The United B-5 RWA organised a 3 day trip to Varanasi through Zest Journeys a travel agency run by the young and dynamic Shirin Gupta. Since it was a first for us, we took only a small group of 14 people,in the Vande Bharat train and reached Varanasi by 2 pm .We were met by Bablu our tempo traveller driver and proceeded to Comfort Inn, situated in the cantonment area. After a little rest we were met by our travel guide Mr.Vimal Pathak ,a highly educated gentleman who took us by boat to see evening Arati on the ghats. Traveling for a couple of hours on the Ganges , sipping lemon tea and watching evening Arati surrounded by several other boats was a unique experience. This was followed by dinner comprising of the famous Benares chat and mithai. Day 2 we had darshan of Shri Vishwanath Ji and did Rudrabhishek in the temple premises.We then proceeded to Sarnath to see the places where Buddha had given his first sermon.The stupa,the museum, and the ruins of the monasteries were well maintained by the archeological deptt.of India and impressive. This was followed by shopping for the famous Benares fabric and weaves,at a shop called Pitambari. Dinner at the beautiful restaurant “Wife on leave” marked the end of Day 2. Day 3 early in the morning 4.30 am we proceeded to Assi Ghat to watch the morning Arati of the Ganges, very well organised by the Benaras tourism department. While the priests do the rituals, Havan is performed simultaneously and the mantras fill the air with a divine vibration. Next we went to Sankat Mochan Hanuman temple,so sweet and small, but filled with God’s energy, followed by a visit to Kaal Bhairav temple. Kaal Bhairav ji is the designated Kotwal of Benaras. A round of the famous BHU campus and we were back at the hotel for breakfast. 3 pm we boarded the train and we were back in Delhi by 11 pm. The 3 days flew by like magic,all the members of the group became like a family,with plenty of jokes and bonhomie. This experience has given us a lot of encouragement to plan other such trips in the future.
