Varanasi in March

The March story

Holi on the Varanasi ghats is wilder than anywhere else in India. Color flies from rooftops, ghats become slip-and-slide zones of gulal and water, and the thandai (spiced milk, sometimes with bhang) flows from every corner shop. If you want the uninhibited version of Holi, this is it — but protect your camera and wear clothes you'll throw away. Post-Holi March is excellent for exploring the city's non-spiritual side: the Bengali Tola neighborhood with its intellectual heritage, the Ramnagar Fort across the river (the Maharaja's collection of vintage cars and palanquins is delightfully eccentric), and the street food circuit — kachori sabzi for breakfast, chaat at Kashi Chaat Bhandar, malaiyo (winter milk foam dessert) in its last days before summer ends the season. The Ganges at low water reveals archaeological fragments in the ghat walls that high water hides. March is the last comfortable month before the heat arrives.