At Haridwar

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Our train, the Rajdhani Express reached the Delhi Nizzamuddin Station today.... The journey from Bangalore by AC 3 tier was extremely comfortable and the food was good - all thanks to our railway minister Mr. Lalu Prasad Yadav. According to my dad's plans we were to take a car from Delhi and
drive to the various places in Uttranchal. The car my dad drove was the Maruti Swift DZire.. an excellent car that ran on diesel and gave us literally no trouble at all... The journey to Haridwar was a bit off a pain because of the traffic in Uttar Pradesh. The traffic, i must say i horrible!! Truly Horrible!! With
bullock carts and ordinary vehicles travelling on the same road and honking as much as they want.. In the north, the trend is that unless u honk more than two times then only will the pedestrians and other vehicles move out of your way.. otherwise people there are so ignorant that they'll never want
to move unless they reach their height of irritation...
Anyways, my dad skilfullly manouvered the car to reach our final destination, the Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) guest house 10 km away from Haridwar. The guesthouse was called Siwalik and was lodging for the two nights we spent at Haridwar. After lunch and a bried rest we headed off
towards Haridwar town, towards the Ganga ghat called Har-ki-pauri or Har-ki-pyaari (meaning loved by God, here meaning Lord Shiva)...
The walk from the parking spot to the ghat was lined with numerous shops selling items from clothes to holy items to food and the occasional CD shop selling CD's of devotional songs in praise of Goddess Ganga....
The main river ganga was channelised to pass through a man-made ghat where devotees take a dip to repent their sins or do a puja(aarti) for just simply sit by the steps and relax... The current was very strong.. many youngsters who knew how to swim allowed the current to carry them upto a certain
point from where they swam to the steps... It looked fun but maybe some one who didn't know swimming shouldn't try it as it can be their undoing.. Anways... my mother bought a dala ( a bowl made of leaves that were held in place by sticks and is used to hold flower petals and a small lamp called
diya ) which the devotees release into the Ganga as an offering to Goddess Ganga. The dala floats along with the current for sometime but then sinks because water gets into it. The main attraction at the ghat was the 'aarti' that was held everyday as soon as the sun sets... Devotees sit by the river
side or crowd around the ghat to try and get a view of the aarti which is supposed to be very beautiful... The men in charge there won't let you stand as it might not allow those at the back to see... We got a seat a little to the back but we managed to see the aarti pretty well from there..
The men in charge collect sums of money saying that if you donate so and so amount of money, Goddess Ganga will bless you and your family.. The more money you give the more blessing you will get... That's just a way of earning money, if you ask me.. and frankly speaking i don't believe in
such things.. The main objective is earning money which they cover up by saying the stuff about blessings... The aarti was done on the bank opposite to the one we were sitting on... The priests in charge light these huge diyas and chant slokas in praise of the ganga... loud music and bells accompany it for a duration of 10 minutes after which the aarti came to an end... We walked near the ghat and took in the pleasure of the ganga and after a tiny snack headed back to our guesthouse for dinner...
We fell asleep early as we were tired... so goodnite!!!

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Photos

Har-ki-pauri
This the ghat called Har-ki-pauri at Haridwar. It's sometime before the aarti has started..