February… Varanasi

This was a trip that happened by fluke. I had always wanted to visit Varanasi to see the Ganga Aarti and I was just chatting with my friend Tara and she mentioned that her and her husband Lalit were thinking of going and did I know anyone who could help with the arrangements. I immediately jumped at the chance as I knew that my samdhiji Kunalji Dalmia knew the ins and outs of Benares and would happily organise things. Within a couple of days flights were booked, hotel rooms booked and a few more friends also decided to join so we were set!!! I think that visits to these religious places are best made spontaneously and once you get the call you just have to go. So 6 of us, 5 ladies and 1 brave man set off on our adventure and we packed in so much in those 3 days that we needed a holiday once we got back!!

Kunalji had arranged for his local relative, Sheru Bhaiya, to make all the arrangements so he met us as soon as we checked in with our plans for the next 3 days and a plateful of the pista gilori which is the famous mithai of Benares and is utterly delicious!!! We all broke off a small piece and then of course went back for the rest as it was so yummy!!!

First on the list of course was the famous Ganga Aarti and we saw it from the ghat as well as from the boat the next day. The whole atmosphere is truly electric and despite sitting there for 3 hours we felt totally mesmerised and energised.

There is a fair amount of climbing up and down the steps so go prepared!!!

We visited the famous Kashi Vishwanath Mandir and the Sankat Mochan Temple but do not expect any darshan to come easy… you can not be shy but have to use your elbows to push your way forward… not for the faint hearted. We even tried to go to the Kal Bhairavi Mandir but had to just do darshan from outside as there were hundreds of people standing outside and we didn’t have the energy to push anymore!!!

We also visited Sarnath which is where Lord Buddha delivered his first sermon here, and walked around all the ruins and buildings. Extremely interesting and full of history.

In between all the sightseeing and religious places we had to eat the famous Benares chaat… who can come here and not eat the puchkas, the alu tikki, the tomato chaat, the dahi vada, the poha and lots more!! All rounded off with a glass of lassi and a Benarsi paan. Delicious!!!

We even managed to fit in an hour to shop for the typical Benares alu papad, lal mirchi achaar, aam papad, red peda and the pista gilori. How can we come back to Kolkata without food to distribute to our friends???

All in all we had a wonderful time in which we packed in everything possible. Many thanks to Kunalji and Sheru Bhaiya for organising our entire trip and to my friends for suggesting it and ticking off e thing off my bucket list!!!