facebook
CRAFT YOUR JOURNEY
Benaras and I_3cover
NARRATIVES

Benaras, and I 

North India

Benaras and I_2

Like a predator and her prey.
Lurks, prowls and
a weary stillness.

Like lovers in a courtship game.
The hidden, revealed and
everything in between.

Masters in the art of waiting-dance

In what seemed like an eternity,
measured in each passing boat,
we stood exposed between
eyeblinks.

Tease, taunt or trap
one shall never know

Exhausted, and out of time,
I stared at the city

A city that has surrounded itself
by a fortress of stories, legends
and myths that have sedimented
over a thousand years

A city that has shrouded itself
in a cloak of gods, traditions
and ceremonies performed by
a million worshipping mortals

in defeat, humbled.

The city bid a forlorn goodbye
from behind its veils,
magnanimous in its vanquishment

Much like in Kamban’s Ramayana,
where Rama utters to an unarmed Ravana,
with a humiliating benevolence
that follows victory,

Leave          and return
to fight on the morrow

Under a pale golden sky,
the river watched in silence.

In its muddled reflections, lay Benaras

Explore More

The Charm of Evanescence
The Charm of Evanescence

Earlier this year, during the summer month of April, Elke Frotscher travelled with us and a crew of photographers to Tamil Nadu...

Narrative South India
Riverine Tales
Riverine Tales

Traversing binaries of the divine and the mundane, smudging the pure and the impure, a river accommodates all...

Narrative North India
In the Land of Palaces and Kings
In the Land of Palaces and Kings

This journey explores the rich Rajput and Mughal heritage exemplified by the resplendent architecture of North India...

Bespoke Journey North India
Daughter of the Mountains
Daughter of the Mountains

A journey along the cities of the Indo-Gangetic Plains exploring the ways of life of its people as shaped by the river Ganges...

Bespoke Journey North India
Brijrama Palace
Brijrama Palace

The erstwhile royal palace in the holiest city of Varanasi, the Brijrama is an unlikely blend of luxury...

Hotel Guide North India
Shajanram, a Bishnoi in Rajasthan
Shajanram, the Bishnoi

Shajanram is a frail little person in his late eighties. Yet he moves gracefully, with the agility of a nearby...

Narrative North India