A book that takes you from Varanasi to Kashi

Lucknow Sep 6 Varanasi is a heritage city and one of the oldest in the world. It is the abode of Lord Shiva. Kashi, on the other hand, is a continuously evolving embodiment of culture and legacy. Its people have their own unique way of life that has not been affected by modernity and is free form complexes.

"Dekho Hamri Kashi", a new book by senior journalist Hemant Sharma that was released over the weekend, represents the spirit and people of Kashi.

It is a collage of stories of people who have lived in Kashi and imbibed its spirit.

The book shows a Kashi that is not necessarily found in coffee table books or websites. This Kashi is found in the times and tribulations of its people.

Anecdotes of tailor Ramchandra, Sharda barber, Shambhu boatman, Pathak driver, Mukhtar band master and Champa Bai, the dancer, are extremely engrossing and frightfully real.

The anecdotes of Bapu a hawker, are known to most senior journalists of Lucknow too.

Sharma's Kashi cannot be read, only felt.

Each chapter is unique with a smattering of history with the contemporary word and prose with poetry.

The writer gives a face to the normally faceless population of Kashi that revels even in its adversity.

The narrative makes the book unputdownable and makes the reader yearn for more.

Anyone who visits Varanasi after reading the book, is bound to view the city with a new perspective that moves into the lanes and by-lanes to search grief and grander that are an intrinsic part of this Kashi that is also known as Varanasi.