Har har gange

Last weekend we had a very holy experience at the city of temples, Varanasi.
It was a refreshing journey making us touch base with the reality of the nation.
There were a lot of first timers in this vacation. My children got onto the flight for the first time. Our first trip to the North of India, etc.
The Hindi spoken brought out nostalgia from me.
Our first day was consumed by flight delays and destination arrival. On reaching our hotel room, which was fabulous, we quickly got ready for the darshan.
I was really saddened seeing the plight of the most important jyothirling. All attempts to keep the premises neat and clean went in vain. We got darshan very quickly since the temple was more or less empty. We also visited the Annapurna devi and visalakshi temples. The temples here are smaller compared to the ones in the South.
Next was Ganga  aarti prior to which we saw all the ghats from the boat. Ganga  aarti was also a new thing for everyone, although I have seen it in haridwar but this was definitely unique.
Next day we visited Allahabad. The dip in the holy triveni sangam was the next pit stop. The journey was prolonged due to kavariyaan special during the holy sravan maasam.
But the whole experience of getting into the water in between two boats was exhilarating. My kids enjoyed it, no matter how scared they were.
The last day was spent in another darsanam of lord Siva