After a long tiring day consisting of walks around the BHU
campus, I thought ill be too exhausted to move by the time evening comes. But I
had heard so much about Dev Dipawali festival that even though every part of my
body was howling with pain, I couldn’t get myself to miss it. We reached the
ghats at around 5 PM and believe you me, the ghats were no longer the ghats.
the transformation was hundred time as drastic as those makeover shows that air
on television. I didn’t know where to look, it was a 360 degree view of plain
beauty. Every single surface, every step, every elevation, every slope was
covered in oil diyas. It was as if the Gods themselves had come to adorn the
place with light, like a huge sheet of twinkling yellow stars had swooped down from
the skies to cover the ghats.
Every ghat had its own charm. The temples were covered with
fairy lights that shimmied with the beat of the music. And oh the music! It was
honey singh meets lord shiva with a dash of bhangra beats. Doesn’t sound
appealing but somehow, it all fit in perfectly together. And the number of people
that were present in that one place, wow. It was as if someone had picked up
all the people in this world and just put them together in that one place. The thought
of entering that solid block of humans seemed impossible. And i would not even
have bothered doing so if I wasn’t dying to experience dev dipawali in its rawest,
truest form. People rubbing shoulders, some intentionally, some not, people
pushing, pulling and people being thrown away to the side by the great, robust
crowd. All this should have and usually would have scared me but somehow, Varanasi
had just taken out all the negativity in me. And to think I didn’t even take a
dip in the Ganga, imagine if I had done that..
Photograph by Rwit Ghosh
Anyway, so I pushed and struggled my way through the charging,
angry crowd while also appreciating and marvelling at the sheer, untainted beauty
of the ghats and lights. The river was another story altogether. the millions
of diyas on the ghats reflected light on the gently lapping water of the Ganga,
making it look like there were gold swirls on a black surface. Everything was
so breathtakingly beautiful and bright that even the usually fantastic moon
that hung low over the river shone a little less brightly than usual. The lights
had taken over and consumed the city. and at that moment, I was happy. I wanted
nothing else, I felt like this is what life should be about, staring at
something that takes your breath away and wanting nothing else, doing nothing
else.
Dev Dipawali brought people together, it brought ideas
together, it brought thoughts together. One festival, one night that made so
many happy. Diwali has always been my favourite festival, the lights, the smell
of crackers, the food, the happy faces, everything just brings a flush to my
face. But this was different, there were no exchange of gifts, there were no
pretentious pleasantries, no unwanted hugs. It was you and the lights and the
togetherness of people as people. It wasn’t family relation that tied the
people of Varanasi together that night, it was the ghats, the city, the belief,
the celebration. And that is what dev dipawali was all about.
Good one
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