Living in nostalgia is like being on a boat that steers us into the darkness of the night. The night which seems so wondrous under the curtain of stars and the inviting winds, keep us enveloped in our warm memories. More often than not, it is a dream come true.

And until we wake up to better dream, most of us would rather live there. At least, I definitely would. But when it was time for me to wake up from my nostalgic boat ride over the Ganges, I was satisfied to see that the winds were as utopic as they were in my memory.

Revisiting Banaras (officially called Varanasi) after a gap of nine years was welcoming. This time the winter mornings were a sharp contrast to the summer afternoons of 2005. Even though the chaos through the lanes of this old city remains as charmingly annoying, I did sense it to be safer than the last time here.

A prisoner of habit, I stole mornings by the ghats to re-live my memories here. These moments too surpassed my longings. Banaras will stay afresh, in a new cloud of nostalgia in my mind.

These photographs are from my last morning’s walk in Banaras. For more photo stories, like Travelling Ides of March.

Amrita Das

I have been a travel and culture independent journalist. My bylines have appeared in many publications worldwide including National Geographic Traveller India, Lonely Planet Magazine India, The Indian Express and World Travel Magazine. A fellow of Media Ambassadors India-Germany 2019 program by Robert Bosch Stiftung and Centre for Media Competence, University of Tübingen. Currently, I am the photo editor for RoundGlass Sustain, a wildlife and conservation e-publication. I live in India.

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