Photo: TripAdvisor
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Ok", my host Alok told me when after the darshan at Vishwanath and Kal Bhairav Temples, I asked him if we could visit the Manikarnika Ghat. It was his first time too, so had to ask for directions. Early in the morning, mentioning a cremation ghat to a localite who is enjoying his tea at a tea shop, sounded inappropriate. Sipping his tea, he guided us without any fuss.
Manikarnika is the holiest cremation ghat at Banaras in India. Well stacked logs and rising smoke reminded me of all the dear ones who have left me forever.
The self appointed guide/boatman reminded me of a Paulo Coelho's quote from Eleven Minutes, "The world revolves around something that only takes eleven minutes." After telling the story of Parvati's lost Kangan (bangle) in a kund right there, he continued that it takes around two and a half hours for a body to go up in smoke. Sometimes a little longer. After that other rituals are performed. The total cost includes Rs 3k. Though I had doubt about the numbers he had stated, still I wondered that is the end of a person's life so simple to pass? Rs Three thousand and two and a half hours? Actually it is simpler for the person who has departed. It is difficult only for those who are left behind.
Between the smoke and fine dust in the air, I could imagine the great king Harishchandra, the epitome of honesty, as an employee at the ghat, haggling with his wife for the charges he had to collect for the pyre of their son. I had goosebumps when I read it in school in a book called "Hamaare Poorvaj", I still felt a few. Is that why these ancient cities charm us?
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