Mapping in Varanasi

Where is Uttar Pradesh?

U.P. is in northeastern India.

About now is the time when I think it’s appropriate to show you where I am in the city. I have spent entirely too much time looking through maps of Varanasi, and they are all pretty unsatisfactory, but I will still use one to demonstrate my point anyways. Here are some valuable places to know:

Nagwa- where NIRMAN is located. In the southern end of the city (by BHU).

BHU- Banaras Hindu University- the largest university in the city. The school year is July through late April, and it has about 20,000-30,000 students.

Asi Ghat- The Ghat closest to us. We go there a lot, especially since it is close to a park (that I’m excited to visit soon!) and the river (obviously).

Lanka- The region immediately north to us, where there are many fabric stores, etc.

Godualla- Where many people who work at NIRMAN live, including Sunita. Godualla is also where we went to see the large aarti.

Dashashwameth Ghat- where we went for our shopping excursion.

Sigra- where Jay (our manager) lives. Also where we attended the fair.

You may note that many of these locations are hard to see on the map that I have posted. However, this is quite an ordinary occurrence. A couple of days ago, I asked our program director if she had any good maps of Varanasi, and she said that she does not have a good map, and that she’s never been able to find one. She also said that most understandings of the city are based on neighborhoods and landmarks, so a map wouldn’t even be useful to most people or tourists. Therefore, there just aren’t any maps. Now I really want to make a map, so we’ll see if I (a) have the mental capacity and (b) have the resources to be able to do this. 

Here are the best maps that seem to exist:

http://www.touristplacesinindia.com/varanasi/images/varanasi-map.gif

http://rajputrita.webs.com/varanasi.jpg