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Published: August 8th 2007
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View from the far side of the lake.Our journey took a sudden detour from original plans when we heard from Aunty Ruby, Rob's Mom-in-law. They thought that we were arriving North around the beginning of May. Aunty and Uncle had waited patiently for our train to arrive in Jalandhar from Delhi.... unfortunately this wait turned out to be a good 4 hours as there was a delay from Delhi. They looked as about exahuasted as us when we arrived. Yet, rather than pack us straight back to
Karputhala, they took us to the deli to make sure that our mornings etc were catered for and when we got back, they brought out tea and eats. Aiyoh! Plus we later found out that we had deprived them of their afternoon nap as well. This was the beginning of what was to be 5 days of amazing homely top-notch hospitality. This warmest Punjab hospitality that rival far outbeats the Malaysians. It was really really
'malu' when we gave them our tiny weeny sad tokens passing off as gifts - a bag of Ginger tea from Cochin and a bottle of Japanese Soya Sauce from Hong Kong 😱. Felt like dying inside and laughing
nervously, all at the same time!
Immediately the next day, Uncle Jagbir drove us all the way to
Amritsar to see the
Golden Temple. This place was the most spiritual place yet visited with chanting playing over load speakers echoing around the vast enclosed square lake. All white, except the gold guilted dome of the central temple in the centre of the lake. As uncle pointed out, no one shoves and pushes here, everyone is polite to each other and it welcomes all regardless of religion to the giving surroundings. The peacefulness and the respect that everyone showed each other obliviated the brightness of the sun and the midday heat. Richy loved the serenity and calm of this place so much that he contemplated taking a bus back to it and spend a whole day there. It is a world away from the rest of India and one could feel none of the tension from the then on-going religious conflict in the sikh community which closed most cities and towns in Punjab the following day although police and military men were stationed outside the gates. This 'stay at home' was to give us a good day of lie-in and much
Expanse of tiled flooring
This place is spotless. A pleasant change from the filth of most of India.... needed sleep.
Through uncles contacts we were given a private tour of the Maharaja of Karputhala's former Palace, (now convereted to a military school since the 60's) a place not open to the general public. The place was a facinating insight into these bygone days of oppulance and excess. The drawing room was full of decaying artifacts from around the globe.
Uncle always came out with the coolest quibs that had us breaking out into laughter like when Richy asked whether he prayed before meals, he said 'We are always thankful for all the food we ever eat. But God is a busy man, why keep disturbing him about trival things like this?' another time, he said 'Women are funny creatures, when they go to the sari shop, they ignore what the man is showing them, preferring to look at what another woman is trying on'. Even Aunty once added, to stop Uncle from telling us a dirty joke, ' Eh, don't tell that joke, it is non-veg!'
We were fed non-stop and watered all the time. Finally, feeling spritely again, after all that loving care and laughter, we hoisted our bags and heading Northeast to
Uttaranchal otherwise known as
Dev Bhoomi,
Land of the Gods. For once, after arriving at a station, we didn't make an immediate mad dash to the negotiation table with the tuk-tuk mobsters. Instead, we struck a pose like lounging (albeit sweating and sticky) lizards by the corner of the roundabout near the
Haridwar station entrance. Sure, we looked a little less cool than the cold-blooded creatures but it was all that was needed to take stock of the busy place parading in full glory its colours and cacophony of vehicle horns and rattles. Once satisfied that we were still in Incredibly (Hectic) India. We sought out a refuge in an ashram (
Mohyal) situated some 15km out of Haridwar itself. For our long-awaited yoga lessons to kick start us on what would hopefully be a life-long practice, we chose Haridwar rather than Rishikesh as the former is said to be less toursity. Yes, it was, somewhat.... it was less toursity with
foreign tourists - the placed was mobbed with Indian tourists and pilgrims from all over India as May/June is the peak pilgrimage period.
Mohyal is a place set off the main road with a pleasant environment within its white
marble and pebble walled compound. Not only does it have an acoustically brilliant yoga cum mediatation hall, it has a well-stocked library with a number of well-worth reads ranging from kids books to classics to management and even the Harry Potter range! For 600Rs per night including all veggy meals and these facilities, it was an ideal getaway for our intensive 'OMmmmm' sessions - and no, they do not have single rooms like they advertised and if you are headed there in summer, avoid the top floor rooms like the plague.... San had the pleasure of experiencing India's lovely heat wave one unfortunate night whilst Richy was traipsing around the glacial Valley of the Flowers as well as the undefeatable basics of physics - hot air rises to the top. She only fell asleep with a wet towel drapped across her whole body - I swear you could have soft boil eggs in there.
Call us eager beavers and first day boy scouts but we started at 7am the very next day we arrived. Thrown into a long 2.5hours introduction session to the deceptively strenuous art of yoga (from Richy inflexible standpoint at least) by a small, young, amazingly
healthy looking (He has rosy cheeks... in the heat of summer! The perfect walking advertisment of his art form) and incredibly soft-spoken teacher from Bihar going by the good name of Aanand.
Over the coming day we learnt along side another couple Sarah & Tom from UK. for 7 days, it was 4 hours of 'Ommming' and streching and within 4 days, there were dramatic results - Richy could touch his toes and nearly sit on his heels like a Japanese. Eating on Tatami mats, here we come!
We both felt that after 9 months in each other's pockets 24/7 we could do with a short break from each other. So, what they said about a bed of roses is not true!!!! And we always thought Santa Claus was real! Anyway, San wasn't so keen on strenuous walking in the himalayan foothills and the 13 hour bus journey to get there so elected to head to the state capital Derha Dun and Mussorie with Mark and Radkah, a pleasant couple we had met at the Ashram.
Have a look at the individual blogs for the solo adventures that ensued.....
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