Haridwar revisited

On the way back we came back to Haridwar. We had missed Ropeway visit to Manasadevi temple.

I found the ropeway journey lacklustre and the temple loud. Literally. The music accompanied to the puja was loud and fierce. More suitable for Bhairav temple than Manasadevi temple. 

And a funny thing happened, I observed in temple-let, a mini temple on the side, a priest asking the name of one's wife and then blessing both man and wife by touching both with peacock feather multiple times. I wanted that experience. Our names were told - and the priest starting blessing - but he wanted to know how much money are giving the God. When we said none - he tried to chase us away. When my husband tried to take the tilak - sandalwood paste which is common here and all the priests apply it to the devotees. When my husband tried to take the tilak, the priest wouldn't let him touch it. 

Just like kindness has a price, divine blessing too has a price. In this 'ghor kali yug'.

Hardwar and Hrashikesh twin holy cities.  Hrashikesh even has modern tourism attractions like rafting, bungee jumping etc.

In Hrashikesh, our tour guide brought in another guide. This guide kept on explaining to us about rudrakshamalas. Their significance, their facets, who should wear them, when, how and why. And he took us to some Ashram instead of an ancient temple. 

Turned out he was building up all this to take us to rudraksha store. That store salesman did more drama - showing us the holy ekamukhi rudraksha and then how pure spatika will generate spark when rubbed against each other. And some of us did purchase some rudraksha. 

All the while, I was furious at all this drama- but my fellow tourists were cool with the drama.

But I did want to buy navaratnamala - chain with nine auspicious stones. May be because my sister praised it. So in the evening, once we reached Haridwar, we went for shopping. Unlike the auto hired by our guide, we went on a shared auto - twenty rupees per person. No, I am not joking. Seriously such autos exist in Haridwar. Twenty rupees. 

Image from : rajajijunglesafari.com

We went to moti bazaar - a bazaar where you can buy not only motimalas, but also winter wear, copper vessels and puja accessories. We wanted to buy tiny wooden models of all char dhams. We did buy them quite cheap. And we also bought good, warm shawls. 

In almost all the places we visited, we do get reasonably good warm clothes for cheap price. And often  the hawkers bring their 'mobile shops' to our hotel door step. And there are hawkers on the road/lane/gully to the temples. 

Holy bath in the Ganges - We started at 5 a.m. in the next morning to some ghat as some of our fellow travellers wanted to bathe in the holy water. To wash away the sins of them and their ancestors. I didn't, as my sins are too numerous to be washed away in one holy bath. 

Most of the days, we would start our day at 5 or even 4 a.m. And without a cup of tea. (But coffee drinkers were given coffee an hour earlier) The logic might be as simple as - anyway these old timers rarely get sleep. Let us take them out on the road, when the traffic is less. 

Today, back in Bangalore, I woke up at 7 am, went downstairs to our store, brought the milk and cherished my cup of tea. Aha, home is so sweet. 

One more problem was breaks in the journey. Many days we would travel the entire day in the bus - stop twice or thrice on the roadside for bathroom breaks. And the lunch would be served to us in some dhaba. Dhaba would be clean-ish, with one or two rest rooms in the basement. No one complained - we are calm and patient people - willing to tolerate everything, as long as it does not cost us a lot of money. 

Today I made Sambar, rice and ate in my dining table and I had a neat sink to wash my plates too.