To understand what people mean when they say time flies, you only have to look at the rising or setting sun and then look away for a few moments. When you return your gaze to the sun, you will find it to have moved several notches higher in the sky—that’s the flight of time. Banaras, however, remains untouched by time. Invaders came and went, rulers changed, the earth went around the sun a few thousand times, but this riverside settlement has remained the one-stop shop for seekers of salvation longer than time.
