Sitting at my workstation, it isn’t too difficult to close my eyes & hear the oar splashing into the river and coming out rhythmically…I want to go back and ride on the wind in the beautiful campus of BHU... I want to go back to the city where the 'shikhara' of the Sarnath temple is probably apparent from every roof there.
I miss the lovely summer vacations and good time I spent in the beautiful city.
The holy city…Kashi…the city of religious & spiritual lifestyle where people are known for being the exponents of literature, music, philosophy, arts and craft. All you can experience there is life in multitude colors…Colors antiquated and utterly beautiful. The town is not only a heritage town by the virtue of its lifestyle, culture, language and food but I believe because of its beautiful people too..!
Mythology reins the city and you can easily find a glimpse of many religious beliefs from Buddha, Jain, Tirthankars to Vaishnavs which makes it the most lively city on the bank of Ganga Maiya..!
Kashi presents a cultural and linguistic pluralism, one gets to explore the city of intellectuals, personalities, professions and communal harmony. Gamcha, thandai, akharas, kushti and banarasi paan are still an integral part of the cultural identity. Music, drama and entertainment have found a place in the lives of the people and is quite synonymous to the city and of course the rich stock of folk music will keep winning hearts forever…
One of the best experiences for me was to be a part of the Ganga Aarti at dasaswamedh ghat, everything from the swinging lamps to the tunes of chanting brings in a lot of mental peace and energy as if the holy water of ganga has taken off away all the negativity in me and I felt so close to the Divine power. Celebrating festival there was also another wonderful experience for me and during all these years of my stay at Delhi I realized that people in metro cities have lost the spirit of celebrating festivals, I guess the essence of it is lost somewhere in the cacophony of busy and stressful life, I truly want to go back, enjoy and paint myself in that spirit, excitement and jest with which people welcome and celebrate festivals. I also remember there were more than one occasions when I was just not able to answer questions asked in ‘Khadi Boli’ as I was mesmerized by the sheer sound of Parichay, Swaccha, Pavitra, Sandhya(these are the simpler ones) and many more difficult words.
Food there was more than a heavenly experience from paapri- chaat which plays with the taste buds with its tangy and spicy flavor of ginger & tamarind chutney and the cooling dahi, I also had the pleasure of munching on the best of samosas, kachoris and the perfect milk dessert. Varanasi probably was the only lovely place for me as a kiddo (specifically in summers) because of the morning walks at sprawling BHU campus which was fortunately very-very close to our place, the variety of mangos, mishramboo and the evening fun with my cousins.
The potpourri of happiness does not seems to have an end there and I just can not afford to wrap up with out talking about another exciting aspect...Yes...shopping and the hot spots from Chowk, Vishwanath Gali, Godoulia(I suspect the best market), Dashswamedha Gali to Gyan Vapi where exploring out the options of Banarasi Saree(an indespensable part of every brides trousseau), royal work heavy sarees, world's famous gold and silver brocades, heavy design gold jewellery are quite charming...!
This one is dedicated to all my VNS friends.
