Banaras

Banaras....the holy city of India...the cradle of Hindutva...the Locomotive city (ok fine the last one was given by me).....







I visited varanasi or banaras during my stint with Siemens Rail Transportation Systems...for those unaware, varanasi has Diesel Locomotives Works or dlw to be short which is India Diesel loco factory for years now....so i went there for commissioning of a control panel there...



i wouldn't exactly say that i fell in love with the city but yes...i used to enjoy the usual chilled out attitude of people there (mind you...they are hardworking but chilled out)....the morning tea in earthern kullar along with a fag gave me such a start up for the rough day ahead....
food...well any roadside dhaba would serve you a very good food for barely 20 bucks...and enough for 2 people....

It was during these days that i realised that banaras has a very special feel to it...and i want to go back again and again...the people there are good...not to mention that there are unscrupulous elements there but then they are every where nowdays.....

During one these past tours to this holy city, i got the chance to go to ganges....the feeling was amazing...there is chanting going around everywhere, you hire a boat and as you cross the river...the chanting faints and in the middle of river, with water all around and such a serene and calm atmosphere...you just dont want the journey to end...but what the heck...who wants the journey to end...
anyways..since it's summers and the width is considerably reduced, so i reach the other end in fifteen minutes....and then immediately after the serenity of water, i am confronted with huge lansdscape of nothing but white sand...which form ganga's base during monsoon season...since it was summers so it had all dried up...
i keep on walking into the so called white desert till i reach far enough....only to see the shores of ganga at a distinct horizon...

I sit down there...for 5,10,15mins....may be half an hour....the warm wind was blowing strong....as if challenging the human capabilities to bow down...blowing sand all over me....but at the same time giving the feeling that i belong here...in my land...always used to watch in movies but didnt exactly get the feeling...but at that time...i really felt that i belonged somewhere there in that earth....lying down there in the warm sand gave such a great feeling....at least one of my five senses was gratified....you know when you always wanted to say something to yourself and could not figure out what....and felt like you only want to be with yourself an nobody else should be there to listen to your conservations with yourself...as if time would stop there only...till the time you are ready again...

it would have been after an hour or so that my driver comes looking for me...and says while breaking my 'train' of thoughts (no pun intended)..saab aapki ek photo ho jaaye... poor chap was running on hot sand with naked feet...

after that i was full of sand all over me....and i wanted to go a level higher from where i already was....simply went into the water...ah...cold water...such a nice feeling...as if now it was water's turn to pamper me...just kept on swimming and asked the boatman to follow me...when i thought i was getting tired...simply just laid back in the water....the air and the sky...just kept on floating....and didnt realised...it was more than an hour in water and reached the other shore...

something i realised that day....whatever you do...whatever you become....never forget where you belong to....you cant get the feeling that is there in your land....and your body, your soul connects so beautifully to it.....thames wont give the pleasure that ganga gave me that day...
and sahara wont offer me that serenity and belongness that shores of the holy river gave me....

500 mts from ganga is kashi vishwa nath temple....and sharing a common wall is famous mosque of banaras.....as i mentioned the banarasi tea in the morning gives a great start up....
i went to a tea stall outside the temple....and the people i find reading newspaper there and having normal morning tea chats were khan bhai and ponga pandit.....ponga pandit went about smoking bidi while khan bhai reminded him of its ill effects....unaware of my presence, they were discussing things like forthcoming India tour of west indies and the elections in west bengal etc etc...all over morning tea...i took my kullar and lighted a cigerette...and kept listening to what they had to say....
it is unbelievable that there is so much harmony and peace between hindus and muslims there.....even bomb explosions could not rock khan bhai's love for ponga pandit....nobody can displace that love....every day for past 20 yrs at the same tea stall khan bhai comes for his morning tea after his namaz and ponga pandit after his morning prayers (source : chai waala who is making tea there for more than 20 yrs now and proudly tells me that his sons have seperate tea stalls in diff parts of city...business expansion...huh???)...and khan bhai is reminding ponga pandit for past 20 yrs about bidi...and then they walk back to their homes in gadualiya (few mins walking from temple).....people stand united in varanasi....and each muslim comes up and says ganga is their second mother...and they are INDIAN....

I am so pround of my country men....brave and undeterred by any attempts to shatter the harmony...they live happily....with their morning tea in kullar.... ;)

I am pround to b an INDIAN...JAI HIND