Life and its Ways.

काशी Calling.

The announcement of the trip came as quite a disappointment to me. Coming from the large bustling city of Bombay, I was looking forward to an experience of different sorts.  Life has its ways though, and if I had five chances to change it, I wouldn't. Little did I know that Kashi, a place I felt I would never be able to connect with, would be a place I was sure of visiting again, a place where a little part of me would always belong.

I didn't expect too much of the place. Not in the sense of ‘great expectations’, but expectations of any sort. With the disappointment of not getting the course I wanted, the excitement and expectations were kept at bay, until the last few days before we left for Varanasi.

I have always been interested in religion and faith. Growing up in a family with agnostic parents, being faithful by the age of nine and then deciding to follow a certain religion by the age of twelve, I have always been the kind that enjoyed learning and discovering new faiths and religion. I’d call myself spiritual now. Still dwindling on the much controversial topic of religion, I was looking forward to learning about new religions, especially Hinduism, one that I’ve been really fascinated with, through time immemorial. I definitely knew I was supposed to consider myself as more than lucky. It was after all the land of the most holy Ganga I was visiting, a melting pot. A land where life and death comes together.

I was definitely interested in going to Varanasi once school started. A place with over  4000 years of history, a land of deep beliefs and faiths, a place of rich heritage, a city of hope and life, the gallis of activity, the religious capital of India, a place of peaceful death…who wouldn't be?! During the induction week, the vague idea I got of Kashi, I would say, did the place complete injustice. Even more than injustice, if there exists such a thing. The river Ganga, the sadhus of the ghats, the gallis, the chaotic roads, the exciting food, the dirt, the cows, the language and dialects…I had an overview of all of it, in a way that I found quite interesting. However, I can now say that I didn't have a clue then of what I would be getting into for the next eight days.