Unsung UP XIV: Foods to Try in Varanasi

Food in Banaras is pretty much like the city itself – rustic and flavorful. I was browsing through the photographs of my trip and after every few photographs there were food pictures and that gave me an idea for this post. Here is a glimpse of types of food you must try at Varanasi. You do not really have to go hunting for it, most of it you will find in and around the popular ghats of Banaras.

Quintessential Indian street food that includes Samosa, Kachori, Tikki, Jalebi and various other types of chat items is something you will find everywhere. Eat straight out of the huge kadais where all these items are being fried. Try tomato chat at Dina Chat centre that is something I have not had in any other city. If you wander around in the narrow lanes behind the ghats, you will find these halwais and chat walas in almost every street. Top it up with Chai in Kulhad or clay cup that gives its own flavor to the tea. Kulhad chai is as ubiquitious in Varanasi as its temples.

One thing you cannot miss in Varanasi is the lassi jointeverywhere. Go to them in the morning and ask for Malaiya – it is a froth of milk made by allowing the milk to play with the dewdrops overnight. It looks very heavy but is extremely light. What fills a cup can be a spoon full of milk only. Remember you get it only in the morning. If you miss it try the lassi that is also served in Kulhads – with extra toppings of Malai, pistachios, kesar and many other flavors. Ladoos and Pedas can be found outside every temple – sold as prasad to be offered to deities but you can always buy some to taste. Banarasi Paan is something that we all have heard about, in Banaras you see it more than you hear it. You can see it all over the walls and in almost every male mouth as they speak to you balancing the Paan inside their mouth. If you ever thought Bollywood songs have made the Banarasi Paan famous, you need to see the Paan culture here to believe it and figure out that songwriters were understating the Paan effect.

My biggest recommendation in Banaras is Daana – a mixture of freshly roasted grains – to be eaten while they are still warm – just like that or with some hot spicey chutney. You get them on pushcarts in the evenings. This is probably the healthiest snack you can ever have that tastes good too. Roasted peanuts in Banaras are sold with small paper packet or pudiyas of rock salt. Chana jor garam is beaten black gram spiced up with onions and chillies is usually by moving hawkers. Munch these as you walk the ghats.

Visit a Mithai shop in the lanes and see how they make mithai. I visited Raswanti Mithai Bhandar in Thatheri Gali and it was fun to see the Mithai being made still in the old style without using any mechanical devices. Mithai is a good option to take back home from here.

Varanasi gets travelers from across the globe so there is no dearth of international food. In the same lanes that serve all the above, you can find a German bakery or many other continental food joints. I had one of my best Veggie Pizzas at Asi ghat. It had so many vegetables on top of it that the base could not even hold it. At Sarnath we had Chinese food that was not bad. I assume there are many more options available if you set out to explore.

There are thalis that you can eat at many dharamshalas that serve you in the traditional way – you sit on the floor and the food is served to a row of travelers. Food is very tasty in these places but they serve strictly between certain times.

I loved food at Varanasi  – for vegetarians like me it gives so many options to choose from. 

Unsung UP XIII: Lal Bahadur Shastri Memorial, Rampur, Varanasi

Lal Bahadur Shastri, the second prime minister of India and much loved politician may be the real unsung part of UP. His village Ramnagar, on the other shore of Ganga has a small memorial dedicated to him at the house or hut where he was born and spent his early days.

I remember during school days when we had to write an essay on him, we read that he swam 3 Kms across Ganga to reach his school on the other shore. As I stood at the balcony of Ramnagar palace, with Ganga flowing gently on the surface past Varanasi’s moon shaped ghats, the visual of a small boy crossing the wide river flashed across. It kind of told me the character of the boy who would do that hard work to get himself educated.

His ancestral house that primarily has only his pictures that too sponsored by a bank. It may look small to you, but let me tell you this house is much bigger than the original house of the Shastris, which was just one room, and that too may have been a mud or a kuchha one. Rest of the structure has been built later. Ironical that a memorial gets a bigger space than the person whose memorial it is.

This is the simplest memorial that you would see of a national leader. There is a picture of him with his extended family and one in which both he and his wife are working on board an aircraft when he was the PM.

The humble statue on the road leading to the memorial may be the gentle reminder to the visitors of the grand palace that there is another worthy son of the soil, and you may want to see his house.

How you wish Karmath people like Shastri Ji got their due, encouraging others who would want to take his path.

Unsung UP XII: Evening Aarti at the Ghats of Ganga

The moment you say Varanasi, the visuals that cross your mind are that of Moon shaped Ghats of Ganga with their steep steps and the much captured sights and sounds of the evening Aarti. Aarti is the time when the devotees stand before the Ganga and offer her prayers, thanking her for nurturing them on her banks and for cleansing them with her purifying waters.

Over the years tourists and travelers have started visiting to witness the Aarti and in my opinion their expectations added the glamour factor to the Aarti, which should be a solemn affair otherwise. Young boys who perform the Aarti wear silk dhotis with rich gold borders, orange kurtas and stoles across their shoulders – all in the same color. They move their hands in sync with each other on raised platforms that put them above the rest of the Junta. They are conscious of the fact that while the Aarti is going on, all the tourist eyes are on them and not on the Ganga, and it was amusing to read those expressions on their faces. Boatmen who would have little business after the sun goes down, have found a new revenue stream, as they park their boats right in front of Aarti benches in the Ganga that they let tourists use for a hefty charge.

Aarti at the Dashashwamedh Ghat is the most famous and elaborate one. There are two sets of platforms here on two parts of the ghat. Colorful canopies stand on top of each platform tied through a rod that also has electric lamps. Assi ghat also has a similar Aarti every evening. On each platform is another small platform that has all the Pooja items – flowers, copper pot with water, wet cloth to hold the heavy and hot metallic diyas and a conch shell. Central platform has a small temple dedicated to Goddess Ganga with her anthromorphic form decked in beautiful floral garlands.

If you go there as a devotee, evening Aarti feels like a put up show. If you go as a tourist, it is a spectacle – a heady mix of music, color, fire and water. It is quite a sight when few heavy metallic lamps with many layers of multiple burning wicks move in synchronization and the smoke coming out creates patterns against dark sky. The quite waters of Ganga too seem to be watching and enjoying the Aarti along with devotees and the tourists.

The crowd somehow fits around these raised platforms, behind them, on steps in front of them and on boats parked in Ganga in front of them.  Live music plays just behind the platforms and those who know the Aarti join in to sing. Sadhus sit around and join in their own ways, their eyes looking for the potential donors.

It is a very balanced combination of a formal ritual in an entirely informal environment.

Unsung UP XI: Other Shore of Ganga, Varanasi

Ramnagar is a small town on the other bank of Ganga that is the bank opposite the famous moon shaped Ghats of Varanasi. It houses a fort that is the official residence of Kashi Naresh i.e. the King of Kashi. I had very fond memories of visiting this fort as a kid, riding on the boat from one of the ghats, crossing the Ganga while feeding the fishes and spending the day at Ramnagar. My most vivid memory of the museum in the fort is that of a Queen’s heavy lehanga that was supposed to weigh around 20Kgs or so and I secretly wished to try it one day. This time when I visited I knew that is not a possibility but I did want to see that lehanga with a more trained eye, but alas it was no longer a part of the display that is open to public.

Located just on banks of the Ganga, this 18^th CE fort is a representative of Mughal era with its Jalis and Chhajas. The entrance gate is not huge but still stands out in the humble surroundings of Lassi and Ganna Juice stalls that skirt the fort wall. The top part of the gate seems to be recently painted in multi-color. The rest of the palace inside is in yellow color with green windows and doors. One gateway inside the palace really exudes royalty; the rest of the palace seems like overgrown barracks of the early British era. The lawns can definitely be better maintained as can the displays at the museum. The vintage cars on display with Banaras state numbers are asking to be dusted, as are silver palkhis and grand ornaments of elephants. There is a generous display of arms that I usually tend to skip.

Biggest attraction of the Ramnagar Fort museum is the astrological clock that displays both lunar and solar calendar. Besides time, it displays position of sun and moon, dates according to both calendars, Zodiac sign and Navamsha. It ticks every second and strikes every hour, half hours and fifteen minutes. It is a huge clock that has been set according to the exact latitude, longitude and height of city from sea level. Being a mechanical clock it needs to be wound once every 8 days. We assumed that the clock would have been made somewhere in Europe, but we were delighted to know that it was made a man called Mulchand in 1872 CE in Varanasi and since then has only once been repaired by another man called Munnilal in 1923 CE. Think of the guarantees that come with products of 21^st CE. My biggest regret not being allowed to take a picture of the clock.

Ramnagar is also the venue for Varanasi's famous month long Ramlila that used to and in some way continues to happen under the patronage of Kashi Naresh. I was told that it is a participatory form of Ramlila, something I wish to see sometime in my life. The costumes and props used are displayed in Bharat Kala Bhavan museum. There is Ramlila museum as part of the palace but it was closed when we visited. Between the back wall of the fort and Ganga lie two small temples – both dedicated to Vyasa the ancient sage. The story of Vyasa goes like this: He was not treated well in Kashi or he took a vow to never enter Kashi and meditated at this shore of Ganga. The place came to be known as Vyasa Kashi and according to some beliefs Kashi Yatra is not complete without visiting the Vyasa temple, though the slim numbers at the temple hardly testify this legend. One of the temples has some paintings still left on its ceilings in green blue colors. You do get a hazy but panoramic view of the ghats of Kashi and the bridges across the river.

Ramnagar is also the town of Lal Bahadur Shastri, but that is a story for another post. There are no places to stay in Ramnagar so you will have to depend on Varanasi Hotels for that.

Unsung UP X: Bharat Kala Bhawan, BHU, Varanasi

Bharat Kala Bhawan is one of the oldest museums in the country whose chairperson was Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore himself and had contributions from various known literary figures of the country. Housed in the beautiful Banaras Hindu University campus, this yellow and red building reminded me of Patna Museum at first sight. Visiting this museum was one of the key agendas on the Varanasi trip having read about the Sarnath School of Sculpture. We were interested in looking at the carvings first hand and we assumed that we would find quite a few of them in this museum.

First gallery that we saw as we entered the museum was a collection of hand written notes by leader of Indian independence movement and literary figures of the same time along with exhibition of newspapers and magazines of that era. Now this is something I have not seen in any other museum in India and it was a delight to see those handwritings, and it was the closest you can get to these figures of historical importance. Imagine Nityanand’s Holi in Khadi Boli, Shahidon ke Geet by Sumitranandan Pant, Amar woh Vyakti by Neeraj and writings of Ramkumar Verma, Ambika Prasad Vajpai, Kishoridas Vajpai etc. There are periodicals like Bharat, Karamvir, Saaptahik Bharat, Jagran, Hans and Sansar. There were old prints of books like Munshi Prem Chand’s Godan and books of Kedia collection like History of Rajputana and Jayasi Granthavali. This was the most outstanding part of this museum.

Banaras Gallery is another gallery that should not miss in this museum. I loved the collection of masks and jewellery that is used during the famous Ram Leela of the city and other fairs that occur through the year. There is a map of Banaras on cotton cloth that depicts the Pankroshi Yatra’s path along with the all the pilgrim places that fall on this route. I wish I could get a copy of that map as a Souvenir.

There is a safe room that is opened only for a limited period and this houses some precious art works like Jade bowls, necklaces with miniature Srinathji paintings embedded in them, Jadau Kangan, gold coins, engraved hookah bases amongst other things. There is a display of musical instruments in silver, though I could not make out if they were really played or they are meant only to be mementos. There are other galleries like archeological gallery, miniature paintings, textiles, terracotta, decorative art and numismatics spread across the two floors that are good to see. Among the terracotta figures a Shiva head stands out as a unique piece. There are galleries by expat artists who chose Banaras as their muse. You can buy the publications of the museum at the bookshop.

Documentation of the museum can be much better as there is no other way to understand the displays. Lighting is very poor, forget about taking good pictures, half the time reflections do not allow you to see the artifacts with naked eyes as well. The staff can be polite, but then being Banarasi that may not come naturally, the Akhadpan is part of the place. 

Unsung UP IX: Buddha’s Sarnath

Sarnath derives its name from the Sarang Nath or the lord of the deers. Yes, there is still a deer park behind the monuments and you can see them playing in what they assume to be the forest. I remember in my childhood days when we used to visit this place, the place was much more open and deers could seen without any barricade between you and them. Nonetheless, symbolically enough, there are deers here just like the time when they were when Buddha chose this place to give his first sermon to his first disciples, and set the wheel of dharma rolling that is immortalized in his Dharma Chakra Parivartana Mudra that is as much a symbol of his association with Sarnath as the philosophy it puts forth.

The place where he first met his 5 disciples is now a stupa called Chaukhandi Stupa, right at the entrance of the town. It is a spiral rectangular structure in red bricks, erected probably during the 4-5^th CE or the Gupta period. On top of this structure is an octagonal medieval stricture that was erected to commemorate a visit my Mughal emperor Humayun. Walking around the stupa that is being restored as of now, your thoughts go to that meeting that led to the creation of a whole new religion. Behind the stupa is a vast Japanese style park being created which if maintained could be one of those places where locals and visitors can sit back and relax.

Dhamekh stupa, originally called Dharma Chakra stupa is the most important monument in Sarnath, as this is supposed to be erected at the exact place where Buddha gave his first sermon. It is supposed to pre-date Ashoka’s 84000 stupas that he erected during his times. He did re-erect this stupa too after putting the Buddha’s relics here. The current stupa is a recent restoration by the ASI and you can see the pieces of the original carved stones with geometric and floral designs primarily including swastika. There are one off bird and animal too carved. There are eight niches in eight directions that must have had Buddha images but lie empty now. Archeology apart I found the devotion with which Buddhism followers came and bowed before the stupa very enchanting. They usually came in large groups in a bus, with a guide explaining the place using a hand held loudspeaker, they did a parikrama around the stupa, touched it like the most precious thing in life, stuck a small rectangular gold foil as an offering and then clicked their cameras from all angles. They sat on lawns with stupa in the background, they read the first sermon with incense sticks in their hands and their expression was of a feeling of milestone achieved in life, a wish fulfilled.

Mulgandha Kuti, not too far from Dhamekh Stupa is the place where Buddha used to meditate. This must have been a huge temple built on a strong platform during the Gupta period. It is only a ruin today and the founder of Mahabodhi Society Anagarika Dharampala constructed an alternate new temple by the same name on the other side of Dhamekh Stupa in mid 20^th CE. It is a simple stone temple that claims to replicate the original temple and has a golden image of the Budhha with his 5 disciples. The original image in stone is in the Archeological museum that I will write about later. This temple is very simple, yet very serene. A prayer flag lined path leads to the temple that overlooks the Dhamekh Stupa. There is a prodigy of the original Bodhi tree in the compound that came here from Bodh Gaya via Anuradhapura in Sri Lanka. There is a diorama replica of Budhha surrounded by his five disciples and this is where the devotees sit and pray. It was again a delight to see them collecting the fallen leaves of the Bodhi tree as delicately as possible and storing them away in their bags like a prized possession.

There are new temples built by the Buddhist countries around these primary monuments, with giant Buddha statues and their own style temples, just like in Bodh Gaya. If you have time, you can spend quite some time going around this land of Buddha’s preaching.

Unsung UP VIII: With Kabir in Kashi

Kabir has fascinated me for a long time. I have a shelf full of book on his works, yet I did not have the original Bijak in Hindi and I wanted it. This year I studied him in a little structured way as part of a study group that gave me a little insight into his world, his philosophy and his Nirguna approach to spirituality. Since he was found or born in Banaras and lived primarily there, he was one of the reasons that I was desperately wanted to go there. When I was sitting and planning all the things I wanted to do in Banaras in 4-5 days, I figured out that maximum I can do is manage to find the Bijak. Call it a stroke of luck or a student’s wish, Kabir just kept appearing before me at Banaras.

In a rather unplanned way, we landed in Lahar Tara locality of Banaras, where the pond where Kabir was found by his foster parents is located. Today it is a huge pond with lotus flowers blossoming it, just like the way it was when Kabir was found here. We were then pointed to a huge temple that stands close to the pond. I was surprised to see such a grand place dedicated to a person who lived in a hut and worked as a weaver for a living and above all, all his life spoke against the organized religion. We went inside to see a rather plain but huge hall that is used to organize satsangs and other functions. The priest was praying with a rosary in his hand and told us that he comes from Mumbai to be here to manage the temple every year for few months. I was still focused on getting a Bijak and he pointed us to another Math that was located across the road called Kabir Bagh. This was a simple but a huge Math with many families living inside. The admin incharge was called and he showed us the various works of Kabir published by them, thankfully including the Bijak. The person handling the books was very well spoken and seemed to be studying Kabir on his own. As we spoke to him, we found out that he has studied design and business management from some of the best schools in the world but some life events led him to this humble place that holds Kabir at the center of its being. One of those serendipitous rendezvous…

At Kabir Bagh, we got greedy and expressed our desire to hear the Kabir Panthis sing Kabir poetry and we were pointed to another Math at Kabir Chaura. Now, Kabir Chaura is a famous locality in Banaras but not many people knew about this Math. We went to a landmark and then kept asking the way till we located this huge math. Here we saw the life of Kabir depicted through models, with him sitting on the potter’s wheel, or weaving the cloth while he spoke his philosophy to his followers. His poetry is written on the walls of this place. The incharge asked us to go behind the building and see the actual place where Kabir lived and where his foster parents Neeru and Nima are buried. It was indeed a small knoll, now of course well maintained, and it was another serendipity, as I had no idea that this math was built at the very place where Kabir lived. We came back to the main building and the incharge spoke about Kabir at length. So many things from Kabir’s poetry came alive as the priest explained the place as it used to be in Kabir’s time and how it featured in his works. Like the lane of butchers that people had to cross to come to listen to Kabir and his Saakhi:

Kabira teri Jhopdi, Galkatiyan ke Paas

Jo karega so bharega, tu kyun bhaya udaas

Roughly translated, your hut is located near the butchers, but why do you get sad. The one who kills will bear the brunt, not you.

We missed out on the singing though as the people who sing had gone out that day to perform elsewhere.

Last day in Banaras we were walking from Dashashwamedh ghat to Trilochan ghat and we stopped at Panchganga ghat to discover that this was the very place where Kabir had lied down on the stairs to trap his Guru Ramananda to accept him as his disciple. As I stood there, it was a strange gush of energy that went through me as I realized that my feet are on the very stairs where Kabir had stood to gain a Guru.

Through the trip, Kabir kept making appearances in various forms as books, as temple, as pond, as scholar, as follower, as seeker and I almost felt that Kabir was seeking me as much as I was seeking him…

Unsung UP VII: Banaras – First Impression

I wanted to visit Banaras for many reasons – a nostalgic call as I lived there as a kid for some time, a divine call for being a practising Hindu, an exploratory call to see all that we hear about this ancient city, an art and culture intrigue since I learnt about the Sarnath school of Art, Lunar sandstone, Ramnagar Ram Leela etc, curiosity about Kabir and his works and of course all other reasons for which this is one of the most visited cities in the world. They say all that can be written about Varanasi has already been written, so what am I trying to write here – I can only say I am writing about the time and space in my life that intersected with this city of many names and fames.

Looking at various aspects of the city – arts, culture, spirituality, divinity, music, and food – you wonder what is it in this land by the holy Ganga that it nurtures creativity in so many ways. The narrow lanes makes you feel the divine from another aspect, you do not know how those old houses and dilapidated ghats keep on surviving, bearing the load of so many people. You see the life and death co-existing at the same time and place and you wonder if this is the reason that here we are able to see things in perspective.

Top of mind recall, I felt blessed during the whole trip. Not only could we visit and see everything that we wanted to, everything just kept falling in place, the clues kept coming at the right time and place as if some unseen force drove us. You can call it the imagination of a conditioned mind, or the faith of a follower, but there was something more than just us driving and guiding us, it was right there in the air around us. On a lighter note, we were protected even from the notorious Pandas of Banaras who never approached us, the crowd was just enough to keep the place alive but not crowded for you to feel unsafe or claustrophobic, weather was perfect and company could not have been better.

What stood out most was the Akkhad and Fakkad attitude of Banarasi people. The ubiquitous proud that ‘we are the best’ and we are leading the world came from just about everyone. People give you false information with such confidence that you tend to doubt your own knowledge. Saying ‘I do not know’ is beyond them. At the same time there was a certain Masti that a lot of them carried like a Rickshaw driver after taking certain amount from you tells you the actual rate for that ride. Sometimes they laugh off and say Banarasis have ulti khopdi, and why should it not be, ‘yahan to Ganga bhi ulti behti hai’ i.e. even the Ganga flows in reverse direction here. Ganga flows northwards in Banaras, flowing towards its source here and is hence called Uttar Vahini here.

There are two most sought after categories of visitors in Banaras. First are foreigners who all the service providers presume to be wealthy irrespective of who they are and where they come from.  This leads to the belief that they can part with money more easily than the domestic visitors. Second are the Telugu speaking visitors. Visiting from Hyderabad, I never felt out of place with Telugu sight and sounds around me. The moment I said I am from Hyderabad, I heard ‘Chapandi, Randi etc’ and after a point I started saying I am from Delhi. Having said that, it is pretty much a global place. You can find most Indian communities having a small corner of the city to them where they get their kind of food, their language is spoken and their version of God is worshipped. You can find many nationalities roaming on the ghats and on the boats early morning and at the time of evening Aarti.

There is still an old world charm in the city – in its boats that are still rowed by oars inspite of being painted with advertisements, the chai that is still served in Kulhads or clay cups, the angheethis that are still used by the peanut vendors, mithai wallahs with the piles of Mithai on display, the narrow lanes that still showcase the indigenious living culture, the presence of God in big or small way that is never out of your sight.

Banaras is and will probably always remain a multi-fold mystery for its visitors.