JKB

NEW KASHI TOWN

A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to visit New Kashi Town, which has developed rapidly to accommodate tourists and travelers. This town is in the nascent stage of its development.

This place is popularly known as Sharveshwari Puram / Bhatpurwa Kala, located 10 kilometers north of Varanasi city. The name of this place is kept on the Aghori saint Awdhut Bhagwan (Kinaram Baba).

Recently developed roads in the middle of beautiful fields are both eye-catching and soothing to the soul.

In the front we see the oldest government school that has been operating since the 1960s.

The month of August/September is designated for sowing rice. This rice will be ready by January.

Due to rapid changes people are building small shops, though due to the very low population, not many businesses are in profit. Old-looking shops will get renovated as this section starts catching on tourists.

Earlier this particular section of the road was considered haunted and no villager used this road after 6 PM. But as the settlement progresses, all the old myths are getting washed away.

This is the only pond available in the village but its depths are now filled with sediments. It is now a pasture land.

A few metres away we see another school that was built in 2010. It has the latest amenities yet very few kids come here to study.

I took the only unpaved path going north. I could see a structure.

It is a recently developed water tower. This town is under a water-stressed zone, ground water table is depleting at a rapid pace. Options to harvest rainwater are being explored in this region.

It also houses a hen farm. It is considered a profitable business here after agriculture. But it requires a good initial investment to set up.

It seems like along with development, the settlement is also moving towards the north and leaving behind old structures and buildings. This is a tube well which was in operation 10 years ago. Now around this tube well you can see an ecosystem taking place.

This town had many brick-klin factories, but now only one or two are left. Most of the soils are already used in the past 30 years, so the factories are moving away towards more raw material availability zones.

This is the only place where you can eat freshly cooked sweets and snacks. I visited when Jalebi was getting ready. The old wood stove is still used and is preferable over gas stoves.

Jalebis is an Indian sweet, made up of wheat flour and then it is dipped in "chasni" which is a mixture of sugar and water heated for a long time. The outcome is an orange color circular sweet. The old saying goes like this, "if you eat 250 grams of jalebi along with a glass of milk, within a month you will look very muscular and fit".

I am yet to try this for a month. Though the combination is the best one!

An ashram is located in the north. I don't what it is about but looks beautiful.

I wanted to capture this water tower so I had to do a good round to get a perfect angle.

I came to the local village office. It was closed. I watched an OTT show "Panchayat (local/village office)", so I was very keen to see one in real.

@pravesh0 @bhattg @inuke Here is the panchayat office, and yes a water tower is also available just near to it.

Somewhere in the north, a forest is there where I wanted to visit, but as the sun was setting, it was not safe to go out in the woods.

I remember I had to walk in the rice field to get this in one frame. 10 years ago, you would hardly see any lights in the night. People used oil lamps but now the township has a proper electricity supply.

Supply only gets down in the event of a storm as the electric line can break and fall on agricultural fields and can even start a big fire burning all the produce.

Whenever electricity gets down in the village, I know a storm is on the way. What an alert mechanism it has become!

I started going towards the western extension of this town.

The western extension used to have a lot of gardens but now those are converted into agricultural fields. Countable gardens are left.

The gardens act as a shed for cattle and sheep herds during stormy evenings.

Nothing much can be seen. I regretted my decision not to take a bicycle while roaming around this town.

As it started to drizzle I rushed towards the south, a garden was there and I stood under a tree and enjoyed the ambience.

Farmers here use cow dung as a fertilizer to enhance the health of their agricultural fields. They collect it at one spot, near the end of the gardens.