I had always been fascinated with gangster films, when I was in Bollywood, I became a part of one such gangster murder mystery. So, I was thrilled when Tiwari decided that we would be travelling to Mirzapur to pay homage to the Vindhyachal Devi in the district of Mirzapur. The city so synonymous to gangsters’ typical UP style and the web series by the same name was a huge hit in Mumbai. I was also curious to see this city and get a flavour of real interiors of Uttar Pradesh. These where the small yet significant towns and cities of this vastly populated sate of the Union of India.
Mirzapur
We took the Maha Nagri express and sat in the ac coupe, which was very comfortable the journeys as two hours long and we had the company of a trained astrologer on the way. This genial non descriptive looking timid guy was good at reading palms, and I asked him to tell my flute as well. We were just having fun as he took out my horoscope on his smart phone through an app. I chatted with him for a while and munched on biscuits, we got samosas for snacks and before I knew it, we had reached the Vindhyachal Devi Station just close to Mirzapur city. By the afternoon we had parked ourselves in a comfortable local hotel which served vegetarian food. Because of its religious significance only vegetarian food is served throughout the city and if one wants to eat nonveg when has to travel a few kilometers away from the city.
The Vidhyachal Devi mandir is a Shakti Peth and is situated on the banks of the holy river Ganges.
Mirzapur is famous for its brass works and carpets, it exports these items and this a strong industry of Mirzapur. Many pilgrims come to the temple of the Devi as it is famous throughout the region.
The city has around two lakh inhabitants and has been popularized through Bollywood web series. In the evening, I ventured out into the city and its markets we took a around the Devi temple as well and then took an auto around the dusty streets of the city. The hotels have Wi-Fi and there are nigh ATM’s around so one can get cash easily if the need be. The city is old and dusty the roads as a mess and so are the pavements, but that’s what inner UP is old and smutty. I felt that the air was stuffy, but the weather was relatively cool. I did manage to get some pictures of the night life of Mirzapur and Vidyachal Devi.
