The Places You're Supposed to See Twice. Most People Only Go Once, Too Late.
There are places you should visit before you have to. In Hindu custom, Kashi, Gaya, the Triveni Sangam in Prayagraj, and Rishikesh are where families bring the ashes of the people they loved. The geography is fixed. The rituals are clear. These are not optional destinations. They are the final coordinates on a map most of us hope never to open. Yet every one of them deserves a visit long before that day arrives. Pilgrimage, curiosity, plain tourism, any reason works. Just go while the reason is still life. Catholics in Spain walk El Camino de Santiago for reasons that have nothing to do with death. Faith, boredom, a milestone birthday, a friend's recommendation, sore feet chosen on purpose. It is treated as something you do while you are living, a rite of passage you schedule yourself, often more than once. Hindu pilgrimage tends to run in the opposite direction. Kashi, Gaya, the Sangam, and Rishikesh sit quietly in the background of most lives until a death forces the visit,...
