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.

Ganga moving away from Varanasi ghats

The river of faith, Ganga, is changing course and appears to be moving away from the historic ghats of Varanasi, the abode of Kashi Vishwanath. The river is now flowing 7-10 feet away from the banks. Though the media make it look like some extraordinary event, our local friends there admit, that it's the casual annual decrease in Ganga's waters. Soon with the monsoon, the Ganga will gain strength again.

At the famous Dasaswamegh Ghat, close to the Kashi Vishwanath temple, the river is flowing 9 feet away from the ghat steps. At Rajendra Prasad Ghat, Rajghat and Assi Ghat the river is seven, four and five feet away respectively from the ghats’ steps.

According to scientists associated with the Ganga Action Plan, the river is changing course due to massive pollution and lack of proper cleaning of the banks of the river.

Acharya Jitendra of the Ganga Mahasabha says that the administration is not working towards cleaning the Ganga; instead more and more pollutants are being pushed into it.

Moreover, the dams and barrages that have been built upstream are diverting increasing amounts of water for farming and other purposes. For example, around nine percent of Ganga’s waters are diverted to canals at the Bhimgouda barrage.

As per a report, the government has spent Rs 36,448 crore on cleaning the Ganga, yet at Varanasi the river is little more than a deadly cocktail of groundwater, sewage discharge and spillage from tributaries like the Yamuna and the Betwa.

Dust storm and 1 000 baloons explosion hit Varanasi

Severe dust storm and 1 000 baloons explosion strike Varanasi as dropping temperatures by 3 degrees brings respite from scorching heat.

Times of India report, that the dust storm accompanied by light showers disrupted the power supply in many parts of city. The southern parts were worst affected as snapping of electric cables was reported in these areas. Reports of uprooting of trees and snapping of tree branches creating traffic congestion came in, even from the neighbouring districts.

Utter chaos prevailed at Azad Park in Lahurabir area when fire broke out after over 1,000 balloons exploded simultaneously on Monday afternoon.


Просмотреть увеличенную карту

To take part in the Bharatiya Janata Party's rally, one Sunita Singh along with her supporters carried out a procession from Nati Imali area. The participants were carrying 1,000 balloons. While passing through Lahurabir, they entered Azad Park to garland the statue of Chandrashekhar Azad.

In the meantime, the balloons exploded simultaneously, after which the hydrogen gas spread there. People clothes caught fire in the incident and many panicked, alleging that the bomb went off.

But when police reached the incident site, it became clear that the incident took place due to simultaneous explosion of balloons. The injured were rushed to the nearby hospital.

Potters enjoying sun in Varanasi

Varanasi potters were finally out in full strength to take advantage of the warm and shining Sun and lend their vigour to giving shape to various-sized earthen cups.

"We could not have asked for a more opportune time for weather to improve than the holy Magh month," said Sunil Vishwakarma, a senior potter. "It not only marks the start of the wedding season but other sacred rituals and festivities also create a demand for out earthen cups. Then, there is always the high demand of tea to be served in these cups in this season," he elaborated.

The recent cold weather, which lasted for 10 days, had caused nearly 50% slump in their business as most of the tea stalls and kiosks across the city had opted for plastic cups. Even more so, the faint sunlight could not provide sufficient warmth for drying the pots, causing delay in their preparation.

"The extended sunlight with increasing intensity is a blessing for clay materials that get harder and bind easily under these conditions," said another potter Ashok Karmakar.

Over 10,000 potter families reside in Varanasi depending on the clay crockery business. The demand for earthen cups reaches its peak in the winter season due to increasing consumption of hot beverages, especially local tea with milk that is preferred in earthen cups. 5 rupees a cup.
The cups then get smashed against the pavement.

based on The Times of India story

Freezing Varanasi

The coldwave and dense fog have a hard grip on Varanasi.

Friday turned out to be the coldest day with mercury dropping to 2.6 degree Celsius. The dipping mercury not only broke the records of minimum temperature witnessed on January 4 (3.0 degree Celsius) this year, it also matched the record of minimum mercury level registered on January 5, 2006. Similarly, the maximum temperature in the day stood at 10.8 degree C. High humidity (100%) also indicated that the fog might last for another couple of days in the region.

Pappu, a tea vendor of Asi, was busy serving tea to a crowd of shivering people. He also had an inviting (coal) fire ready. "I have witnessed extremely cold conditions in the past, but the first week of the New Year (2011) has proved enough to test the nerve of steel as it is getting colder day by day," said the man who was wrapped in a blanket from head to toe. "First, it was the coldwave that forced people to remain indoors. Now it is fog that is bringing life to a halt. Life is definitely getting more difficult as the weather conditions are making even normal routine activities a challenge," he added.

All neighbouring shops were closed and only betel shops were open showing some activity in the area. Such was the wrath of weather in the day that almost all public places, including Cantonment railway station, roadways bus stand and world famous ghats, wore a deserted look. Similarly, most parts of the city and the rural pockets remained wrapped in thick fog for most parts of the day and only feeble sunlight appeared in the afternoon.

"The appearance of fog in the region is an indication of western disturbances across the country. Similarly, fresh snowfall in Himalayan region have brought coldwave to the region and suggest that the conditions are likely to prevail for the next 48 to 72 hours with mercury promising to drop even further," said weather scientist from department of Geophysics, BHU, SN Pandey.

Meanwhile, a number of trains, mostly long-distance, including New Delhi-bound Shivganga Express and Kashi Vishwanath Express, Dehradun-bound Doon Express, Jaipur-bound Marudhar Express and those going towards northern region, continued to run late by more than three hours. Similarly, more than 50% of buses bound for long routes were being cancelled due to the extreme cold.

Bonfires continued to be lit at a number of areas apart from prominent crossings and police outposts in the city.


from The Times of India