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We had set the alarm for 7 o’clock a.m., and the phone roused us from sleep. I started to panic – had we overslept? Had our alarm not gone off? Had we missed our flight? I looked at the clock...it was only 6:45. I answered the phone and found it to be a wrong number. Luckily it was just about time to wake up anyway.
We took showers and enjoyed the nice hot water after having spent so long on airplanes. At 8:30, we met Mukul downstairs for a breakfast of fruit, lentil donuts, watermelon juice, and mixed fruit juice in the hotel dining room. Our driver, Ravi, picked us up at around 9:30. Mukul realized that we hadn’t seen much of Delhi on our previous trip, and that we wouldn’t see much of it this time as well, just due to our schedule. Since we had some time before we had to be at the airport, he asked Ravi to drive us to the India Gate. We also passed by the embassies and a statue of the Jodhpur Lancers. We saw one area where Mukul told us that a British officer on an elephant was surveying the area when a bomb got tossed at him in a grove of trees. So in typical hyperbolic fashion, they cut down all of the trees. Just driving around with Mukul was a joy, as he imparted so much information about everything we were seeing. Then we went to Indira Gandhi Airport. Our domestic terminal, which was just several months old, was very clean and modern with comfortable air conditioning. Mukul and Craig went through the gents’ security line, while I went through the ladies’. I passed through a metal detector and then went into a little curtained cubicle where a woman frisked me and ran a hand-held metal detector over me. We had to put tags onto our carry-on luggage, and they stamped the tag to indicate that the luggage had been screened. If you don’t have a stamp, the bag can’t go on the plane. We found a nice place to sit and Mukul went to get some drinks. He got a coffee for himself and Craig and a water for me. We got a chance to catch up with Mukul a bit, and learned that his son Sukumar would be getting married in February. Our flight was running a little bit late, but eventually we were able to board the Kingfisher Air prop plane. Even though the flight was less than an hour, we were served a delicious vegetable biryani and a cup of pudding. There were several liquor advertisements in the airplane, and Mukul explained that the owner of the airline also owns Kingfisher Beer, several other liquor companies, and also publishes the wildly popular Kingfisher calendar, the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue of India. After landing in Varanasi in the state of Uttar Pradesh, we collected our luggage and were met by our greeter. Our driver, Pintu, drove us about half an hour from Varanasi to Sarnath, a nearby site which is very important in the Buddhist tradition. The area was very lush and green, with lawns and hedges dotted with brick and stone foundations of long-since ruined buildings. Shortly after his enlightenment, the Buddha himself came here to teach his fellow monks. He gave his first sermon, known as Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta, here. The site was dominated by the Dhamek Stupa, a large cylindrical structure 128 feet high and 93 feet in diameter. The lower brick section of the stupa dates from the 3rd century BC. The upper stone layers were added in the 3rd century CE. Stones throughout the complex had interesting carvings on them. We passed ruins of many shrines and stupas. Some of the shrines were covered in gold leaf by pilgrims. It was very pleasant to walk around the grounds of the archaeological site. The air was abuzz with dragonflies. There were more dragonflies here than we had ever seen in one place before, and it added to the slightly surreal atmosphere. After walking through the ruins, we left our valuables with the driver in the car before heading into the museum (otherwise we would have had to store them in a locker as no cameras are allowed inside). The prize possession of this particular museum is a sandstone statue of four lions called the Lion Capital of Asoka. This statue dates back to the 3rd century BC (during the rule of the Mauryan emperors). It sat atop the 50-foot-tall sandstone Asoka pillar, which we had seen in its original position at the site. It was a broken off piece of sandstone which looked like a sharpened pencil. The Lion Capital is the national emblem of India. We saw statues of people, who all held carved stone parasols. These are from the Gupta period (3rd century CE). A school field trip came inside and suddenly the museum was very crowded. They walked in a perfect line around the perimeter of the museum galleries, perfectly behaved, and yet obviously more interested in us than they were in the museum pieces. We saw beautiful statues and carvings of Buddha as well as various Hindu deities. After seeing everything that the museum had on display, we stepped outside and stopped at the car to pick up our cameras. We walked next door to a functioning Sri Lankan Buddhist temple behind the archaeological complex. It is called Mulagandhakuti Vihara and was inaugurated in 1931. Under a gazebo, we passed statuary of Buddha and his student monks, who were dressed in brightly colored gold-adorned robes. We took our shoes off and went inside. There were murals of Buddha’s life on the walls and a golden statue of Buddha at the main altar. We were allowed to take photos in here (which we weren’t allowed to do inside Buddhist temples in Bhutan) so we took advantage of the opportunity. There was a bell outside, as well as a bodhi tree. We passed Sridigamber Jain temple with its bright yellow steeple as we walked back to the car. Pintu then drove back to Varanasi.On the drive, we passed innumerable signs advertising JayPee Cement. I found it funny that a sign was advertising a public school as “Decent Public School” (just one example of how Indian English sometimes diverges from American English). Also known as Banaras or Kashi, Varanasi is one of the oldest continually inhabited cities in the world, dating back 2500 years. It is a sacred city to Hindus, Jains, and Buddhists. Buddha designated Varanasi as one of the four sacred pilgrimage sites, which explains its holiness to Buddhists. Jains believe the city to be the birthplace of Parshvanatha, the twenty-third Tirthankar (enlightened role-model/teacher within Jainism), in the 9th century BC. For Hindus, it is the city of Shiva the Destroyer, who founded the city 5000 years ago. Shiva can be recognized by the trident (or trishula) he carries. More than a million pilgrims visit Varanasi each year. Bathing in the sacred Ganges absolves Hindus of their sins, and dying in Varanasi and having your ashes scattered in the river attains moksha (release of the soul from the cycles of reincarnation). The sacred Ganges flows south to north through Varanasi. On its shores are approximately 100 ghats (staircases which provide access down to the water). 70 are bathing ghats and the others are used for purposes including cremation. Steps are the perfect design for these areas, because no matter what the water level, people can always have easy access to the river. We checked in at the modern Ramada Inn. They gave us cold drinks when we checked in, which was very nice. We were brought to room 2123, a comfortable business-travel style room with twin beds, a desk, love seat, and flat screen TV. We took about half an hour to get settled and then we met Mukul to go out on the town. The driver drove us toward the Old City (on the Ganges river) until it was just too crowded and he couldn’t really go any further. At this point we hopped out amidst the chaos and continued on foot to the ghats. The streets were very crowded and you always needed to be aware of your surroundings. Bicycle rickshaws, cows, pedestrians, and tuk-tuks all surged forward, and the vehicles beeped non-stop. Mukul was more used to this than we were, and as a result often ended up ahead of us as we dodged all of the obstacles. We passed all kinds of interesting shops, but it was hard to really get a good look as we were trying not to get run over and trying to catch up with Mukul. When we reached Dashashwamedh Ghat, people immediately approached us and tried to sell us postcards. We walked down the ghat steps and Mukul hired a boat. It was starting to get dark, and we watched our steps as we carefully climbed into the boat, so as not to slip on the riverside debris and tumble into the murky water. The boatman rowed us out next to other boats, which were positioned to have a nice view of the nightly ceremony on the ghats. There were other foreign tourists, like ourselves, but there were also quite a few Indian pilgrims who had come to Varanasi to worship, and the nightly Hindu ceremony which would take place on the ghat had special meaning for all of them. Men on the ghat lit incense and waved it around. We could see the smoke trails. There was chanting over the loudspeakers accompanied by music. It was entrancing. Mukul bought little flowers and candles in bowls made of leaves from a little boy who told him in Hindi that his flowers were better than the other sellers’. We lit the candles and set the little leaf-boats adrift on the Ganges for our friend Richa. She is a co-worker of ours, and she was raised in Varanasi. She was very excited to learn that we would be visiting her home town, and asked if we could have a puja performed for her. It was dark and therefore hard to judge the depth of the water. Craig splashed his hand with river water, and I immediately got out the hand sanitizer gel. Mukul caught me in action and took a photo, and we all got a good laugh. But Mukul agrees - the water is probably best left untouched, as it collects remnants from the daily activities of the citizens, both alive and dead. Mukul was trying to capture a photo of the silhouette of a girl balancing a basket of flowers on her hip. The lighting made it difficult to do the scene justice. The full moon over the Ganges reflected in its dark waters. The evening was magical. Mukul spoke to a nearby boat full of people who had come from another part of the country, here in Varanasi for the first time. A chai walla (young boy selling tea) came over to our boat and offered us tea. Mukul wanted a picture of him and offered to give him a tip. The boy feigned offense and said that he didn’t like having his photo taken, and besides, he wasn’t a beggar, he was a seller. Mukul said ok, then he would buy a cup of tea for the boatman. The boy poured the cup of tea and Mukul convinced him to pose for a picture (after the kid's friend playfully grabbed his head and forced him to smile and look at us). Then the men on the ghats lit fires in small pots and swirled them in the air. Mukul chanted along with some of the (Sanskrit?) verses that they were chanting. As the ceremony was drawing to a close, Mukul suggested that we leave before the mass exodus. The boatman took us to shore and we climbed up the ghat stairs to the street and then walked back along the busy streets to meet up with our driver again. He drove us back to the hotel, where we went to dinner with Mukul at the hotel restaurant called Tadka. We had mattar paneer, Lahori bhatti da murg (spring chicken), garlic naan, roti, and basmati rice. Craig and Mukul shared a Kingfisher beer. We talked some more with Mukul and learned a bit about the school in Agra that his family was instrumental in founding. When we asked how many students there were, we expected to hear maybe at the most one hundred. We were taken aback when we heard that there were over 1000. We were really looking forward to visiting the school when we reach Agra in a few days time. For dessert Mukul ordered us some paan (sweet betel leaf which Richa had recommended that we try while in Varanasi). They were little pyramids in silver leaf foil that tasted very minty. The restaurant gave us a feedback form and asked me to fill it out. And not for the last time. These forms would have input fields for e-mail, birthday, wedding anniversary, etc. I wondered if I would get a birthday email from Ramada Varanasi if I wrote something complimentary. We retired to our rooms at 9:45. We noticed prawn-flavored crackers in our mini-bar. Luckily, we weren't hungry. I wrote in the journal and then we went to sleep in preparation for an early morning, to see sunrise over the Ganges. View Larger Map View Larger Map |
 Sarnath  Dhamek Stupa, Sarnath  Mulagandhakuti Vihara Temple  Mulagandhakuti Vihara Temple  Full moon over the Ganges, Varanasi  Mukul  Nighttime ceremony on the ghats  Chai walla  Boatman enjoys a cup of tea  Lighting a candle and floating an offering into the Ganges  Nighttime ceremony on the ghats  Nighttime Ghat Ceremony(20 second clip) 
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