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Published: June 24th 2013
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the year 2005, i am struggling to cope with personal and professional failures, I also have health issues and the fact that I have a weight problem doesn't help at all. my dad suggests a quick trip to Varanasi during the durga puja, navratri holidays. my dad works out a package with the Taj in Varanasi and it's probably a three night package with breakfast and airport/railway transfers, a half day sightseeing trip is included in it.
We leave from Howrah and i carry my swimsuits so I can swim in the pool there. the car is waiting for us at the Varanasi station, as far as I remember the station is at Gaya and we cross the Ganges to reach Varanasi and the Taj. We check in and I share the room with my folks on an extra bed. The hotel is lovely, the grounds very beautiful, only the swimming pool is under renovation. We proceed towards breakfast and then take a buggy ride around the hotel. I do recall over eating at the scrumptious and lavish breakfast spread.
the hotel has a stall selling artefacts right in the lobby and I would buy a wooden picture frame
in which I have kept mum's photograph in my Bangalore home. Our sightseeing trip takes us to another part of town to the Maharajas residence. He is the only Brahmin Maharajah of India and we believe the royal families of India to be descendants of the Sun God. They are Kshatriyas by caste and intermarry to retain their purity of blood. The palace is by the river and here the Ganges has entered her middle course and cities like Varanasi and Allahabad at the confluence of the rivers Jamuna and Ganges are considered very holy cities in India. We taste some very rich lassi steeped with malai and then proceed towards the Banaras Hindu university. The seat of scholars from past it is still revered as an ancient and enlightened University. one of the evenings we go to the river front to see the evening prayers being offered known as the sandhya Arati. the view of the banks from the river should be beautiful too as you take in the sight and sound of evening prayers, lamps being lit and priests chanting and offering arati. the banks are very crowded and we stay for some time before returning to the hotel.
i discover the joys of a modern treadmill and gym and try to work out regularly after the hearty meals. One of the mornings we go to the Mahadev temple, the most famous landmark and sacred site in Varanasi to offer prayers and I pour water on the shiva linga to pray for a good husband!! we shop a bit outside and i pick up some clothes, pajamas and tshirts for my brothers. mum buys a saree, the very famous silk sarees from Varanasi. i also buy a bangle box for myself and my friend, some pretty pink and white glass bangles. my mum has some glass bangles from here too and once upon a time they were a favourite buy from here. i also bought two kurtis, a fashionable short shirt one can wear over a pair of trousers and one that hides our Indian waistline. one of them was with the famous chikan work of Uttar Pradesh and its a light green to add to the collection of pastel chikan wear i own, most of them from these parts.after the temple darshan or viewing we are stressed as its very crowded and generally there's a lot of pushing and pulling as is the case with all famous Hindu temples. we return to the hotel and it seems to me that I'm staying in a taj hotel after decades. it's so refreshing and relaxing.
in the evening we stroll down to Nadesar House opposite the Taj and it is this beautiful palace now converted to an emporium. we take in the silver jewellery and the hanging portraits of the Maharajah and his family. the Nadesar Palace has now been converted to the second Taj property. my friend had also told me about the gorgeous benarasi silk sarees that Taj can arrange for you to buy from but we refrain from that since I already possess many of them. the taj property was an erstwhile palace now bought by the hotel after most of the maharajas converted their palaces to hotels post the abolition of the privy purse by Indira Gandhi, then Prime Minister of India as well as the land ceiling act and various other loss of privileges by the royal families. they remain royal in our hearts though.
the next morning I wake up to mum praying to the Sun known as Surya pranam and then we go back to the temple and to the river for a boat ride. We cruise down the Ganges and pass many houses owned by several Hindu maharajahs as it was the norm for all of them to own a house in Varanasi. I do recall the architecture of the Nepal Maharajahs house on the banks of the river. Also on the banks of the river is my family guru's ashram and we go there for lunch on Ashtami day, the middle and most powerful day of the 5 day Durga puja celebration. we may have seen a couple of idols too and my father managed to have a cycle rickshaw run over his feet. i nurse him back to recovery in the hotel and on one of our walks we strolled into an antique store and dad bought this amazing statue of a mother and a child.
my ancestor used to own several houses in Varanasi at one point of time and i have even heard the number 26 being quoted. they housed members of his family who were widowed and who according to norm would spend the remaining of their life in houses in Varanasi wearing white clothes, shaving off their hair and eating vegetarian food only. i must mention the movie Water by Deepa Mehta in this connection, a most horrific but poignant and introspective look into the widows of Varanasi or Kashi. so the story goes that cow herds were used to capture these houses and my grandfather had singlehandedly managed to renovate and maintain one house. we went to see the house and I didn't think much of it although it is in the Bengali tolla or street of Varanasi and one of the inhabitants seemed to know exactly where it was. a movie by satyajit Ray revolving around Varanasi, durga puja and the bylanes of the city all with a sinister twist added to it is a must watch. The lanes narrow enough to hold one bull standing on it are also something to add to your must-watch list in Varanasi.
I do remember childhood memories of my grandmother and aunt, sometimes accompanied by her family leaving for Varanasi and a servant would be towed along for their stay. We would be regaled with laughter at some of the stories of monkeys attacking him and sometimes locking him in. i remember receiving gifts of sweet supari and masala, lacquer bangles, glass bangles, a holy shawl and payals, waistbands made of white metal. some of which i still own.
we had almost come to an end of our trip and the same car would take us back to the station for our overnight journey back to Kolkata. my mum would pick up pill boxes and she would give me one of them. i also picked up a brass bell which stands with the bell i bought in uttarakhand.
the very last moment my mum and me walked down to a shop behind the hotel and i find such exotic stuff, a silk bag, cushion covers for my grandmother and me, a silk stole and mum bought some more gift items. they were exquisite and they cost me 100 rupees each. so very happy with the loot we return to Kolkata for what remained of the durga puja celebration.
over the years i would get more gifts from Varanasi, similar pill boxes, a very pretty stone locket, another silk stole and a lacquer bangle. now that i write about it it makes me want to go there again. now that i had found the husband i had so prayed for at the temple there.
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