For a self-professed travel blogger (even if the posts have been sparse), COVID-19 has wreaked havoc on the travel-bug cruise ship. (Many would argue that it’s the travel fuelling the virus, but sidestepping that.) Let alone taking trips, confining oneself to the house with moribund news of rising cases and deaths globally only descends a pall of gloom. After a week in exile, I decided to rack my brains to think of a place I may have not written about. Honestly, not much thought was needed for I instantly found myself transported to the Ghats of the Ganga in Varanasi.

I remember leaving for a weekend trip, when a colleague callously called Varanasi, a city that celebrates death. For a moment, that statement abhorred me. A city visited by many Hindus to complete the last rites of the loved ones no doubt, but it cannot be called one that celebrates…