9/9/9

Prakash visited me in Benaras to celebrate his birthday with me. 9th September, 2009. He stayed in the adjacent room. We woke up early in the morning to make the boat trip to the otherside for a dip in the Ganga. The river looked at us with the prettiest eyes, the eyes that transmitted that special sunlight right into our hearts. There was a pujari on the otherside who did some pooja's for Prakash. We also took one of those instant photos with a captivating three-thousand year old backdrop. Every moment was unique in Shiva-city.

Prakash felt his sensors were on full reception. He was picking up all the signals the town was sending. Transmission via metaphysical satellite. New, every second. We decided to go for the Ram-Leela in Ramnagar and also see the Ramnagar fort. Prakash wore his striking orange kurta, we got on a boat and left for Ramnagar. There was Gorakhnath, Viswanath, Prakash and me. Goraknath, a local friend of mine, was dressed in primary colours, red shirt and yellow pants and he gave me a special gift, an "Aum" keyring that he dug out of the Ganga one day when he was looking for coins in the river. Among the five of us there was red, yellow, orange, black and blue. It was like the colour palette of a Kubrick film. At Ramnagar, we visited the fort and the museum and walked for hours to go see the Ram-Leela. Unfortunately, it was going to start very late so we decided to headback. One of the striking sights from the evening was seeing the King on elephantback making his appearance felt. We felt we were in another time. Benaras Standard Time, truly. The day was documented through still photographs. One day they will all emerge when I am reading stories from an old book on Benaras called "Benaras Phantasmagorik".