KUMBH-2010,HARIDWAR...A JOURNEY FULL OF JOYS

That day, 4 march, 2010, I got late in office. It was 8.30 pm when I reached home and was totally frustrated. After having dinner, I was doing chit chat with my roommate, Vikas. Around 11.30 pm, when I was trying to sleep and was in situation of semi-consciousness; suddenly door of the room opened and my flat mate, Rajiv entered into the room. He stays in adjacent room only. He stood near to me and asked whether I would go with him to HARIDWAR for KUMBH on next weekend. Actually, he had planned it with another friend of ours, Abhimanyu who stays in a nearby city. While dozing, I could not understand much and said,” yes”. After asking me he asked Vikas the same question and he also agreed instantaneously. That’s how we planned for the trip.

After two days, Rajiv called me up saying that he has booked the tickets for Sunday evening from Delhi to Haridwar. I was wandering whether there is some miscommunication or something else as we planned to go on weekend, not after weekend. But I nodded in terms of yes and was doing hit and trials for planning a day off from office. When I discussed it with Vikas, He refused as he was not happy with the idea of taking a leave from work. When we all three confronted each other in night, Rajeev told us that going on Monday was the whole idea as it was a SOMVATI AMAVASYA. And people say that it is really very good eve for worshiping GANGA ji. We were fine with the idea except a little hesitation in Vikas’s mind of taking a day off from office.

I and Vikas then thought that we should go on Saturday itself and may be we can roam about the nearby places also like RISHIKESH, DEHRDOON and MUSSORIE etc. Rajeev agreed but now Abhimanyu was on his peak of resistance due to some personal reasons. Now the situation was that Vikas was not ready to go on Monday leave and Abhimanyu wanted to go only on Monday. Moreover both going and return tickets were in waiting list and stick to their number of WL 39,40,41,42.

Just 3 days to go in Saturday, we tried each and every way possible that all four of us can go for KUMBH from Saturday to Monday. Finally problems started getting solved. Vikas was ready to go on leave for Monday. Abhimanyu was ready to go on Saturday itself but now tickets cheated us even in TATKAL. Finally we decided to hire a taxi for three days and we did.

At last 13^th march, 2010 sun rises, we packed our bags and left for HOLY BATH. Time flew away playing ‘dumb charades’ in taxi. But it is not easy to get rid of your sins. Our taxi got snatched from us by bank insurance people because our driver (so called owner) of the car had not been paying installments as per time. Haridwar was just 15 kilometers away. We bid bye to our driver and caught a bus to HARIDWAR. Around 6 pm we reached Haridwar. Thank GOD we had arranged our staying arrangement in Haridwar already otherwise it would have been really difficult for us to find room on such an occasion. After we settled in room, we headed towards HAR KI PAURI. Most of the rickshaws and autos were banned in the city. Somehow after managing 3 km we finally reached HAR KI PAURI. It is true saying that,”what is written in destiny has to happen no matter how many problems you go through.”

Whole atmosphere was so pure that we already started feeling light as our sins were getting separated from us. We all had bath in GANGA ji. One almost gets numb when iced water touches your bared body for the first time. It was dark now. After roaming in the market we reached our ASHRAM and we continued our game. Late at night we were making plans of what to do next day as our taxi was not there with us. We concluded that we will go for rafting tomorrow in Rishikesh instead of Dehradoon/ Mussorie and will come back in evening to attend EVENING AARTI @ HAR KI PAURI as it is very famous.

14^th march, 2010 morning we went to HAR KI PAURI for bath. This time water was in its full swing as expected. Again we had fun in taking bath in endless swimming pool. We filled many people’ bottles with Ganga water while having “masti” in GANGA ji. After having breakfast and some shopping we came back to our room to get ready for adventure. We managed to reach RISHIKESH around 12.30pm in spite of severe transport problems. We were lucky enough to get contractor for rafting within half an hour. We opted for 16 km stretch from SHIVPURI to RAAM JHOOLA. Around 1.30pm we started our journey full of adventures and were armed with CHAPPU and LIFE JACKET. It was going fine and smooth till our first rapid came. That experience was mind boggling. Our raft just got escaped from tilting. Although I had experienced it earlier also but this time it was more exciting. One after another rapids came and we enjoyed this magnificent ride to the fullest.
At every point of time we all were trying to capture all those moments with Vikas’s mobile camera as it was only hope with us. Then came a point where we all were in deep waters floating on water surface. We trusted life jackets more than anything. All around blue water with blue sky on head, we stayed in water almost for 15 minutes. It was a kind of achievement for non-swimmers like me. Hereafter comes the DIVE POINT. People were jumping from 25-30 feet high cliff into water. All of us also jumped after one another. It was an awesome feeling which can not be explained in words. After jumping into water, for almost 10 seconds I was completely out of my mind. Then came the final rapid and we concluded our ride of joys, twists and turns safely.

As soon as rafting got over, we headed towards HARIDWAR to attend AARTI. When we reached Haridwar, only 15 minutes left for start. Without Autos and rickshaws it was a cumbersome task to reach HAR KI PAURI. As we reached nearby, we could hear the sounds of AARTI that means it already started but still we were trying our level best to have a glimpse of it. Rajeev and Vikas got lucky that time to get escaped from the scandal of POLICE who were there to stop people from reaching the destination indirectly. I and Abhimanyu got trapped in barricades. It seems that they were testing our patience. But none of us could reach on time and our efforts went in vain. Even after that POLICE were so resistant to allow us entering in the market. That time actually we felt like that we were standing in KUMBH FESTIVAL. After some time when police showed some leniency, again all four of us were together discussing the outcomes of the whole day experiences. Now we decided to have dinner in a famous chain of restaurants there called CHOTIWALA. Food was marvelous and we were hungry like anything which finally resulted a big hole in our pockets. Next day was the big day i.e. SOMVATI AMAVASYA- SHAHI SNAAN that we came for mainly. Meanwhile we heard the announcement that next day general public is allowed to take HOLY BATH in GANGA ji at HAR KI PAURI only in timings of 12am to 8 am. It was already 9pm in the market. So we decided to leave foe our room as we need to take a good rest because after the whole day activities we were tired badly.

15^th march, 2010 we all wake up at 3am in the morning to mark our attendance at HAR KI PAURI on the gracious occasion. All the ways were banned except one or two. After walking around 4 km finally we joined a row which was heading towards HAR KI PAURI. Now we were sure that nobody could stop us from taking HOLI BATH in GANGA ji. When we reached HAR KI PAURI at around 6 am. What a view it was? We all shattered seeing the people going mad for just touching GANGA water. It made all of us energetic. The feeling of being in those 10 lac people was just amazing. One could not have asked for more. With in seconds we were ready with our clothes off to get into water. Quickly we all had bath in GANGA ji praying for our whole family, followed by worshiping at a temple nearby. Finally we could see all our sins floating in the river surface and flew away with the waters. We all were happy in our minds with a victorious feeling.

But the major examination was yet to come. As we were on our way back to home, we decided to catch a train from HARIDWAR station which was 10 km from our room. With no autos and rickshaws, all around full of people we were standing in middle of the town thinking which way to go. At last some local people told us about some local station called MOTICHOOR from where we could get a train to HARIDWAR. As soon as we reached the station there was a train coming to go to HARIDWAR. But people were already hanging in large quantity from the train doors and windows, no space left for us to get in. We decided to wait for next train which apparently was coming in next half an hour but arrived only after two hours. Those two hours, we spent playing our favorite game ‘dumb charades’. Somehow we managed to crawl into train’s luggage compartment. We had enjoyed such type of scenery only in movies but in real it was completely annoying. We passed those 15 minutes in train listening to music of children’ crying as if they were asking for freedom. As we reached station around 11.30 am, we got to know that a special train was being arranged to Delhi which will depart shortly. Though the train was overloaded to its maximum capacity, yet we settled down on the upper berths. Train whistled to start at 12.30pm. After long 8 hours of journey which we were supposed to complete in 5 hours, we were left with no patience. We hired an auto to our home from the station and reached our sweet home. We were tired to an extent that we got into our beds as soon as we were done with our dinner.

Now also, even after two days of YATRA which was full of adventure, sense of purity, tiredness and amazing experiences, I feel like going there again. Very few people in their lifetime get this opportunity to thank GOD personally and I got the one. Everyone commits sins but one gets the chance to payback it very rarely. I will cherish each and every moment of this wonderful experience throughout my life.

PARUL GOYAL