We had planned four temples for the afternoon. Vidya talked us out of all four and she was completely right - we slept, and the evening aarti was the best thing we saw in India.
Nineteen years on these ghats, and still on the first boat most mornings.
Vidya grew up three lanes back from Assi Ghat and has been guiding in Varanasi since 2007, when the whole operation was one person with a licence and a borrowed boat.
She reads Sanskrit, which matters more than it sounds - it means the inscriptions on a temple wall are a text rather than decoration, and the explanation you get is the actual one.
Guests most often mention the pacing. Vidya will talk you through the corridor and then deliberately stop talking during the aarti, on the grounds that the point of it is to watch.
She still takes the 5.30 a.m. boat with guests most mornings of the season, and personally trains every new guide who joins us.
We had planned four temples for the afternoon. Vidya talked us out of all four and she was completely right - we slept, and the evening aarti was the best thing we saw in India.
She reads the temple walls the way other people read a newspaper. Nineteen years shows.
I travelled alone and never once felt out of my depth. Vidya knows exactly when to explain and when to let you just stand there.
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