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RenukaManghwani

Haridwar and Rishikesh

Alighted at Haridwar station at 7am, completely fresh and charged. The air was chilly, nippy and refreshing… a shortrickshaw ride got us to our hotel, situated in the midst of the crowded, narrow bylanes of Haridwar market.

Haridwar: the gateway to the four pilgrimages of Uttarkhand (UK as they call it) – Badrinath, Kedarnath, Gangotri,Yamnotri. It is also one of the four venues for the Kumbh Mela, held in its magnitude every twelve years – the otherthree being Nasik, Ujjain & Allahabad. After some chai, nashta and chill, we head towards the Holy Ganges, whichwas a just a 10 mins walk through the fascinating colourful and narrow lanes which was like a collage of variousshops – clothes, food, utensils, mithai, milk.

It felt like we were in a game of dodgeball, where we had to move between the cycle rickshaws, bikes, humans,shopkeepers, even cars at times and a huge number of banners stating ‘asli / original/ real’ for either rudraksha ormithai. Yet it was fascinating and interesting indeed. I wanted to dip in the Ganges for sure, but on reaching the mainspot – Brahma Kund – and on seeing people washing clothes, bathing, offering flowers, milk, coconut, dispersingashes mixed with bones… made me change my mind! So we just dipped our feet and did a simple pooja withofferings with a bit of disappointment and a feeling of mission unaccomplished.

We spotted a fascinating Statue of Lord Shiva across the river about half a Km away, close to the ‘VIP Ghat’- theclean part of the Ganges and has restricted entry only for foreigners, NRI’s and people with permission. Though wedidn’t qualify on any of these counts,we decided to give it a shot… planned it all out- we’re NRI’s from London and itwas now we had to put on our fake accents, sugary sweet smiles and add thoda phirangi touch. We managed toconvince the gatekeeper that we are a part of some NRI clan and we missed the visit in the morning and he agreedfor a quick 10 mins. (Finally our charms worked) Gloating with our success, we stride through the well made, cleanVIP Ghat, which appeared quite different from the other parts of Ganga. Since the Ganga flows from this sectionbefore the Brahma Kund, the water was clean, green and tempting to dip into and I did…. Five times… just trying tobe sure

Lord Shiva Haridwar | Image Credits: Wolfgang Maehr

It was really peaceful to sit there for a while in silence, with no chanting, no noise, no offerings, no frills of any sort atthis part of Ganga. Evening, we walked through the dramatic lanes again to reach well before time for the famousGanga Aarti which commences when the sun sets every single day. We managed to get ourselves a place rightacross the river, where we got the perfect view of the Ganga Aarti which has 21 Pooja Aarti’s rotating simultaneously. It was a visual treat indeed… as the sky turned from orange to grey to black… the flames of the 21 aartis… thehymns being chanted… the synchronized ringing of the bells… the view of almost 50,000 people seated along boththe sides of the Ganges…. the golden reflection of floral diyas in the river… all together formed a mesmerizing andenchanting sight.

The flip commercialized side, was the army of men moving between the crowds with donation books, almostcompeting with each other to grab the moolah – like they had an individual target for the day to achieve, this followedby the next set who ask you to drop some money in the pooja thali and lastly some young girls who marched withbowls of orange tikka to be pasted on your forehead and almost demanded to be paid for that, one even refused toaccept a Rs 2 coin and insisted on 10 bucks…. makes one wonder, ain’t offerings and donations not supposed to bevoluntary? This seemed like ‘Business’ here!!!

Ganga Aarti in Haridwar | Image Credits: Pete

There was an interesting fight between the crew of Asiaworks Television from Jakarta who were shooting the GangaAarti and some local men, over the placing of the camera stand.. it was funny seeing the local go on an ego trip & thecameraman almost banging his head in trying to deal with him till someone from the crowd helped them make peace.Yet, with all this chaos around, surprisingly it was amazing peaceful to sit there & experience the Ganges and theAarti. Beyond the mystic aura and mythology, Haridwar can cast a magic spell on any visitor and we spent a couple ofhourssoaking inthe beautyof thepeacefuland serene,yet strongand vibrantGanga. Awalk backthru thehustlebustle of themarkets,tastingsome of thelocalsavouries,we reachedour hotel toretire.

Early nextmorning,after someblissful tea, a few snaps, a short walk to the rickshaw stand, a 45 minute drive through the scenic 24 Km stretch in‘aavar’ evergreen VIKRAM and a stop at a beautiful Hanuman temple, we reached Rishikesh. Located in the laps ofthe lower Himalayas, Rishikesh: Surrounded by scenic beauty of the hills on three sides with the Holy Ganga flowingthrough it, is one of the first towns where Ganga emerges from the mountains to touch the plains and that’s why thewater is crystal clear and cool.

We visited 5 temples before walking across the Laxman and the Ram Jhoola, which is basically a suspended bridgeover the Ganga, am presuming that Ram decided to walk over one and Laxman decided to walk over the other andhence the name! (Pardon the mythological quotient) We did try asking about this to our Nepali boatman, who cookedsome story about ‘Ram and Laxman samadhis are somewhere in the Ganga and hence they named the bridges withtheir names’.

Though just 45 mins away, Haridwar and Rishikesh are very different is their entire look and feel. Whereas Haridwarthrives on Indian pilgrims and religious beliefs, pooja’s, donations… Rishikesh apart from the religious aspect, is alsoacquiring greater significance as a center for white water rafting, revering sports, a base for treks and hikes in thebeautiful Garhwal Himalayas. Many foreign tourists seem to spend a day’s Rafting, trekking or just chilling along theriver either at the German Cafe or at the small strip of beaches along the river. The shops, lanes, markets all haveadapted to cater to the foreign clientele.

“How long will it take? Will we get wet? Is it scary? Does the raft overturn?” chewed their brains for 15 mins askingdetails, before we finally decided to crystalize our fluid plan of rafting, so we bit the bullet for the 12 km’s experienceto add ‘adventure’ to the otherwise religious trip. One hour of strenuous rowing with occasional breaks of the coldGanga providing respite from the scorching sun… yelling away when the waters were rough… racing with the otherrafts close-by… a 2 mins Rafting instructions which only consisted of ‘Row when I say START and don’t when I saySTOP’… made us miss having one of those “Beginners Guide to Rafting for Dummies” ;) Yet we thoroughlyenjoyed the experience and left the raft with stronger muscles on ONE arm!!