Ras Banaras

Ban Raha Hai Ras 

Boat ride to the Man Mandir Ghat (venue) was the beginning of fun. The boatman used all his skill and experience to navigate around the fishing nets.

We reached late by about 45 minutes but in time for a song that talked of the virtues of keeping Banaras and Ganga clean. Am a fan neither of the Swachchh Bharat Abhiyaan nor of the trash being dumped in Ganga - I made some effort to hide the irritation. A friend sitting along however let out a smile – along with placing hand on head - when a local politician took the few minute space on the dais to extol virtues of the ruling party.

The first performance was by Malini Awasthi. What little I had heard and read about her fell short! To convey in short – with her songs on Holi she brought the festival early to Banaras. And how! Her connect with the audience and repertoire reminded me of Gurdas Mann. A glimpse of her performance here.

A young boy, about 6 or 7 years of age, walked to the stage and tugged at the flowers. Shruti Sandolikar – the artist then on stage – saw a baby version of the Lord she was then singing about!

A young girl – of similar age- sat besides me, eagerly waiting for the ‘dance’ (read Kathak) to happen - Iske baad dance hoga? Kitne log dance karenge? Yeh ghode ke awaaz kar rahe hain? And other questions from her had the friend beside me worried and we had another set of questions - Has she got lost from her parents? Has she come alone?

The final performance was by Vishal Krishna and co-artists. Leela Venkatraman got it to the T in The Hindu she wrote “When Vishal Krishna, with his angelic face and shock of curly hair, took the stage, the audience, for whom Kathak has largely meant Birju Maharaj, did not quite know what to expect.” He also presented “the ‘Dhakita Dhadhakita’ rendition with gats where the rhythmic flow resembled the gallop of the horse or a rider guiding the horse with an effortless precision”. Kathak accompanied by instruments and vocal generated an energy that was infectious and the flowers towards the end were an icing on the cake.

The irony of the program organized to promote cleanliness was the use (and disposal!) of tissue papers and plastic water bottles by “dignitaries”. If my walks along the Ghats have been any indication a large chunk of this – if not all – would end up in the Ganga. Why did these few people need to eat there in the first place? This when some of them left before the first performance got over. At the end we have so many similarities – whether we are the Left and intelligensia loving Doon School fellows or their Temple and cow loving brethren.

All said and done Banaras presents opportunities to savour our arts and craft like few other locations in our country. And the current dispensation – besides the unending roads and fly-overs - has invested in these as well. Majority of these events are along the Ganga and free! All we need is time (assuming we are interested!).

On the way back we walked partially and took shared autos for the rest of the way. The walking was to savour the street food at the night markets that were beginning to ‘flower’. 

Thanks Sunny for the title! One of our sms conversations~