Ganges Darshan from Rishikesh and Haridwar

Ganges, the life line of North India, starts at a humble origin from Gangotri glacier from the Dhouladhar range of the Himalayas! Mythology describes Ganga as the Consort of Lord Shiva and the epic Mahabharata says Ganga is the mother of Bhishma. 

Stories from the great epic Mahabharata stays evergreen for me, mainly because it brings back vivid memories of childhood, where my grandpa used to tell us stories in such a way that we could feel as if it was happening in real-time! It was no wonder that the first time I saw Ganges flowing majestically at the foothills of Rishikesh, the yoga capital of the world, it was like dejavu. 

Ganges - from Rishikesh - Lakshman Jula bridge in the background

She leaves the mountain terrain and enters the Indo Gangetic Plains at Har Ka Pauri in Hardiwar, Uttrakhant and travels more than 2500 KM in India and merges in the Bay of Bengal. Unfortunately, the crystal clear water starts getting polluted as it flows down the mountains. But, At one end of the spectrum, people keep polluting and at the same time they offer tribute to her at several places twice a day. Ramblings apart, it was a great experience to see the tribute, popularly known as Ganga arathy. 

We planned to see the Ganga arathy at Har ka puri, Haridwar. There is also a temple for Ganga.

Though the ritual takes place in a canal of Ganga, she flows with great force. There were thousands of people waiting in both sides of the bank. We were on the side of the bank where the priests and the deity were. 

Ganga canal @ Har ka Pauri, Haridwar

As the crowd was heavy, we were wondering how to get closer. At that time, we were approached by a local who was offering to take us nearer. Having traveled to several cities in this part of the country, obviously we knew that he was a tout who would be leading us to a local priest. So, we told him that we were not interested in any pooja, but he said that it is enough if we bought the lamp and flowers for Rs 10. Though we were aware that we may have to pay more once we get closer, we took a chance in the hope of watching up close. Well, the tout handed us over to a local priest, who said we can pay anything we wish to perform the pooja.

Pandits of Ganga Sabha chanting slokhas before Ganga Aarthi

The Ganga arathy is performed twice a day, at sunrise and sunset by the priests of Ganga sabha. The timing differs during summer and winter. While the priests chant slokas in praise and thanking her, rituals happen in front of the idol of Goddess Ganga. 

Add caption

The whole ritual takes about an hour. As we attended the evening session during winter, it started and around 5.30 PM and after the chant, the priests offered auspicious things like haldi, milk, honey, sugar, curd, ghee and flowers in small quantities. At the same time, the local priest made us do sangalp and asked us to light and float the lamp. 

Now, the aarthy too started. The whole place looked divine and heavenly. The aarthy is performed few times, using tiered wick lamps.

First round of aarthy

Maha aarthy

As the ceremony was coming to an end, the local priest started demanding high fee and after haggling we ended up paying Rs 200. 

Even after the end of the ceremony, we could feel the positive vibes and lingered around the banks for a while. It was a spectacular experience. 

Mussoorie Musings

When I started exploring on places to visit in and around Haridwar I came across the term gharwali food. First, I thought that gharwali food must be homemade food as 'gharwali' means homemaker in Hindi. Then I stumbled upon Gharwal range of Himalayas! This intrigued me and further reading led me to Mussoorie.

Gharwal pronounced as ghaduwal refers to ethnic people who live in and around Gharwal or Mussoorie range of Himalayas in the Indian state of Uttarakhand. Mussoorie, locally pronounced as Masuri is a beautiful hill station nestled in the Gharwal range, which is part of Shiwalik range of Himalayas and the Doon valley. Allured by these geological factors and tempted to try the new gastronomical delights, we decided to visit Mussoorie along with our Haridwar and Rishikesh trip. 

Mussoorie is just about 35 KM from the Uttarakand state capital Dheradun. Due to the rough terrain, the roads leading up are very narrow with some sharp hairpin bends and takes about 2 hours to reach the town. The drive is through one of the best scenic routes in India, which covers lush green forests, valleys and endless mountain ranges.   

View of Mussoorie 

Mussoorie happens to be on the Indo Tibetan border and oversees the Doon valley and the altitude is about 6000+ ft., so the weather is cool throughout the year with chill winters. We reached Mussoorie around 3.00 PM and it was very cold with low visibility, still I was able to capture decent pictures of the beautiful Doon valley.

There are few tourist spots, but we had planned just a day, so we were interested only in a couple of spots. Out of the two, first we went to the Mussoorie Lake, which turned out to be a big joke. About 5 minutes of trekking down through steep steps led us to a minuscule dirty pond with few ducks and pedal boats. Since morning, we had driven for more than 6 hrs., that too via poor roads. Therefore we decided to call it a day and relax.    

Mussoorie lake/pond

By 5.00 PM, it started getting dark and we headed to our resort, which was another 4 KM uphill. We followed the Google map towards the resort. To our dismay, we were stuck in the traffic. All the cars were trying to reverse due to a roadblock ahead. By then it was completely dark and our mobile signal was too weak and GPS refused to load the map. We were unable to locate the alternate road that the resort help desk told us. Finally, resort staff agreed to come down and get us. Our room was very cozy and had a great bay window, but we could not see anything, as it was pitch dark. We ordered Gharwali food, Phari Rajma and Phari fish. The food was too good, tangy and spicy. Next day, we woke up very early and while sipping hot tea, we watched a beautiful sunrise from our bay window. Slowly, the Gharwal Range came into view and it was a bliss! 

Gharwal Range view from the resort

Our plan was to go to Lal Tibba (red mountain) in Landour area, which was another 7 km uphill from Mussoorie. The roads were too steep and narrow. Twice we faced roadblocks and had to retrace the way up. It was all worth, because the views were breath taking!

Lal Tibba is the highest point in Mussoorie and it has the Indian military base station. At the viewpoint, military base has installed telescopes to view the majestic Himalayan peaks. 

Gharwal Range in the foreground

A friendly volunteer helped us to identify the chaar dham (4 pilgrimage) in the snow-clad Dhouladhar Range! 

Snow-clad Dhouladhar Range in the background

The snout seen in the above picture is the Goumukh, the starting point of the holy Ganges from the Gangotri glacier. The peak on to the left is Yamunotri. We also watched Kedarnath and Badrinath. 

I was spell bound for quite some time after viewing these gorgeous beauties. Now, there is a yearning to do the chaar dham yatra. 

Marwari Havelies

Road trips are always close to my heart. They bring back beautiful memories. Recently we had a chance to go on a road trip to Rajasthan, India. Three things are closely associated to this state - Thar Desert, Pink City and Marwaris!

Being born and bought up in Madurai, we have seen Marwari community flourish in wholesale businesses, which include cosmetic, fashion jewelry, gift items, electrical items and a lot more. Generally, they live in large joint families, wear colorful clothes, often include sweets in their meals and make lovely pan/bedas. Apart from this I had no idea about their lifestyle back in their native land.

When we started off from Sikar to Bikaner, we heard that there are beautiful havelies on the way. Haveli, means town houses or mansions. After talking to a couple of locals on the way, we headed to Fatehpur in search of Havelis and went few kilometers into the village. At one point we saw beautiful dilapidated walls, wells and some old buildings. We were guided to drive further down a narrow lane to see a Haveli. As soon as we entered the lane, this is what we saw:

Contrast Havelis

I fell in love with these contrast colored Havelis. As you can see, murals of the Haveli on the left is predominantly painted with white, black and green where as the Haveli on the right has beautiful murals in bright indigo, red in an yellow back ground. Attracted by the iconic elephant drawing, I walked towards the white haveli.

Linking this picture to Our World

The whole area was deserted, and we started soaking in the beautiful paintings despite the scorching sun. The lovely paintings display the lifestyle of the rich trading community.

Beautiful archways, intricate windows and doors

We were about to leave that lane wondering what could be inside this palatial mansion. Just in time, we saw a lady coming out of a modern house opposite to this haveli. This time around the language barrier was not there as our friend who was travelling with us could speak good Hindi! We learned from this lady that there was nothing inside this haveli but she told us that there were people living next door, which is also an ill-maintained old haveli. She suggested that we could request the people living there to get a glimpse of live haveli. 

Living Haveli

This rambling beauty had traces of murals that stands as a testimony to it's glorious past. Motorcycles outside gave us hope that people living there are modernized and would be welcoming travellers. As I touched the small door it gave way showing something from a different era.

We asked this lady if we could come in and take pictures, she nodded her head and rushed inside. I took that 'nod' as yes and shot the picture above. Within seconds she came with another elderly lady who shooed us away and shut that door! What did I expect? A royal welcome? Of course not! It is their home and they didn't want curious travelers to invade their privacy. 

The formidable doors stared at us and I felt that it was fiercely guarding it's secrets! With resentment we started walking towards that yellow based indigo haveli, in the hope of getting better luck. Sure we were rewarded, yes we had reached the right place to learn the story of havelis. More details and colorful murals in the next post :)

Taj Mahal - Elusive Illusions

Taj Mahal, synonymous with the 7 wonders of the World and symbol of love, you can never appreciate it's charm and beauty until you see it in person. Seeing Taj Mahal in a picture or a video doesn't give you a clue of what it is in reality. You need to walk in through the Royal Gates to experience and appreciate the sheer beauty. 

We hired a professional guide and a photographer too (so that we can get those classic couple shots, without attempting crude selfies). I carried my DSLR to capture my own angles. In this post I have attempted to show how I saw the Taj through my lens. 

From afar, through the arch of the Royal entrance, white marble arches of the Taj looked so close. Take a look at the collage to get an idea of what am trying to say.

Royal Entrance on the left and first glimpse of Taj on the right

But as we kept walking towards the Royal archway, we felt that the Taj Mahal was slowly receding. It felt as if the Taj is taunting us to come closer to see her. The minute we entered the arch, the elusive marble wonder came into full view.  

It was nothing like what I have seen in photos or in the movies. I was spellbound and I think I was holding my breath in awe and realized that I was blocking someones way, until my husband tapped on my shoulder and asked me to move along. 

Multi tasking mind some how had stopped functioning and only my visual sense was working, in fact overtime! For the first few minutes, I was just gaping, without even taking any pictures. When I tried to focus my lens, something felt odd. Now, I noticed that the minarets were shrouded with safety nets and construction ladder. Restoration work was going on. 

Our world

While walking towards the Taj, I was wondering how nice it would be to view Taj without any scaffolding around the minarets. The guide was quite informative and with great passion he told how the Taj looks at different times of the day and during different seasons of the year. He recommended that we should come during Jan to Mar, that too plan for the exclusive Full Moon night view. 

Then the guide jovially said that, now Taj is getting a face scrub with a pack of multini mitti. It is true that the Taj is severely affected by acid rains and pollution, and the white marble is tainted. So, the archaeological department of India takes restoration initiatives once in few years by applying mud pack made of multani mitti, which is a popular Indian face pack!  

After wrapping our footwear with covers, we finally entered the Taj. The more you look at it the more you wonder how they would have made it without any modern machinery. The exquisite floral carvings and engraved marble inlaid with semi precious stones is a royal treat!

Jali Work and Marble Inlay with semi-precious stones

Marble Engravings

Marble Inlay work

The Taj is made of translucent white marbles from Makrana, Rajasthan. Seeing is believing. So, our guide promised us to show how it glows when light penetrates. We entered the mausoleum. It was dark. Our guide suggested that all we had to do was tip the volunteer, who was standing guard next to the restricted area, with just Rs 10. We agreed. The volunteer had a pen torch and he lit it against the marble wall. To our excitement, the wall was glowing like radium! He slowly moved the torch light around the walls and pillars, everywhere it was glowing! 

Photography is not allowed inside the mausoleum, but no one is there to stop one from taking pictures. Encouraged by people clicking around, I too dared to capture the inner beauty.

Jali Work made of single piece of marble!

On the way out, our guide showed us the beauty of honeycomb structured wall. Take a look at the collage.

Honeycomb structure

The top part of the collage shows the general view and when you peep in through a honeycomb, it acts like a wide angle lens and you get a beautiful view!

After stepping out of the mausoleum, our guide asked me to count the sides of a pillar. I counted it obediently and said 6. He denied, took me closer, oops it was a 3 sided pillar. I was caught off guard by yet another optical illusion.  

Optical Illusion

I guess I will be visiting the Taj several times in the next few years as we have relocated to this part of the world and pretty sure that I will discover something new every time.     

Somana Kunitha - A Folk Dance Celebrating Spirits and Village Deity

Every time we drive past DakshinaChitra on ECR, Chennai, we used to think, one day we should go there. Over a long weekend, finally we made it and the experience was very rewarding. 

Nowadays, DakshinaChitra is also becoming a prime location for wedding photo shoots! However, this is a heritage museum. Those who wish to get a glimpse on art and architecture of southern states of India, DakshinaChitra, is a must go destination. Trust me you won't be disappointed. Check their events calendar when you plan for a visit. Usually over the weekends and public holidays they have live performances. 

The museum is housed in 10 acres on ECR, facing the Bay of Bengal. We knew there was going to be a performance at 4 pm on that day. We were quite early, so we were exploring traditional houses of Kerala, which was near the performance ground. By 3.45 pm, we were exhausted and wanted to get a drink, so we were heading out of the ground and...suddenly we heard vibrant music from behind. We turned around to look. 

We were mesmerized by the huge colorful masks that were fast approaching towards the ground. That's it! We forgot about heat, thirst and just rushed back and found a perfect spot to watch the performance. At that time we didn't know about the name of that folk art. 

The musicians filed towards the stage area. The artists who carried the mask on their head slipped it on their faces with deft moves. The one who looked like the leader was carrying a whip, he came center stage and announced that they were going to perform Somana Kunitha, a folk dance native of Tumkur, Karnataka. 

As the lead was narrating in Kannada, I had to do the guess work and all i could get was that the performance had something to do with Godess Chamundesweri. Let me share the visual treat:

After the performance, we approached the group and thanked them for the wonderful performance and had a chat with the lead. We learned that the dance was to celebrate victory of good spirit over the bad one. Soma means mask and Kunitha is dance. The red mask represented good and the yellow the bad. The lead was actually the priest who invokes Godess Chamundesweri to support the good spirit! Had a chance for these close ups too. 

 

Add caption

 

Wish DakshinaChitra can arrange for translators for all the performances, so that non-native speakers of that particular folk art too can get a better understanding!

Thinking Out of the Box!

Most of us have out of the world ideas, right? Some of us dare to speak up, while others don’t! Crazy ideas and quirky habits go hand in hand. See a connection? No?

Well, clouds have been influencing me big time. They are dynamic, they keep moving and changing shapes. Instead of looking at clouds as meteorological phenomena, I look at them for inspiration and believe that they are constantly trying to communicate with us! I have been watching these majestic beings since childhood. 

When I was growing up, I tried to talk with “real life friends” about my passion or rather attachment towards clouds! All I received was weird looks. Already, I was labeled as a naughty tomboy character. In fact I was also called as ’Vaishnavan’…on top of all these, I was not keen in getting labeled as cranky! So, I stopped sharing about my secret friends. Instead, I started to take pictures and write about them.

Not just writing skills, my secret friends were constantly shaping my thought process and guide me in all walks of life! For example, often I’ve heard people saying ‘Every cloud has a silver lining!’ to console the depressed. But, it was difficult for me to comprehend the connection between dire situation and clouds with silver lining, until I saw them with my own eyes.

Once I was hurrying up for meeting with a difficult client. The skies looked dark and ominous. I already was apprehensive and thought that this impending thunderstorm would worsen and the traffic would play on my nerves. When I was about to get inside my car, I saw a dark heavy cloud traveling towards the way I was about to drive. I was sure that it is going to pour down massively. But, I think my floating friends decided to show me a magic and keep me level-headed. Suddenly the dark beauty it stopped moving, in the stillness I saw a fine white line along the edges. Subtly, the line widened to a silver border and in minutes the dark cloud was completely engulfed in the white light. Gone was the darkness! Amazing isn’t it?! You don’t have to be depressed about adverse situations, things will change!

Bunch of clouds gliding towards each other remind me of friends rushing to greet.  Colorful clouds, especially during dawn and dusk say that nature is the greatest painter!

See, with a crazy habit of watching the skies I am gifted with secret friends, with whom I communicate in my own terms. They keep coming to me at right times and add color to my life! 

I flow along with the clouds and see how they shape up. Best ideas, solutions come to me while I watch them. Whenever I’m at crossroads, I look up to my secret friends, clouds. They are there, as always!

Adapting and Communicating in a Foreign Country

Distant pastures are always greener, this is true in every walk of life. Once, I used to think that living abroad would be a great pleasure. How naive I was! Now after few yrs of being an expat, I have mixed feelings and am trying to gauge my thoughts...

At first, in Kuching (East Malaysia), I enjoyed the pleasant climate and good-natured people. I used to communicate by sign language with a neighbor, because both of us didn't know a common language.

Later in Kuala Lumpur (West Malaysia), even though many spoke English, at first it was difficult to understand their accent and style. Others used to say the same thing about my accent as well. After being there for 5+ years, more or less I started to speak/communicate like locals.
Now, here in UK, for the first few days it was like re-inventing the cycle, in terms of communicating with the locals. At a super market till, the cashier asked me something twice and I couldn't catch it. It sounded like this:

Chu nida bae?

She had to repeat it for the third time and finally I understood that she was asking me:

do you need a bag?

I was a bit embarrassed and lamented about this to a friend. Um, well, her experience gave me more confidence because she told that in her early days, she could never understand anything, even if the same thing was repeated several times! Nowadays, to overcome this situation, whenever I travel in public transport or be in a public area, I try to catch up with the conversation that goes on around me, but the intention is not eavesdropping:)

So far, I have never heard should, must or for that matter they don't even use can you. They are always polite. Let me share an experience to show their politeness or rather use of language. When you travel by bus, besides regular stops, there are several Request Stops. If you happen to wait at this type of bus stop, you need to wave your hand, to signal the driver that you need to get in. Similarly, if you have to get down at these stops you need to press the red buzzer in the bus.

Say, if you were unable to reach the buzzer, you would be requesting someone nearer to help you, right? I would have probably said "excuse me, please press the buzzer". But, I overheard someone's request, which was: Could you please ring the bell for me? That too with a pleasant smile. After that, she was profusely thanking the other person.

Saying thanks and sorry for even very small incidents is a part of the British culture. A friend, jokingly commented that these phrases are too natural and sometimes it looks like automated words without meaning, but so far, I have not had any negative experience in this area.

In public, usually people are lighthearted. Once an old lady was finding difficult to get up from a par bench. Just then, I had an eye contact with her. Immediately she had a beautiful smile and quipped: I need a pair of new legs.

Ruins of Alampara Fort

Exploring new places that too without making any plans, rather like a nomad is the most exciting relaxation. After almost a year in Chennai, we went on a 'wild goose chase', well a rather calculated chase I'd say, because we already had a planned destination, but not the route or stops. Moreover, this was my first off beat experience on Indian roads. ECR (East Coast Road) reminded me of Kampung roads in and around Melaka, Malaysia, where I used to drive along the beach! After few stops for photo shoots, we chanced on an obscure board that directed to 'Amampara Fort'. Curiosity got the better of us and we decided to traverse on the unknown narrow road. And the reward was too good! 

 

As you can see in the above picture, that place was deserted and I was reminded of the climax chasing/fighting scenes in Indian Movies, where the hero/heroine would end up in desolate places amongst the gangsters. But, the sheer beauty was enough for us to get closer and check out that rusty boards, which might be boasting its glorious past.

Built by the Mughals in the 18th Century CE and gifted to the French. But, the fort was captured by and partially destroyed by the British.    

The most intriguing thing about this fort is that, it was a popular sea port in ancient India and was popularly known as Alamparai port. From here, silk, ghee and other exotic material were exported to distant lands. Come to think of it, the culture at that time was so advanced that this port had its own mint and the money was called as 'Alamparai kaasu/varahan'. Here is yet another view of this fort, which forms a mesmerizing silhouette.

The creaky wretched board at the site claims that this fort is maintained by 'The State Archaeology Department'. Just wondering, if they know the meaning of 'maintain'. It is pathetic to see that these impressions of power and identity of the past are not well preserved.

Wish we take care and cherish our treasures, which might help us to understand our past and probably shed some light on things that would eventually guide us in shaping our future!

Belief - Beyond Comprehension

Every visit to our farm house brings in new experience, as it is set in a remote village. The native villagers mostly live along with nature, may be that could be due to non-urbanization! Look at what I was intrigued at this time!

These are plantain stems. First I thought these people were slicing the stem and drying it up to make crisps, but I have never heard of such a thing. Well, we normally add these in daal or finely chop and toss it up and use as a side dish along with rice based meal. Now, curiosity got the better of me and I wanted to know what exactly it was, so started chatting up with the lady who was deftly making these stuff. She was equally excited to explain what she was doing!

They were oil lamp wicks, which is used in Hindu special prayers and it was called as வாழைத்தண்டு திரி (Vazhaithandu Thiri)! Meticulously she showed me how to make it...here we go

Slice the stem > pull out the fiber > wrap it > dry it. Roll the dried ones and make a wick, whenever you want to light the lamp. It is believed that lighting lamp with this wick will be relinquish any form of curse!