It is said that if the almighty is calling you will reach to him no matter where you are, what you are doing! Something of that sort happened with us too. This trip to Banaras or Varanasi wasn’t planned at all! So when it was clear that we would be spending a day in the holy city of Varanasi I was overjoyed. Here I want to give some background to this trip. We were in process of finishing our longest road trip by car to date- from Dhanbad in Jharkhand to Ladakh & back- the penultimate day saw us reaching the outskirts of Varanasi by evening 1600 hrs. We could have followed our original plan to drive the remaining 450 KMs or so the same day but destiny had something else in store for us. We decided to break our journey for one last time and entered the city unplanned!
I typed the Kashi Vishwanath temple on the Map and it led us to the Godowlia area. With no prior hotel bookings, I drove towards the Godowlia area where the famous temple of Kashi Vishwanath is situated. The famed ghats of Banaras are also easily accessible from this place. As we neared the place I seriously wondered if we took the right decision to drive in this part of the city which was apparently the most congested and crowded part of the city in peak hours. No points for guessing why! Well, after some effort we could manage to check-in to a hotel just about a kilometer or so from the ghats of Banaras and that too with proper parking! Those who are wondering about the parking thing must visit once to find a hotel with proper parking near the temple area!
I must share that a strange kind of energy was felt by all of us. Remember we were coming back from a very long and arduous road trip from Ladakh and till a few hours back all of us wanted was to just reach home at the earliest! We were exhausted physically and to some extent mentally. So this spirited feeling provided us with a sudden spurt of energy to explore Varanasi or simply Banaras- the oldest continuously inhabited city of the world, a city which is older than history- for a day at least!
Banaras is probably a city like no other in the country. The first impression of the city may appear chaotic but as you become part of the crowd a strange peace descends upon you as if making a direct connection with your revered god. The initial hesitation of driving into this part amidst the heavy traffic was all gone by the time we checked into the hotel. Now, after getting freshened up quickly we were ready to play our part as explorers of this city, at least for a few hours! The streets and the surroundings leading to Dasaswamedh ghat have been renovated recently and I must say the renovation was done in a tasteful manner. It appears that the city is trying to or should I say somehow able to retain its old charm even though there have been ongoing renovations all around especially, the older part where the ancient temples and famous ghats of Banaras are situated. It appears that time has come to still even though we could see the place has embraced modernity wholeheartedly.
There was a good crowd on this street. The crowd was comprised of people from all over India. The motivation to visit might be different for different people, some visit as casual travelers whereas others as devotees who were on a pilgrimage to this city. There were some foreigners as well. Add to this shopkeepers lined up on both sides of the street trying to sell everything from small toys to Banarasi saris to the travelers flocking the street. The street leading to Dasaswamedh Ghat is certainly noisy and it might feel a little overwhelming for the visitors at first. We were no different. We were on time for the famed Ganga Aarti. People flocked the ghats to witness the grand Ganga Arti of Banaras. The little drizzle that started sometime back could not dampen the spirit of people present there.
We were welcomed once again by the cloudy, overcast sky the next morning. The plan was to visit the famous Kashi Vishwanath temple and adjoining Annapurna Devi temple in the early morning before we undertake the last leg of our road trip. Even though the whole place has been undergoing a lot of renovations resulting in little inconvenience to the devotees visiting the temple the sense of calm amid the crowd trying to get a glimpse of Baba Vishwanath was just amazing. It’s all in the mind! The feeling cannot be explained in words and one has to be there to feel it. All that tiredness crept in from driving daily for past almost two and half weeks appeared to have just vanished, at least for the moment. After the Darshan, we visited the ghats again for collecting some Ganga Jal (Water from the Ganga river). There were so many requests to bring this holy water once the family and friends came to know of our visit to this holy city!
Well, the story of Banaras probably cannot complete if the culinary delights, the sheer number of them, available for your taste buds don’t find a mention. Varanasi is a paradise for foodies! From Khasta Kachoories to Jalebies, from Rabri or Thandai, From Chaat to Lassi or the famed Banarasi Paan to Peda, there is no dearth of food items available for consumption. Even though our stay was practically for a few hours we tried to fill our stomachs as much as possible with the delicacies available there!
This trip to Varanasi was just for one day or rather a few hours. It was unplanned and we were a bit skeptical to enter the city due to the short duration of stay. But after spending these few hours here I would say that we made the right decision. This short visit has also given me enough reasons to visit the city again and this time it would definitely be a longer stay.
Beautifully captured in words and pictures!
Thanks!
Seems like an interesting place. Thanks for the post.