varanasi – scribo ad LX

The Gift of Manikarnika

The evening I left Manikarnika, I imagined I was leaving a place. In the days that followed, I realised that I had carried it along with me. The smells that had assailed me faded quickly. The sounds of Varanasi receded into memory. Yet the questions raised by that ancient cremation ground remained stubbornly alive. TheyContinue reading “The Gift of Manikarnika”

Manikarnika: Where Fire Becomes Eternity

I arrived at Manikarnika as the sun was preparing to leave the sky. The evening light had begun to soften the hard outlines of Varanasi. As I walked through the city’s labyrinthine lanes, Kashi displayed all its familiar contradictions at once—pilgrims and shopkeepers, temple bells and motorcycle horns, saffron-clad ascetics and foreign visitors, all sharingContinue reading “Manikarnika: Where Fire Becomes Eternity”