Banaras-An Unplanned Sojourn

“Chhotu, do chai- cheeni kam- patti tez”, Santy said. I was sitting on my bike and typing a message to my room mate- Would have dinner outside, ask maid to prepare dinner only for you. Santy came back and sit in front of me on his bike. 'Message Sent' was appearing on my mobile screen. We used to sit at Noida sector 18 bike stand at least 4 evenings every week, park our bikes side by side, and get buoyed in discussions about many more topics except girls. Readers please don’t think that we were not interested in girls rather we emphasized other things those were more (or equally) important than girls.

Chhotu served the tea. I took first sip, and said, “Tea is good”. Santy was in synch after having a sip. I said, “Yaar, I am wishing to visit any old city”. Santy stared at me for couple of moments and asked, “Like”. I said, “ Like, Banaras”. “Why Banaras, why not any other place” Santy asked. “Hmmm… just to visit the place, want to get dissolved in culture. That’s it,” I said. “Ok, will think about it.”, Santy said, and our discussion started on other things.

Very next day, I was busy with my daily mugging tasks in office and my cell phone started ringing. Santy was calling from his office landline. His office landline number was by heart to me as was his cell number. I picked the call and asked casually, “Sir, I am busy, is there anything urgent”. He just said, “Nothing, just check your mail” and put the phone down. I opened mailbox after a while, and an unwanted smile was on my face, I murmured, “The Typical Santy”. He had sent railway e-tickets copy that was booked for Banaras. I called him back, and he said, “Sir, get your bag ready, Friday evening we are leaving for Banaras”. I didn’t have words. Friday was just after the next day.

Day 1

I was saying to autowala, “Bhai please hurry up. I am getting late. My train will depart at 8:40.” Autowala was driving like anything now. It was 8:25 when I stepped out from auto, Santy was sitting on the stairs of Wimpy’s at Ajmeri gate side. He waved his hand, I responded to him. “You are late as usual”, Santy said. “VIPs are always late,” I said and grinned. We boarded in the train and settled our bags; it was 8:35 pm. Our unplanned sojourn was starting in next few mins. As the train moved, we removed our shoes, put the sandals, and got ready for the non-ending discussions. “Chai, Chai,….Chai, Chai” A tea vendor was coming closer to our seats. Santy looked at me, I nodded. A decision was taken without saying even a single word. Santy ordered tea and asked, “Dost, chai kab tak dete rahtay ho”. Vendor said, “11-11:30”. Santy adjusted his specs, and said, “Could you please serve tea every after 30 mins?” Vendor said, “Sure sir…” This was our first tea of the unplanned sojourn. A baldy uncle sitting at front seat threw a smile, and said, “Both of you seems fond of tea”. Santy smiled and said, “ This is our lifeline…Sir”. Our discussion started and we were talking again how to live life happily--Work culture at office--How to be good with others--Essence of a happy relationship… blah blah blah. Tea vendor was serving tea as instructed. We ordered food from railway pantry, and it was damn good or it seemed so because we were happy from heart. It was 3:00 am, when Santy said, “Should we go for a sleep else we would spoil our day tomorrow?” I nodded my head in confirmation. It was almost dark in coach and outside lights were glittering the faces of sleeping people at irregular intervals....

Day 2

Somebody was shaking me; I opened my eyes half and saw Santy was standing in front of me holding two cups of tea. I said, “Good Morning…Sir”. “Wake up man, you missed lots of good scenes,” Santy said. I stood up, gargled the throat, and started sipping tea. It was 6:30 am, and morning was beautiful. We reached Varanasi junction at 10:15 am, came out to get a hotel first. A rickshaw wala approached us, if we were looking for a hotel. I said, “ Baba, kisi theek thak se hotel le chalo jahaan AC room mil jaye”. That rickshaw wala took us to a hotel near to railway station and the hotel was acceptable as per our parameters. We checked-in, put our luggage, had shower, and got ready to hit the city.

We decided to visit Sarnath first, and before anything we wanted to have some typical desi food to kill our appetite. We went to small dhaba where a lady was cooking poori-sabzi. Our saliva started coming out, we entered in dhaba and ordered two plates of poori-sabzi. Breakfast ended up with a good tea in kularh (a soil pot). We loaded our camera, tighten our butts, and moved from dhaba out to visit Sarnath. There was a monastery and we decided to visit monastery first. Santy started clicking monks, statues, and never-seen things pertaining to Buddha religion. Then we headed Sarnath, where we saw Ashok’s Pillar. We both didn’t know that the pillar was in Sarnath. We saw all nooks and corners, clicked lots of pics, had lots of tea-lassi, and started towards Ganga Ghat. It was 4 when we reached Ganga Ghat.

We took the narrowest streets to reach there. This was our first visit to such a live place where things were lively because of religious acts. We took a boat to go to the other side of river. We didn’t waste time and it took few mins to put our clothes off. Splash….Santy jumped in the river. Now my turn, and a big splash this time. We handed-over our camera to the boat-rover, and he clicked us in the worst ways that he could. But those pics say a lot and mean to us.

I saw a person was searching something in water and keeping the found items in his mouth. I asked, “baba, what are you looking for in water?” He said, “colleting coins that people throw in Ganges”. Now the competition started in between Santy and I. I found the first coin, Santy found the next, but at the end I was the winner. We gave all the coins to the person and the man showed his dirty yellow teeth with smile. We put the clothes on, came to Ghat side, and went to visit Hanuman temple.

Now, the time came of Arti-the most enchanting moment at Ganga Ghat. We both were hypnotized seeing the divinity of atmosphere. River was glittering with lights, aroma of dhoop-batti was all around, and priests were playing Shankh, and saying arti. It was all over in an hour, and Santy and I were back in fussy world. We both tried rafting boats with special permission of boat-rover and no doubt Santy was fit for this profession. We started coming back to hotel.

We reached hotel at 9:15 pm. We had shower & dinner, and started our never-ending discussions. It was 2 am when Santy said the same words for saving tomorrow.

Day 3

We woke up at 5:00 am, as we decided to visit Ganga ghat early morning. We reached there and bought two ram-nami dupatta, participated in ramayan-path, got massaged by a barber in 50 bucks, listened various stories about 84 ghat, harishchnadra ghat, and other ghats. We had a word with lots of pandas, joined a small marriage function, and keeping all the etiquettes aside, we requested to get clicked with newly weds. They allowed and a click sound captured all 4, bride-groom-Santy-I. Then we found an Australian there, and he was our next victim. We started understanding the things with him, why he came here? What is so fascinating about the place? What about his family? And truck loads of question we put on him. He replied every question very calmly, and his one answer made us speechless. Santy asked him, where was he born? He said, “I born in Australia, and reborn in Haridwar. This is my new life”. Santy and I were staring each other. We all had tea together. Santy watched the time; It was 4 pm. Now, the time was come to say Adieu to people and place. We had Arhar dal, Chapati, and Chawal in lunch and rushed to get the train.

We boarded in train at 5:45 pm for Delhi; train moved at 6:00 pm. As the train moved, we removed our shoes, put the sandals, and got ready for the non-ending discussions. “Chai, Chai,….Chai, Chai” A tea vendor was coming closer to our seats. Santy looked at me, I nodded. A decision was taken without saying even a single word…