It’s time for me, Shibani to put my
creative hat on and write about the events of the last month.
This edition starts off with a BANG! In the
blog before mine, Aadya left off in Haridwar where we had spent 5 days after my
trip to Delhi & Agra with our friends Rod, Anne, Amy & Gab (visiting us
from Australia). And so on the morning of the 1st of October we
piled into the ‘tempo traveller’ (a mini bus) for our eventful road trip of 210
km to Delhi from where we were to take an overnight train to Varanasi (one of
the oldest cities in the world!).
Saurabh got Gab onto a shared auto rickshaw
and instructed the driver to drop her off at the train station where his cousin
Rakesh was meant to have received her and got her boarded into a bus to Rishikesh.
Gab was headed to Rishikesh for a month-long Yoga teacher’s training course. About
an hour later Saurabh got a frantic phone call from Rakesh asking where Gab
was! She hadn’t yet made it to the railway station, a distance of 7 kms, which
normally would take no more than 20 minutes (and of course she wasn’t carrying a
working mobile phone!). We had an emergency meeting in the min-van and decided
that most probably she had somehow missed Rakesh at the train station and got
on to a bus to Rishikesh herself. And so Saurabh left her a message on her
e-mail, Facebook, and at the Ashram in Rishikesh, asking her to call him back. Saurabh also called our friend
Captain Alok Gupta, a prominent Haridwar businessman who is also on close terms
with the chief minister of the state. Alok reassured us that Haridwar was a
safe town and that people didn’t generally just go missing. They decided that if
we hadn’t heard from Gab by 1.30pm, we were to call him back and he would
ensure a massive ‘man (rather woman) hunt’ through the state’s police!
Fortunately, Gab responded to our e-mail in the nick of time. The auto rickshaw
had dropped her off somewhere else, so she had simply taken another one to the
bus stop and had made it safely to Rishikesh. Alok later told Saurabh that he
had already worded up the Police hierarchy as a young foreign woman gone
missing was not something that this state with its large tourist industry could
afford! I can only imagine what Gab’s reaction might have been if she hadn’t
got back in touch with us and had the Police ramming down the door of the
Ashram in which she was staying in the middle of the night in their bid to
“rescue” her!
However, little did we realize that the
excitement for our day was not yet over! The next heart racing moments came as
we sat in unusual-even-for Delhi stand-still traffic, with our group divided between
2 cabs EVEN though we had given them strict instructions to stay together, the
cabbies in their own wisdom had each chosen different routes to get us to the
train station!. The distance of 12 kms took us 1.5 hours!!! In retrospect given that school holidays were to start the next day, it
was probably similar to the traffic jam around Melbourne airport on the evening before start of school holidays….only that this was Delhi, and so it was akin to the
entire population of Melbourne trying to get to Tullamarine! We got to the train
station minutes before our overnight train to Varanasi was due to depart. 8
people, 7 big pieces of luggage, 4 porters, all running helter-skelter along the
stairs, foot bridge, platform, and tossing themselves into the train with just enough
time to catch our breaths before the train glided off the platform!
Now ensconsed in the plush first class compartment and able to laugh about our day, Rod promised us a round of drinks to celebrate when we got to the Raddison in Varanasi. But that wasn’t to be, as it was 2nd October (Mahatma Gandhi’s birth anniversary), and so a nation-wide “dry day”! Poor Rod mustered the courage to again ask for a drink later that week when we were in Kalimpong (West Bengal), to be told he couldn’t have one because it was a Thursday, a state wide dry day (!). Add to that his unending quest for a “good cup of coffee” (Rod: “What types of Coffee do you have here?” Beaming Waiter: “Sir, hot or cold”), and I am sure our friends will long-remember their maiden travels through India!
Waking up the next morning to a rolling
scenery of green fields and the mighty Yamuna was a treat! Travelling through
the poorest state in India, I was reminded of the India I left behind 16 years
ago...in the last few years though we have travelled though villages in India,
I have been amazed by the progress….the earthen huts with thatched roofs have
largely been replaced by brick huts with terracotta roof tiles and mobile phone
dishes….however these villages that our train zoomed past on the 2nd
of October was just how I remembered them.
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| The aarti from our boat |
For me the next day was the highlight of
our stay in Varanasi. In the morning Saurabh, Anne, Rod and I went in search of
the house in which Lahiri Mahasaya had lived 150-years ago (he was a Guru in
Saurabh’s Kriya Yoga tradition). This was on Saurabh’s otherwise short
“Must-See” list during this year of travels.
I must say that walking along the tiny
cobble-stoned alleyways of Bengali Tola was mystical (though they were a bit
dirty). I enjoyed visualizing how they might be when clean, and imagining the lives
of the people who lived there. We found the house, and after a short but deep meditation
session sitting on the ledge in front of the house, we walked along the ghats to
see them in the morning light.
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| The kids trying to to gnaw their way through raw sugarcane |
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| Sitting on the banks of the Gomati river |
Then came the trip with Anamika’s family to
their village (Niyar), which was an hour’s drive from Varanasi. Now, Saurabh
had worded us up that we were going to the banks of the Gomati river and that
we would experience the complete quiet (something that he had experienced along
the Ganga in his ancestral village). Imagine our horror when we got off the car
close to one of the oldest temples in India along the banks of the river, only to
be greeted by VERY loud, crass, auto-tuned Bhojpuri songs being bleated out of 8
massive speakers stacked at the back of a mini van! The entire village had
seemingly gathered in the temple to celebrate the Dussera festival, and they
were having a lot of fun with it. Fortunately Anamika’s Dad had some influence and
so upon his request, they turned off the music for about 20 minutes that allowed
us to soak up the absolute quiet & serenity. We then continued on to
Anamika’s ancestral property, which was amongst miles of rice &
sugarcane fields. It was very kind of
the family to invite us to walk through their house and fields, and pluck a
fresh sugar cane out of the field! The kids got a small taste of how the masses
of rural India live.
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| Rod with Anamika and Sarika |
We enjoyed meeting Saurabh’s school friend
Shefali, her husband Alok, and their daughter Aastha. We managed to squeeze in
a short trip to the nearby majestic Sarnath (from where Buddha started
spreading his teachings after he attained enlightenment) the next morning
before flying out to Kolkata.
This was my first trip to Varanasi (also referred
to by many as the city of thugs), and I was skeptical about going there, but I
left with a thought in my heart to some day return and explore it in more
detail. Saurabh did say that seeing Varanasi on the day of the launch of the “Clean
India” campaign (2nd October) did probably help create this
impression of Varanasi in my mind. I am intrigued by Prime minister Narendra
Modi ji’s vision to develop Varanasi along the lines of Kyoto – a tasteful
combination of the ancient and modern. If they manage to achieve half that,
then Varanasi will indeed be a place worth re-visiting.
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| All of us at a hilltop monastery in Sikkim |
An overnight stay in Kolkata made memorable
by a visit from Vijay chacha and Aditi chachi (my Dad’s youngest brother &
his wife), then breakfast with our Melbourne friends Sumona Bhattacharya and
her kids Rohan and Ramona (infact they were to fly back home a few hours after our
meeting!), and seeing the city bathed in the lights of the festive season of
Durga puja brought memories from my childhood flooding back!
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| The Gomtee Tea Estate |
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| Tea plantations |
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| One of the mentioned scrabble games |
Staying at the Gomtee tea estate enroute to
Sikkim, sipping on the very fragrant Darjeeling tea, playing several (intense) games
of scrabble, chess and then a wander through the tea gardens in the morning
started off our trip in Eastern India on a high - a high that continued for the
next 4 days despite being tossed around in all axes on the “organic roads” of
Sikkim. Sikkim is the last of the states to be added to India in 1976, but has
by far some of the worst roads that we have EVER travelled on!
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| Kanchenjunga at sunset from our hotel lawn |
But one look at Kanchenjunga (the third
highest peak in the world, the highest in India) and all the fatigue from the
8-hour car ride covering a distance of mere 90 km vanished! Then the walks
through the small roads around Pelling, stumbling upon a bakery which served
the best apple strudels I have tasted in India, and gazing at the mighty
mountain from our bedroom windows was all that we did for the 2 days that we
spent in Pelling.
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| Kanchenjunga on a cloudless afternoon |
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| Kanchenjunga looking majestic at 5am |
On our overnight stay at the Orchid resort
outside Kalimpong, Saurabh and I stayed up late watching the twinkling night
lights of Kalimpong from our balcony, chatting, and listening to “Dil dhoondhta
hai, phir vohi fursat ke raat din” (“the heart yearns for those carefree
times”). This was a poetic “icing on the cake” to a most amazing holiday. Thank you Saurabh, kids, Rod, Anne &
Amy!
I had asked Rod to also share his impressions of the trip with us as well as his solo adventures down-south:
What an amazing trip. So much to see, hear, feel and taste! My great friends and incomparable hosts, the Mishras have made such a difference in giving me amazing insights into this intriguing continent. From the mass of humanity in Delhi to the peace and tranquillity of Sikkim and everything in between this trip was something very special.
The highlights are almost too many to cover in two paragraphs but here goes. The Taj Mahal has to be the most amazing structure I've ever seen. It truly is one wonder that exceeds all expectations. Secondly the early morning sight of the 3rd highest mountain in the world in a cloudless sky truly took my breath away. Thirdly I can't write this without mentioning food. At one point I remarked to Shibani that when we aren't eating we seem to be talking about food! Being a big spicy food person the tastes of India have truly delighted me.
After leaving the Mishras in Kolkata I headed south to Kerala. A very tiring 12.5 hour day took me from Kolkata to Munar and I was very unhappy about this amount of travel all in the one day. However after a good night’s rest I got rid of my grumpiness. Kerala is such a different place to the places I’d visited in the north. It was so green and lush, perhaps as a result of its having about 100 days of rain each year. One interesting thing was that Kerala has so many catholic churches (they outnumbered the temples). At the Lake Periya reserve I did a trek with the hope of seeing some local wildlife. We saw some buffalo and deer and lots of monkeys. The closest we got to a tiger was a paw print and some freshly laid tiger droppings. The droppings we were assured by our guide were from earlier in the morning (about 2-3 hours before). The next highlight in Kerala was the backwater houseboat near Kochi. I had a crew of 3 to myself and we cruised through the backwaters seeing the local fishing villages and rice fields, before sleeping on the boat. It was a truly magical experience.
My perceptions of India are that it is so full of contrasts. A large percentage of the population is incredibly poor but somehow they mostly seem happy. The new Prime Minister Modi seems to have galvanized the people behind him. One of his first tasks was to initiate a national clean-up day. I hope it is more than just symbolic because there is a real need to clean up this country. One of the more amusing news articles of the clean-up day included a photo of PM Modi cleaning up rubbish beside a photo of the aftermath of the clean-up where his entourage had left a huge pile of plastic water bottles. Not a good look! Of significance he has also launched "Make it in India". Economically this would seem to make perfect sense - generating jobs and building wealth for India’s huge population.
Overall it has been great - my first visit to somewhere I've always dreamed about visiting and a place that's always held a fascination for me. My travel companions were a joy. Thanks to Anne, Amy, Gab, Rishabh, Aadya, and Aarushi. Very special thanks to Saurabh and Shibani - I've learnt so much about the country from you both. Also a huge thank you to Shibani’s parents Ashvani and Deepa – delightful hosts for our Delhi stay, and to Saurabh’s parents Satyen and Manju, - the wonderful co-hosts in Haridwar.
Our short week in Haridwar was packed with
activities - Aadya’s inter-school basketball games, a classical vocal concert
by the Gundecha brothers, and a Kathak performance by Ms Shovana Narayan at the
beautiful IIT Rorkee campus.
I then joined Saurabh in Delhi to attend a
brain-stimulating conference for entrepreneurs (TieCon Delhi). I was amazed and
inspired by the inspirational stories of these entrepreneurs, and by the energy
and verve of the upcoming young entrepreneurs.
This was followed by an amazing 2 days of
what I can best describe as ‘concert hopping’ in Delhi! Listening to a sitar
recital by Adnan Khan followed by a vocal recital by 86 year old (rather
young!) Girija Devi in the outdoor amphitheatre of the habitat centre, Pandit Rajan
& Sanjan Mishra (the brother duo, two stalwarts of Indian Classical music),
Pandit Vishvamohan Bhatt (the grammy award winner), and then Pandit Birju
Maharaj ji (the ‘living legend’ of Kathak dance), all in the span of 36 hours
was exhilarating.
My blog also ends with a BANG, this one
from the fire-crackers that we lit to celebrate Diwali, the festival of
lights! Aarushi has requested to let her describe this festival, and so I duly
hand over the chronicler role to her. In closing I have to also acknowledge with mixed emotions, that Aarushi's blog at the end of November will be the penultimate blog of this amazing one-year trip, to be followed by a final joint effort between Mum and Dad.
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