Everyone, in their short lifespan here on Earth, undertakes one journey which turns out to be more than what one expects it to be. I had a lot of apprehensions about the Varanasi backpack my friends had been planning for quite some time. Like any other planned college trips, I had imagined it to not see the life beyond the Instagram group. But from the various Google Maps scoutings and the countless Youtube videos, I should have gotten the idea that the group was something more than serious. Once I had straightened that fact out, I faced a new challenge: convincing my over-protective curry parents. It is not an exaggeration to call it an Herculean task- with being thrown at with points like security in the state of Uttar Pradesh and what not- but I managed to pull it off without losing a limb or two. And thus we embarked on this epic adventure, not knowing what to expect even after all the meticulous planning. This blog is an account of the amazing days I spent in the spiritual capital that is Kashi.
Getting to Ground Zero
Kashi did not welcome us with open hands. Rain poured from the sky like cats and dogs as soon as we stepped onto the railway platform. The low temperatures of December 2019 were hardly of any help. After quite an intense bargaining session with the autowallah, we dashed towards the parking with our heavy suitcases, having submitted to the eventuality of getting wet in the downpour. The four hefty city-boys, one of whom was half dangling out of the rickshaw getting drenched and a lean rickshaw driver, was quite a comical sight for the roadside chai-sipping locals, for I could see plenty of white sets of teeth. As if the single-lane roads weren’t wide enough, the rickshawallah informed us that the remainder of our journey, a couple of hundred meters, had to be through the famous and extremely narrow gullies of Benaras. The fragrance of hot piping potato sabji couldn’t escape us so easily and as much as we were exhausted, the temptation of digging into a hot kachori or two was enough to convince us to stay put.
We cannot ignore such tasty kachoris, can we?
The remaining part of the journey, though short, proved to be quite a pain in the arse. The rain had ensured all the garbage thrown in the gully, sludge from man-hole covers and the occasional cow (I hope it's that in the least)-dung mix into an irritating slush through which we had to drag our suitcases. This and the enormous labyrinth of inter-connected gullies, with intersections of all the possible shapes that a supercomputer can generate, we navigated bore fruits only when we reached our extremely comfortable and plush hostel.
Foggy Ganga as seen from the terrace
We had finally made it. We had made it to Ground Zero, our home away from home.
The Gullies
Walking through the gullies of Benaras is an overwhelming explosion of senses. It is a maze of narrow alleyways lined with ancient shops selling saffron kurtas emblazoned with the universal hymn Aum (ॐ), age-old silver wares, traditional Indian instruments like brass cymbals and dhols for aartis, green chaadar for praying at the mosque and not to mention, the frequent confectionaries with their fresh jalebis proudly on display.
To go places and do things that have never been done before – that’s what living is all about.
It is so damn easy to get lost in the labyrinth- the confusion is straight out of the Dr. Strange movie- especially if there is one friend in your group (and there is always such a fellow) who proclaims confidently that he is sufficient sans Google Maps. In Benaras, ignore the fellow. You. Will. Get. Lost. The story isn't so grim, for, you do gain familiarity with the way pretty soon, for example, we had identified markers along a few key paths! We walked a lot- I kid you not when I say that, at all! Checking on my fitness band while writing this blog, on one particular day we had walked straight for 13kms (That is 8 miles for my American friends. Use standard notations already!)
Varanasi is a beautiful amalgamation of contrasts- on one side on the road there will be a toy shop for toddlers while on the opposite side will be a vendor of sandalwood for the funeral pyre, the sweet fragrance of hot chai in earthern kulhad will fight for your attention with cold thandai being churned violently in its pot and the hot piping samosas from North India tugging at you while you are pulled at from the opposite side by the fluffy and steamy idli from South India.
A shop dealing with wood for the funeral pyre
A chaiwallah on his morning routine
As you stroll along, you are reminded of the plethora of religions and communities living in harmony in India. Each turn exposes you to a new and a different community or culture be it mosques, Maharashtrian math (मठ), temple of Venkateshwara from the South or Jain derasar. At each step, your ears are bombarded with a myriad of sounds- chimes of bells from a distant temple, a random Bollywood number being played in a hair salon, Vasudevas from Deccan reciting bharuds and folklores, and a random cow moo-ing at you as it makes its way amidst the honking of motorbikes and the tring-tring of the bicycles- all this as you skip over a poorly discarded garbage bin.
A lone sadhu strolling about the gullies
The streets of Benaras have the complete package to offer.
The Food
I would not be completely honest with you if I did not reveal that street food was the primary motive of us back-packing in Varanasi. Hell! We still don’t accept this fact without our cheeks showing a tinge of crimson!
I have two clear favourites here and I’ll get to them right at the end (:p). Let us first start with the obvious choice here- the Benarasi paan. The one we ate had all the pomp and glory but had no bang, mostly because it was meant for tourists like us. It would be my suggestion to try the one that the localites consume with generous amounts of kattha and chuna! Strong suggestion- Keshav Paan Bhandar!
Benarasi paan outside the Sankat Mochan temple
Baati Chokha was an amazing restaurant but the actual dish, litthi chokha, was on a disappointing side. I attribute this disappointment mostly to my region of origin. Being from the Deccan region, I prefer my food to be spicy! But the concept and the location were fantastic and a definite to-visit spot of Varanasi!
Litthi Chokha at Baati Chokha
Too much negativity? These were the only two items on the list that disappointed me. The rest were pure bliss!
We walked a lot to reach Ram Bhandaar (thats us in orange)
We hurried along the gullies to walk four kilometers to reach Ram Bhandar. It was past noon and it had already gone sold-out! Hum toh dukhi the hi lekin humse jyada dukhi koi aur the (We were sad but there was someone sadder than us). An uncle had also succumbed to the Sunday slumber and had missed the freshly-fried kachoris. Having noticed us, his sad face immediately glowed with a smile. He walked us to another kachoriwala nearby and the kachoris were oh-so-amazing! The only sad outcome was that the new guy was a legit street vendor so I don’t recollect its name but I do have a location! So if you do find yourself in a similar position, you do not have to wait to meet some sweet uncle who will have the same food craving as you!
Hing ki kachori
We tried Kashi Chaat Bhandaar one evening for dinner and this is a MUST VISIT spot. You will be blown off by the variety of chaat they have on offer. You will like a lot of the dishes, especially the Palak Chat - it was something different form what I had ever eaten and quite an experience! To top it off, we stopped for some rabdi at a random shop in the Dashashwamedh market- it was orgasmic :)
Khumbhkaran had nothing to do with it. Just my bhukkad friends and I
One lunch, I met up with my hostel wing-mate at the Kerala Cafe, obviously his suggestion. This wasn't a hotel pretending to be a high-end cafe. It was un-pretentiously authentic and served a standard Kerala menu. Well, there was a 'Kerala' in its name so how could we not order 'philter kaapi' (filter coffee, but in a South Indian accent). This followed with a zillion varieties of Dosai, uttapam and what not. Particular interest was attracted by the Fried idli swimming inside pungent steaming sambar! Definitely worth visiting (especially if you are a fan of Kerala culture and food like me!)
Pehelwan Lassi of Kashi is quite famous but we couldn’t try it sadly. We did, however, embarass ourselves with lassi and thandai laced with bhang and I still laugh at the stuff that it made us do! A friend who hadn't been hallucinated even once under intoxication suddenly found the room to spin at absurdly high velocities. Another was laughing hysterically at the slightest tinge of humour his ears could latch on! Me? I had the lassi just because it looked cool but unfortunately wasnt powerful at all. I'll have to wait for my turn to witness a spinning room or laughing my ass off. But it brings me to the two of my favourite dishes that were new to me and I would give anything to have them delivered to me in Mumbai!
Lassi and Thandai laced with hallucinogenic bhaang
Malaiyo/Nimish is made from milk cream only in the winters because it involves the formation of dew. Fortunately for us, our timing couldn’t have been more perfect. The malaiyo shop opposite Ram Bhandaar was ethereal. You cannot be satisfied with just one serving, trust me! The foam is so light that a bite doesnt even feel like one. All that is left on your buds is the flavour!
The amrut itself- Malaiyo.
Fried idli is definitely one of those things that I would like to go back to Varanasi for- not even kidding! It is just that- idli which is fried and served with a hot green and white coconut chutney, one complimenting the other! Fried Idli is the Vada Pav of Varanasi- and this coming from a Bombaiyya is a huge deal.
Lip-smacking Fried Idli
I believe that local and street food of any place says a lot about its history and the way of life of the locals. If there is no research paper to back me up on this, I would be more than happy to write it myself!
The Ghats
Varanasi Ghats form the heart of the city, where most of the action takes place. For the uninitiated, the ghat is like Marine Drive of Bombay- a continuous and picturesque outline of a waterbody that glitters with a dazzling show of lights, total 88 in number!
The ghats bear a resemblance to Bombays Marine Drive
Albeit, the resemblance stops at that. Marine Drive borrows its lustre and aura from the modern man- what with all the concrete tetrapods, cement paver blocks, morning joggers wearing expensive Adidas arriving in their swanky Mercedes and all the other urban jargon.
No. The ghats of Varanasi have, and fortunately so, not been taken over completely by the modern man and this is where its value lies. The centuries old stone riverfront has supported history of the bygone eras. The path that you tread upon has also been blessed by the feet of many ancient Kings and Queens. The stone that you stand on had, probably, felt the brunt of so many yagyas being performed by so many guruvars and sadhus!
Religious sermon by the GangaChatting with a benarasi street peddler, as he serves you a cupful of hot steaming lemon tea, you cannot but think about the thousands of people like him over so many years that have earned their livelihood by peddling on those very ghats!
Humans of the Ghats
One of the most important events to take place on these ghats is the daily Ganga-Aarti. The aarti takes place twice a day – one early morning at 5AM and the other at night. With a lot of zeal and over-confidence, we would plan on attending the former one but (obviously) would not get up on time. The first time we got to witness the aarti was just a fortunate coincidence. We were at Assi Ghat to find some clubs, thinking that we were late for the evening aarti, when we heard the blow of conches. Just in time :)
Ganga Aarti, as the name suggests, is a homage to Goddess Ganga and is what makes Varanasi so important and spiritual. As much as it is a prayer it is also a synchronised spectacle for the eye! The delicate movements of their wrists as they sway fans made of peacock feathers, the bellowing of the conches and the dancing flames emanating from the huge hand-held diyas makes up for an enchanting experience. If just the steps on the riverbank weren’t sufficient, opportunist canoe owners offer an excellent view of the aarti from the river.
The sheer passion in their prayers gave me goosebumps
The Ganga-aarti is an essential part of the Varanasi experience. Each time you watch it, it is always a newer and spiritually more powerful experience. Your legs cement themselves to the ground, your palms meet each other in a namaste involuntarily and with goosebumps on your skin, you cannot stop a tear of enchanted joy. Photos do no justice to the magic that engulfs you.
The Kashi-wale
The one thing that can be said to be in common between Marine Drive and the ghats is the myriad of humans you will get to meet and all it takes is a late-night walk along the river.
After witnessing our very first ganga aarti at the Assi Ghat, we thought we would prefer walking to Dashahwamedh Ghat- the main motivation being the amazing display of lights playing on the ancient walls. Ah! I am never going to forget this night!
Ghats lit up in a fabulous lighting scheme
So let me get this straight here- the ghats are not a continuous stretch of steps but rather staggered. One needs to jump sometimes from one ledge to another, bend a bit under over-passes and occasionally avoiding the randomly placed circular stones meant for propping umbrellas belonging to the priests and barbers.
We were parkouring and crossing one ghat after the other-waving at Sadhus enjoying the high from their devotion and meditation (I guess weed was more responsible than either) when we came across a foreigner gentleman with an unicycle, jumping between stones- carefully placed at strategic positions. Apparently, from among the small group of people gathered to appreciate his talents, one particular boy seemed eager to gain this knowledge. There were no words exchanged in this encounter among any of the involved parties- us filming, the foreigner gentleman and the local boy. It was just two humans exchanging their talents and knowledge (and us duffers with nothing to offer). This was just a raw display of human interaction- without even a single word!
Look at them go!
A little walk away, we chanced upon a couple of performers showing off their talents of balancing and weaving blades in air in a very graceful and hypnotizing manner. All this with another guy playing drums at a distance, just near the bank of the river.
Such grace in her movements!
We then made our way further and came across another interesting set of people. Against the wall of a traditional Haveli, in the focal region of a projector light and the beats of a Bollywood song was a group of dancers showing off their moves and somersaulting here and there. Right across them, seated on the steps with their heads facing down, was another group of teenagers, clearly engrossed in sketching. A friendly chat and one of them introduced themselves as students of architecture from Ahmedabad! They even showed us their sketches which they had worked upon for the past couple of days and they were so lovely and articulate!
Not going to forget these amazing people
Not content with experiencing this wild side of Varanasi (it wasn’t even mentioned in any of the blogs or videos we watched for preparation for the trip), we thought it would be appropriate to take advantage of the misty night. We headed to the terrace of our hostel and sunk our bare feet into the wet dewy artificial grass, closed our eyes and floated away into the melodies of Frank Sinatra playing on my speaker.
We met such awesome people till we reached back to Bombay! We didnt carry much packed food for ourselves on the train and the couple who were travelling with us noticed it. They insisted on us helping ourselves to the awesome mutter puri the aunty had cooked. No amount of our courteous denial would work and we finally gave in! If not for her, I am sure we would have starved that night!
And this is what travelling is mainly about- apart from experiencing new places of course- coming across such amazing people! You get to know the stories of so many people(and maybe become a part of their stories), get to know their cultures, eat their cooked meals :p and what not!
The Temples
Varanasi is a meeting point of many religions thriving in India- like Buddhism, Jainism, Hinduism, Sikhism and Islam. Naturally, the number of places of worships for each of these is pretty pretty high!Out of the 23000 temples scattered around, we are satisfied with covering most of the significant ones :) This is great considering the fact that am not much of a religious person!
On the way to Ram Bhandar, we happened to cross the Kashi Vishwanath Temple, the most famous temple in Varanasi. Dedicated to Lord Shiva, it derives its name from Vishwanath: The Lord of the Universe. This temple has faced a lot of hardships in its history - being torn down and then resurrected back a multiple times- and this fact was somewhat visible, for, there are few broken ancient walls here and there, dilapidated and defaced statues and plenty of restored lingums and artifacts. What surprised us was the scanty number of worshippers in the Temple line so we paid a visit that very night. It was like the temple as opened just for us and we also got to witness the evening aarti along with the tasty prasadum. The temple complex was very well taken care of, considering its violent history and I would suggest visiting it at night just before the temple closes to avoid the rush.
Kashi Vishwanath Mandir with a backdrop of the mosque (credit: CNTraveller)
Sankat Mochan Hanuman Temple is a temple dedicated to the Hindu God Hanuman. This was quite a quirky temple as it is supposed to take away any bad influence Shani has on your horoscope. The temple isn't maintained as much as it deserves according to its importance and there were serpentine line sans any crowd management! Somewhat obviously, the temple complex was storming with langurs and macaques! Unfortunately, I do not have any images of the temple because of the strict rules against photography.
Roaming the streets of Kashi, consuming fried idlis whenever there was a scope, we came across the Parshwanath Jain Temple. Since the rest of my gang were Jain, we could not skip it at any cost (there were a non-zero number of threatening calls by our parents which ensured this). The entire duration of us being in the temple premises, we were being judged by everyone present because of our shorts so our time there was considerably and comically quite less!
The Parshwanath Jain Temple complex (credit: ChaloTirth)
The Shri Kashi Vishwanath Mandir is situated inside the campus of Benaras Hindu University or IIT-BHU. I was pretty excited to go here because it was also the first time I was visiting another IIT! The temple has the worlds tallest temple tower and is made completely of marble so it was quite a spectacle to look at. And just like other Birla Temples, the temple complex was very clean and refreshing. The green and silence of the campus was in huge contrast to the honking chaos of Varanasi and we hoped to spend more time there. We met with a few of our colleagues studying there, passed a lot of time in catching up and then finally decided to walk our way to the nearby Assi Ghat for dinner-n-disco (Atleast that I hoped to find).
Shri Kashi Vishwanath Temple, BHU (credit: TripAdvisor)
We visited Sarnath on the last day of our back-pack. One of the four main sites for Buddhism, Sarnath is where Gautam Buddha preached Dhamma for the first time. The city consists of many monastries, Jain temples, archaeological excavations and a museum. The museum is also an interesting place to visit and houses various ancient artifacts belonging to bygone eras. One of the most important artifacts being the famous Lion Capital of Asoka- a sculpture depicting four lions seated back-to-back and a base having many animals and the Ashoka Chakra. Yes! The State Emblem of the Republic of India! The site adjoining to the museum forms the main excavation pit and the ruins of temples and housings. The Dhamek Stupa is said to be the location where Lord Buddha gave his first sermon. The gardens of the ruins were very peaceful and serene and we had no intention of leaving the tranquility but alas, we had a train to catch!
Shri Kashi Vishwanath Temple, BHU (credit: TripAdvisor)
However, there is one thing that upset me- the rampant corruption and thirst of money in almost all the temples we visited. The person who comes forward to offer help will not always have the best of his intentions in mind, for, he may demand money later on. The lad who offered to look after your footwear once you go inside? He will demand 20 Rs for the same. The Pandit who came forward to offer blessings? He expects you to put some cash into his plate. The random kid who offered you a tilak on your forehead? He shoves his plate towards you later. It is almost everywhere - sadly. It is not about giving away money in charity, for, am up for it. But it is in the way that I was constantly being pushed for it. Didn't click well with me :/
The story is not grim everywhere though! The ruins of Sarnath and the Shri Vishwanath Temple were kept in impeccable conditions, without any such nuisances nearby! You get more than what you give in such places, spiritually and economically both. All it takes is a bit of a thick skin and you will grow wisdom is knowing which helper is genuine and which aims to gain out of the help!
This trip was very important for me personally. I needed clarity in my life to sort out a lot of complications and indeed, what a fantastic place I got! I do not know exactly if I have the sought clarity but all I know is that I have some amazing memories etched into my mind. At the beginning of the blog when I tried to recollect this journey to the best of my abilities, everything went silent. All that was left was the calm lapping of the Ganga on the ghat steps, as the bright orange Sun took a dip into the Ganges, just like a saffron-clad Sadhu does to wash away his sins in the Holy Ganges!
"Benaras is older than History, older than Traditions, older even than the Legends and looks twice as old as all of them put together" - Mark Twain
Pictures clicked by my amazing photographer friend and co-traveller Parv!