April Musings
The call of Varanasi has been strident at times, and a low persistent one at others. This piece will do no justice and the incomplete, unfinished sense will prevail. The sense is the same for every seeker, unfinished incompleteness that the city fulfils briefly. It is a resting place, a base camp of sorts for an onward journey. I recently visited a fabulous exhibition of the paintings of Yashwant Shirwadkar at Jahangir Art Gallery. The theme was ‘Benaras’ and the pull became strident once more. Shirwadkar spends a month on the river and captures the ghats at different times of the day. He photographs, makes sketches and goes back year after year for more.
The city, the visitors to the ghats, the look of the ghats changes, and the artist brings back his current impressions and paints differently each time. My work as a researcher is not unlike that of artist Shirwadkar, and I tell stories of what I see and share this with my clients, building a kaleidoscopic picture or a mosaic based on discussions with the consumers I speak with. A friend gifted me a wonderful CD called ‘Soundwalk’ an audio guide to the first time traveler to Varanasi.
I heard the call with my first visit in 1999. It was a most fortuitous occurrence, a research that didn’t happen due to some unforeseen circumstances. And I got introduced to the river and the city like a tourist. It was a deep-dive into a heady, heavy, overwhelmed feeling. It was a medley, a sense of spiritualism, mixed-up mythology and history, my own self and my destiny, and above all a great curiosity to get under the skin of the city and of its people.
Varanasi is eternal and ephermal all at the same time. It is made up of evolved spiritualism and mysticism as it is an intensely physical experience that assails every sense. Age-old educational institutions and trading institutions juxtaposed, traditional handicrafts with modern-day multipliers, Varanasi is as much about life’s endings as it is about beginnings. It is a city where black and white doesn’t blur into a gray.
I came here first to study the banal and the very ‘this worldly’. It was a study of consumers in the context of their oral care habits, by exposing them to product formats and concepts. In talking with these housewives, their refinement, education, openness of mind, ability to think and to articulate, came as a big surprise. These women might not have traveled much in physical terms, but they were exposed to thoughts and ideas. There was in them a maturity, the wisdom and an ability to articulate, that a poet might attribute to the holy polluted water that flows and the muggy air over the city.
The most recent visit took place 6 months ago. It was a little more broad-based this time. I was there to study girls between the ages of 13 and 24; to understand their routine, the high points, pain points and their drivers. I spoke with some ‘experts’ – a headmistress of a junior college and a dressmaker. Studying changes in their families, their relationships, and changes around them helped me get a little under their skin.
The young girls appear to have the strong context for the modern that sits comfortably with the traditional. They are aware, aspiring, ambitious, and want to improve their lot and to live an ‘achchi zindag, a good life’. This ‘good life’ means happiness for their parents and family, being financially independent, and being in a comfortable marriage. Love and romance are usually experienced under wraps, covertly through friends’ experiences, most of which are not happy. I heard tales of experimentation, making mistakes, feeling sorry for oneself, feeling misunderstood, guilty, and sadness, a sense of feeling ‘used’, and a huge emotional drain of keeping everyone in the family in the dark.
The women in Varanasi are more educated, and they read and write much more their counterparts in other cities. They are more comfortable with expression, using poetry and keeping a daily diary. The 13 – 16 year olds enjoy traditional arts as much as they enjoy using Paint on the computer. There is a higher emotional sensitivity and a heightened sense of perceptiveness in the 19 – 24 year old. This leads to greater dialogue and expression. They are not afraid of expressing, and find avenues to experience and to feel fulfilled.
The dressmaker I spoke with chose to move back to Varanasi and live with her parents and maintain a long-distance marriage. Her daughter who is 11 converses with me in English, attired in a neat and smart skirt and blouse. The tailor has a small workshop at home and she needs to spend time looking at patterns on TV. She walks down the lane that leads to Dasashwamedh Ghat browsing through the clothes and mannequins, absorbing styles and patterns. Her clientele makes specific demands and clothes have to have tighter fits, innovative backs, interesting embroidery and cuts and blouses with more daring necklines. Everyone is moving ahead and on the treadmill of being modern and with the times.
The city is changing at a blurring pace. Young girls today are training themselves for a career. According to the headmistress I spoke with, parents support their children’s ambitions. Curricular and co-curricular experiences are about giving the young girl an edge to help her succeed anywhere. The accent is on the flowering of individual talents, not restricted to academic achievements alone. Coaching classes are an enabler for socialization, celebrating birthday parties and picnics, as they are for exploring fashion and food, forging friendships, building confidence and experiencing dreams and life.
Mass media is the great leveler of experiences, and the male head of the household is no longer the ubiquitous patriarch. In the present-day knowledge economy, power and control come from being well-informed, in keeping with the times.
Varanasi as nucleus and magnet has enabled the flourishing of a confluence of cultures, attracting travelers from different worlds, with their unique and multifarious needs. It is both an enabler to settle as much as a launch-pad to move on, in real and in metaphysical terms. A unique city unlike another and this researcher’s favourite puzzle!
Deepa Soman
May 1, 2007
The city, the visitors to the ghats, the look of the ghats changes, and the artist brings back his current impressions and paints differently each time. My work as a researcher is not unlike that of artist Shirwadkar, and I tell stories of what I see and share this with my clients, building a kaleidoscopic picture or a mosaic based on discussions with the consumers I speak with. A friend gifted me a wonderful CD called ‘Soundwalk’ an audio guide to the first time traveler to Varanasi.
I heard the call with my first visit in 1999. It was a most fortuitous occurrence, a research that didn’t happen due to some unforeseen circumstances. And I got introduced to the river and the city like a tourist. It was a deep-dive into a heady, heavy, overwhelmed feeling. It was a medley, a sense of spiritualism, mixed-up mythology and history, my own self and my destiny, and above all a great curiosity to get under the skin of the city and of its people.
Varanasi is eternal and ephermal all at the same time. It is made up of evolved spiritualism and mysticism as it is an intensely physical experience that assails every sense. Age-old educational institutions and trading institutions juxtaposed, traditional handicrafts with modern-day multipliers, Varanasi is as much about life’s endings as it is about beginnings. It is a city where black and white doesn’t blur into a gray.
I came here first to study the banal and the very ‘this worldly’. It was a study of consumers in the context of their oral care habits, by exposing them to product formats and concepts. In talking with these housewives, their refinement, education, openness of mind, ability to think and to articulate, came as a big surprise. These women might not have traveled much in physical terms, but they were exposed to thoughts and ideas. There was in them a maturity, the wisdom and an ability to articulate, that a poet might attribute to the holy polluted water that flows and the muggy air over the city.
The most recent visit took place 6 months ago. It was a little more broad-based this time. I was there to study girls between the ages of 13 and 24; to understand their routine, the high points, pain points and their drivers. I spoke with some ‘experts’ – a headmistress of a junior college and a dressmaker. Studying changes in their families, their relationships, and changes around them helped me get a little under their skin.
The young girls appear to have the strong context for the modern that sits comfortably with the traditional. They are aware, aspiring, ambitious, and want to improve their lot and to live an ‘achchi zindag, a good life’. This ‘good life’ means happiness for their parents and family, being financially independent, and being in a comfortable marriage. Love and romance are usually experienced under wraps, covertly through friends’ experiences, most of which are not happy. I heard tales of experimentation, making mistakes, feeling sorry for oneself, feeling misunderstood, guilty, and sadness, a sense of feeling ‘used’, and a huge emotional drain of keeping everyone in the family in the dark.
The women in Varanasi are more educated, and they read and write much more their counterparts in other cities. They are more comfortable with expression, using poetry and keeping a daily diary. The 13 – 16 year olds enjoy traditional arts as much as they enjoy using Paint on the computer. There is a higher emotional sensitivity and a heightened sense of perceptiveness in the 19 – 24 year old. This leads to greater dialogue and expression. They are not afraid of expressing, and find avenues to experience and to feel fulfilled.
The dressmaker I spoke with chose to move back to Varanasi and live with her parents and maintain a long-distance marriage. Her daughter who is 11 converses with me in English, attired in a neat and smart skirt and blouse. The tailor has a small workshop at home and she needs to spend time looking at patterns on TV. She walks down the lane that leads to Dasashwamedh Ghat browsing through the clothes and mannequins, absorbing styles and patterns. Her clientele makes specific demands and clothes have to have tighter fits, innovative backs, interesting embroidery and cuts and blouses with more daring necklines. Everyone is moving ahead and on the treadmill of being modern and with the times.
The city is changing at a blurring pace. Young girls today are training themselves for a career. According to the headmistress I spoke with, parents support their children’s ambitions. Curricular and co-curricular experiences are about giving the young girl an edge to help her succeed anywhere. The accent is on the flowering of individual talents, not restricted to academic achievements alone. Coaching classes are an enabler for socialization, celebrating birthday parties and picnics, as they are for exploring fashion and food, forging friendships, building confidence and experiencing dreams and life.
Mass media is the great leveler of experiences, and the male head of the household is no longer the ubiquitous patriarch. In the present-day knowledge economy, power and control come from being well-informed, in keeping with the times.
Varanasi as nucleus and magnet has enabled the flourishing of a confluence of cultures, attracting travelers from different worlds, with their unique and multifarious needs. It is both an enabler to settle as much as a launch-pad to move on, in real and in metaphysical terms. A unique city unlike another and this researcher’s favourite puzzle!
Deepa Soman
May 1, 2007
Labels: Varanasi
posted by Deepa Soman at 2:11 AM
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