Varanasi is one of those places where change feels almost impossible until you return years later and realize the city has moved on without asking your permission. I was there not long ago after my own earlier visits, and what struck me wasn’t that the ghats looked different or that the infrastructure had improved. It was the feeling that a place famous for timelessness had somehow become more efficient while still remaining unmistakably itself.
What I find fascinating about cities like Benares is that visitors often arrive hoping to preserve them in memory exactly as they were. The people who actually live there rarely have that luxury. They want cleaner streets, better transport, safer riverfronts, and opportunities for their children. The tension between preservation and progress exists everywhere, but it feels especially visible in places that carry so much history. Reading this reminded me how often we confuse familiarity with authenticity. Sometimes a place changes dramatically and somehow remains exactly what it has always been.
You are absolutely correct. I’ve been to Benares many times. Away from the ghats, the city is in shambles, like many cities in India. On my next trip to Benares, whenever that may be, I will probably rent an auto for the day - I did that once - and photograph the streets and the old architecture.
Benares is more than the ghats.
And yes: people who live there, want the same thing I want in Delhi-NCR - good streets, polite people, clean air and water, proper law & order, education for their kids, and to live in peace.
Thanks for sharing ☺️🙏🏼
Varanasi is one of those places where change feels almost impossible until you return years later and realize the city has moved on without asking your permission. I was there not long ago after my own earlier visits, and what struck me wasn’t that the ghats looked different or that the infrastructure had improved. It was the feeling that a place famous for timelessness had somehow become more efficient while still remaining unmistakably itself.
What I find fascinating about cities like Benares is that visitors often arrive hoping to preserve them in memory exactly as they were. The people who actually live there rarely have that luxury. They want cleaner streets, better transport, safer riverfronts, and opportunities for their children. The tension between preservation and progress exists everywhere, but it feels especially visible in places that carry so much history. Reading this reminded me how often we confuse familiarity with authenticity. Sometimes a place changes dramatically and somehow remains exactly what it has always been.
You are absolutely correct. I’ve been to Benares many times. Away from the ghats, the city is in shambles, like many cities in India. On my next trip to Benares, whenever that may be, I will probably rent an auto for the day - I did that once - and photograph the streets and the old architecture.
Benares is more than the ghats.
And yes: people who live there, want the same thing I want in Delhi-NCR - good streets, polite people, clean air and water, proper law & order, education for their kids, and to live in peace.