Actress Neena Gupta’s top experiences in Varanasi

The Last Color is a movie set in Varanasi helmed by award-winning actress Neena Gupta who has worked in Indian television and Bollywood and international productions. Gupta plays Noor, a resident at the orthodox widow’s ashram in Varanasi in The Last Color, which was released recently in India. She lists her top experiences in the city for the traveller.

Soul stirring

Varanasi is an amazing place beyond the hustle and bustle and the chaos that a visitor sees at first. It is that unique city that is about the celebration of death that brings many of us back to visit it again. You will find that on the ghats by the River Ganga where pyres burn incessantly and prayers are simultaneously held for the departure of the human soul while the rest of the city is busy with the daily task of living.

Ganga aarti

The daily evening offer of worship to the river goddess Ganga, with priests clad in orange holding up dancing flame lamps, is a unique sight in Varanasi. Many visitors choose to sail on boats on the river and halt before the Dashashwamedh ghat to watch it. Even during a storm, while the wind blew everything around us up in the air, the priests carried on with the ritual of the burning lamps. It’s a daily ritual that whips up a frenzy of clanging bells and chants and the lit lamps.

Festive fever

The film The Last Color is about a widow Noor from one of the largest widow’s ashram in India that is over a hundred years old in Varanasi. Clad in white they are figures who lead Spartan lives. The film is about how color in introduced into their lives through Holi, India’s largest festival of colors held in spring. Varanasi lights up during festive occasions like Holi, Shivratri and Dusshera.

Epic theatre and literary traditions

As the oldest Hindu city in the world Benaras has a long literary and folk theatre tradition. The city evokes the magic of the literary epics like the Ramayana, the bard Kalidasa and the Vedas. The Ram Leela is a musical folk theatre held during festive occasions and is colourful and an old theatrical tradition that has survived across centuries. I do remember buying a rare volume of Kalidasa’s Meghadhuta in Varanasi to bring it back home to Mumbai.

Weaving skills

Benaras silk and its weaving community is world famous for the rich hand woven and embroidery skills of its master weavers. A visit to the weavers’ colony in the city is a learning experience, not just about the wonderful designs and weaving craft in zari or golden threads but about the tough lives of the weaving community.

Ganga gazing

One of the unmissable experiences in Varanasi is to take in the river, the horizon and its cityscape at sunrise. Locate a spot on one of the stone terraces on the ghats and soak in the beautiful experience of watching the river change colours at dawn.

You can also read:

Chef Vikas Khanna on Benarasi food
Life changing travel Varanasi India

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