With Bharath complaining about how everything was wrong in Benares, I started getting a little apprehensive. My favorite city in India might not be the same. I had taken away such a idyllic memory back in 2005, I began to wonder if it made sense to come back and ruin it.
As we headed from Lanka after the long narrow roads and crazy traffic into Assi, the first ghat, I began to relax. It was just as I remembered. A ton of people, the smells, the voices, the chanting.

What I love about being here is the absolute chaos. Benares, I think, is the absolute celebration of life. A complete mix of life and death, music and silence, ancient and modern. A blur of people and animals with a backdrop of the Ganges, Benares has an ancient energy running through and like it or not you become part of it.

Walking along the ghat I see a confluence of all that life offers. A man lying in his boat and singing about his Benares, the Indian child trying to sell me a candle with an English lilt to her voice,  the Sadhus walking along chanting ( and some desperately conning the foreigners) and the celebration of death which runs absolutely alongside life. The mix of people where some foreigners are more Indian than I and some Indians more foreign to India than should be but walking along the same narrow path with the Ganges running along one side is as simple as life should be.

What makes for an interesting place to stay at?  For me, a place works well when the interiors are in sync with the feel that the city wants to convey. In Benares this place is the Ganges view.

Built on the banks of the river Ganges on Assi ghat,  this family home was revamped into the Hotel Ganges View in 1990. Coming from a family of scholars keenly interested in art and literature, the owner Shashank Singh is artist himself(specialized in painting and print making) and is still associated with the Benares University.

The interiors are extremely tastefully done while simplicity resonates through every nook. The walls and niches are filled with paintings, masks and statues from Varanasi. There is art from other parts of North India as well but Shashank is very keen on promoting art from Varanasi.

Aspects of Benares, a lecture series, was started by him in 1999 to re-interpret the culture of the city, its many diverse shades and traditions. His hotel is home to many artists and thinkers like Devika Daulat-Singh, Raghu Rai and Arundhati Roy etc. Shashank Singh, an extremely soft spoken man sat with me and as we spoke about the Ram Lila masks that adorn his walls, he told me about how every year he tries to redecorate the interiors to bring in a different aspect of art into his home/hotel.

With impeccable service and absolutely invisible waiters this place is a haven for peace and quiet. The Indian vegetarian food made without garlic and onions is very home-style and full of subtle tastes. I would highly recommend the gooseberry curry and the orange juice with ginger. A couple of artists sit on balconies and paint while scholars from Fulbright have a music concert that is arranged for them in the hotel.

With the 2 dachshunds sitting at my feet, overlooking the Ganges and sipping my masala tea( yes, we still do have our masala tea) I realize that for Shashank Singh his hotel is his canvas.

Our guide was a pleasant fellow who came along with us only after asking us how much we were willing to pay. On the way to the temples he felt an explanation was in order. “You are not foreigners, so why I should bargain?” Who can argue with logic like that? We could only nod our heads in agreement.
The air was heavy and as I walked, I felt beads of sweat forming on my forehead; it was not the ideal time to visit Khajuraho. The temple complex was indeed impressive and the architecture was absolutely amazing.

Khajuraho, a set of medieval Jain and Hindu temples were built between the 10th-12th centuries, by the Chandela kinds in India. Radhika, being an architect explained to me about the how the temples adhere to the shikara temple style (tower over the sanctum) and to a panchayatna plan (worship of 5 deities). The temples are made up of sandstone and used precise mortise and tenon joints and were held by gravity.

Our guide a veteran by now with over thirty years of experience was busy explaining all the significant details of the external structures. He was eager to explain all the details and we were interested. The only problem seemed to be the heat which seemed to stifle all your thoughts. As we entered the section with erotic carvings, our guide proceeded with his explanations with renewed vigor. Unfortunately our reactions seemed rather muted as we barely had the energy by now for basic movement.  What did shock me though was when he proceeded to explain the significance of a particular part of the temple with “and this is Man versus Loin”. Pleased at my reaction, which basically involved choking on the bottle of water I was drinking, he then continued with his explanation about Man versus Loin. As further explanations burst forth I realized Man Vs Loin was a rather tame man versus lion. Just when things were getting interesting!!

What did take me back were the details in all the carvings. The work is more intricate than anything I had ever seen. It is also a misconception that the temples only depict erotica…only 10% of the carvings depict some erotica.

What was also interesting was the fact as the guide put it. “All put back in hoge pog way” So for the next 40 minutes he proceeded to point out everything that was “hoge pog” in the restoration. I agreed with him. “Hoge pog” was the only way to explain them. 
By then I was not in a state to even remember my name; the humidity was sapping energy and time.
Well aware of the situation post our guided tour, as I sat with our guide and asked when the best time for to visit was. He said, “Weather nice till March then up heats” and looked back and said “it up heats now”. To which we both looked up at the sky and nodded in agreement.         
         

Located barely 40 km from Khajuraho, Panna National Park is a popular detour for visitors from Khajuraho. Though the tiger population has nearly been wiped out due to poaching, it once had a healthy number (40 tigers).

Panna has an area covering 546 sq. miles with waterfalls and even the Rajgarh Palace that overlooks the valley. In March 2009 two female tigers were relocated from Bandhavgarh and Kanha National Parks and currently those are the only two tigers to be found in Panna. Plans have been approved to trans-locate more tigers in the future.

The tiger population has seen a steady decrease in numbers over the last decade across India. The main reason being government apathy towards what we consider our national animal. Inaccurate census method (using the pug marks to count tigers), not enough funds for anti-poaching squads and pressure from the human settlements around parks have been the main reasons for the decline. There has not been a review of how successful project tiger (started 1973) has been in recent years. Incorrect numbers as to the population of tigers over the years has led to places like Sariska and Panna no longer housing a population of tigers. Reintroducing them in areas where their population has been depleted is an on going project. Until and unless there is active government participation, with funds provided to the right departments to provide protection, it will only be a matter of time before the current population of 1500 tigers across India is wiped out completely.

Even without the presence of tigers, Panna has Sloth Bears, Chital, Chinchara, Sambar and a host of other animals apart for 200 recorded species of birds. The park is closed between July to end September and reopens for visitors only during October.
As we drove through Panna national park to get to Varanasi we were stunned by the beauty of the park. We found the park exceedingly lush from the monsoons; beautiful and green as we drove up the ghat and found the valley stunning. The thought that crossed my mind was that Panna is prefect Tiger country-with the rocky valley below and abundant water- I could almost imagine the magnificent cat lying in a shallow pool of water to get away from the heat.  I remembered then that there were only two tigers left not native to Panna but reintroduced. In effect the Panna tiger had disappeared.

Must read: Valmik Thapar , Secret Life of Tigers.