HOME | FUNNY ARTICLES | TOP NEWS REPORTS | SUBMIT
|
Sept. 2, 2009 At 10 PM Sunday, August 30, 2009, I was picked up at my hotel in New Delhi by a bus that would carry about 40 passengers to the city of Haridwar, in a district of the same name, in the state of Uttarakhand. Uttarakhand is a newly-formed state, India's 27th, that lies in the foothills of the Himalaya Mountains, and borders on both China and Nepal. The countryside is heavily afforested hills and mountains, and the villages along the way were crowded, confused and ramshackle affairs. Haridwar itself was no exception, with crooked bumpy streets full of mud after recent rains, and row upon row of tiny shops and stalls, labyrinthine and chaotic. All the other passengers were Hindi-only Indians. Sometimes I had to communicate in Hindi, but at this point my grasp is severely limited, though I did study the language years ago in California, preparing for the hopeful trip to India that I am now realizing. They all regarded the trip as a pilgrimage, rather than a sightseeing tour, a fact that dawned on me only slowly. After an all-night bus ride, we made Haridwar about 7, and after a break, we drove to a point where we had to transfer to Jeeps in order to negotiate the rugged roads that lead to the Ganges. Alighting and crossing a pedestrian bridge, we strolled to the left bank, on the North, where there were several temples, which we visited. A couple of the temples were large and imposing, especially against the backdrop of the green cliffs behind them. Many of the small temples were more like houses, divided into rooms where statues and other objects of worship were placed in museum-like arrangements behind glass windows. We had to remove our shoes again and again, and all the Indians were wearing sandals, but I had to sit repeatedly on the floor to doff and don my shoes. I befriended a cow and a calf in the town square, and they responded merrily to my petting and massaging. Then we went back to the big bus and continued to the town of Haridwar itself. At this point most of the Indians disrobed to bathe in the silty Ganges, but I had my passport and my money in a homemade pouch about my hips so I stayed on the quay and watched. Again crossing the Ganges, whose source is about 200 miles upstream from Haridwar, we visited Maa Mansa Mandir Devi, a hilltop temple that is accessed only by cable car. http://www.badrikedar.com/images/temple/mansa%20devi.jpg Mansa Mandir is a far cry from Western ideas of a place of worship. Inside it is gaudy and carnivalesque, with doll-like statues in loud colors. The site is teeming with noisy people, and there are refreshment stands and curio venders everywhere. Doffing my shoes, I traipsed about following four men whom I recognized as members of our party. Unfortunately, our group did not remain united, and it would have been easy for me to get lost in the genuine House of India in and out of the temple. Luckily, I managed to get back to out meeting point. This was a Punjabi restaurant, where I ate panner kaleji , liver in gravy, along with tortilla-like pieces of bread. Thereafter, we visited two more temples, travelling with 8 people in each of two two-passenger auto rickshaws. When in India, do as the Indians do. Finally about 4 PM, we rolled Delhiwards. The roads were miserable until we got to about 100 miles from the Indian capital, where we found ourselves among elegant buildings, as if we were in greater Los Angeles. Incidentally, according to Wikipedia, Delhi is the eighth largest metropolis (or conurbation, as the Wikipedians say) in the world, closer in size to New York than to Los Angeles. Rain drenched us most of the way, but the big city was dry. I was delivered to the Hotel Astoria in the Karol Bagh district of Delhi at 11:30 PM Monday, The outing cost only $25, including bus, Jeep, cable car, auto rickshaw and admissions. It was very laborious and sometimes irritating, with Indians' characteristic inefficiency, but I'm glad I went. ------------ About the author Thomas Keyes: I have written two books: A SOJOURN IN ASIA (non-fiction) and A TALE OF UNG (fiction), neither published so far. I have studied languages for years and traveled extensively on five continents. Visit my website here. Email: udikeyes@yahoo.com Comment on this article here! 
------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com and are not allowed to be posted on other websites. ARTICLE THIEVES WILL BE PROSECUTED! |
||||||
|
|
|||||||
|
