Benaras is older than history, older than tradition, older even than legend and looks twice as old as all of them put together. – Mark Twain
Kashi, Banaras, Varanasi, you decide how you wish to address this ancient city. Whatever the choice is, it will not take away from the grandeur or dim the aura that the city exudes.
In the first month of 2023 as I enter the city, the ancientness is still intact yet there is a fusion with modern-day madness. Banaras has always been a magnet for foreign tourists who have visited the city to soak in the river Ganga, feel the Shiva vibe and watch and absorb the customs around the burning ghats.
Today the city is much more than all this. It is the prime minister’s constituency and feels and behaves that way. Besides the foreign tourist, Banaras is also where Instagrammers and vloggers now throng. Banarsis too are evolving and changing to suit this. Traffic skims over the narrow alleys as Flyovers have come up, the Vishwanath temple is Kashi corridor and the ghats are choc-o-block with multideck motor boats along with a few steered by mallahs. The holy city sees flower sellers setting up stalls since early morning. Sales are brisk till late evening as flowers are needed for all rituals. Be it the shrines, the dead, or an offering to the river which is the soul of the city.
I happened to be in Banaras a day before the flagging off of the Kashi Dibrugarh cruise. The state's chief minister was in the city to oversee the preparations. As he took a check of the river up and down the stream on a barge or bajra as it is called colloquially, the other tourists taking a boat ride were asked to remain on one side of the river. Many mallahs have now fitted their boats with motors. Gone are the days when a boatman would push the oars and incessantly talk about the city as he took his guest on a tour of the ghats. Today the boatman, clad in jeans and a jacket, wearing sports shoes is most of the time on the phone fixing up the next ride. A decade back he gently steered the boat to a point and asked me to set afloat the diyas I had purchased at the ghat as an offering to the river. This time I could not bend low enough from the decks of the motorboats to put the diyas and even when I could do it, there was no space left for them to flow as the boats were returning and jostling for space to get the best view of the Ganga aarti.
Crowds start milling around Dashashwamedh Ghat at least two hours ahead of the evening aarti. At the appointed hour the young priests, around six of them arrive and take the stage facing the river. The 45-minute ritual begins with the blowing of the conch. The aarti is performed with incense sticks, camphor, ghee diyas, flower, cloth and finally the fanning of Ganga with peacock feathers. The ritual which started in 1991 is the biggest tourist attraction now. The priests who perform the aarti are like artists as they swing their arms up and down making patterns with smoke and flames. One knows that the fusion of new and old is absolute and complete as side by side the psychedelic lights atop rooftop cafes and from the courtyards of ancient structures light up the sky with their multi-coloured beams.
Jumping across the boats which are anchored close together, the tea man peddles his brew. More than the chai, it's the lemon tea which he recommends. It turns out to be a soothing potion made with sugar and salt on which warm water from the kettle resting on a sigri is poured. He finishes it with a dash of lime juice on top and serves it with flair. The girl selling ghee wicks ensconced on a bed of flowers hops by too but she is engaged more on phone than with the buyer. She is busy fixing a meetup with friends.
The all-pervasive Kashi vibe hits me as I walk down the bustling market street from the ghat. A bunch of sadhus smeared with ashes are preparing for night-long rituals, little girls dressed as mythological figures ask for alms and boys and girls with vermillion-loaded thalis eagerly beseech you to get patterns made on the forehead. There is also spillover from the overcrowded Kashi Chaat Shop. All of it-tikki, matar chura, samosa and the fabled tamatar are being fried, mashed and heated on a single oversized tawa. The orders are being served fast and thick as salivating foodies take pictures to post on Instagram before digging in.
The saying is that nobody ever sleeps hungry in Kashi. This land of goddess Annapurna and Mahadev has lived up to that belief which has bettered itself. There is an air of satiated contentment all around Kashi.
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