So, you have decided to do it. Then welcome to the heaven of people watchers! Welcome to Varanasi! Let’s start it easy. No specifics for the beginning, only broad outlines of how to do it.
Whenever you are not solitary, people watching may begin there.
It may begin when you wake up, and end probably with your sleep, or not. If you are a lucid dreamer, then you may remember and extended the activity into your dreams.
The City of Temples wakes up in installments. There are pockets of this oldest living city that are known by the name of main deity of the locality. Some of these pockets are called sections (khandas) and few others circuits. So, wherever you are, ask a local a couple of questions:
Which Khanda is this (to take you to the next question)? How far from my place of stay is the temple of the presiding deity of the khanda (if it’s over a mile, then ask just about the most popular temple of the locality)?
The answer to these questions will direct you towards the point you may like to reach before the first rays of the rising sun reach there. One important point to remember here: try to reach there through the lanes of Varanasi. On second thought, you may actually forget that point, because you cannot reach the core of any khanda without cutting through the network of lanes that the old city is.
A Lane of Varanasi near Kedareshwar Temple: Half-an-Hour Before Dawn
Now, when you have already started walking, yes, it has to be walking for two reasons. The first reason is that the beginners’ people watching, like the beginners’ archery, is done best when the observer is stationary. It’s only the advanced shooters/watchers who can manage movement along with the activity. The second reason is that in the lanes of Varanasi, in many, if not most of them, it’s difficult to ride anything faster than a bicycle, and impossible to bring even an auto-rickshaw.
So, as you have already started walking in the lane, I congratulate you. You have already become a potential people watcher in Varanasi. Look around you, even if it’s still dark and a couple of yellow lights illumine the darkness only directly under the poles on which they are fixed, and weakly. You will see a couple of devotees walking towards the river. Which river?
The Vision of the Holy Ganga Waking with the Rising Sun
Oh people watcher, I’m sorry! I forgot to mention the greatest and the surest landmark in the whole old quarters (pakki mahaal) of the City of Lights. I forgot to bow to the life line of the city, its mother and the holiest of all Indian Rivers: Mother Ganga (atlases call her the Ganges). The lanes and ghats (the stone steps that lead to the river) are the two places where most of the people watching will be accomplished in Varanasi. I am biased towards the old city and the old city (I risk over-simplification here) is lanes and ghats.
Modern urban centres in India, at least the ones I have been to, (no knowledge of other countries, not a single stamp on my visa, never used my passport) have one definite tendency: they are homogeneous in many ways. If there’s an old city and a new city, then the new city will have features like malls, metro-rail, broad streets, skyscrapers (or aspiring skyscrapers), set routine of people’s daily life etc. The new city in Varanasi is not much different. Yes, it does not have any bona fide skyscraper yet, and the plan of metro is still in the incubation stage, but it is like any other modern city of India. Therefore, there’s no need for anyone to spend money and time and reach Varanasi, only to see what can be seen in their own city. The essence of the city is in the old quarters, or the old city.
The River Flows through Life in the City
As the sun rays bathe the river in their glory and the river rises, the city rises, and with the city rise the citizens, or those who were not awake already. What you have to do is to find the exact time of sunrise from any local newspaper or news channel and then, reach the bank of the river at least fifteen minutes before that. No, these fifteen minutes, and the fifteen minutes after the sun rises are not for people watching. In the fifteen minutes before the sun rises you must find a spot that is neither deserted nor overcrowded. Once you’ve found that spot, occupy it and look towards the other bank across the river. That’s east, and the little crimson disk of a sun peeks tentatively from there every morning, morning after morning. Behold the miracle of the rays of crimson raining on the rippling crimson mirror that flows calmly on, and then witness both turn golden and then yellow within the span of fifteen minutes.
Once you have soaked in the warmth of the sun, it’s the time for you to watch people. As you have no set targets and no pressing demands over your time (the two prerequisites of successful people watching) look around, ahead and behind you. You will see a veritable cornucopia of human existence. Let the game begin!
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