A visit to Sarnath temple 

Varanasi is one of the oldest city located along the banks of river ganga in the state of Uttar Pradesh in the north east India. Usually people visit this place to worship lord Shiva’s temple also known as Vishwanath Temple

Day 1

We decided to visit Varanasi somewhere in the month of December. I was in my teens. I went with my family and we were a group of twelve people. We booked a car from our residence to Howrah Station (A place from where long Distance train departs). Our train was scheduled to start at eight in night.

We arrived at the station well before time and were waiting for the train to arrive. The train arrived at round fifteen minutes to eight. We entered the train and sat according to our seat number. At night we had some light dinner like sweets, oranges etc. since we already had our dinner before we left for

Day 2

Next morning, we woke up had our break-fast and were pretty excited to reach our destination. We arrived at Varanasi at round ten in the morning

Accommodation

We already had decided as to where to stay and it was a mission Ashram (A place where we can stay at a minimal cost). After arriving at the station we booked a tracker (Just like an auto) and reached the Venue. That day we didn’t go out anywhere else as we were tired after a long and hectic journey.

Day 3

The next day we booked a Tata-sumo with the help of Mataji (The lady who was in charge of the mission) to enjoy the beautiful places situated in Varanasi. We visited a few places like

1. Sarnath Temple – A Place where Gautama Buddha first taught Dharma. And the place where the Buddhist Sangha came into existence through the enlightenment of Kondanna

2. Chaukhandi Stupa – It is an important Buddhist stupa in Sarnath, Stupas have evolved from burial mounds and serve as a shrine for a relic of the Buddha

3. Vishwanath Temple – A temple in Varanasi which is dedicated to lord Shiva

We returned to the ashram in night after having dinner at a hotel.

Day 4

The following day we decide to check out some local malls for shopping. When we were about to go for the mall one of my aunt had a severe panic attack when she realized she lost her ATM cards of the bank where the entire money for the trip was deposited. A frantic search began for the cards. After searching for an hour she decided to block her cards and lodge an FIR at the local police station.

Due to this loss of ATM cards we obviously could not go to the malls. The whole day passed running here and there in search of the cards. Finally, she blocked the cards and opted to transfer the travel amount to another aunt’s bank so that her ATM card can be used

Day 5

One fifth day of our trip we decided to go the local mall which was long pending. We bought some local stuffs of that place for our near and dear ones at home. We spent four days in Varanasi. On that day early in the morning we left the ashram and went to Allahabad which is roughly one twenty kilometers from Varanasi. In Varanasi we visited few places like Triveni Sangam – It is a place where three rivers Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswati meets. It is also a famous holy place for the Hindus and Mega –Star Amitabh Bachchan’s house

And many more other places. After spending few hours in Allahabad we were off to railway station to return back home.

Even today I think of visiting the same place again and re-enjoy those places.