Few days back I had the opportunity to visit the holy city of Banaras / Varanasi /kashi with my family…this was the first time that I was travelling to the city of kashi vishwanath and all I had with me were snippet of clichés that everybody expects from banaras …i.e. ganga, Ghats,firangs looking to get stoned , the paan, the thugs(not the English one but the hindi one) and the famous B.H.U..Sadly I couldn’t see any of these because of the dearth of time…but what I did see was kashi vishwanath temple which was the focal point of our visit plus I got a taste of the delicacy of the local area called litti -chhokha ...and it was from a hawker not from some posh restaurant …I felt like one of those food show host cum critic savoring the real taste of the delicacy.
The journey was pleasing …though I was not in the best of health and irritated about travelling in the first place but still the company was good and got us to our destination …we had this doctor travelling with us who was really looking forward to sharing all his medical knowledge with everybody .. Thanks to him I got to know what I had was no common cough, cold and body ache rather a severe case of viral hemorrhagic fever. Thanks doc for the knowledge! So this knowledge kept me awake for a considerable time that night and adding to that was an uncle ji wide awake throughout the night reading sundarkaand paath and in between trying to charge his mobile in your compartment.
Banaras is not a big city neither is it a small town but it has this blend of the two .At one point you can be disgusted by the sights and sounds of the place on the other you can see malls shooting out of the city.
Kashi vishwanath is a temple dedicated to shiv ji and has devotees coming from all four directions. Its location reminded me of the galis of chawri bazaar and chandni chowk,the same maze like path sucking you deep into them, the same congestion and still businesses flourishing in them. It was in a way sad to see that the vendors have altered their product with respect to the firangis who flock benaras in a large number .the first shop leading to the alley is of a man selling cream rolls, pastries and what not…lame yet weird .we were advised not to take any mobiles and cameras to the place as the security would confiscate it and they were right. The security seemed vigilant. The first temple was of Annapurna and though we didn’t go inside but there was this note outside that caught me off guard …in three languages except Hindi it was written that anybody belonging to religion other than Hinduism is not welcomed...Why such nepotism? Is the talk of secularism all but lip service?... as we were about to reach the temple it seemed that people got this charge in them and then the usual rounds of dhukka mukki started with water on the floor and monkeys up above looking for Prasad I hardly got a chance to see the shrine. As much as I was relieved to be alive I felt that all that I endured for this little visit ultimately ended with me folding my hands and giving my regards and praying to conglomeration of devotees elbowing each other to give their Prasad to the panditji and guards deflecting them away from the shrine rather than the shrine itself.
