So finally it is my (Satyendra's) turn now to write the blog.
Where do I start? I am told it has to be from the time that Aarushi left off after her blog last month. I must confess my fellow travellers have set the bar so high that writing this blog has
become a daunting task!
Well, we are now more or less settled in Haridwar, if you can stretch the definition of "settled" to include going to Ranikhet, Nainital and Lucknow within the first month of getting to Haridwar (as Aarushi described in her blog), and also to include our forthcoming trip to Shimla, Laddakh and Kashmir (we are just hours from leaving as I write this).
We have had the good fortune of a stream of visiting family and friends in Haridwar. Add to that the excitement of holding a
Kathak (North Indian classical dance) performance by the two girls (Aadya and
Aarushi). But first the visitors - Our first visitors were the Auplish family from Melbourne - Rakesh, Vinita and Aastha (Ashima also came by herself later). Then it was Kuljit Singh Sangar ji and
his wife Raj ji from Jabalpur (pictured along with Manju on a bridge over the Ganga in Haridwar). Their train arrived just two hours after the Auplish's train
left Haridwar! So we saw off Rakesh, Vinita and Aastha, then ducked into a meeting that Saurabh had organised for the next day's Kathak dance performance, and then arrived at the station just
in time to receive Kuljit and Raj ji. Time management in sleepy Haridwar! Sushim (Shibani's brother) arrived along with his wife Shveta and their 4 year old daughter (Aanvi) the next morning. And this time Saurabh and Shibani timed their pick up run to perfection so that they could wave out to Sushim as the train passed over the road bridge enroute to Haridwar station! So this has now become a standard welcome gesture for any visitors - we ask them to lookout for us just after they pass Jwalapur station, we madly wave to them, and then race the train to Haridwar station! It was simply magical to have all of them with us for the girls' Kathak performance. Manju's nephew Manoj was next to visit, closely followed by Shibani's parents, Ashvani ji and Deepa ji. No sooner had they left, that Ashima
Auplish dropped in this past week. Ashima is (also) on a gap year as a 2nd year Veterinary Science student at Melbourne University, and has done us all proud by the work she did on rabies eradication in the mountain state of Sikkim. She won an internship at the WHO as a result of this work, which is an impressive achievement for one so young. Well done Ashima!
Well, we are now more or less settled in Haridwar, if you can stretch the definition of "settled" to include going to Ranikhet, Nainital and Lucknow within the first month of getting to Haridwar (as Aarushi described in her blog), and also to include our forthcoming trip to Shimla, Laddakh and Kashmir (we are just hours from leaving as I write this).
We have had the good fortune of a stream of visiting family and friends in Haridwar. Add to that the excitement of holding a
Kathak (North Indian classical dance) performance by the two girls (Aadya and
Aarushi). But first the visitors - Our first visitors were the Auplish family from Melbourne - Rakesh, Vinita and Aastha (Ashima also came by herself later). Then it was Kuljit Singh Sangar ji and
his wife Raj ji from Jabalpur (pictured along with Manju on a bridge over the Ganga in Haridwar). Their train arrived just two hours after the Auplish's train
left Haridwar! So we saw off Rakesh, Vinita and Aastha, then ducked into a meeting that Saurabh had organised for the next day's Kathak dance performance, and then arrived at the station just
in time to receive Kuljit and Raj ji. Time management in sleepy Haridwar! Sushim (Shibani's brother) arrived along with his wife Shveta and their 4 year old daughter (Aanvi) the next morning. And this time Saurabh and Shibani timed their pick up run to perfection so that they could wave out to Sushim as the train passed over the road bridge enroute to Haridwar station! So this has now become a standard welcome gesture for any visitors - we ask them to lookout for us just after they pass Jwalapur station, we madly wave to them, and then race the train to Haridwar station! It was simply magical to have all of them with us for the girls' Kathak performance. Manju's nephew Manoj was next to visit, closely followed by Shibani's parents, Ashvani ji and Deepa ji. No sooner had they left, that Ashima
Auplish dropped in this past week. Ashima is (also) on a gap year as a 2nd year Veterinary Science student at Melbourne University, and has done us all proud by the work she did on rabies eradication in the mountain state of Sikkim. She won an internship at the WHO as a result of this work, which is an impressive achievement for one so young. Well done Ashima!
I have to tell you, we are having a lot of fun driving here. Road
rules do not exist, so you can do just about anything you like! You will be horrified to learn that a person turning
into the main road has the right of way if he is forceful enough. Might is right! There is really only one rule - avoid damage to your car and if possible do
not damage others’! To make matters
worse, there are stray animals who also claim the road as their habitat. I am not
talking only about (sacred) cows, pigs and dogs. You have to look out for the other
occasional fauna too as Saurabh learnt the hard way. He had a traffic encounter
with a monkey who fortunately (?) scampered away after being hit. Then Saurabh again just
missed hitting a mighty bull who decided to suddenly buck and jump right in front of the car! What I don't get is that when there are already so many natural obstructions on the street, then what is the need for so many speed breakers and that too with faded markings? I had the experience of converting our
Maruti Ertiga car into an aeroplane when I did not see one such road
bump early in the morning. Rishabh and Aadya now have strong suspicions about the validity of our
driving licences.
The spring season was just finishing when we left for
Lucknow last month and it was blast of summer when we came back. However fortunately the heat in Haridwar is a shade less than in Lucknow and Delhi. It is really only hot in the
afternoon. What's more, it is now that season where if you can stoically bear with the terrible heat, you get compensated with luscious sweet mangoes! We get a large variety of mangoes here
each with its special aroma and taste, and we love them.
We were also lucky to have seen first hand the Indian general elections. None of us from Australia has voting rights here but it was very hard not to get carried away. The election was a long drawn out affair due to the logistics and simmering militancy in many places. Mr. Narendra Modi was the Prime Minister candidate of BJP, a right wing, nationalist party. He is a powerful orator and a successful Chief Minister of Gujarat state. The state recorded sustained and visible progress under his rule of 13 years. But he was always under some cloud, with allegations that as Chief Minister, he had deliberately done little to stop a horrendous week of Hindu-Muslim riots in his state in 2002. However he has maintained his innocence and the allegations have been dismissed by the Indian courts. We could easily guess the outcome of the election talking to the various shopkeepers, Auto drivers, taxi drivers, house maids and the neighbours. Everyone said in unison “Ab ki baar Modi sarkar!” (i.e. This time Modi’s Government!) Still what surprised us was the overwhelming number of seats the BJP got, decimating the ruling Congress party Congress to shame. But interestingly, even though the BJP picked up just over 50% of the seats (with another 15% picked up by its political allies), it actually only got around 35% of the votes. In the Indian system the candidate with the maximum votes wins the seat. So with three or more strong candidates, the votes get divided and a candidate with even 30% of the votes could win. Nevertheless, we are relieved that a strong, stable government is finally at the helm, with an ambitious agenda and good credentials to get the economy and indeed the country going again.
The children are finally showing interest in Indian TV
programmes. An Ad that they all love is that of Idea, the mobile phone company. Their Ads are about how you can access the internet on all their phones, and so lookup information at will and avoid being taken for a ride by dodgy shopkeepers, crooked politicians, shonky contractors, corrupt government officials, etc. Their jingle is “No ullu banaoing”, which is a hybrid of English and Hindi and means "no fooling us anymore". Interestingly "Ullu" or Owl denotes stupid in Hindi (ostensibly because owls sleep in the day and wake at night), which is exactly the opposite in western thinking!
We celebrated Aadya's 13th birthday in style, with a beautiful cake complete with decorations and a birthday message.
·
We also received a surprise e-mail from
Anoop Malaviya, an old friend from Perth (pictured), inviting us for his house warming ceremony in Rishikesh. We
decided to take up the invitation and Ashvaniji, Deepaji (Shibani's parents), Manju and I drove
there. However we lost our way to find ourselves on the Badrinath Highway. This was the same road that was damaged extensively in last year’s cloudburst. It's a little better now but my word it was breathtakingly beautiful with live jungles on both
sides of road and warnings of wild elephants. We managed
to find the way to Anoop’s home in time to attend the final part of the pooja and sample the delicious delicacies of the land. Inspired by our wrong turn, the family decided to retrace our steps and ended up at the Chilla
nnational wildlife sanctuary. There they saw a majestic wild tusker (Elephant, pictured) along with Deer, Peacocks and other smaller animals. The only problem was the bad condition
of roads, which seems to be the case throughout this small state. One can see this clearly where this state (Uttarakhand) meets
the adjacent ones (Delhi and Uttar Pradesh). The road condition suddenly improves across the border! It is obvious that money
sanctioned for this work tends to evaporate before it reaches the roads. Corruption
galore - typical for any Congress Government!
Back in Haridwar, our car has a busy schedule, with the children’s school or Kathak classes. When it all gets too complicated, we engage the services of "Guddu" and his intrepid "Auto" (a 3-wheeler or Tuktuk). It has suspension springs but no shock absorber. So you can imagine the ride over the pot holes and speed breaker bumps! We met Guddu by chance but now he is our regular alternative to the car. We use his Auto to go to Har ki Paudi or the railway station or just to the local market.
Back in Haridwar, our car has a busy schedule, with the children’s school or Kathak classes. When it all gets too complicated, we engage the services of "Guddu" and his intrepid "Auto" (a 3-wheeler or Tuktuk). It has suspension springs but no shock absorber. So you can imagine the ride over the pot holes and speed breaker bumps! We met Guddu by chance but now he is our regular alternative to the car. We use his Auto to go to Har ki Paudi or the railway station or just to the local market.
However the best thing that happened in this duration was the admission of Rishabh and Aadya into Delhi Public School (DPS), Haridwar. We were starting to get worried about this as the new school year had started in early April but DPS wouldn't commit to a date for processing new admissions despite our incessant hounding. So we had decided that if the children weren't admitted by this time, then we would pack up and go home. With all this uncertainty, we decided to live it up for a weekend by sneaking a visit to Delhi for an IPL cricket match. So they left Haridwar for Delhi on the early morning train on a Friday. Quite fortunately abut half-way there, Saurabh thought it might be a good idea to phone DPS yet again to enquire about the admission test date. The guy on the phone said "It's tomorrow at 8.30am. Did you not get our SMS?" Oops! So they reached Delhi, had a quick lunch, and then came all the way back in a taxi - a 5 hour ride. They reached Haridwar at night in the middle of a dust storm, and then sat the admission test the next morning. To our amazement and their credit, the kids then decided to take the same taxi back to Delhi so that they could attend the IPL match in the evening! Rishabh and Aadya got the coveted admission in the next week. But poor Aarushi has to wait until July as DPS schools have been instructed not to take admissions under Year 5 due to an ongoing legal tussle.
The IPL match was between Delhi Daredevils (led by Kevin Pietersen) and Rajasthan Royals (led by Shane Watson) whereas Rishabh barracks for the Hyderabad Sunrisers as you can see from the picture and his witty sign. Also in the picture (from right) are Aastha Auplish from Melbourne, Dhruv Malhotra (the kids' cousin), Rishabh, Aadya and Ashvani ji (Shibani's Dad). Much to everybody's amusement, Rishabh was then asked by the Stadium's security staff to take off his Hyderabad guernsey as it constituted "ambush marketing"! Poor kid had to wear it inside out for the rest of the match.
Speaking of travels, Saurabh had an interesting experience on the train from Haridwar to Delhi enroute to Melbourne. He met an enlightened spiritual master quite by chance! Or should I say it was destined to happen? Please read the story in his own words here.
And so here we are - almost half way through this great adventure of ours! We are all travelling up to famous and breathtaking valley of Kashmir in the next few weeks. Manju and I are leaving for the Himalayan town of Shimla tonight whereas Saurabh, Shibani and the kids are flying to Leh tomorrow morning (perched at 3,500m on the Tibetan plateau!). We will meet up in Srinagar, Kashmir in about a week. It is Manju's turn on the blog next month, and I am sure she will have lots to say about this lifelong dream of hers - to see Kashmir.
