You drop the name Varanasi and regardless who you talk to they see the city with their own lens:
- To the old it is where you got to absolve your sins and in some cases go to die
- To the Buddhists Sarnath in Varanasi is the second most important site after only Bodh Gaya where Buddha delivered his first sermons to his disciples
- To the Hindus it is the holiest place and dedicated to shiva
- The Jain's consider it one of the thirtha's pilgrimage places (In fact there is a Jain temple in the middle of Sarnath)
- To the young it is where you go for some great street food, awesome insta pics
- To tourists visiting from other countries they are in awe
On this trip to India with the kids in the tow looking for something different we laded in Varanasi in the middle of peak Indian summer. Everyone was completely wasted out of wedding food and meeting relatives and the stage was set for some gastronomical street food adventure.
Of course as any other NRI would we chose to stay in a cushy 5 star retreat at the Taj as opposed to backpacking at the ghats. Last I had visited Varanasi was some 25 years ago when I had gone there on work to Allahabad to troubleshoot some unique problems at a banarasi saree store install of a local area network.
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