July 21st 2012
Arrived Delhi T3 along with Gapi, to join eight other ladies on our trip to Valley of Flowers in Uttarakhand. Three from Gurgaon, two from Bangalore, one from Erode, one from Pondy and one from Mumbai.
Set off in a Tempo Traveller, with Manmohan our driver. The countryside through UP is full of sugarcane fields, mango orchards and it is quite green. Fed by canals of Yamuna and Ganga I think. Lot of dusty, crowded towns too, traffic is quite bad. We passed Roorkee where the IIT seems to be the raison d'etre.
And guess what, Baba Ramdev's huge HQs!! It is massive!!
We had a stop at a highway resort called Moolchand where we had tea and idli with north indian sweet sambar!! The grilled cheese sandwiches were also good.
We reached Haridwar at around 6pm and went directly to har ki pauri. This is a bathing ghat on the banks of the Ganga where every evening there is an aarti in honour of Gangadevi.
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| Baba Ramdev posters exhorting Indians to go swadeshi |
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| The huge Shiva, seen enroute to the canal where the aarti is performed. Receiving Ganga in his locks? |
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| The Har ki Pauri bathing ghats |
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| And what is SC Bose doing here?! |
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| Aarti offerings. And huge cans for taking back Ganga jal? |
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| The Sringeri temple |
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| Tourists, pilgrims crowd the bridge before the aarti. During the aarti, this bridge is kept clear. |
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| This is the canal, diverted for the aarti purpose I think. The clock tower was built by the Birlas, and is a landmark. "Meet me at the clocktower", or to the left of it, or in front of it! |
The place was teeming with tourists, pilgrims, exotic hippies, flies, roadside shops, blaring speakers. I put my feet in the water, and it was chill but muddy! Flows swiftly here.
We went and took our place on the steps to watch. A man next to me was loudly discussing a relation's illness on his mobile phone! By the end of the aarti I knew that he had poor regard for lady doctors, the patient in question being asked to just eat well and not having been given medicines!!
On the river's edge jean clad purohits were helping people do pujas. Raji and I were feeling most irreligious and also mildly worried about the possibilities of a stampede!!
But, every few rows there was a temple administrator maintaining some order. It always amazes me how with these huge crowds and seeming chaos, we go through with these events.
The puja started, it was broadcast on a public address system. And then the "real" pujaris showed up, or so it seemed, with veshtis!!
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| The MC priest for the evening |
As the sun fell lower in the sky, the prayer ended, the aarti lamps were lit, the conches blew and the bells were struck. I liked this part best.
An interesting modification I thought was the priest asking us all to take an oath promising not to dirty the Ganga, and to work to keeping it unpolluted. All through the evening, there were loudspeaker announcements asking pilgrims to throw plastic in the bins and not into the river.
Given my knowledge of Hindi there was some comic relief. This is what Raji, Gapi and me heard - "Sabhi log apne patni ko haath me le jaaiye. Patni ko nadi ke kinare chodiye math. Patni nahin chahiye, tho dustbin me daaliye."
What?! Was this a joke? Our Punjabi friend Vattsala clarified patiently that they were saying "panni" and not patni. Panni being Hindi for plastic!!
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| Gangadevi murti |
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By 8pm, we made our way out, finished with this bit of Indian exotica.
9am departure next morning for Rudraprayag! Where the Alakananda meets Mandakini.
I can't get over how hot it is!
Reptiles and roots!
