No Weekends In Haridwar

Aarushi’s Blog

Welcome to our second last blog of this trip, this time by Aarushi.

Diwali celebrations in Noida

Yet again, we have done many things after Mum wrote her blog last month. We went to Delhi for the week-long Divali holiday in the last week of October. On the day of Divali itself we went to to celebrate at Anita Dadi's NOIDA home along with Nana, Nani, Baba and Dadi. We first did a Pooja and then set off fire crackers for over an hour on their terrace. It was all so amazing! Anni bua and I both loved the “Hakki Mukki” bombs. Bhai figured out a neat way to set off a lot of crackers one after another, which was very clever and worked.

While in Delhi, Dad made us watch a newly released Shah Rukh Khan movie at the Saket mall called "Happy New year". It was 3 and half hours long and even Dad admitted it was one of the worst movies he had seen. Far better was the Sound and Light show at Delhi’s Purana Quila (Old fort).

The following week Mum’s Manoj Mama and Susan Mami from London came to visit us in Haridwar. On the first day we took them to the Sureshwari Devi and Mansa Devi temples (which was a lot of climbing!), and the famous Ganga aarti. The next day, Dad and Mum took them to Rishikesh. We enjoyed having them over, and I think they did too!!!

The breathtaking view from our hotel balcony

The next weekend we drove to the pretty Himalayan hill station of Lansdowne. Unfortunately, we chose a bad time to leave Haridwar as this was the day of Guru Purnima, and also a public holiday because it was also Guru Nanak’s birth anniversary. Haridwar was filled with pilgrims from Gujarat, Haryana and Punjab, and they caused a MASSIVE traffic jam on the highway. We were stuck in this traffic jam for over an hour, just trying to leave Haridwar. But once we got out, it was a great drive. We met up with Nana and Nani in nearby Najibabad. They had driven up from Delhi and also encountered the same traffic trying to get to Haridwar. But after a refreshing lunch together, we finally reached Lansdowne late in the afternoon. We stayed in a hotel called Kasang regency, which was 6kms away from the town of Lansdowne. It was an awesome place with sweeping views from our room balcony of the Himalayan mountains, valleys and rivers cascading into the horizon. We took long walks each day in warm sunshine, and got to see some majestic snow-peaks up along the road. Dad reckoned it was the Kedarnath peak. Every night the hotel staff lit a bonfire outside, and all the guests joined with singing. One day we went into Lansdowne proper where we went boating on the Bhootal – a man made lake. We also bumped into Sharad mama (Mum’s first cousin from Faridabad) as we were walking on the road as he had driven up for some work there! Imagine – bumping into your first cousin in a big country like India while walking a lonely mountain road! We had great fun in Lansdowne!!    

Just when we got back to Haridwar and unpacked, it was time to pack our bags again and head out to Ludhiana and Amritsar over the next weekend. In Ludhiana we met Dad’s friend, Aman uncle and his family – Rachna aunty, her mum, Ameera and little Khushali. We had so much fun with them! We all stayed up late into the night talking, singing and dancing. And Rachna aunty’s mum cooked up the most delicious feast for us.

The Golden Temple in all it's beauty

In Amritsar we stayed in the Holiday Inn, which had a swimming pool with the coldest water I have ever been in. Didi and I went in and couldn’t feel our feet after a while! One night we went to the Golden Temple, which was an amazing experience. I have never seen something so shiny! There were lots of people there but still it was so peaceful. We walked into the main shrine and saw the people singing the Shabad. Everything was golden inside including even the harmoniums that they were playing! The “Langar” was also wonderful. The food was so tasty! While in Amritsar, we also had the famous Amritsari Fish. 

Last weekend we were back in Delhi for Nana’s 70^th birthday party on Saturday evening!! We gave him a few surprises – we had organised a “Kaun Banega Ashvani Mehta” quiz (similar to “Who wants to be a millionaire”, only that contestants were each of the 6 tables). I went around asking all the guests to take out a folded paper chit out of a hat that had a table number. This way the guests got to meet the other guests and not just people they knew.  Dad had mainly come up with the questions and multiple-choice answers with help from all of us including Billu nana, and they were really funny. Everyone laughed a lot. For some of the questions, we had filmed the answer with different members of Nana’s family. Bhai made a mask of Nana’s face and acted as Nana in all these film clips which were very funny. Didi, Aanvi and I were the scorekeepers. Out of the 19 questions, the winning team from Table 6 got 17 right! Our cousin Anya and Jyoti Nani (who is the wife of Nani’s cousin, and also granddaughter of the last King of Kashmir!) laughed hardest at the jokes. It was all great fun! We ended the night with a lot of singing. Everyone joined in for the last song, which was Nana’s favourite  - “Ramaiya vasta vaiya”. It was also fun to see Sushim mama and Aanvi again after so many months. Shveta mami and Adrita couldn't come but we had a great day with Aanvi. 

Meanwhile winter has slowly set in. Apart from the chilly foggy mornings, the most visible change for us was the switch to our winter school uniforms earlier this month. 

Oh and before I forget, the last weekend that we did spend in Haridwar, Rakesh chacha and Cheeni bhaiya made "Litti-chokha", a traditional dish from Bihar and Eastern UP. It was one of the most delicious things I have eaten. I had 5 Littis and Didi had many more than that! They cooked the Littis on a stack of dried cow-dung patties (yuck!) but the Littis were so tasty. That night Abhiram chacha and his family as well as Madhavi aunty and her sons Kunal and Orin had also come over so it was yet another unexpected party!

Thank you for reading this blog and please read the next and final blog by Baba and Dadi!