Ruse, Muse, Obtuse

Hari ki pauri at 7:00 am

So my dearest friend R and I decided to get out of the city for the weekend. As with all travel reservations made 2 days in advance during the peak summer vacations all trains leading to the hills were booked. Now you have to understand that once we’ve been bitten by the bug to get out of the city we absolutely have to as the need consumes us, at this time we are solemnly reminded that we have officially lost it. None the less in an act of desperation we decide to tug along with Rs parents to haridwar, they for religious reasons and we for everything but. R had a very unpleasant experience getting from her city to delhi, considering the train was late by a quarter of a day, but not lacking enthusiasm as by then we had found a group going white water rafting and we were to join them on sunday.
Getting up early on saturday is my least favourite thing to do hence i skip going to my aunts place in the morning and decide to meet R and her family on the way and also not answering about 3 early morning calls ( Please note there is no point in calling me before 12 pm on saturdays). I happily waited at the bus stop for 1.5 hours for R to pick me up. My wait becomes impatient only when my ipod is not working. But due to some fore sight(the source of which still eludes me) i had a full battery, which gave me the luxury to reflect on some of iron’s maidens biggest songs, resist the temptation to drink jal jeera made from gutter water, consume half a bar of chocolate, observe weird people all while sitting at the bus stop on a busy road at 1:00 pm in mid delhi summer.
They finally pick me up and R has promised to buy me ice cream for making me wait so long. I wonder if i will get them along with the 100 bucks she lost in a bet to me, sigh in an alternative universe i guess.
Anyways roads in this part of the country suck. Took us 7 hours to travel 200 km on a straight flat road!! We had the pleasure of waiting at a railway crossing for 20 mins and look at sugar cane juices served in clay vessels.
We reach Haridwar to find that the room we had booked had been given away to someone else. A short quest and some flaring tempers preceded finding a hotel room for us. We had dinner at a lil dhaba. Where food is served in 5 minutes, its piping hot, tasty and cheap. The roti’s are hot off the oven and side dishes cooked in minutes.
In the morning we headed out to Hari Ki Pauri for the religious part of the journey. Everyone wanted a dip in the Ganga. I tugged along to soak in the culture. We walked all the way to Ghaat enjoying the scenery that can only exist in a Holy City. I spent a lot of the time regretting not carrying a wallet which denied me the pleasure of sampling all the tempting breakfast that was being served by the numerous halwai’s. R took a dip in the Ganga while I held onto all the family processions of camera’s wallets bags, etc and taking pictures. R was firmly told after the dip that she sould’nt shower until sunset since she had taken a holy dipped. I was dismayed since she absolutely stank due to the river being not so clean. (I mean it is one of very polluted rivers in the world)
we finally made it back to the hotel and got ready to leave, I had the luxury of having a cleaner ganga dip albeit under the shower. After being made to eat water melon and having our bags stuffed with granola bars we were finally ready to goto rishikesh to go white water rafting. I had been unable to contact the group.
The people at the bus stop are not very bright out there, we were sent from one end of the bustop to the other a few times to board a bus and we finally took an auto to Rishikesh. We reached there just about noon and well there were no slots for us to go rafting. I personally believe its all a conspiracy!! Sadly we booked a bus back to delhi and headed out to laxman jhula. might as well go site seeing. The way to laxman jhula is very interesting. It goes down winding path and takes a good 20 minutes to get there from the road.
There are two bridges in rishikesh over the ganges, Ram and Laxman jhula’s respectively. On our side of the laxman jhula there was a German Bakery and Cafe. So we had au gratin, pesto, lemon cake and apple pie for lunch. All food is strictly vegetarian since its bang opposite the temple. But heck by now we were happy we missed rafting else we would’ve never found this place. It takes talent to find a european restraunt in a strictly holy town. We were close to missing our bus back so we had to run across laxman jhula ttake a jeep to ram jhula and cross over it before getting in another auto to our bus stop. Please note climbing a 1000 stairs from ram jhula to get to the road in the blazing afternoon sun is not my idea of burning the fat acquired during lunch.
Journey back was uneventful but R had to rush to the station to get a train back from delhi and she’ll inform u of it when she gets herself to blog about it.
The "FIND"

Highlights of the trip
*Buying watermelon from a roadside vendor
*eating at the dhaba in haridwar . I will goto haridwar again because i absolutely love the food there.
*the early morning food at the sweet shops
* telling R she stinks
* the site of people coming down the river after their rafting experience
*the german bakery
Religious or not…haridwar is great to goto just for the food.
Bottom line: R&D are adventurous but foodie’s first!

~R u owe me another 100 bucks for putting this post up first

I have been to several Indian weddings these include weddings from different regions and different religions. One common thread in all these weddings is their absolute capability to put a major dent in your savings/future savings. I never understood what the fuss was about, why do we feel the need to invite 300 - 1000 people to show -up congratulate us, smile, eat and walk away. Nor do i understand the zillions of mini rituals that go on before and after the weddings.
The weddings in the summer are the worst last time i went armed with antacids and ORS, and believe me when i tell you everyone came asking for it. I have been to weddings of my cousins, uncles and aunts. Figured it is better when you belong to the grooms party, but i was dead wrong..there is still so much work and so much food and a zillion lil festivities.
Of course another most irritating part about weddings is the million matchmakers “when are u getting married?”,” you will be getting married next”, ” let me find u a nice groom” etcc etc phew man most of the time i just want to say “Go away”, “mind your own business”!!! and some other choice words.
My question is why can’t things be simple!! i get tonnes of responses ranging from it’s tradition to its a once in a life time event, it’ fun ( i don’t consider dolled up in heavy silk sarees in 40 degreee celcius weather, and changing clothes several times a day as FUN) etc. I will have to resign myself to put up with the whims and fancies of everyone so wholly connected or unconnected to me and strangle my consience on the strain i am placing on the planet when i do finally get married.
WEll anyways i am in the midst of another wedding and it is hot…so yeah i am ranting because i had to re-pack some gifts since they wer’nt pretty enough the first time!!!