Varanasi – the coming together of chaos and calm

Varanasi also known as Benares features in the list of oldest inhabited cities of the world. In India, it is also regarded as a holy place for the followers of the Hindu faith. Nupur & I had been planning to explore it for a long time now, but it just kept getting delayed for one reason or the other. Luckily enough, this year was different. Earlier in the year, we were on a trip to Ladakh but were holed up in our hostel for 3 days due to a ferocious storm. It was during the idle time in our Leh hostel that we made a few friends and one of them, a South American guy shared his Varanasi experience with all. That's when we decided that we committed to doing Varanasi this year in November and booked our tickets. Little did we know that our stay in Varanasi would coincide with the festival of Dev Deepawali which is celebrated on the full moon day in the month of Kartika (Nov-Dec), precisely 15 days after Deepawali.

Chaos is the first thing you experience in Varanasi. As we took a cab from the airport to the Assi Ghat (Ghat is a series of steps leading to a river which are typically used for daily chores like washing, bathing or religious ceremonies such as prayers or cremations), We could experience the familiar traffic woes of a medium-size town in India. However, it starts getting worse when you get close to the old town. This area is in proximity to the ghats and all the roads leading to the old town start getting narrower, the honking louder and the roadside encroachment more intense. What was supposed to be a 30-minute drive to our modest accommodation on the main street near Assi ghat ended up being 120 minutes of mad max fury. We had finally arrived! We took a breather and started heading towards the Ghat area as it was already evening, and the Dev Deepawali celebrations were about to start. On a typical day, it might have been a leisurely walk wherein you can soak the local vibe but today it was different. There were thousands of people marching in the same direction and there was hardly any place to walk. Fortunately, we had our friend who was a local and had booked a small boat for us to enjoy the festivities. Since he knew all the streets on the back of his hand, he was able to take us through small alleys to the Assi Ghat. Walking through these alleys is like taking a trip back in time. The labyrinth of streets is overwhelming. One can easily get lost in them. The houses are old but beautiful and many of them have a small shrine outside the house.

What's the first word that comes to your mind when you think of river Ganga? For a lot of Indians, it would be Sacred/Holy/Reincarnation or even pollution. But when you are standing in front of it, you’ll be able to block the negative emotions and it would feel so majestic. It’s a 2600 Km long river we are talking about, originating in the remote Himalayas and emptying into the mighty Bay of Bengal. The tales of history and mystery of this river are in plenty, all of which attribute to the grandiose of this river, a feeling is amplified when you witness Ganga from the magnanimous ghats of Varanasi. We jumped into our boat and for the next 90 minutes, we did our Ghat Hopping, our boat taking us from one ghat to the next. We jumped on and off our boat at many of the different ghats (though there are about 90 of them) decorated beautifully with thousands of earthen lamps. It was already dark; Prayers ceremonies were being held and locals were bursting firecrackers. This was an elevating experience. We felt that the chaos and hustle were worthwhile. Later we witnessed the evening prayers and called it a day.

The next morning, we dragged ourselves from bed only to head back to the riverbank and take another boat ride to experience the sunrise. And it completely blew us away! The sun slowly rose from behind the eastern barren banks and cast a golden dew on the steadily flowing Ganga and eventually the beautiful ghats. The sun rays were magical as if it was calmness washing over us.

Ganga Aarti (ritual of offering prayer to the Ganges river) at Dashashwamedh Ghat

We finished our boat ride, grabbed a quick breakfast, and started exploring the alleys which again lead to multiple ghats. Though we never planned, We ended up being at Manikarnika ghat. Since time immemorial, this is the designated ghat for cremation ceremonies. You might already know that Hindus burn the bodies of their deceased and many of them believe that if the ashes are laid in the Ganga, the dead escape the cycle of re-births and achieve Moksha (the belief that a soul will be exempted from being born again to suffer in this world). Due to this belief, a lot of people perform the last ceremonies of the deceased on these ghats. These ceremonies are performed out in the open and you can witness the funeral pyres any time of the day. This can be an overwhelming experience for anyone. It certainly was for us, seeing the inevitable end to human life fills you with humility.

Ratneshwar Mahadev temple leans significantly towards the back side, and its sanctum is generally below the water much of the year, except for a few months during the summer

Later in the afternoon, we visited Sarnath. It’s the place where Gautam Buddha preached for the first time after gaining enlightenment. We visited the famous Bodh tree, Sarnath Museum and finally the Dhamek Stupa. It was a beautiful evening and hundreds of people were praying facing the beautiful dhamek stupa.

I reflected on why so many people name Varanasi as their Indian experience of choice when the country has so much else to offer. Maybe it’s because after all the chaos that it offers, it also eventually restores a sense of calmness, balance, and humility. It's this state in which a person can reconnect with himself – and isn't that the reason we travel in the first place!