Varanasi - The holy city
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I have heard enough about Varanasi from Fani. He is like addicted to that place and the stories I heard scared the hell out of me and I promised myself that I won't visit that place alone. Leaving Pushkar was like a bad decision and out of confusion I had to choose Varanasi as my next destination. That was when my friend Ashik told me he will there in Varanasi for 2 days, and that made me stick to the plan because I didn't wanna go alone to Varanasi. The stories of aghories was always a nightmare to me.
I took a train from Ajmer to Varanasi which took me around 15-16 hours to reach. I chose the lady's compartment and as always, had to fight with the men in it. When the train was about to move, a drunkard got into the train.. He kept shouting very badly at us when we asked him to get down. We gave a call to the policemen at the railways and when the train stopped at Jaipur he was beaten to the jail.
I reached Varanasi by 7 pm, and after the hectic journey, I thought I will go straight to the hostel and freshen up. But then I had to go see the Ganga aarthi where my friend was capturing frames. Straight to the hostel from the ghat.
Varanasi - the holiest of the seven sacred cities in Hinduism.
The very next morning got up at 5 for the sunrise. So yeah Varanasi has many ghats . The Ganga aarti happens before sunrise and after sunset. Assi ghat is the one from where the Ganga aarthi happens before the sunrise and it happens at Dashashwamedh Ghat soon after the sunset and it lasts for 45 minutes.
Walking through the gullies of Varanasi to the Assi ghat was not so good because it was dumbed with the wastes and we can talk about that later. The preparations for Ganga aarti started and I was extremely excited to see them do it with all the grace and spirit . And there was my friend doing his job to get the best of the aarti pictures. Once the ceremony was done I walked down to see the sunrise above us. It was beautiful .
We got back to the hostel and heard this beautiful music at the subah e Benaras near to the ghat. It brought in a sense of calmness in the daylight.
After the morning stroll, I was in mood for a beauty sleep. We decided to visit the weavers village afterwards.
The Sarai Mohana, the weaver's village of Varanasi was all set up for the holi and they were closed. But after knowing that we were from Kerala they welcomed us and showed us how the machine weaving and hand weaving is done. The village walk was so nice. It was my first time going to the outskirts of a town.
After that we went to Manikarnika Ghat through Dashashwamedh Ghat. It is the ghat where the cremation ritual happens. It was so scary to see and the only reason why I wouldn't come to Varanasi alone. I was losing my mind and everytime he asked me do you wanna leave and I refused because I wanted to see the whole ritual with all my strength. There were some aghories too. Dead bodies were kept alongside the ghats tied with the bamboo wrapped in a cloth to douse in the Ganges. They believed that if one is cremated here and their ashes are released into the sacred Ganges, their reincarnation cycle will end and they will reach Nirvana. And around 100 bodies are cremated daily alongside the Ganges at Manikarnika ghat.
It was beyond our strength of mind and had to leave towards Dashashwamedh Ghat to see the Ganga aarti .
It was our last day in Varanasi. We walked to the streets and found the Holika Dahan which they say as the Choti Holi.
March 10th the main Holi day welcomed us with the colors around and all the shops were shut down. It was crazy for us to walk in search of food, while kids pouring color water from their balconies. We somehow managed to escape but alas ended up drenched in colours.
Holi isn't much of celebrations in varnasi, but for sure colouredf coloured water splashing right at you.
I feel so bad about seeing the wastes thrown out of their house to the streets. From plastics to used diapers and sanitary pads. which were so disgusting. The roadsides were all filled up with the piles of wastes. And I told myself I am not coming back to Varanasi again.
The only reason why I went to Varanasi is @ashikaseem and @fani.
I always travelled alone and I had this wish in my mind to travel with a photographer and that's done now 😇 Thank you so much in helping me out fearlessly. I still have that smell of cremation on my dress.
Yes, I am not going back to Varanasi.
