Wall painters arrive in Varanasi

We have successfully made it to Varanasi with the help of Qatar Airways and IMS-service. We are really grateful for them that they have made the trip doable!

3D view of our flight

Delicious!

Flying high on Qatar Airways

We will publish a more detailed report later on, because the Internet connection in Varanasi is rather slow, and downloading pictures take a lot of time.

The city of Varanasi welcomed our arrival with smooth weather, even a little chilly in the mornings and evenings. What can I say about the changes in city from the first glance, well, now Varanasi has more quality big format outdoor advertising, both in terms of constructions and printing. The ghats have more lightning during the evenings, so they are easy to navigate, I barely used my flashlight going from Dasashwameth to Assi ghat. To my surprise I saw children playing not only cricket, but also badminton! Totally amazing.

A night view from Assi ghat

The traffic stays the same, the streets are crowded with riksha-wallas and chai is still a major treat here.

The central ghat and other ghats around 500 meters from it were cleared of all advertising paintings in November for the Dep Devali celebration. Our announcement was also removed, but we are not discouraged, we will do a real wall painting, not just an announcement )

As for the graffiti, we have met everyone we needed on the second day of our arrival, including the owner of the ghat Mr. Mishtra, so today at 11-00 we started our long awaited and long air-flighted wall painting.

You can follow us on twitter.com/govaranasi to learn the latest news first.

Bumpy roads - modern karma of Varanasi

More and more people are complaining of backache, neck pain and spinal injuries in Varanasi. The doctors attribute the rising cases to bumpy rides on potholed roads of the city.

Well, I would agree to that. Especially when you are riding in a ricksaw more than 5 minutes. The Russian roads, notorious for their bumps, seem like heaven when compared to those in Varanasi.

Media reports that the figures of people hurt by the roads is growing steadily. "On an average, we are witnessing three to four cases of spinal injures per month and the figure is almost 20% higher than the last year figure," said O P Sharma of department of radiodiagnosis and imaging, Banaras Hindu University (BHU).

Though I can hardly understand how 3 cases can show the 20% increase in number, I'm sure the doctor finds this trend very disturbing.

In addition, there is an almost 10% increase in the cases of neck pain and backache, two most common skeleto-muscular problems. Around 8 to 10 cases are being reported daily at the centre, added the senior professor, who has come up with a special paper on effects of bumpy roads on backache and other skeleto-muscular ailments.

The reports of orthopaedic department, BHU, indicate that knee and shoulder injuries are common problems affecting the young population, while backache and neck pain are taking toll on the ones aged over 50 years.

The youngsters, particularly college going students, in the city drive their bikes at a high speed which makes them prone to accidents resulting in knee and shoulder injuries.

"Wrong sitting postures on bikes coupled with bumpy rides cause backache and spinal injuries, said Sharma, who was former head of the department.

Also, as per the reports of neurosurgery department's OPD, an average increase of 20% has been witnessed in the cases of spinal injuries in last one year.

"One needs to be extra careful while riding motorbikes or driving vehicles on these roads and it is always better to compromise speed for safe and injury-free journey," said Sharma.

Geography of Varanasi

As for the physical geography of Varanasi,

Varanasi is located on the Western bank of the Ganges river in Northern India. The Indian state is Uttar Pradesh. In Varanasi the sacred Ganges makes a moon-like turn and flows to the North, while usually most rivers in northern hemisphere are destined South.

If we count from Delhi, Varanasi is 780 km to the South-East of the capital.

If you drive a car, or rather, hire a driver, the road to Varanasi will take more than 16 hours. You will have to ride creepy Indian roads, which are unlit at night and remain in dire condition for the last 50 years. As one school of Indian driving puts it, local "roads" are not meant to commute from here to there, it’s the road themselves that run from here to there.

You can also take some time to enjoy the countryside and hire an auto rickshaw, this is one of the most extraordinary ways to travel – it will take you a couple of days. I personally have not heard of any foreigner, who found the courage to make such a journey.

The most common way to get to Varanasi is taking a train (13 to 17 hour-long trip) or book air tickets (1.5 hours flight). The train tickets cost around Rs1 000 ($ 25), flight – from Rs 2 000 to Rs 10 000 ($46-250) depending on the season and the time of booking. The cheapest tickets are booked about 2 months before the flight.

After you have landed in Varanasi, you will need a taxi to reach the city – the price tag is around Rs 550 ($13). The ride will take about 1.5 hours depending on traffic situation, which is totally unpredictable.

As for the mystical geography of the city,

Varanasi is considered to be the center of space and time, located above the Earth. The locals believe that the city rests on the Shiva’s trident, between Heaven and Earth.

The common belief is that it’s not very easy to reach the city. The molecules of your destiny would tuck in such a way that would hinder your trip plans. But at the same time whenever you decide to come to Varanasi, the sheer determination to accomplish that makes your karma a bit better. And it will drastically improve onwards should you enter the city, see the Ganges and bathe in it.

And if you have come to Varanasi for however a short trip, you will probably tilt towards visiting it again and again. One of the names of the city is Avimukta – a never forsaken city, maybe that is the reason why a lot of people do come back.

Monday traffic in Varanasi

After a couple of months' reprieve, the Monday factor became once again obvious in Varanasi as traffic crawled for the entire day on almost all the roads, says Times of India. Last time such a collapse happened in the beginning of October.

The schools reopened on Monday and the traffic increased dramatically. Situation worsened during peak hours when the traffic came to a halt at almost all crossings.

Traffic inspector Vinay Chauhan said in the interview that Monday increased traffic was not unexpected - the authorities apparently knew about schools reopening. But he blamed the construction work done on a lot of roads, especially in trans-Varuna localities, as the main reason for the collapse.

The traffic inspector also mentioned impatient commuters. Right he is - those reckless ricksha wallas and bikers in Varanasi would never wait for their turn patiently.