Loveletters

After we left Delhi, I felt better. We took the Shatabdi Express, which is the fastest kind of train in India. Not as fast as the ICE. On the train though, we met a very nice native, who was eager to answer all our questions and even invited us to visit him in Dehradun, the capital of Uttrakhand, the state we were now in. Our first stop was Haridwar, a holy city on the Ganges, which is actually called Ganga and is female. India is too, it is the mother land. It is a small pilgrimstown, where Vishnu is supposed to have let a few drops of heavenly nectar fall into the river. Each evening at sunset prayers are held on the Hari-ki-Pauri Ghat, the precise place of nectar impact. Afterwards families, pilgrims and couples let little flowerboats with a candle float down river with a wish. Some also bathe. We only steped into the Ganga with our feet. Later a family from Tamil Nadu gave us some sugar crystals soaked in Ganga water, to eat. We had talked with them before and they wanted to share this special moment with us, it was lovely. Otherwise there were a lot of poor women and men who went around baggering you to get a bindi mark on your forehead. They wanted money of course. Otherwise we saw a few temples around the city, it was rather weird. To me it seemed like a lot of hocus pocus, places to buy forgiveness and luck from.

One day we took up our train companions offer to visit him, first we went up to Mussoorie though. This is a mountainstation in the foothills of the Himalaya. On clear days you can see the snowcaped peaks of the roof of the world. We were lucky, it was a clear day. Up in Mussoorie the air was very clear, due to a height of more than 2000 m and a restriction on motor cars in the town. First thing we did was eat breakfast. After the lady of the house, a hotel, came and gave us a plate of poori and halwa and some chick pea thing I don’t remember the name of. It was part of a Hindu ritual. It is traditional to always pass on food left at a ritual to other people. It was delicious, especially the deep fried poori. We surfed a bit at an internet cafe, went for a walk and took a cablecar ride up to the highest point. From there we had an excelent view of the Himalaya and down into the indian plain. We also spent some time eating cake from the bakery. Towards evening we took some sweets to visit our aquaintance. It was wonderful to meet up and to also meet his family. He has two boys of eleven and thirteen, who where eager to ask all kinds of questions. We stayed for dinner and caught the last bus back with an invitation to come back soon. We also invited them to come visit us, though this is nearly impossible. A trip to europe is nearly unaffordable for a middle class indian family. I guess we are lucky and privileged to be able to make these kinds of experiences.

On our last day we went to Rishikesh a place full of ashrams, yoga teachers and more temples, I didn’t like it so much. It lacked the magic and rusticality of Haridwar. This was also the day we returned from the north to Delhi, though only as short stop on our way to Agra.

More pictures are here.

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