It was my first visit to Varanasi. Despite my friend dissuading me to go there with her continuous rant of its ‘very dirty very filthy’, there I was on the banks of Ganga, almost mesmerized.

To my biggest surprise, I found the banks and the ghats of Ganga clean . One can walk from one ghat to the other on the newly cemented walking paths. Volunteers from Namami Gange earnestly broom the ghats frequently. There are dust bins to avoid litter.

Away from the ghats when I took a walk through the meandering and very congested lanes and bylanes of Varanasi – there was a similar story. People are not throwing garbage outside their houses instead , it’s being collected by cleaners. The lanes are spruced up regularly.

It was a moving sight to see the last rights being performed at a that and all the unwanted clothings and materials quickly cleared and bundled up to be dumped for disposal at a designated spot byvolunteers . Earlier , I was told , it was thrown in the Ganga.

There is a new conciousness now to make Varanasi which is known world over as the oldest living spiritual city- cleaner and more liveable. A laudable effort.