Varanasi, India: A place for life and death

India is a land of mysticism and its people have a staunch belief in inherited traditions. Religious pilgrimages inform the devotional aspect of travel. Varanasi is one such place where devotes throng in veneration of Siva, the Lord of Destruction (one among the trinity in the Hindu Pantheon of Gods). This is the only place in Indiawhere people come and aspire for many things including death. Interestingly, death is a thing of celebration at Varanasi. Saints, seers, Himalayan sadhus and ordinary people visit the place on all important occasions. The present portfolio captures different moods of devotees at Varanasi. The place resonates with explicit devotion and implicit urge, devotion being an unflinching belief in the omnipotence of Lord Siva and implicit urge being a joyful longing for death in His presence. Vanishing at Varanasi is considered a sure road to eternal bliss. Life, death and bliss are intertwined here.