rishikesh

Asia
May 30th 2010

Published: May 30th 2010

well, sorry it's been so long, especially after my last post was about being ill. so let me start by saying i am honestly completely 100% recovered. i had some antibiotics and painkillers to take for three days but have been absolutely fine so everyone stop worrying.

the rest of the time in varanasi was great but hard to describe. there's not so much "sights" to see in varanasi, it's just being there, seeing all the pilgrims and brahmins (priests), sadhus, yogis, mooching on the ghats....

we did try to get into the golden temple but failed despite much faffing. a baba (sadhu) offered to take us as it is somewhat hidden amongst tiny alleys. we first had to leave all cameras, mobiles and any electronic devices in some lockers at one place. then later, police search the other things in my bag and told me i couldn't take in my lighter and a pen! there were so many police all over the temple area, i am not sure what they afraid of. so i deposited my potentially lethal pen and lighter in another locker... more alleyways, more police and then we had to leave our shoes... okay, getting close now, this must be an amazing temple to be so hard to get into! we arrive at the entrance and notice a sign advising non-hindus are not allowed to enter.

now, i have a mild ongoing interest into learning something about hinduism. it's such a fundamental part of india and how it works and the people, the psyche, if you will.

anyway. i have learned that basically unless you are another religion, you are a hindu. there is no conversion ritual for hinduism, it is presumed everyone is born hindu unless you have taken some other faith. hinduism didn't have a name in india, until the muslims came, and hindu is just the word from that time that meant not a muslim.

so, on principal, i tried to persuade the policeman that i was hindu. well, i didn't actually claim to be hindu, but tried the philosophical argument that how could any body say i was NOT a hindu. it didn't work. so the baba took our offerings of jasmine (only 10rs so might as well make the god happy whilst you're at it) on our behalf.

the policeman advised we could try coming back to next day with our passports, in case we were terrorists i suppose at least they knew who we were, but after the palava of retrieving my weapons, shoes etc it just didn't seem worth it.

so mainly we mooched, savoured the atmosphere, drank toddy, had crazy rickshaws rides....i am gonna design a new computer game based on one particular journey. we were having difficulty getting a rickshaw, no-one wanted to take us where we were going, i guess because it's so busy and narrow. eventually, a policeman told one driver to take us. the driver than decided he might as well have fun, and turned on his soundsystem, full volume bollywood hits, and proceeded to go the lengthiest route, through alleys about 2cm wider than the rickshaw, full of cows, bikes, pedestrians, other rickshaws....

in the evening, we strolled along the ghats, in the space of a few hundred yards we saw bodys being burned, puja (prayer/ rituals) being performed, and then a full on cricket match, complete with floodlights a huge crowd.... only in varanasi.....

as we packed to leave, i noticed all our stuff had a coating of dust. odd, i commented to monica, the room didn't seem dusty..... she indicated the balcony, and the burning ghats below, and the wafts of smoke.... and ash from........ yeah. well, ash is considered very sacred, so i guess all our stuff got blessed.....

so onto amarpurkashi and could it have been more different! so quiet. it hard to believe we were still india. we slept in our old beds and felt like we were at home... there is not a lot to at apk, which is part of it's charm,. but the schools were on holidays, the project director and his wife are back in the UK for the summer, so it was even quieter than usual. but it was nice, because the people who were around were all the people who we had got close to, and it's really nice to feel you have friends in places like that.

it was so hot and hardly any breeze, so it was mainly just lounging around, talking and stuff. however, there were a few incidents worth writing home about.....

we had arranged to arrive on Lehkni's birthday, however, we wanted to surprise her, so we had told Deepu (her sister, our co-ordinator during our time there) but instructed her to keep it secret... we were not very confident, as Deepu is a hopeless liar, and would've been so excited. also, they are an exceptionally close family, sleep in the same room, use each others phones all the time, so i couldn't see how deepu could have kept our calls a txtx secret. anyway, she did and it was so good. we arrived in the village and met deepu outside, and then just strolled in on Lehkni in her room. she literally fell on the bed in shock and was shaking for ages afterwards.

one day we were sitting around in a bit of shade in the garden, and there was a hose for watering the garden. we put water on the floor to cool the air, and put our feet in the cooling water. we were hot and bored. it was a recipe disaster. monica started it, by turning the hose on deepu (the smallest) and thus, obviously and in hindsight completely predictably, started a waterfight. well, it was the best idea and we all cooled down for like 5 minutes until everything dried and we were hot again.

on the first night we tried sleeping outside. when it is so hot it's what all the locals do. the mosquitos thought it must be feast night and i was covered within five minutes. so we had to stay indoors, despite there hardly ever being any electricity at the village (about 2 hours per night) so the fan was just for decoration.

but then one night it clouded over, and there was a bit of wind. beautiful we thought. however, there was talk it was a storm coming. we were woken up at around 2 in the morning.... all the doors and shutters banging, the plastic chairs outside dancing all over, there was a crazy wind. we were a bit worried it might be serious, apparantly a few branches came off trees but no real damage. but the wind was so cool! even if it did coat us in dust..... i literally woke up covered in a film of muck.

but by far and away the most exciting incident was the snake! and his wife. two snakes. big ones, no-one knew the english name but they were a couple of metres long, grey-ish back, and definately poisoness. we had seen them a couple of times and were being careful, sticking to paths and not walking the grass or undergrowth. one sanke was spotted at first, and then we realised there were two, whioch everyone refered to as the snakes wife. i am not sure whether it was an arranged marriage or a love marriage.

anyway, eventually, the snake expert was called from the next village. how exciting, we gather to watch. i suppose i was expecting something like a rent-o-kill van, and a guy furnished with special equipment and a professional uniform and protective clothing. the snake guy arrived on his bicycle with a stick.

he proceeded to beat the undergrowth with his stick, with the help of the local boys with their sticks hastily cut from surrounding trees. women and children observed from a safe (?) distance.

the snake was located and thus proceeded more stick cutting from the trees.... we saw the snake writhing around and generally being quite scary. i asked around, "okay, he had found the snake. he has several sticks. he appears to be poking the snake with his stick.... what now? as far as i can tell he is merely annoying the snake. he has no trap.... no gloves...????"

"don't worry!" the locals advised confidently "he has a mantra".

and indeed, after a certain amount of poking, the snake guy sat down next to the snake and spoke to it. i couldn't hear what he said but everyone was quiet. he then picked up the snake, to much gasps of appreciation from the crowd. again, i was bemused... "it's okay" they reassured "now he has said his mantra, the snake will not bite him", and it's true, the snake was calm and the guy wrapped it around his arm and held it quite easily. he then took out it's teeth so it couldn't bite anyone, and took it away on his bicycle to release into the woods some miles away. mind you, he couldn't help but chase a few boys with the snake, using it like a whip first....

what can i say. i could not have said i would believe a mantra would be an effective way of catching a snake but i saw it with my own eyes. even the most educated and westernised of the locals thought this perfectly normal. he returned later and did the same procedure with the snakes wife.

moving on and northwards, we couldn't book any train from any of the stations near the village to any of the stations near rishikesh. all booked up. we didn't want to be in the village too long, there really is nothing to do, so we had to bite the biscuit and decided to come by any means possible... this entailed a one hour bus from the village the moradabad. a rickshaw from the bus stand in moradbad at which the bus arrived, the other bus stand from which the bus to haridwar departed. a four and half hour bus journey (with stop at tea stall) to haridwar, the worst bus station in india, a one hour bus to rishikesh, and a final rickshaw to locate a hotel. we left at 10am and arrived in the hotel at 7pm.

but it was totally worth it. rishikesh is beautiful, the ganges here is somewhat cleaner, and fast moving fresh from the himalayas. it's spiritual in a much more laid back way than varanasi, no one is burning anyone. you can hear bells from the temples all day long and stalls playing devotional music cds. there are mountains all around and fresh air. it's a few degrees cooler no need for expensive air con.

today we went to a nearby waterfall, where you can bathe in a small pool, it was really beautiful. later i will take a dip in the ganges, don't worry, it is cleaner here and i only intend to paddle.

rishikesh is where the beatles came and got all spiritual. apparantly ringo couldn't take the transcendental stuff and left after a couple of weeks, but it's where most of the white album was conceived, and where george harrison started his spiritual path.

the ashram they stayed as is abandoned now but you can still visit it, might be worth a look, apparantly it is gradually being consumed by forest.

sorry no photos today but this place charges extra for uploading! cheeky.

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