Mark Twain had said : "Benaras is older than history, older than tradition, older even than legend and looks twice as old as all of them put together."
I should have read this Quote before shifting to this place.But the fool that i am I instead believed in Diana Eleck's work:"Varanasi The City of Lights",a misnomer if there was one.Believe me ,I Have nothing against the book which is a brilliant piece of work on the city.It was my fault that I misunderstood 'lights' to be associated with electricity,you know the one which lights up our household,streets,which enables children to study,makes people have a comfortable sleep,ensures that you have a proper wash in the morningand does innumerable other things which they take for granted.Perhaps of all the inventions Tomas Alva Edison made ,he perhaps remain most famous for discovering BULB.
I should have known better! Diana Eleck reffered to the spiritual matter( you know the one associated with brain,gibberish talk,philosophy.....the WORKS) while reffering to 'LIGHTS'.This is what I hate about these foreigners.They never let you know the complete truth.The EAST INDIA COMPANY apparently came to trade,British left India 10 months before the declared date.....the list is endless.Well no point in cribbing about the lying foreigners.I have landed up in this ancient city and within four years have started feeling ancient.
I did not have the faintest idea that in order to promote tourism the way those lying westerners do,Govt. of U.P in association with the Govt. of India had devised a plan to preserve the tag of the ancient city following in the footsteps of VENICE ,STRATFORD AT AVON etc.The brilliant plan is to make the entire 31 lakh inhabitants of the city live the exact way there forefathers did thousands of years ago..........IN DARKNESS (not the spiritual one,though I am not sure of that one too). WHAT BRILLIANCE!Though very hard to believe but fact remains that the city on an average gets 12 hours of electricity and that too in phases come rain ,summer or winter.Spiritually WEAK people (like me) roam around the city at odd hours in the night,fight with each other,do nothing except curse each other(I must accept that this place has enriched my vocabulary).Exactly the way the city lived thousands of years ago.Crime is perhaps the highest in the country,Policemen on duty look worse than rogues.
But the plan devised by the Govt. is suceeding as stats indicate that out of 100 foreign tourists visiting India 94 visit Benaras (Agra is tops at 96).GOA take a walk!And come to think of it we never give credit to the Govt for it.......Who but the most brilliant of minds could have devised such a plan.It is on par with the COMMUNIST plan in Russia where they made obtaining Bread so hard that the common man could think of nothing else but standing in gargantuan lines to procure their daily bread.Out here the common man does not think of studies,cultural enrichment and anything near to civilisation.Well isn't that the idea-Retaining the city in its ancient state.
Futhermore this brilliant idea helps the Politicians even more -A thinking person is like AIDS for a politician.They will divide a society on caste ,religion,ethnicity,gender and if you still have any power remaining deprive you of LightS(not the Diana Eleck one).They will ensure that the children are not educated,adults remain irritated,fatigued(that happens when you do not sleep in the night) and the capable migrate letting these messiahs of the downtrodden run amok.Even communism had to deliver bread and where thrown out, but hopes are receding for this state and this city in particular.
The Lights have come back and I am running to fill water for drinking,Blog and my ideas be DAMNED..................
