Places are analogous to human beings. Each village, town or city has a definite past, a fluctuating present, and an uncertain future. Just like people, places also inhabit a certain character. Diana Eck, the author of Banaras: City of Light , says pluralism isn’t just diversity, it’s what we create out of it. Varanasi is one such microcosm of pluralism. Just as the weaver here spends days making a single saree — in a partially-lit room — the people and the inhabited spaces endlessly weave a different story, and contribute to the city’s grand narrative.
The spectacle and the exuberance with which life and death co-exist here evoked multiple emotions within me.
It is possible to converse with a wrestler at a local akhada for hours, and start the day breakfasting with malaiyyo (a milk-based sweet dish) , even as one meets the old man who has come all the way from his hometown in the south of India to breathe his last, or witness women take a dip in the Lolark stepwell, during a particular alignment of stars, for an offspring.
Isolation and camaraderie coexist in this city, as do faith and atheism. The city’s east-facing ghats and the anthropomorphised Ganga — prayed to as a living, breathing goddess — are witness to activities dedicated to her across different times of the day and months of the year. The photo essay highlights the microcosm of culture that Varanasi stands for, as well as all the glimpses of the different worlds that the city offers.
Rohit Lahoti is an architect and a documentary photographer based out of Mumbai