Thursday, September 11, 2008

Trip To Haridwar

This was not the most memorable of the trips that I have had in the quarter of century of my life. Though it had some things which shall remain etched in my mind for times to come. Haridwar, as the name signifies Hari-Ka-Dwar, is considered by the Indian hindus as the holiest of places that one visits in his/her lifetime and the portal to the sacred land Of Uttarkhand / Uttaranchal.As we entered the holy-city, I noticed the bustling overcrowded streets, shops filled with kaeidoscopic array of items, innumerable men/women ,their foreheads smeared with the holy vermillion, people with plastic jerry cans, small leaf plates full of flowers and rice grains, in their hands, and an overcast sky with slight drizzle was making it quite an experience.

Once we parked our car some distance away from the point beyond which the vehicles weren’t allowed ( as usual VIPs and Beaconed vehicles were not supposed to abide by this prohibitive scheme) , we went ahead on foot. I too bought a jerrycan to carry home some water from The Ganges. Soon we reached the place where thousands of devotees earnestly waited for the evening aarti to begin. When it finally started, the unison of voices, the countless hands with the earthen lamps rotating in clockwise motion, made the whole milieu a transcendent one. Where an individual dissolves in the whole, giving a gestalt effect of spirituality.For once, you could feel the presence of something divine (I have used “once” as I am an agnostic of sorts you could very well feel it reinforced ).

Anyway, after the aarti we took a dip in the Ganges and returned back to our car.Time to land back from the spiritual heights to the deep pot-holes of the UK roads (UK is not The United Kingdom but Uttarakhand ).