Hundreds of widows exchanged their experiences - mostly bitter and some sweet - as they prepared to participate in a seminar here tomorrow.
"It's a lifetime experience for us," said Manu Ghosh, a widow in her eighties, and recalled how she and a dozen others from Vrindavan enjoyed a flight trip today to this temple town to attend the seminar on 'The Condition of Widows' at the Banaras Hindu University.
The air was a mixture of joy and sorrow as the widows of Vrindavan arrived here for the first time, in a noble initiative organised by an NGO, and interacted with their counterparts here.
The widows took a dip in the Ganga and offered prayers at the famous Kasi Vishwanath temple and visited Nepali and Birla ashrams and participated in bhajans.
After years of abandonment, they will share their experiences on their transformation in a short span of time.
Over a year back, Sulabh International undertook the responsibility to take care of around 1,500 widows living in various ashrams in Varanasi and Vrindavan, and has helped them celebrate Holi, Diwali and other rituals which have been forbidden as per traditions.
Sulabh founder Bindeshwar Pathak said it was an effort to give them joy at this stage of life.
"We are trying our best to bring them back into mainstream of the society," he said.
