Prologue to the night


I had read in many novels of the classical genre that characters spent their time and sometimes their nights on the riverbanks and even on rivers in their boats. In tales such as the Great Expectations, in Tom Sawyer, in detective stories of Hardy Boys and then in many others, I have had the vicarious pleasure of taking part in all sorts of adventures on many mighty rivers and their banks. And so when out-of-the-blue, life decided to treat me to something special, I could hardly believe it to be true!

Just to put your cross-hairs on the target, I’ll mention that I’ve done my B.Tech from IT-BHU, in Varanasi and have since then been busy finishing MBA.
The post MBA vacations are a good time, as seniors say, for a final goodbye to the life as we know it till now. So when a friend from BHU turned up at my house and proposed to make a one day overnight stay tour to the holy city and to BHU, I agreed without thinking. To tell you some more truth, I was amazingly vella (a term used in my b-school to describe creatures in a state of having absolutely nothing to do, and who tend to be shameless about it) and agreed just for the sake of getting out and moving my feet.
Talking of my feet, they had been jammed for the past few days as the writer bug in me had been nagging me for some days to write something on Allahabad. Strange, isn’t it? Why Allahabad, and what? But no, it won’t be pacified and quite a lot of my blood was being consumed in cooking up something to write about my hometown. And it was this frustration I guess that played a large role in my split-second decision. But I love my institute and Varanasi ok! Don’t get ideas!
So we landed at Cantt. Station after a cool AC bus ride of 3 hours, having given up on the 6 AM train that just won’t arrive even by 8:30 AM. The first stopover was the in-campus Vishwanath temple that holds more attractions outside it than inside. The Chhole Bhature, the Mango shakes with large ice-cubes, the cold-coffee with ice-cream and the lassi at the shops outside the temple appealed more to two young souls and throats in the afternoon heat of north India. We proceeded to meet the deity after we were thoroughly satisfied and quenched and chilled out. In the heat of north India, deities can wait.
The hostels were the same old stuff, the young freshers having now grown up into big huge and dude-like fourth years. So we kept roaming dreamily on the many roads of the BHU campus and kept stopping at favourite old time jaunts, whether it be for a glass of fresh juice, a plate of fresh cut watermelon or awesome Banarasi Paan! The nostalgia was absolute and complete.
To move onto the point of this whole story, we took to Assi ghat in the evening and then went to enjoy the famous Ganga Arti at Dashashwamedha Ghat by boat. The hiring of the boat took the effort of walking up and down, to and fro the length of Assi Ghat twice in moods ranging from confident dismissal to ardent reasoning with the boatman…all to bring him down to 80 bucks from 200 he wanted. Greedy fellow! The parade paid us well and the boatman, having realized he was up against seasoned players, resigned himself to his fate.
The beauty and the glamour of Dashashwamedha Ghat was breath taking. Come with me and see for yourself.


Comments

Ravish said…
oye trips...

kaash is trip main main bhi aa sakta aur ek baar fir BHU ki yaadein taza kar paata...nice one dear...

keep writing...

r@vish
12:39 PM
Ravish said…
oye trips...

yaar sahi main yaadein taza ho gayi bhu ki..kaash meri life main bhi is trip ka jikra hota...nice blog dear...

keep writing...
R@vish
12:40 PM
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