I begin my Kashi yatra description with a fond reminisce of city of Bombay. Kashi and Bombay being poles apart it might look highly inappropriate at the outset but I rightfully owe my gratitude in the first place to my sweet niece who made my Bombay trip both possible and memorable before I set my foot on journey to Varanasi.
"Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive but to be young was very heaven.".... that was 34 years ago when my dirty hotel room,common toilet, crowded cinema hall, long bus and train journey, any of them did not matter. Bombay was an exiting place. It's beautiful mermaid like guides draped in their 70s style sarees showing the passing by buildings and explaining what they are, really did not matter. I was in a luxury air conditioned bus passing through beautiful marine drive, enough to blast with excitement . I was happy to be with my husband, and happy to be in Bombay with him still enjoying the newly wed tag even after one year of marriage. I have seen good portion it. But it was only supplementary to my inner joy of making trip with my husband.
I think my recent Bombay visit was actually fructified only because of my niece who was with me throughout and helped me to visualize essential elements that make the most advanced city in India i.e Bombay now Mumbai after 34 years . I am sure that I have covered most of the the important places this time and saw magnificent colonial structures there in. I also had a glimpse of peaceful and dignified Naval area which came as a bonus . As a routine I was expecting Mumbai to get much worse than before, but surprisingly as if the time has frozen Mumbai emerges as reality that never degenerates despite it's ever expanding commerce, longer commutation, housing vows it looks the same with it's outrageous undercurrent energy and thirst for life. With ever present sea by your side it spells bewitching calmness besides hustle bustle. For a Bombait a European city has few new things to offer. It's affordable services make it more livable and likable. I do not understand why every other city looks better than Hyderabad in terms of traffic. Bombay traffic is way ahead organized in comparison to my own Hyderabad's where in I fret and fume going out any day of the year except during Dussera where half the Hyderabad is emptied due to exodus to villages and towns. Mumbai is a magic, where every minute coins are churned and thrown at a distance while you can grab as many as fast you run. It is no place for laid backs, lazies, gossipers. It is fast action movie where reason ends and action thrills.
Now coming to Kashi it was actually intended to be undertaken as a single trip but impending Kumbh Mela at Allahabad prompted us to club both the journeys in one stretch. With mixed up plans, finally all of us like me my husband' my sister, her son decided to undertake the journey only by train so as to reach Allahabad on Maha Shivrathri day, take a dip and proceed to Varanasi.
Why I wanted to see Varanasi ? Because at least once in a lifetime every Hindu wants to pay visit to Kashi. My husband had already given description of Kashi and how his high image of Kashi has been tarnished by it's narrow by lanes lacking hygiene and stray cows. In fact even I did not have high expectations about the place knowing fully well that it is being visited by hundreds of thousands each year. But some things tells me I will not be disappointed. Sure I was not expecting a Disney land there.
Our train journey took 30 hours to reach city of Allahabad stopping at each unimportant place whether a thing called station existed or not. Where ever a station existed we could see people frantically running around with loads on their heads or shoulders at the sight of train and swarming around bogies.But luckily no body dashed into the reserved compartment to displace us. This all began in Uttar Pradesh. Where all these people suddenly come ? No station before had so many trying to catch a train. May be it is excess population or lack of proper transportation that diminutives them so.
Again fortunately our destination Allahabad station was manageable with less crowd than expected that came as a pleasant surprise. Not long ago the same station witnessed stampede and few deaths. Straight to the hotel on a hard attained taxi, on the way we observed that many roads to the Triveni Sangam ghats are closed for the automobiles. Then unaware of impending troubles we refreshed and sat in a rikshaw to proceed to ghats since no other vehicle is allowed on these roads. After few furlongs even the rikshas were stopped we were forced to set on foot. The roads are quite wide and clear of hawkers and roadside encroaching shops, and bad part is they are devoid of trees.Roads are brimming with people young as well old briskly walking towards ghats. We found people from far away places like Rajasthan, MP, Bihar too. Poverty was clearly visible on local faces. They looked exhausted and were suffering with malnutrition.This is how India is living even to day not very different from few hundreds years ago. Still people are close to earth. Dressing was very basic and rural in style.Not much in tune with urban etiquette their replies sound rude. Many times they simply nod and don't speak because their moths are filled with chewing tobacco. Yet beyond all this we find some pride in their eyes. Where this pride comes from? I could not quite understand. Apparently in this part of the country cities, towns and people are left to their fate and allowed to flourish or perish at their will. The only reminder of some government's existence is police presence and displayed banners with their leaders' faces not less than criminal looking. Smiles of piles of crores peek through their twirling mustache .
With long long walks, intervening small time rikshaw rides we ended up paying quite some money to these transporters. In over enthusiasm to control vehicles and vendors organizers forgot basic necessities like availability of water or shelter to the pilgrims and we had to run pillar to post to buy a bottle of drinking water. The thoughtlessness of organizers is much evidenced by their lack of any transport to the old. Old were walking with sticks gasping for breath, some old were dragged to the ghats by their kith and kin to earn their last minute "Punya" before kicking their buckets .High blown mikes with continuous announcements mute your speech and the next man's voice was hardly audible. Our phones rendered useless .You could never take a phone call in that high decibel announcements . It is just very close to chaos. We were praising our Lords for sending less number of people on that auspicious day other wise it would have been just chaos and anarchy. Once you miss a person, there is highly probability of missing him for the day or even for ever. We reached ghats with some disappointment as we could not find any boat on the shores, and on that particular shore boats are not available and none of us are left with energies to find another ghat with boats walking many more kilometers. We took bath in Ganges or Triveni and few dips rejuvenated all of us. As there are no changing rooms in sight we resorted to undressing and dressing on the same ghats and surprisingly no body ever had any curiosity to look what others are doing. This where all our spirituality teaches us many things. We did not bother how we looked and how we dressed. The tradition teaches us equality by not preaching just by creating a situation . We were not paranoid about the water. The moment we took a dip we forgot how dirty or dusty it was.What happened to your healthy water, healthy food, healthy atmosphere obsessions? It is just survival instinct that leads us i n such situations. It is invisible noble purpose that leads us in such situation not our random personal choices. We are no different from another human being. I am same as that rustic, old man wearing a turban who has never moved out of his small village in his life time when it comes to the basal instincts. Both of us came to the lap of Mother Ganges with single purpose. He rightfully claims his right to equality.
Next day we visited Anad Bhavan . Initially we thought we cannot make it and later changed our minds. Sprawling Anad Bhavan was magnificent . Really we would have missed a great deal by not visiting it. Motilal Nehru, Jawahar Lal Nehru might be irrelevant to the nation now but not to UPans . They are fondly calling him "Panditji". Their life styles were akin to Lords of England in those days.They were living indulgent life styles. It is fascinating to notice that they maintained beautiful libraries. Patriotism was the key factor which led them to dedicate their riches to the nation. Present day leaders squeeze their riches from nation. Indira Gandhi a lone child stayed in another magnificent building attached to Anand Bhavan. Anand Bhavan is thriving with numerous visitors each day. As I already said Allahabad broad roads and Anand Bhavan are two positive aspects noticed by us during our first leg of journey.
Don't go away the real journey begins now.
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