mybugstories: Varanasi Ghats

Varanasi evening Arti

The evening Aarti at Varanasi is one of the most popular events there.

This is the 3^rd phase on the Ghats-the flamboyant time. Time for Bollywood type presentations, tourists thronging the Ghats, music, dance and crowd! The life throbs and pulsates through the sounds all around as you walk trying to capture it all with your meager camera and ...fail. How does one capture the throb, the beat, the colours...as if a thousand drummers beat their drums together while the dancers dance swirling their colourful dresses.

Faith – that powerful word – in the Ganga and its power to clean away all that gathers on us as the dirt of karma. The love and trust in the river’s power for Indians is something to watch.

What is it about Ganga I wonder that we all flow our lives into it as if running into the arms of a mom with trust that we will be cared for and renewed with love.

Evening time

The lone lamp flows on

I flow in the river carrying the prayers

My faith...my strength

When all fails...it is faith that flows on lit bright

Flamboyant priests for Aarti

Photographers delight

Floating waiting for Aarti to start

Our hero!

The throb of crowd

And...we move back!

Varanasi in the Afternoon

Varanasi Ghats are a pleasure to loaf any time of the day.
While morning morning buzzes with people at work for various things, and evening is the flamboyant time, afternoon is when life strolls by! Afternoon at the Ghats is quiet and laid back. You are chased by boatmen asking if you want a “crooz” or “kill your time”. This is my loafing time at the Ghats. Roam around freely. The business of morning is over, and the flamboyance of evening has not started. Breathe in the view, eat at one of the riverside eateries, chat with locals or simply sit in a corner and watch life go by...read a book while the river flows by...undeterred and beautiful.

Silence mid-day

Loafing space and time

Chilled out peaceful time

Waiting for a rider

Varanasi Morning at Ghats

A sensorial explosion, is how I would call the ghats in the morning at varanasi ghats!

Varanasi for me is Ghats and Ghats alone. Riveted by vibrancy of the space, I was mesmerized. Could it be possible for life to be so diverse and yet united by a river? For, it is the river that dominates existence at the ghats. The river Ganga that flows. The river that has an atmosphere that pervades the space and is unmistakable.

The morning cruise at the Ghats is indispensable. You could not come back without it!

Bleary eyed we all reached the Ghats before sunrise where our boatman was waiting. When the boat moved, sensually moving with the rhythm of the river, we forgot to breathe! Surrealistic and beautiful is the life on the Ghats, to be absorbed through multi senses.

What is the role Ganga plays in the lives of people? The river absorbs it all – women washing their clothes; a priest prostrating; a man spitting...and yet it flows on and on like a mother holding in her bosom the offerings of all her children. The experience of the morning cruise is indescribable!

We focused our cameras...but a while later, forgot to shoot! We rested in the gentle movement of the boat and simply observed, lulled into a quietude as if nestled in the mom's lap.