Hitch-Hiker’s Travel Blog of India

Starting from Ranchi, I was already coming near to Bodh Gaya. It took me until afternoon to reach the main road between Delhi and Kolkata - to reach Gaya I would have to pass along this road around 50km and then cross it. When I was hitchhiking on the highway, I got a ride going all the way to Delhi (1000km!), the driver explaining me that he’s going to stop for the night at Varanasi. Somehow I didn’t feel like going for a yet another smaller road before reaching Gaya, so I decided to head for Varanasi instead.

The lord gave a lesson on ahamkara, on the false feeling of ‘I’ doing things. A bit before Varanasi the driver asked me if I know the way to the town and my reply was I think I’ll find my way.. well, after a couple of hours hitching back and forth on the highway bypassing Varanasi, I still couldn’t find it! After a bit more of searching (and acknowledging that I of myself am nothing) I ended up in the back of a mini-truck, on wich I took the 10km trip to Varanasi. As I was arriving it was already getting late, around 10 pm, and the Durga Puja was in full swing. Varanasi looked rather different from the last time I’d seen it, this time the streets full of the festival crowd and with huge sound systems and light installations put up on the streets.

During the Durga Puja people build temporary temples for Durga Mata, the temples being basically tents made up of large amounts of fancy looking cloth and bamboo sticks for support. Some of the temples are fairly big, with big and beautiful deities (also temporary, made of clay). The festival mostly happens in the evening time, starting at around 7 pm after arati/puja in the temples, going on until midnight or even later. Durga Puja lasts for a total of 9 days, the last day being the climax when the Durga deities are taken around the city on trucks (accompanied by other trucks with the massive sound systems!) followed by the dancing festival crowd.

I was in Varanasi for the three last days of Durga Puja, and greatly enjoyed the festival. It was cool to walk around the town and see all the variations of the same theme in the ‘temples’ put up by various communities. The last evening was also a first time I saw a lot of Indian people getting drunk together - even ‘partying’ seems a bit different in here from what how it is in the west. Seeing the Durga Puja it came to my mind it could be the the Love Parade of India - or the Woodstock!