My Varanasi Trip in Pictures

Last year in November, my friend Vinod and I decided to make a trip to Varanasi. I had been there once a few years earlier and something that I can't explain kept calling me back. It was the first time for Vinod and I knew that with him being a devout Hindu, I would be experiencing and learning about things that I wouldn't otherwise.

Being the oldest living city, Varanasi attracts hoards of tourists from across the world. Hindu's go to this Holy city to wash away their sins and offer their prayers at various important temples, Kashi Vishvanath being the holiest of all the Lord Shiva temples. Most foreign travelers include Varanasi in their itinerary because a trip to India would simply be incomplete without it. 

Whether it's religion or curiosity that draws you to Varanasi, almost everyone I've encountered agrees that it's a place like no other. Both times I was there, I took literally hundreds of photos. Here are just a few to give you a glimpse into my last stay.

What better way to start your day than with prayer. Mornings in Varanasi are really my favorite time, beginning with a beautiful sunrise, the waking up of the ghats, boats floating gently in the Ganga river and temple bells in the background. 

Mornings are also a great time to go for a boat ride. Feeding the birds is optional but so much fun.

Its time to eat! On all four days, breakfast consisted of kachoris and jalebis (see bottom), which is probably as unhealthy as one can get. Never went back to the same place and we saved the best for our last day, which was a 20 minute hike from our hotel. A brisk morning walk followed by consuming a million calories!

This photo with 5 humans and a dog clustered together makes me smile. Is personal space overrated? Does sharing space actually bring us more joy? I encounter a lot of loneliness amongst the more affluent. Have we forgotten how to share our time, our space, our joys and sorrows in the real world because we're so busy sharing our lives on social networks?

Hindu's believe that bathing in the Holy Ganga river will wash away their sins. These two are unabashedly having a great time. No sins to wash so let's just have some fun!

The choreographed Ganga aarti (evening prayers by the Ganges river) is spectacular and Vinod and I looked forward to it every evening that we were there. Varanasi gets a large number of foreign tourists, one of who from the UK confessed to me that it was this evening aarti that had brought her back for a second visit. 

Man or animal, there's a lot of introspection that happens in Varanasi

Your head finds so much that is wrong with Varanasi. Your heart, on the other hand, just chooses to look at everything that makes this oldest living city so incredibly special.

Varanasi can never be explained. It can only be experienced. You either love it or you hate it and I completely understand both emotions. The love that I have for it, sometimes even takes me by surprise.

Shortly before heading to Sarnath and then the airport,  I decided to walk around the ghats one last time. It was late afternoon, strangely quiet and I was trying to absorb the sights and sounds that are so unique to Varanasi. Even though I had been there for 4 days, I knew that there was still so much that I was leaving behind to discover in my next visit. 

There's something about Varanasi - Part 3 - 'Of Boatmen and Massuers'

The sun rises over the Ganga

Mornings in Varanasi were pretty magical. On the first morning the Ghats were quiet and peaceful where one got to watch a spectacular sunrise over the Ganga, people going about their morning duties, a few bathers and mostly tourists. The second morning on the other hand was vastly different. Apparently hordes of sadhu’s (holy men) from the Maha kumbh mela at Allahabad had set up camp in Varanasi and I couldn’t be happier that they did. One has to be extremely lucky to have a radically different experience in the exact same spot on back to back days.

It may also have been an auspicious bathing day since there seemed like so many more people washing off their sins in the Ganges. At some places it was like an almost-nudist colony but nobody was batting an eyelid. Since I’ve never sinned, I didn’t feel the need to jump into the river and cleanse myself. 

Washing away their sins

My favorite Sadhu

And of course my life being what it is, there had to also be an amusing incident on the cards. Once the sun was up and we were done clicking, what seemed like a million pictures, we decided to sit on the steps and just relax for a while. A lean, elderly, scruffy old man came up to me and held out his hand. I did the polite thing and shook it, assuming that he was just being friendly. Except that he wouldn’t let go of my hand and began massaging it, slowly working his way up to my arm and shoulders. To the right of me I could see Aparna giggling and to the left of me there was this local sadhu looking guy with an amused expression on his face. The apparently eighty year old masseur, a little guy who made me look gigantic, certainly knew what he was doing and it felt pretty damn good. He convinced me to lie on my stomach right there on the steps while he worked on my back and legs. Meanwhile tourists kept stopping by and taking pictures. I tried to get them to pay me for the photos but they just laughed and moved on. I could see from Aparna’s pictures later why it would have looked so hilarious as he sat on my butt and worked on my back.

The 80 year old masseur

Funny memories are our favorite, aren’t they? Especially at the expense of others. 

We had been for a boat ride the first morning but Aparna was very unhappy with our boatman. “He’s supposed to tell us stories,” she kept saying. “That’s supposed to be the best part of going on a boat ride.” I never remember stories anyway so I couldn’t care less but I thought that pretending to agree with her was the right thing to do.

So since our first boat ride wasn’t satisfactory, Aparna checked with a friend who referred Tinku to us for the second morning. Tinku had stories coming out of everywhere, most of which I think he was making up. The funniest thing is that after about five minutes Aparna stopped listening. So much for her complaining the previous day. We couldn’t however get Tinku to shut up, so when he suggested that he could also sing bhajans or devotional songs, it seemed like a good way to keep him occupied, while we continued to take photos! On a side note, I really did enjoy listening to his bhajans and even joined him during the chorus.

On the second day we rented a cab to take us sightseeing. As soon as we left the ancient city and started driving past shopping malls, we knew that we had made a mistake. We wanted to go back right away. Our taxi driver was having a hard time figuring us out. “But you’ve paid me for 8 hours,” he said. "Don't you want to go to ..... (rattling off names of places)?". It didn’t matter that we had paid for the entire day or that there were all these places that he was suggesting we visit. All we wanted was to go back. While we did make it to Sarnath and pretended to be interested, it just wasn’t working for us. He was happy that we’d saved him time and fuel. We were happy to be where we were supposed to be.

“It feels so good to be back,” commented Aparna as we jostled our way through the narrow lanes, feeling like we were back home, even though we had only arrived the previous morning. 

I couldn’t agree more with her. It most certainly was a relief to be ‘home’. “Let’s celebrate our return with a samosa,” I said, as we walked towards this giant cauldron dishing out delectable treats. 

To be continued ....