At the city's Assi Ghat, a popular hangout, festivals or otherwise, there is no crowd. It's just a flood.
At 2 pm, preparations for Janmashtmi celebrations are not in place at Varanasi's famous Khatu Shyam Mandir. There is a last-minute scramble to erect a stage, where the idols of Lord Krishna were to be placed before devotees started arriving for evening prayers.
Head priest Sanjay Hazari is personally leading the effort this year. In the previous years, help was at hand from hundreds of volunteers who would turn up. This year, it's just a trickle.
The Ganga is in spate in Varanasi -- many localities by the river are flooded. At the city's famous Assi Ghat, water had climbed by as much as 80 feet.
"The truth is that, this year, one doesn't feel like engaging in too many festivities," says Mr Hazari.
Among the volunteers who has turned up at the temple is 42-year-old businessman Umesh Jogai.
From 5 am, Mr Jogai and his friends took a boat loaded with milk, bread and drinking water into the worst-affected areas.
As people from the flood-affected areas scrambled around the boat for supplies, the sight take out the joy of the festival, said Mr Jogai. "It can't be helped, can it? We have to go through this. But we are trying our best to help those stranded," he said.
In the city's famous markets next to the Dashashwamedh ghat, the place to be for festival shopping, Janmashtmi shopping is down to a trickle. Both Zameel, who sells garlands and Kishore Kesari, who sells aluminum swings, are feeling the pinch.
"Almost all Hindu localities by river are flooded. Where will business come from? People are in trouble," said Mr Kesari.
At the city's Assi Ghat, a popular hangout, festivals or otherwise, there is no crowd. It's just a flood. The most popular restaurant is shut. Water is flowing by its terrace.