Varanasi Ganga Mahotsav- a perfect tourism promotion event

The Ganga Mahotsav in Varanasi on Nov 8-9, 2011 was a treat to watch, and a reason by itself for someone to visit Varanasi. This is an annual tourism promotion event organized by the Government of India, in partnership with U.P. Tourism. The four-day open-air event on the bank of the river ends a day before Kartik Purnima (the full moon day of the 7th month of the Hindu calender) and the and Dev Deepavali festival, with the best of the events scheduled in the last two days. This creates an opportunity to showcase local culture to the large number of Indian and foreign tourists and pilgrims who congregate in Varanasi for the special day ahead. The traditional games are scheduled during daytime, while the evening is for cultural events involving some of the best exponents of India. A number of traditional games were scheduled on 8th- the day I reached. Boat race, pony race and kite flying events were scheduled at different locations. I rushed to the nearest venue at RPG just in time to see some amazing examples of “pehlwani” (traditional exercise regimen of body-builders and wrestlers) that Varanasi is famous for. Two famous pehlwans competed to rotate two huge conical weights (locally called “Jodi”), each looking like a truncated cone and weighing 22 kilograms each! The special variation of the equipment used in this case was called “kaantewali Jodi” (mace with nails) and the people who can twirl these around their head and shoulders are becoming rare even in Varanasi. The pehlwan who won performed 30 rotations of both hands with these massive weights in each. The one who lost did it 27 times.
I would be buried and stapled to the ground if I tried doing this even once! But then, these strong men go through a rigorous training, healthy diet and regimented lifestyle for a long time to reach this level. India had a glorious past in wrestling- the 60s was the golden decade in which India won several medals in Asian and Commonwealth games. It was also a popular fitness regime in the cities. Even Rabindranath Tagore had a wrestling teacher named Kana Pehlwan. The emcee was heard lamenting on the microphone that the reason for decline of the sport is the fascination of the young generation with cricket. After the pehelwan show, a bunch of young boys performed a delightful show of Malkhamb. This is a traditional Indian sport in which gymnast(s) performs feats and poses in concert with a vertical wooden pole or rope. Three tables of decreasing surface area were stacked and balanced on glass bottles. The top-most table had the pole which could rotate on its vertical axis. Five boys did some amazing formations on the pole. It was a treat to watch them gracefully positioned on the pole, the one on the top balancing himself on his stomach and the others gripping the pole with their hand or feet, and turning the pole slowly to present a 360 degree view of the entire formation. Not once did the entire structure, delicately balanced on glass bottles, topple over. The audience for all this was senior officials from the state and police administration, along with hundreds of locals and tourists cheering the performers. The venue was an amphitheatre-style section of the Rajendra Prasad Ghat adjoining the main Dasaswamedh Ghat. The river provided a beautiful backdrop for the event. In the evening, the venue transformed itself in to a perfect cultural concert stage.

From 8 pm till 11 pm, India’s leading exponents of dance, classical vocal, sarod and santoor performed on 8th and 9th. Kathak dance performance by Ravishankar Mishra and Mataprasad Mishra and santoor recital by Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma were big attractions. The open-air ambience and the appreciation of the large and discerning audience (mixed equally between foreign tourists and local visitors made the event truly memorable.