Sanket Nayak

Varanasi, Aug 13 (PTI) A Nandi statue faces the Kashi Vishwanath temple at the centre of Varanasi’s Godowlia crossing, continuing the centuries-old tradition of the guardian deity pointing in the direction of Lord Shiva’s abode. Just behind, a massive screen plays a cola commercial, the flickering images fading into a call to buy advertising space. Benares, as the city was once known, is “older than history, older than tradition, older even than legend”, Mark Twain famously wrote.