one and perhaps indulgence in street shopping. With that aim in mind, three idiots set out on an excursion. We landed at the Lal Bahadur Shashtri airport. We had a rough outline of what we wanted to do, but by and large we were on a ‘what else is possible’ mode.

Benaras, is located in Uttar Pradesh. And it is not, your regular ‘Oh so beautiful’ kind of place. The terrain is rough, dry and rustic. It is easy to completely reject it in the first sight and wallow in – ‘Oh bad decision’ kind of thing. But give it a chance, and it slowly grows on you. YES, it does.

We visited the BHU – Benaras Hindu University. I was awestruck by the mere size of the campus. Such awesome faculties, unimaginable! We went to the Sanskrit college in the campus. There were departments like Vyakran, Jyotish shashtra etc. The teaching staff looked oh so handsome, dressed in Dhoti, kurta and jackets. The entire culture, environment was so so different. One’s culture and environment has an effect on language and the language in turn has an effect on ones thought process and attitude is my conclusion.

Trying out the local food was non-negotiable. We went to this fancy restaurant which served the most sumptuous local cuisine. The taste of this thali will not be forgotten for a long-long time. Street food of Benaras is something not to be missed! Yes we tried every possible chaat combination and they were OH SO GOOD! How could one give the desi ‘Kesar Benarasi paan’ a miss? The taste explodes in intervals in the mouth. Next on list was the winter special Maliyyo! This is sooooooooo light and awesome to taste, that someone like me, who typically doesn’t like drinking milk, loved it.

Next on list were the ghat visits. Yeah! Benaras is known for its ghats, there are over 80 ghats in Benaras. So there is Varna at one end and Assig ghat at the other. Thus giving Benaras another name – Varanasi. These ghats are old rustic and attached to each other. It feels like these have not just stood the test of time, but been on a pause in time. It’s like seeing a page from history in seven dimension. Explore these ghats by a boat ride on the river ganga or/and go ghat hopping.

Some of these ghats are for cremation. Benaras is this unique place where death is not sombre, it’s just something that happens. Perhaps that is why, here they celebrate life until it is alive! Life energy and elements of nature are welcomed at both dawn and dusk.

The Ganga Aarti is the next, ‘not to miss’ thing. The quiet ghat turns into a completely different frenzy during the Aarti. The invocations, prayers, and Aarti with music are oh so mesmerising. The Aarti happens during both, dawn and dusk. The diyas amidst all the frenzy look divine! The pandits with coordinated costumes, and performance transport you to another world altogether. I enjoyed the Aarti on Dashashwamedh on both evenings. Offering diyas in the river is a ritual, I enjoyed doing this every single day. It’s like offering gratitude with the purest of intentions.

I experienced the dawn Aarti on Assi ghat. This was a different experience altogether. On this ghat while the pandits perform the Aarti, a group of veda students invoke the elements of nature with their Vedic chants. The whole experience was so serene and calm. The chants, the fragrance of dhoop and udbattis etc welcomes the day with a promise and a hope. Here the respect and gratitude shown for the river, the sun and all other creatures is mind boggling. It just puts us humans in perspective and gets us to bow down to Mother Nature with moist eyes.

I also had an opportunity to sit at the ghat and see the world go by. It seemed like, one pauses in time with the city and life just goes by. There is certainly something about the ganga that can make one spellbound. Sitting on these ghats, forgiveness comes a lot easier. One gets a taste of what ‘Just being’ means.

This visit, nourished ‘my being’ is what I would like to end the blog with.

Picture courtesy: Khyati Thakkar