VARANASI VIBES

People keep asking me what it is about Benaras that fascinates me so. (Maybe because of the number of times I’ve gone there and blogged about it!)

I don’t know.

Is it the Ganga? Peaceful, beautiful, serenely flowing through while we dump all manner of waste – including dead bodies – into her?

Ganga in the monsoons

Or is it the amazingly far-fetched stories and myths woven around any and every local building or structure man-made or otherwise? Or the extreme conviction with which those stories are believed to be true by the local population… all different stories! (“Kashi was the point where the universe began, it is Shiv’s city, and therefore we are pure vegetarian.”)

Or is it that there are so many little things, and structures, and… I don’t know, just things that keep popping up all over the place, stories, rituals, temples, smells, sounds, people, animals ,feelings, emotions that take you by surprise all the time? “Things“are hitting you from all the directions, all of the time! The sheer number of people! But don’t get me wrong. You can be as peaceful as you want… just go watch the Ganga arti, ride a boat, buy some sarees and get back to your nice hotel, and it would be a peaceful holiday. And that would be lovely.

Evening Arti @ Dashashwamegh Ghat

Or, you could attend the Ganga arti with the crowds at the Dashashwamegh Ghat at sunset, and feel all sorts of feelings (“so commercial!”, “oh, how moving!”, “the pujaris are as graceful as dancers!”, “This is God!”, “Lord, when will it end!”). Maybe throw in a little sunrise arti at the Assi Ghat, try their yummy lemon masala chai with the peach – orange sun rising over the Ganges, traverse through the maze of paved and muddy narrow streetways, eat a little kachori by the roadside, check out the weavers and the snakecharmers and the fake sadhus, reach the much talked about Manikarnika Ghat (or the Cremation ghat), where you feel repulsed and fascinated and sad and teary and empty and hungry and hot and more, all the same time. Like I said, just too many things!

Cremations at Manikarnika ghat

Or maybe it is the architecture, the stone steps, the ghats, the organic nature of this city that awaken the architect in me? The numerous temples and theaartis, endless pujas, and the breeze over the Ganga that draw me to it? Is it the benarasi sarees? Soft luxurious yards of beautiful woven silk, like the ones my beloved grandma wore?

View from the Brijrama Palace hotel

Maybe it is the artist and the photographer in me that are spell-bound by this place? Or is it the sexy accent of the locals? It could be the history, or the number of famous people that made Benaras their home that draws me; or is it the sadhus and the naked nagas?

Or perhaps the different beliefs of everybody intermingling, different communities living the way they choose, openly and unabashedly, aware of the disapproving looks of the janta around them, yet part of the local fabric. But there are some strict unspoken rules in place. The aghoris can roam about completely in the nude, but tourists need to dress conservatively. Weed is available to the tourists at the pan-wala, but the hotel will serve neither alcohol, nor non-vegetarian food within the 7.5 km radius of Shiva’s favourite hang-out, the Kashi Vishwanath temple! Layers upon layers of crazy logic!

He may sit completely nude, but is shy of getting photographed that way!

Or maybe it is just the vibes of the place that draw me. I think that may be it…. in one word. The Vibes. And the bond that I feel I have with Benaras.