Hitting back the roads of Dehradun

Morning was busy with every one getting ready to start an early descent. The kitchen staff were now preparing the most delicious Parathas with Egg Burji. I was so glad I eat egg, the combo tasted so well. The demand & supply was never balanced & naturally a long queue waited right outside the kitchen tent for their turn to get a hot paratha on the plate. Must say I ate greedily! One of the Parathas from Suma's hand got grabbed by the dog battalion and there was roar in crowd feeling sorry for suma or a display of anger for the negligence.  The dogs ran away with it & swallowed within seconds.

The pace of the team to reach the base camp & start their next journey towards different places was high enough not letting us take much break. The group was almost running down the trail. And finally Sankri was visible, not too far on the downhill. On reaching the Base camp, we waited patiently outside the IH office till a hot tea & biscuits came in. Raj Mohan ji was here to welcome us with a clean shave looking much younger than he looked before. The ceremony to distribute certificates started with the crowd cheering after calling out each name who would proudly come up to collect his token of accomplishment from Raj Mohan ji & Bharti.

 Meanwhile our luggage got loaded into the vehicles which would drive us back to Dehradun. The last night we had planned that we would visit Rishikesh & Haridwar. The drive back to Dehradun was much easier with a small nap albeit curvy roads. The tired body made no complaints for the bad roads and slept quietly till it reached the city of Dehradun by night almost at dinner time. We checked into a hotel close to railway station and helped ourselves with food in a ok-ok kinda hotel. After a long time we would be getting to sleep on a bed, dirty though but who cared. Sleep had to win over all odds around. 

The next day was to drive not more than 1 hour to reach Rishikesh. Ram – Lakshman Jhula was since long in my travel list. For its serene ganga following below these bridges, the beauty is beyond consumption. The Sun spared none but it was welcoming. This place as well is crowded with Phirangees roaming in odd colored clothes. Many young lads throw themselves on this river bank drinking alcohol in a place with is otherwise known for its spiritual richness. Numerous yogis have made this place their home and hence considered to be THE place for anyone who is looking out for spiritual growth. Several times in the past I had thought of coming here find a guru to learn Yoga, now I was forced to think twice.

Haridwar wasn’t too far but it was already evening & had to skip the visit to the temple with a hope to  visit these places again. We drove back to Dehradun to catch a night train back to Delhi. We met Danny, Imran & Shimoo in the railway station who had watched Dabaang-2 to kill time in the city that day. We reached Delhi the next day morning around 8AM. Danny & Imran departed to airport while Shimoo had all time on earth to accompany us to Akshardam. Yes! I finally made it to this beautiful temple.

The very first sight of this temple is breath taking. The security was pretty appreciating, me & Suma got all possible strange looks for the tracks and huge shoes we wore. The temple has a long garden stretched out. Cleanliness was prominent at every corner of the temple complex. User friendly boards, audio tapes helps one enjoy every statue and architecture throughout. I so much wish a similar setup in our heritage temples back in Karnataka. It would be so appealing if places like Hampi, Halebidu, belur, Aihole, Patadakalu and many more places having their stories put across in such simple way for everybody to understand and appreciate. Without even our knowledge we had spent close to 6hrs in this place. The story of Swamy Narayan depicted in the form of a movie is so creative. Except for the evening’s musical fountain we missed nothing in this place.

We took an auto back to Nizamuddin station from where me & Suma were to catch Rajdhani express. We both were so very excited about this train journey right from the beginning of this holiday. We had dinner outside the railway station, a uniquely awesome ambienceof this place helped us kill time. Shimoo dropped us near the train & said bye to us from here to catch a bus to Ambala. He was fun to be with & a great company in Delhi.  We occupied the side lower and upper birth and sat there the whole day & night watching the train cutting across the length of this country. We never checked our mobile phones or watches for time. Slept for more than half of the journey and plugged my ears to some good music. Book dint taste me much than sleeping like a lazy bug. I dint even realize that it was the start of a new year when we got down at Yeshwantpur railway station in the morning of Jan 1^st 2013. It’s a Happy wala New Year!!