CHASING GANGA

WARNING: VERY LONG POST AHEAD

Was tryin to learn Tamil some days back.. had loads of guruz- KP whoz half Tamilian..Fatima who learnt tamil by watchin Sun TV..nd on n on… KP has resigned after hearing me construct my first Tamil sentence which went something like ‘adayaatthi, perinthnilayam etthiyaachoo anaalum nee auto nippattein!!’ Itz supposed to mean ‘why aren’t u stopping the auto though we’ve reachd the bus stop!!’.. Also learnt the word ‘kandravi’ which I think means somthing like ‘country fellow’.. Anyway one day I ws screamin ‘kandravi kandravi’ at someone nd landed in front of our princi who happenz to be a Tamilian :D..
This post aint abt me learnin tamil..Itz abt my Varanasi-Haridwar-Rishikesh-Mussorie(nd som more places) yaatra.. so kickin off with it.

Reached Delhi around noon on 15th.. Was my first plane journey(air deccan afcoz.. Nakkis own airlines :D). So was all xcitd abt it. Took loads of snaps of clouds nd the land down below. Looking down at the clouds ws a mindblowing xperience nd the Western Ghats ROCK!!! India looks like a PCB from up above, so was reminded of my tronix workshop all along :-B..

The train to Varanasi was around 7pm, so decided to visit the Mughal Gardens in the Rashtrapati Bhavan premises.. Dad’s wisecrack-‘Anyone in need of free massages should visit Delhi coz we’ve lost count of how many security checks we’ve been thru’ and at one place I was detained separately nd my bag made to go thru xtra security check. Ooo do I look tht dangerous?? :D.. Mughal Gardens lookd like som place out of a fairy tale buk.. exotic birds jumpin around, 100watts tulips, atom bomb-sized dahlias against the backdrop of the majestic residence of the Presi.. truly a mini-paradise.. and it’s open to the public 4 only one month in a year.. Perfect timing :)

During the train journey to Varanasi some guy left his AK47 on my berth.. How tempting :-P.. Reachd Varanasi in the morning.. On reaching the University entrance and reading what was written on the arch above I was like ‘WOW’.. Kaashi Vishwavidyalay(or ws it vidyapeedh??).. I had forgotten the fact that Varanasi nd Kaashi were one nd the same place.. Had a tough time finding our place of accommodation since all of us wer such ‘great’ Hindi pundits nd also coz the BHU campus seemed to be as big as Trivandrum city.. Tried remainin awake the whole time on the first day of the symposium nd also scared my sis by drawing amplifier ckt (which is probably the easiest ckt ever but my sis doesn’t knw tht :D).. But on the second day slept with mouth wide open like I used to do in Kolaz class in school.. It ws a Botany symposium on Genomics, nd me nd my sis wer accompanyin our parents (both of em botanists)..The only thing I knw about Botany is the scientific name of tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum) which I remember coz it sounds very YO!.. The food ther was grrrrrrrrrrrrrreat(it wolud take another post to describe all abt it).. hmm yummy yummy!!

It was Sivaraatri on the 1st day of the symposium.. Visited the new Kaashi Viswanath Temple in the BHU campus, in the evening. It looked like the typical Bollywood temple wher Nirupa Roy goes and bangs her head against pillars ‘tok!tok!’ nd shrieks ‘Bhagwaan tu paddhar hai!!!’..Early morning, on the 2nd day of the symposium, we went to the Ganga ghats, accompanied by 2 BHU students- Sishir nd Rakesh.. The journey to the ghats was by cycle rickshaw( the rickshaw guy seemed to be possessed by the Malayalee private bus drivers’ ghost!!He was flying over the gutters nd the bumps with me clinging onto the seat for my dear life.. Hmm but rickshaw people ther are a underpaid lot compared to the autorickshaw aka jet airways ovr here in Thiruvananthapuram..) Ws planning to watch the sunrise but it turned out to be too cloudy.. Each minute tht passed by durin the boat yaatra on the Ganga seemed like gloriously painted canvasses (oye drainage literature alert!!!). The ghats nd the ashrams, the foreigners in search of spirituality, the naked Naga sadhu, dogs who hve masterd the art of begging, children selling lamps made out of leaves to be floated on the Ganga, the river gleaming like som all-engulfin molten metal.. It ws picture perfect.

Went shopping tht evening.. Amma nd sis bought Benares sarees (frm the shop whch apparently supplies Ash Rai with Benarasi silk sarees :P) nd I went around with them blinking like an owl.. A certain friend of mine has this immense liking 4 north Indian guys nd later tht night during dinner I was like checkin out all the guys so tht I could text my frnd later sayin.. ‘Edey I’ve found de perfect guy 4 u’.. Hmm unfortunately not many smashin guys wer around :( .. tho one was ..aah never mind :D

Next day the BHU guys got 4 us a hired taxi.. This time Sujeet, Rakesh nd Aasish wer accompanyin us. We went around the city nd visited som temples.. all of them with absolutely tasteless architecture except 4 one durga temple which was a bit different. The old Kaashi Viswanath temple xpreience ws almost a culture shock.. The little street leadin to the temple ws full of mud nd slush nd yea we wer all barefoot. The security ther was so tight that the temple actually looked more like an xtensive police control room.. closed ckt cameras, metal detectors, AK47s.. The funniest or rather the most ironic thing happened when I entered the place wher som pujari was sittin in front of som devi’s idol.. Many devotees wer around grabbin the deity’s feet nd offerin money parsad nd stuff..nd this pujari calld me ‘beti yahaa aao’, then he said som holy stuff, blessd me, put a garland around my neck nd then continued, ‘achcha pati milegi’!! Man!! Out of all the dreamy eyed devotees out ther how the hell did he manage to pick out an atheist with marriage not even in the top 1000000 of her priorities to give his special matrimonial blessings =))

From Kaashi it ws straight to Sarnath.. one of the places that had captured my imagination when I was doin my History proj abt The Guptan Era (in school).. While working on the proj I had com across a painting of Buddha belonging to the Sarnath school of art nd I ws extremely obsessed with it..The new temple at Sarnath hd that painting on its wall..It ws grt to see the non-pixel version. The Stupa ther was unlike any architecture style I’ve seen before..truly unique and awe-inspiring.. The museum had the Lion Capital nd the remains of the Asoka Chakra on display.. also great Buddhist nd Hindu sculptures frm tht era.. A tiny sculpture of a tree god, a gandharva like face peeping from among the leaves had a real hypnotic quality about it. Getting lost in that great historical nd cultural presence is something thtz beyond words.
When we were buying som little mud figures of Buddha frm a lady, Achan asked if these things would break, nd the lady replied, ‘Even you will break if u fall’. That ws true Buddha style!!

From Sarnath we went to see the Triveni Sangamam in Allahabad.. Mustard fields wer on both sides of the road all along the way.. Until then I had seen them only in the movies. On the way to the Sangamam one of my parents’ colleagues read a signboard- ‘Kripya Vaay moodh’ which to us malayalees mean Plz cover ur mouth or rathr Plz Shut Up!..It ws supposd to be ‘Bai moodh’..Ha! was really funny..heehee ‘vaay moodh’ :)) ..hmm..Three rivers meeting, and one of them imaginary- beautiful piece of mythology!.. Yamuna ws bigger than Ganga there coz Ganga had been blocked upstream to conduct the Ardh Kumbh Mela..was pretty shocked to hear that. Saw the deserted arrangements that had been set up for the Mela..it ws in such a large scale..When I tried to click som snaps a bunch of local kids jumped in front of the cam nd started posing Bollywood ishtyle!!

We had cancelled our tickets from Varanasi to Delhi (Sivaganga Xpress happens to be the slowest train on the planet nd it wudn't hav reached Delhi on time 4 my parents' colleagues to catch their plane) nd were planning to get on a train from Allahabad to Delhi. Sishir nd another guy Robin joined us in Allahabad( they hd an xam ther tht day) nd all of them came to see us off and make sure tht we got a train. First we wer planning to take the Mahabodhi Xpress.. It arrived and the entire Bihari population seemed to be inside the train so we decided to wait 4 de next one.. The next train came nd the guys tried to get seats for us in the gen compartment..People wer pourin into the train through emergency exit windows nd whatever possible means of entry. I think Sujeet somhw managed to get inside while rest of the guys wer chutney-fied by the crowd or the mob rather. So finally we decided to get into the Sleeper class nd wait 4 the TTR to come nd kick us out. Dont think we’ll evr be able to thank the BHU guys enough..On a scale of 1-10 on helpfulness nd hospitality I’m gonna giv the guys a 20( heehee I knw tht sounds cheesy) ..

A Malayali helpd us out with the TTR stuff..Anywayz we paid the fine coz we dint wnt to give bribe to the TTR nd the policewaalaz..Their entire act to get som money outta us ws highly entertaining.. It ws freezing cold inside the train nd I ws havin a hard time sittin nd sleeping, so aftr somtime I got hold of som newspapers nd slept on de floor of de train usin my luggage as a pillow (I take up min space while sleepin coz I cn roll up like a pangolin :D)..Since it ws a train tht strted frm Allahabad it ws really clean..Around 5AM som seat got vacant nd I wnt nd slept on it..Sometime later I heard som ol’ guy say to another guy who came to occupy the seat, ‘Bachchi ko soneh do’ or something like tht..Bachchi??Hmm yea Bachchi whoz gonna turn 20 this year.. Anyways I put on my most cherubic face nd slept ther for som more time.. I shud’ve drooled too to be a more credible bachchi!!! Reached Delhi by 7AM.. Parents’ colleagues got to the airport on time..nd we set off to Mussorie later tht day..

The drive to Mussorie ws great.. Mustard fields lined with bare poplar trees against the setting sun nd the rising moon..surely among the top ten most beautiful sights I’ve seen. Mussorie ws also nice..not breathtakingly beautiful..but nice. Saw and touched snow for the first time in my life. But the sight of the snow covered white peaks of the Sivalik ranges in the distances was Woosh!!Swept me off my feet..
Rishikesh ws also nice..The two suspension bridges.. Ram Jhula nd Lakshman Jhula.. beautiful places..Esp Ram Jhula..Sitting on the banks of Ganga watchin the bridge up ther against the sunset ws great.
Reached Haridwar late at night..So missed the chance to see Ganga pooja whch ws supposed to be the highlight of the Yaatra.. Went to the MansaDevi temple in the morning..The ropeway was cool..The sight of Ganga meandering thru the city far down below was truly a breathtaking sight.. Then went to the ghats..Brahmkund/Hari ka paudi(or ws it pardi??).. Was not planning to take a bath..But Ganga ws so ice-cold, fast flowin, CLEAN nd beautiful there that I couldn’t resist jumping in.. had a real fun time splashin abt..Then changed into a Jubba nd som sorta weird pajama style track pants cum khakees (Haridwar products).. In tht attire combined with a big red tikka I looked like a little Uma Bharti.. This trip really hd an overdose of irony..Nyways Haridwar ws a truly fun place.
It ws then back to Delhi nd back to Thiruvananthapuram on 22nd.. Sankhumukham beach nd the ocean with little sailing boats nd catamarans greeted us fom below as we were gonna touch the ground.. The pic is a bit patchy coz the Decca ppl seemed to have forgotten to wash their plane that mornin nd the windows were all dusty :P..

Evrything happened so fast that the drive from the airport to home through all the familiar places seemed unreal.. For the past week I had been waking up in so many different places that I had a BIG shock when I finally woke up on my bed on Friday.. Then it ws back to college nd back to the usual stuff..
Those eight days wer truly rocking.. Everything abt it ws great- like me accidentally jumping on to shit in a mustard field, a sanayasi looking at me nd screeching ‘Monkey!!!Monkey!!’, a broken tape tht went ‘Aaditya mai tumari paltoo kuttha hoon!!’.. nd on n on..grrreatt :) ..

PS: TY Gingi for lettin me use tht ghats' pic :)