Guess what?? Our program’s in the local paper!! That is sooooooooo cooooooool!!
And we’re on the road again, this time
to Jalandhar, Punjab. It’s a looong way off, but there are no bets this time
about when we’ll reach. Learning from past experience (see On The Way To
Lucknow, 1st March) everybody is just going with the flow.
As we head out, we’re leaving the hilly
Uttarakhand and moving on to warmer weather. Everyone says how much they like
winters and hilly areas for the coldish weather, but I’ve always loved the
warmth of the sunshine. I might tan easily, but even standing with your back to
the hot sun, and letting it collect and rest against your skin – I can take
that anyday. But despite that, I enjoyed the cool breeze today morning with the
light sunshine as we drove past the green fields and plains towards Punjab.
We reach Haridwar on the way and one of
our pilots, Swami chetta, expresses
his desire to bathe in the holy waters of the Ganga. So we stop for a while and
accompany him to the bathing site. On the way up, Ravi asks me about why this
river is special and so revered. I tell him about how, among the Hindus, the
river is considered sacred and that by bathing in it all your sins are washed
off. Ravi started to laugh. It was fun to see someone who considered such a
notion incredulous and found it funny. But there are soooooooooo many people
who believe in this with their whole being and practice it with full sincerity.
They even believe that by bathing here you’ll attain Moksha, or be released from the cycle of life & death. I wonder
whether to tell Ravi that or not.
I look back at him. He’s still smiling.
We reach the river where people are in
various stages of undress, fresh from just immersing themselves or just about
to go in. It wasn’t as crowded as we thought it would be, but I guess those
times also have their seasons. None of the rest of us are quite inclined to go
in ourselves, but I’m up for dipping my feet in. Just to see how it feels.
The river was so clean and fresh and inviting, and I went and sat down on the steps there and put my feet in. Yikes! It’s sooooooo much colder that I expected! It felt like the ice just melted and flowed down to where we are. It doesn’t look cold. And no one around seems to find it too intolerably cold. I wonder.. I think it’s deceptive because the sun is nice and hot and you’re a little baked as you’re standing under it. So you think it’ll be baking the water too. It was the strangest feeling! My feet were in this ice cold water and my knees were feeling like an oven heating under the jeans. But whatever it was, it was a fun experience.
Shortly after, a lady comes with a bucket
full of milk and tells me to offer a cup of milk to the river in the hope that
this act will complete any wish I might have. I told her that I didn’t want to.
She insisted. Then I told her that if you don’t believe it in your heart and
aren’t sincere about it, then doesn’t it become meaningless? And she agreed.
But then she still asked me to offer a glass of milk. Some people I tell you..
That leads me to start thinking about
all the people who are taking a dip in the holy waters. How many of them are
actually doing it to become sin-free?
To become sin free would mean that your previous sins would get washed off by
the bathing, but you should be turning over a new leaf in your life to not
commit any sins after the bathing,
right?
Right?
What’s the point otherwise?
It’s nice to just sit here for a while
on the banks of the Ganga and observe the people around you. I notice this
young boy (must have been 11-12 years old) who wading through the river nearby
the steps of the banks that are flanking it. He’s got this pole and he catches
some pieces of runaway cloth floating downstream and puts it aside on the
steps. Then I realise he’s helping keep the river clean. At the end of his pole there’s a round black magnet which he
uses to pick stuff off the riverbed with. Including money.
Interesting.
We decide to have lunch here somewhere
and while we’re waiting, John’s looking out the window of the dhaba and all of a sudden he blinks
rather forcefully with a minor shocked expression, then smiles.
“Yaar,
main ne vahan par dekha– Seedhi utar kar saamne aaiye’ (सीढ़ी उतर कर सामने आईये),
aur pata nahi dimaag thoda ulta chal raha hai ya kya, usko ‘Saadi utaar kar
saamne aaiye’ (साड़ी उतार कर सामनॆ आईऐ) padha.”
Hahahaha hahahahaha hahahaha haha!
Never expected to find something like this here. I wonder if they only serve blood...
Hehehe..
We hit the road again after lunch,
hoping to reach Jalandhar sometime soon. We get on the highway and it’s a good
thing because the road is smooth and we can speed up to reach faster. But the
bad thing was that there were no milestones to let us know how close or far we
were from reaching. After a very loooong drive,
a lot of sleeplessness, we finally arrive at 2am.
And guess what? To accompany dinner of chapaatis & mutton, there’s milk!
What fun! Balle balle!
