Varanasi - Food & Music, and Maha Shivrati

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Varanasi






Through squinted eyes and tightly shut mouths we pushed through swarms of mosquitos along the ghats at night, hopping around dark mounds of things that could have been sleeping people, to a traditional Dhrupad music concert, 5 ghats down the river. We pulled off our shoes and sat on a big white sheet on the floor, decorated with splatted mosquitos.






   





A flutist played a huge bamboo flute, one song for 30 minutes, and perhaps the most beautiful piece of music we've ever heard. So beautiful that nobody in the audience seemed remotely bothered by the hundred thousand mosquitos that were feasting away on any uncovered flesh.


 This isn't a clip from the concert we went to, but it is Chetan Joshi playing at another one.










Varanasi






A large amount of our time in Varanasi was spent in the little open kitchens that line the alleyways, eating. Cracked chairs and crumbly tables. There aren't many pictures of the food because we were busy eating it.


Chole bhature - Spicy chickpeas with roti (fried bread). The bread arrives inflated on your plate like two space ships and you have to stab it to free the steam. Commonly served at one of India's versions of a fast-food restaurant where they serve really good food, really cheap and are jam-packed all day long. (Full meal roughly 70 rupees = 70 pence). A guy walks between the tables with two sauce-dribbled saucepans strapped to him, and ladles your sauce-bowls full when they are nearing empty.





  Varanasi






Varanasi






Aloo tikki chaat - found at a street stall where a man has pushed along and parked his huge wok. Fried potato patties in chana masala (chickpea gravy) with green chilli, tangy tamarind sauce, yoghurt, fresh coriander and crushed up crispy bits on top.






  14. angusfulton / varanasi






After trawling the depths of the old city alleyways we eventually found the steamy, crowded place we'd passed a few days before. Angus had been determined to re-locate it and eat whatever it was they were all queueing up for. He liked thayir idli so much he had 3 portions in a row. Idli (steamed round things made from a batter of fermented black lentils and rice) in sweet curd with green chilli and crunchy boondi (sweetened, fried chickpea flour) on top.






10. angusfulton / varanasi






We found heaven in laung lata - folded pastry with a fruit and nut inside, deep-fried and soaked in a syrup bath. Served hot and sticky. Would probably be illegal in the UK.


Misc. orange squares - discovered at pinnacle moment during our Maha Shivrati experience (written about below). Reckoned we were tasting something from another planet. Found out later it was carrot halwa.






  India food - angusfulton






Invited to join in we'd squeeze on with all the men squeezed together on road-side benches, for steaming chai, poured from a giant silver teapot to little terracotta cups or glasses.
How to chai: black tea, cardamom, cloves, black pepper, fresh ginger, cinnamon, mostly milk, straight from the udder, probably cow, maybe buffalo, maybe goat, a little water, a lot of sugar. Heat together until it boils furiously, skim off skin, or don't skim off skin, add more sugar.






  9. angusfulton / varanasi






Paanwallas sit with their perfectly straight backs and lotus legs in little wooden podiums all day doing the paan ritual: slices of betel nut, coconut, rose petal jam, lime (edible calcium carbonate), cardamom, fennel seeds, nutmeg, anise, camphor, katha (a paste from the acacia tree), candied fruits, nuts... Applied rhythmically at high speed to a heart shaped betel leaf which is folded and fastened with a clove. Common optional addition of chewing tobacco. The parcel is chewed whole for stimulative / psycho-active effects, and then spat out or swallowed (if you're Angus, who became a short-term paan addict).


Thali - a round plate with roti (bread) in the middle surrounded by dishes: dal, rice, papadum, yoghurt, aachaar (pickle, usually lime and mango), vegetable curries and a sweet of some sort. Dishes are refilled when empty. The contents vary between regions and restaurants. We ate a lot of thali!






  India food - angusfulton






Malai - buffalo milk boiled and cooled. Cream, basically. A good lassi should have a big dollop of this on top.






 12. angusfulton / varanasi









5:30am, still dark, on a paddle-boat in the fog on the Ganges. The sky and river melted together in a thick, velvety grey. Just the dunking of the oars into the still surface. Nothing else. No focal point or sense of perspective, we'd all been swallowed by the velvet grey and were slowly paddling down its never-ending throat. Smooth peace on continuous repeat, with a dunking oar for a heartbeat. Directly above us, a small, suggestive circle of bright blue. 






Varanasi





Our senses woke up with Varanasi; distant splashes and shrieks of the more than usual morning bathers at the ghats. More than usual because today was a holy day, Maha Shivratri: The Festival of Shiva, the God of destruction. Women wrung out their sarees. The city was vibrating with devotional chanting from the temples. The air around us became a lighter grey. Morning puja, the worship of Mother Ganges, at Assi ghat: eerie female voices sung over a tanoy, four figures in the fog raised flaming triangles. At Dhobi ghat laundry men slapped clothes against flat stones where the shallow water met a muddy bank. Bodies plunged their heads in and out of the Ganges.






16. angusfulton / varanasi






Varanasi






Someone pulled us into a doorway as the road cleared and filled with a parade of manic drummers, white uniformed trumpet players, black uniformed bagpipes, gyrating dancers slithering along the floor, a transgender lady, in India commonly considered outcasts and hired to perform for 'special occasions', lunged into the crowd, children on horses painted like gods, a baby painted like a demon and strapped to a pole-top platform with a snake around its neck...






Varanasi






Varanasi






15. angusfulton / varanasi






Varanasi






We did as is done at Maha Shivratri and had a bhang lassi with extra malai, just to multiply the intensity by 1000… Sure enough we soon found ourselves dawdling around in a stoned haze for 4km, in and out of temples and cubby holes and the thousands of things going on around us, following a group of boys walking bare foot who appeared to our intoxicated minds, as possibly part duck.
'Om Namah Shivaya'.
We hung around at some ceremonial fires at the ghats; groups of men sat in circles and threw offerings of ghee and grains into the flames whilst doing animated, conversational chanting to each other. Entrancing became too freaky for our bhang-distorted brains. We found some recognition in the pastry syrup folded heaven and two misc. orange squares from the sweet shop, the best things we had actually, ever, tasted, and fell asleep at 8pm mumbling about the chanting conversations and the folded pastry heaven.






5. angusfulton / varanasi 2015






Varanasi






Sunrise at Harishchandra ghat, the nearby burning ghat; chickens pecked around the scales, male goat chased female, dog chewed bone in warm ashes. Our final morning in the Varanasi dream world. The sun came up over the Ganges on the morning puja; gold vessels lifted high. The sandalwood-selling family emerged from their home inside the sandalwood piles. Following the sound of a young voice singing, we watched 30 boys aged 7-13 from a nearby gurukula doing their morning yoga class. The singing voice was mesmerising, from a boy sat at the top of steps above his school-mates, tiny next to his guru. High-pitched, filled with effort and concentration, not leaving himself enough time to breathe.






Varanasi






Varanasi






11. angusfulton / varanasi






Varanasi






Varanasi






Varanasi






06. 17 Feb - 22 Feb 15 CLE Ekt






We said teary goodbyes to Sunil and Muhesh at the hostel. Sunil grabbed a Snickers and a Mars from the counter and handed them to us as we left through the gate, 'Beautiful chocolate for beautiful people'.  




'Since I am convinced that reality is in no way real, how am I to admit that dreams are dreams?' - Saigyo Hoshi






8. angusfulton / varanasi






2. angusfulton / varanasi 2015





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