After a long while it was a family trip, to the place where we belong “Benaras”. It was just a three-day trip, but the excitement was full on, the newly renovated Kashi Vishwanath temple being the best attraction.
Many years back when used to watch KBC very regularly, had once heard Amitabh Bachchan recite a couplet. “मन का हो तो भला , ना हो तो और भी भला “. The meaning being if it happens according to your wishes good enough but if it does not happen your way it is god’s will, so even better. So, all set to fly, as soon as we reach the airport, we get the message that flight is delayed by an hour, and subsequently for the next 7 hrs we kept getting the same message. The wait though was tedious but still with family by your side and grown up kids i realised it was not that bad, in fact it was good quality time spent with kids. It’s like how we see the situation, it could have been hours of cribbing, but it ended being good catching up with the boys. Now, where we were supposed to reach Varanasi in the afternoon and were to go for the cruise in evening, we reached at dinner time. Missing the cruise meant missing the beautiful Ganga Aarti which Benaras is so known for. But when things are not in your hand you must simply accept it. We were staying with our cousins. Next day morning when we woke up it was cloudy and drizzling, and a kind of fear enveloped us “will be able to go for darshan” “oh god first the Aarti missed now even the darshan may not happen”.
But suddenly at 11.30 am all clouds disappear, it is bright and sunny, and we have a beautiful darshan. The temple has such positive vibes, one just can’t have enough of it and is totally mesmerised by the power you feel all throughout. Meanwhile our cousin made some phone calls and we got to see the Aarti straight from where the pandits do the Aarti. There could not have been a better place to watch the Aarti, it was a divine experience. With Suyash getting to ring the Aarti bell during the whole aarti and seeing the priests right in front of us it was way beyond what we had visualised. And when we came back home we were thanking our stars, thanking Indigo 😉 for the 7 hr delay , cause if we had been on the cruise we would not have watched the aarti the next day from where we did ….and the words kept resonating in my ears “मन का हो तो भला , ना हो तो और भी भला “