Benaras | A city older than what I imagined | Part 2

In case you are directed to this page, please find Part 1 here.

30th December 2014

After a 26 hour long journey, accompanied by several cups of tea and a book, I have reached Varanasi. 

Varanasi, Benaras, Kashi. The city which surprised me beyond my expectations. You have to be there to understand the mystic charm the city possesses . There are several things that you'd be reminded by the name of the city - Ganga, Aarthi, Benarasi Paan etc. They all do live upto the expectations, if not, more. And, Its old. really old. One of the oldest continuously inhabited cities ever. 

Benaras is a city of narrow streets - Galli's. The streets themselves portray you an estimate of how old the city is. They are at times so narrow, that there would be place only for two people to walk adjacent to each other. Yet, they function as the lifeline of Benaras. Most of the ghats could be only reached via these narrow lanes. Manikarnika Ghat, which happens to be the cremation ghat, where there would be a dozen cremations happening at any given point of time, is also reachable only through a crowded narrow street. Not to mention, in the 5 minutes that you would take to reach the ghat, you would have to give way to at least two funeral possession to pass by. 

I never knew all this the moment I stepped onto the platform at Varanasi Jn. station. At that moment, I was just nervous and excited. I was heading to a backpackers hostel. Apart from what was said in the documentaries that I've watched, I didn't know any other do's and don't there. I was a bit skeptical if I'd be comfortable living with strangers. Would they be annoyed if I'd snore? How would I break the ice and start a conversation with people from all around the world? With all these thoughts running in my brain as I got off the auto-rickshaw at Zostel. My feet started to shiver slightly as I took the stairs towards the reception and later my room.

My reserved bed was in a 8-sharing Dorm. It was dinner time as I walked into the room and the room was almost empty, except one person, who was happily tucked-in in his blanket. That was Vaas, a undergrad student from Tamilnadu, who has taken a semester off and has been travelling across India. This was the forth Zostel he is staying at. For obvious reasons, he definitely look very relaxed, unlike my situation then. He later told me about our other roommates while gulping in some Tomato chat, which happens to be one of the must try items in Benaras, for dinner. 

Metin, a Swedish boxer, who has been travelling for over 2 years; Yaseen, a Tunisian who was here to practice meditation; Yudai, a Japanese economic student, who was on his last leg of a 3 month trip covering south Asia; Rachel "Cheng Xi" a Chinese Psychology student, who has already been to countries across 4 continents were my roommates at Zostel. All of them were travelling alone. Unfortunately, no group photos to post here.
Frankly, I wasn't expecting such a mix up of people. That took both my nervousness and excitement to a whole new level. Btw, it was only after a day that I could get their names pronounced right.

After dinner and after a small game of table tennis with Metin, who was heading off to Kolkata the next days, I got back to the room and crashed onto my bed. The train journey, which was delayed by 5 hours had taken a toll on me. My plans to pen down everyday of the trip, into the dairy went down in vain.

Then next day was New Years Eve and it was Yudai's birthday as well. I was informed while checking-in on not to plan anything for 31st night, as there was already a party planned at Zostel. With some very high expectations to party the next day, I dozed off.