Photo Diary: A Short Visit to Banaras

(This post was written a year back and forgotten. Before I leave for Banaras this Diwali, I thought to share the pictures)

For us festivals, especially Holi and Diwali, are occasions to celebrate our friendship and the bond with the eternal city of Banaras.

Sometimes I think I should write on Banaras every now and then. Then, there comes another nonsense (!) thought that is it because it would be easier for me to do so? Well, a plain answer to the question is, be it a small or large city - its hell difficult to write regularly on it even if you are a native or in love/hate relationship with it. And, if it’s the case of the one of the oldest living city on the planet, the situation becomes rather difficult.

So, not pondering about the above thoughts (which I would like to discuss some other time under Random Thoughts), it would be easier to write the best part of my ~~recent~~ last year's short visit to Varanasi or Banaras.

Banaras Ghats बनारस के घाट

Visit started on a note that the trip can be shortened anytime on official notice. Second to bitter the trip was an illogical discussion with a big-head ‘I am Neo Intellectual’ kind of person actually ruined the excitement of landing into my own city – my mother city! ‘We won’t change, and this has already been denounced by an English Viceroy or Governor’, - was the only justification of dishonoring the city which actually help that guy live the life out of proportions. Well, again that I would discuss some other time…

Just about the Best part of the trip - the time I spent with my Chaddhi-buddies. These guys are the few of the best persons I have ever met in my entire life! They are in fact Life for me… We are a group of 5 people, who grew up and studied together in Varanasi. As the studies got intense through the board and competitive exams, so did our bond of friendship. For us festivals, especially Holi and Diwali, are occasions to celebrate our friendship and the bond with the eternal city of Banaras.

I had a very short and abruptly ended trip to hometown ~~this~~ last Diwali. And, luckily we were able to do all the rituals, like visiting Ghats in morning, having street food in gullies, visit Kal Bhairon and spend some quality time talking out our lives….

I thought to do a picasa/flickr-blog for showcasing pictures, but it demanded some dedicated time to understand it and the easiest way was posting on this blog only, the old-fashion way. So, here I’m with these pictures we shot ~~this~~ last Diwali….

At Kaal Bhairon Temple

My friend Ashwini At Kaal Bhairon Temple

गरमा गर्म पूरियां

और गजब की मसालेदार सब्जी

सुबह के बनारसी नास्ते की तैयारी

सुबह के बनारसी नास्ते की तैयारी --- ब्रेड-मक्खन

अनोखा बार-बर

Dashaswamedh Ghat

Prayag Ghat प्रयाग घाट

Dom Raja's Home डोम राजा का घर

Gwalior Ghat ग्वालियर घाट

प्रयाग घाट

Our boatman - he was pissed off with SRK for hugging Katrina

Kiddos having fun at Ghats

and that kid was so much in to deep thoughts...

A Swedish team doing Kolkata to Varanasi...

Karpatri ji's Ashram

Dom Raja's Shiva Temple

A 'Modern' Ashram

My Tri-Mitra...

The tilted Shiva Temple

An old Masjid near Manikarnika Ghat

Thinking what to capture next time... ;)

You may visit the Picasa Albums here...would be sharing this Diwali pictures soon.. :)

Banned Indian Books

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high; Where knowledge is free; Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls; Where words come out from the depth of truth... Few days back when I came to know about a book on an Indian Business Barron on the Banned Indian Books’ List, the first thing that came in my mind were the lines from Tagore . What an irony, we live in a country, whose forefathers have dreamt about a nation without fear, about a nation with right to speech, right to knowledge; and where the Government enjoys the “privilege” to “freely” ban the books, censor what it feels offensive! Wikipedia describes Banned books as the books whose free access is not permitted. Further it says that the practice of banning books is just another form of censorship, and often has political, religious or moral motivations. In our country, banning books have got its history since the British rule days. In fact, few of the Books

Trekking Ghansoli Gawli Dev (Parsik) Hill

It’s been there for geological ages, we have been looking at it for last about 4years and I have been planning to trek it since a long time. Finally, few weeks back, we trekked the Ghansoli Hill. Ghansoli Hill is located at the eastern boundary of Ghansoli town, behind our office complex at RCP. The hill or better hillock is a part of small range that separates Kalyan and Navi Mumbai towns. A search on Google Map returns with a name Parsik Hill for it, though there is one more rather famous Parsik Hill in Navi Mumbai. We also found a NewsArticle , that talks about NMMC plans to develop Nature Awareness Centre at this hills and calls it Gawli Dev Hill. Here, we would be calling it Ghansoli Hill . I asked my colleague about it and he readily agreed. The very next Sunday we did it with another friend. We weren't aware of the route. All we knew is that a Central Road runs along the western edge of the hill and can be reached through the Vashi-Mhape road. We later found that there’

Riders of the Nation of a Billion - Dimensions and Horizons

Incidentally I wrote a post of my tranformation from just around the corner corporate junkie into a Rider (for sure, still gradually) few days ago. Now, here are the Indibloggers with a Contest for the Bikers of the Nation with Castrol guys . Evolving Biker Code of the Nation When you look at the scenario of Biking in a general sense, you would be attracted by the road-rowdies and rookies who ride to spread nuisance and are mostly acknowledged for their deeds by the newspaper. Hooligans may be the right word. But, once you get involved with the passion, you would be able to see how the passion of Biking, or rather Riding, is evolving in the country where 2-wheelers over-power 4-wheelers by scores of galactic height, but have never earned respect on highways just coz they are the smallest-speeding machine there! I would try to let you through the Indian Riders tale, so that you be able to appreciate how the riders of the Country are working, though in a segregative way

Deepak2 November 2012 at 06:12
That was a wonderful virtual tour of Varanasi with some lovely images!
Punit Dubey4 November 2012 at 23:29
Thank you so much @twitter-17988935:disqus Sir! Would be sharing more pics from Banaras soon....:)

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