VARANASI, March 1 -- Kashi was back to its usual serene rhythm on Friday after about 45 days during which it witnessed mammoth crowds due to the Mahakumbh spillover from Prayagraj.

From dawn, the famed Subah-e-Banaras wove a pattern of tranquility as the Ganga flowed quietly while visitors and locals kept their tryst with the ghats and the lanes were back to their languid pace.

Tourists walked from one ghat to the other, many sat at the stairs. Boats with foreign as well as domestic tourists onboard plied on the Ganga. A few people could bee seen doing yoga at a ghat while a foreigner meditated.

Vandana Roy, a resident of Darjeeling in West Bengal, said the ghats were too crowded on Thursday, the day she reached Varanasi.

But on Frida...