THE HOLY CITY OF VARANASI AND THE RIVER GANGES

3 days from Delhi days 1–3 We fly from Delhi to Varanasi, one of a handful of cities with a plausible claim to being the world’s oldest (Mark Twain said that it’s “older than history, older than tradition, older even than legend”). What’s certain is that no other place on the planet can compare with Varanasi’s ceaseless, manythousand-year traditions and the up-to-dateness with which it follows those traditions.

If a country can have a soul, India’s is here, in this astonishing city on the banks of the sacred river Ganges. Varanasi is a nexus of Hinduism, simultaneously a religion and an everyday way of life. Indelible is the experience of a slow, misty morning boat ride along the Ganges ghats, thronged by women in pink saris, businessmen in grey suits, skittering children, old beggars, and Brahmin grandees doing intent puja in the holiest waters in all creation.

Over on page 32 we try to describe Varanasi’s sheer liveliness and spiritual bustle, its air of antiquity mixed matter-of-factly with modern life. It’s a very Indian phenomenon, this easy communication of past and present, and nowhere is this unique time warping more dramatic than in Varanasi.

We’ll visit the holy Ganges in morning and evening, among pilgrims from all over the subcontinent and the world. And we’ll visit the city’s Monkey Temple. On Day 3 we’ll visit Sarnath, whose lapidary museum celebrates the site where Gautama Buddha first enunciated the Four Noble Truths after his enlightenment down the road at Bodh Gaya, then return to Delhi and day rooms in the Oberoi Gurgaon before our flights homeward.