City of Lamps & Lives

Banaras. A city where dawn begins with chants and conch shells, and nights end in smoke, song, and silence. Where death sits beside life, sipping chai at the same stall. Where every ghat, every flame, every gust of wind carries the memory of someone who once dreamed. City of Lamps and Lives journeys through fifteen deeply human stories set in the heart of Banaras — tales of laughter and loss, of music and mortality, of faith and rebellion. A young boatman sings to the sunrise, a weaver battles fading eyesight, a mother sells red chillies and defies destiny, a Dom turns cremation into dignity, and a singer finds her lost voice at dawn. From the crowded lanes of Godowlia to the stillness of Manikarnika, from the humour of rickshaw rides to the hush of the Ganga Aarti — these stories capture the pulse of a city that has seen everything and forgotten nothing. Written with tenderness, wit, and wonder, this volume from the Heartbeats of India series invites you to stand by the river and listen — to the music of life flowing through the sacred and the ordinary alike. Because Banaras does not merely live in time — it outlives it. And once the river remembers you… you never truly leave.