My eyes were filled with sleep and
exhaustion having disembarked on our journey at 3 am! Yet as soon as we got
into the car, to head towards the city, they were suddenly wide open trying to drink in my surroundings all at
once, the cow-driven cart, the women walking with their heads covered, the
sweet shop with huge flies sitting on the sweets, the tongas, brick houses, the
narrow lanes and finally Banaras Hindu University. Excitement was keeping my blood pumping and
preventing me from falling asleep. I had just read Pico Iyer’s “Why we travel?”
in which he says, “We travel, initially, to lose
ourselves; and we travel, next, to find ourselves. We travel to open our hearts
and eyes and learn more about the world than our newspapers will accommodate.
We travel to bring what little we can, in our ignorance and knowledge, to those
parts of the globe whose riches are differently dispersed. And we travel, in
essence, to become young fools again — to slow time down and get taken in, and
fall in love once more.” . His words hold so much power, so much truth
and keeping his words fresh in my mind I planned to do exactly that, to become
a young fool again, here in the City of Lights.
As we ventured into the city, we explored its culture and tried to get to know the people, and then finally saw the breath –taking River Ganga and the innumerous Ghats. We saw men, women, girls and boys of all age groups bathing in the Ganga. What a bittersweet moment that was for me, to see their utter devotion and yet the heart wrenching sight of them polluting the holy river. Throughout our walk, we were flocked with boatmen, tonga riders and rickshaw walas. One rickshaw driver told us about the HUGE festival, Dev Depawali that was going to take place in a few days, another told us about the uniform that was now mandatory for them to wear along with a tag which had all their personal details on it. He spoke about how it was going to be beneficial for women as they would feel safer now. All these encounters with the local people of Banaras got me thinking a lot about how they as locals perceived us tourists/outsiders. It raised a lot of questions in my mind. Were they only glorifying Varanasi to sugarcoat it for us? Were they actually so very proud of their ancient city? Were they being genuine when they so warmly received us or just putting on an act for fear of criticism? And I set out to find an answer to all my questions.
It was truly interesting to observe the lifestyle of the
people of Varanasi, both in the city and on the Ghats. (Yes, there is a lot of
difference in the lifestyle in the two areas). I went around asking people
about their livelihood and their outlook on the tourists that come to visit
their city. Initially I was bundle of nerves, not knowing how to approach them
without being too outright or offensive. Aur toh aur meri hindi itni achi hai
ki kya batau( note: Sarcasm) . We spoke to a boatman, Lalla, a coconut seller,
Rahul, an old shopkeeper, a seventeen year old chai wala, Rahul, two college girls, Priya and Priyanka and many
others. Each had their own take on Varanasi, the Ganga and its pollution, the
tourists. While the younger generations were very transparent in their answers
and accepted the truth of the polluted Ganga, the slightly older generation
tried to be more subtle about it. But they all had one thing in common, their
utter love and devotion for the city and the warmth they exuded towards the
tourists. Many had been to other parts of India and some even the world but
they never found a reason to leave their beloved city. And although not all of them went regularly
to the Ganga their faith in it was unbounded. When asked what they think about
the tourists that come to Varanasi, one replied, “Arey abhi toh angrezo ka season chal raha hai”, another said, “ Aane chahiye na, kyu nahi aane chahiye? Humari
maa ko dekhne ke liye sab ko aana chahiye”.(Of course they should come, why
shouldn’t they? They should all come to our Mother (Ganga)) I also asked them
whether Varanasi sustained itself only due to tourism, to which they proudly
answered no, and although tourism was a large part of their income, it was
largely self-sustaining city.
As I mentioned earlier I did not know how to approach
the people for fear of offending them and initially I did just that. I would
ask questions that were too direct and would make the person feel a little
uncomfortable. But I got the solution to my problem soon. In one of the many sermons by my facilitator
Narendra, he spoke about Empathy
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