VARANASI IN THE SPOTLIGHT

UTTAR PRADESH TOURISM, IN ASSOCIATION WITH WORLDWIDE MEDIA, ORGANISED THE INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL WRITERS' CONCLAVE IN VARANASI

The International Travel Writers' Conclave, an exceptionally-curated experience with international and national travel journalists, bloggers, vloggers and photographers exploring the heritage city of Varanasi and its nearby attractions, was organised by Uttar Pradesh Tourism, in association with Worldwide Media.

Among the media persons were travel and lifestyle bloggers Lakshmi Sharath, Indrani Ghose, Priyanshu Kumar, Ambica Gulati, Sanjay Kumar, Abhinav Singh, Pamela Mukherjee, Ragini Puri, Kalyan Chatterjee, Vaishali Mihir Shah and Mihir Velji Shah, travel photographer Ajay Sood, Prashant Kumar Jain of NBT Delhi, and C J Rajeeva, Sadanada Hegde, Kenche Gowda and N Nagappa of Vijay Karnataka. Joining them were Gayrat Majid Deputy Chairman of the Union of Writers of the Republic of Uzbekistan; and Sirojiddin Raupov, Norkobil Jalilove and Abdirasul Jumakulov, all members of the Writers Union of the Republic of Uzbekistan. They were escorted on their journey of discovery by Preeti Srivastava, Deputy Director Varanasi Tourism.

The conclave was anchored around the sacred site of Varanasi. Also called Banaras or Kashi, Varanasi is one of Hinduism's holiest cities and one of the oldest continuously-inhabited cities in the world. The waters of the River Ganges, central to all life and living in Varanasi, are said to wash away all your sins. Varanasi is famous for its numerous ghats (stepped banks), boat rides on the holy river, and the evening prayers (aarti) with thousands of oil lamps along the bank.

DAY 1

The four-day exploration began on December 9, 2022. On this day, the journalists, bloggers and photographers had the opportunity to visit some of the iconic spots of Varanasi such as Namo Ghat and Ravidas Ghat by evening.