The Transition…

The Transition…

It 2:30PM on the 5^th of February 2010; I was busy restructuring the team at office for a new cost-effective way of working. Anand Sawkar was waiting for me patiently. We had a flight to catch at 6PM to the national capital, Delhi. I wrapped up the presentation and we were off to Mekhri circle to catch a bus to BIAL. We reached a little early and checked in before time. The plane tickets were booked by Anand around 2 months back. Hence it worked out cheap for us. Upon reaching the Delhi airport, we took a cab from there to reach the Nizhamuddin train station. Anand had booked a train from there to Dehradun. We had a not so quick dinner as we had ample time with us before the arrival of the train. At 12AM we were finally on our way to Dehradun to attend a Punjabi wedding of our colleague. With a lot of noise from the group which were traveling with us to Dehradun, we were able catch a good sleep of around 4-5 hrs. We arrived at Gundeep’s place at around 6:30AM on 6^th Feb. Then began our journey of attending a Punjabi wedding!!

Dehradun is a pretty old hill station of India residing in the Madhya Himalaya (Himachal) Range of the Himalayas. It exists from the time of the East India Company. Education is the main industry in this wonderful city of hills. Hence it can be considered as a recession proof market of India! In and around Dehradun, one can find many schools and colleges even today.

The functions had started 2 days back. We had missed the ‘Mehndi’ where the girls in the marriage beautify their hands with designs. Gundeep patiently explained both of us the various functions and the rituals of a Punjabi wedding. Things went above our head though! This was a day prior to the marriage. There is a ritual called “Maili” among the Punjabis where the bride is not expected to take bath and to be in old clothes. This is basically to make her look more beautiful on the day of wedding.

The rest of the morning of 6^th went in me and Anand loafing around Dehradun and passing some time and preparing ourselves for the long night and the really tiring days coming ahead. It was a very good view of Massourie from the terrace of the house. We then discovered the tiny Tibetian settlement in Dehradun. Then a little time pass here and there made it lunch time. It was time for more timepass and this time Ramandeep (Gundeep’s cousin) joined us too. We then understood the essence of the Punjabis. The talk with him was very valuable to us as it told a lot about the way of living of the Punjabis. A little insight on the opportunities created in the world was also discussed as general topics.

The Punjabis don’t have a specific time for marriage functions as such. As and how things go well, they decide to get married. Only the day of the marriage is fixed. The time is at their stake and it is their responsibility to complete the functions before the day ends. They are also very “Dildaar”. They are passionate about life and very helpful from within. They also have this great character of making sure that the guests are given utmost importance. It is come with their culture and their way of living.

A few of them to share – Gundeep’s bro (Ashu) was passionate about capturing moments and posing in front of the camera. Ramandeep’s friend was passionate about riding a bullet with an empty number plate on it. His comment was “The max I have to pay is a 100 buck; which makes it 3000 per month. But I am atleast satisfied by doing it!” Phew!! It looks weird though, but I felt that people of this kind of passion will only make a difference at the end of the day.

It was then the time for a few rituals before the cocktail party. Not sure about the name of them though. People from the groom’s family came to the brides’ place and gift exchange happens. After they leave, the bride is made to wear a sacred thread around her hand. The bridge’s mother then has to cross over the wooden slab on which the bride sat during the ceremony. ‘Prasad’ is later distributed among the women. All these rituals are an integral part of a Punjabi wedding where a great display of relationship bonding is made.

The next ritual was to get sacred water from the Gurudwara. Since the bride wouldn’t have taken bath on the previous day, the next day, she is expected to take bath in the sacred water brought from the Gurudwara by her sister-in-law.

The 3Ds – Dance, Dhol and Daaru are the essentials of any Punjabi wedding. Every small function has to have dance associated with it. The people don’t mind doing it as it is the way they are brought up.

Then was the ceremony where all the people in the Bride’s family made the Bride wear a pair of ‘Chudian’ (bangles – one red and the other green). ‘Sangeet’ (Punjabi folk songs) followed this ceremony. Here again the energy of the Punjabis is much appreciable. All of them were completely involved in all the celebrations with utmost display of enthusiasm. Post Sangeet was the cocktail party and dance floor was open. It was fun dancing with people who were filled with energy even at 11 in the night! There of course was a dual course of dinner in between to entertain our stomach! The first day of the marriage came to end finally at around 12AM. I and Anand went to a good soundless sleep knowing that many such tiring days are awaiting us!

I woke up early in the morning on the next day. Anand was still fast asleep and I guess was still digesting the heavy dinner! I heard noises outside as soon as I woke up. There was one more ceremony going on. I couldn’t attend it though. It was a ceremony where the bride is made to wear the auspicious bangle which she has to wear it for the rest of her life. But I later discovered that due to changing trends and modernization, a new rule has been put in place where the bride is expected to wear the bangle for a minimum of 41 days. After a quick round of breakfast, it was time for us to leave to the marriage hall where another ritual – “Milni” was organized.

There was a huge noise of a band approaching the marriage hall. I and Anand went near the band to discover that they were from the groom’s side. The Bride’s relatives waited patiently for around 30 mins to receive the groom’s relatives. This act of the groom’s side meeting the bride’s side is called Milni. Here, the equals in the family tree of each side exchange garland and gifts. The groom’s side then approached the entrance of the marriage hall. All the people of the Bride’s side try and stop the people entering by demanding money in exchange of them entering the hall. After a good round of negotiation, the groom’s relatives were let inside the marriage hall. This is when the breakfast was arranged for all. Food is one thing which you don’t have to worry about in a Punjabi wedding. You will be fed and made to drink enough for your life!

There was a round of photo session in the marriage hall. Balli, the groom had a royal entry with his ‘kirpaan.’ Kirpaan is the sword which a Sardar is very proud to own. It is a symbol of victory and pride. The bride was completely decked up. The entry of a bride to the stage wass no less than a ‘Maharani’s walk’ to the throne! The guy received his to be maid with utmost respect. The photo session continues…

The entire concentration then shifted to the Gurudwara. This is where the marriage took place. The marriage began with welcoming both the sides. The guy’s side settled down first; Then the bride’s side. A ritual of ‘kanya dhaan’ in which the bride’s father officially hands the responsibility of the bride into the hands of the groom was carried on. There are four ‘pheras’ around the sacred place in the Gurudwara. The guru reads the granth in the due course of the four pheras. Then they are officially declared as married. This whole act of the marriage was sentimental. I could see the real emotions in the bride’s eyes where she burst out with a thought of leaving her parents officially.

The scene then shifted back to the marriage hall where a round of lunch was awaiting our ever hungry stomach. After a good round of food, it was time for ‘vidai.’ The bride then officially is out of the family and enters a new home to light it up! This again is a highly emotional scene where the bride throws ‘chaval’ (rice) backwards from her hands over her head without turning back and walks out of the house. She is then driven away to the groom’s house and will be received with due respect.

By the time all these rituals got over it was 6 in the evening. We were asked to take 2 hours of rest and gear up for the reception given from the guys’ side. It was in a different hall. That night there were drizzles and we were waiting inside the car waiting for Gundeep’s relatives from Saharanpur to show them the route to the hall. We went into a conversation with Vinod, the servant at Gundeep’s place about Garhwal, Vinod’s home town. Garhwal is a beautiful place even today as it has not been very much explored by the Indians apart from a few foreigners (thanks to ‘Lonely Planet’) and the locals.

We finally entered the marriage hall at 10:30 in the night. The music in the party hall goes on till only 10 in the night due to the government rule. There was a last round of meet with all the wonderful people and we went back home for sleeping pretty early. After a fun packed 2 day wedding at Dehradun, the eyes closed with a good memory of the wedding and a new hope of meeting new people with new adventures the next day…

We woke up early in the morning on the 8^th of February. Gundeep’s dad drove us to a bus stop where we get buses to Rishikesh. Yes, we were heading to Rishikesh for a fun filled rafting experience. Anand had again booked the package online at Garhwal Himalayan White water rafting. They are into rafting and other adventure sports for more than 15 years now! We reached Rishikesh at around 9 in the morning. We had to reach Rashi’s place (another colleague of ours). Puneet Agarwal had also joined us at the bus stop in Dehradun. The three of us were seated at different places I the local bus to Rishikesh. An hours’ drive and we were at Rashi’s place near IDPL. We spoke to her parents, placed our baggages at her place and rushed to Muni ki Reti in Rishikesh. This is where the rafting office was located. To our bad luck, none of the ATMs were working there on that day. But we had paid 70% of the amount online. So, a little bargaining and we had enough cash with us to carry-on till the end of rafting.

The jeep took us through the roads that were made by cutting down the mountains. It was almost a 30 min drive from Muni ki Reti. I saw the sacred Ganges for the first time in my life. What a sight it was. Greenish water amidst the mountain range, terrace farming on the mountains, the small settlements on the banks of the river and on the hill tops. The whole sight of this new world made me numb. I had no words to describe it. All I was doing was to stare outside the window to catch even the slightest sight of Ganges. Then came the place where we had to stay for more than 24 hours. We had taken a 1.5 day package inclusive of food. The welcome was with a small climb down the mountain to reach the base camp. It was on the banks of the Ganges. Covered with white sand and the flowing river water!

There were no appointments, no to-do lists, nothing to do apart from photography and a bit of talking. More important than all, there was no mobile signal! The moment I saw that, the whole expression on my face turned to that of a complete rejoice. As though, I had gone to an ideal place. I just lost myself in the lap of Mother Nature. The two days of marriage rush had made us very tired. But, the moment we entered this awesome place, all our tiredness went in the air; as though someone has done a magical spell to drive it away!

After a quick round of photography session, we went for breakfast and were asked to assemble near the entrance once we get ready for the first days’ rafting. I had done kayaking before, hence had a basic idea of how to row and float in case of anything. We had to start our rafting from Marine drive which is around 27kms from Rishikesh and around 20kms from our base camp. On the way to Marine drive, we had to collect our rafting equipments from Snow Leopard Pvt. Ltd. All the equipments were imported from US. Each raft was worth more than 3-4 lakh INR!

We came to the starting point of the rafting session. Rana was our guide for the day. Apart from him, there were two more of them Dharmesh and Ashok. After a quick round of introduction and a 15 min practice, we were all set for the raft! We were covering only 10kms on the first day as there was a trek planned for us as well. We went through the rapids hitting them as though they were our enemies. Well, they actually were our enemies at that point of time; simply because, if we didn’t hit them they would have hit us to death! After a series of level 2 rapids, we were now pretty confident about rafting. Next were the level 3 rapids. The waves were very calm until we went near them. The moment we entered, we were sucked inside as though we have touched a picture plant! There was one thing our guide told us – “Stronger the waves, stronger you hit them.” Hence before entering any rapid, we were increasing the speed of our raft. We were also given instructions to hit the rapid with the front of the raft towards the rapid. All these instructions were actually helpful to me and Anand as we were sitting in the front facing the waves. After crossing the 10-15 feet high waves at the level 3 rapid, there was a sense of achievement that I could feel within. The real Shreyas started to roar I guess!!

After a good 10km rafting session, we had a home made authentic north Indian lunch. From there we went for a trek to Neer Water Fall. It was also nearby. It was a 10 min drive to the base of the trek from our camp. It was ages since I had trekked. Hence I was all excited for the trek. There is a village towards the top of this hill by name Neer. Hence the waterfall is also named after the village. The government of India has made proper places to rest in the due course of the trek. There are seats all the way to the top. There are picnic spots done as well!

We were not able to reach the top as it was getting dark and the weather was also getting bad. We reached an area where the Indian government had built a bridge for the villagers to cross daily. Must say, it was one of the most amazing spots I have ever seen! Even though I have seen many hidden waterfalls, there was a difference in this waterfall. It was made of the same glacier as the Ganges. It shared the source with the Ganges and ultimately joined the Ganges. We were thrilled to see the natural beauty. I along with the guide Theku went a little further as Anand and Puneet were a little slow in climbing. I needed perfect spots for my shots. But I seriously missed my tripod this time around.

After a good photography session I continued my walk with Theku. He was from Nepal which was a 2 day drive by bus. He had learnt rafting while young and had come to Rishikesh in search of a job. Since his core competencies matched, he joined this adventure club. We were then discussing about the beauty of Nepal and the unexplored places in Nepal. Since my interest is also traveling and trekking, our talks just went by till we reached down where our jeep was waiting for us.

By this time, the weather had become bad with drizzles starting. By the time we reached the camp, it started to rain. We just sat and relaxed for the rest of the day. We had a real good dinner at the kitchen of the adventure camp. We had the dinner along with our guides, cook and driver. The rains did not take the name of stopping. Anand slept early that day. I and Puneet spoke for sometime and slept. But it was so cold that I woke up at 2 in the morning to check the weather outside. It was still raining heavily and the water level in the Ganges had risen by around 5-7 feet. We finally woke up by 8 in the morning just to discover that it was still raining. Ashok came to us and said that we can freshen up, have breakfast and leave for rafting. We were all excited again for a second day of rafting where we had to cover level 4 rafting!

Rafting started after breakfast. We drove till Shivpuri and started rafting. Today Theku was our guide. The Ganges was furious than the previous day and the level 4 rafting which we were supposed to do had automatically become level 4+. We were all determined to complete the rafting session of 17kms without a single fall! We became more aggressive than the previous day and easily covered the level 3 rafting. Then came the big guy. Theku just told us one thing before we entered “Remember guys, the water in this rapid has so much force that it can rip you apart and throw the raft to wherever it feels like.” Yes, it could have done it. The waves were as high as 20 feet! We were all the more aggressive with this rapid and faced it with a furious round of rafting. We were hit badly by the waves and we enjoyed it! It was an out of the world feeling to just be out of a level 4+ rafting session without being pulled into the water! “Well done team! GANGA!” was the cheer. The rest of the raft went on well without any hasles. Finally by 12 noon the entire 17km rafting session came to an end. We were blessed by hailstones for our achievement!

We then headed towards Madras Café for a good round of lunch. We were initially thinking of Chotiwala but we had cross the river and the boating guy was charging us 200 bucks. Hence we decided against it. We returned to Rashi’s place as Puneet had to leave to Dehradun. Once Puneet went back, me and Anad went around Rishikesh and saw the different temples, Ram jhula, Laxman jhula and many other ashrams. We then arrived at the Paramarth for witnessing the world famous Ganga aarti.

This is a daily routine for all the local Sanskrit students to assemble during sunset and worship Ganges. Since Ganges in India is treated as god, she is worshipped with bhajans and a lot of devotees assemble to witness this 30 minute event. At the same time, government has taken proper measures to keep the Ganges clean. In fact Rishikesh is the cleanest part of Ganges once can see which is not polluted even after so much population and popularity. People are not allowed to put any sort of ‘arpans’ inside the Ganges.

After this short visit to Rishikesh, I and Anand went back to Rashi’s place to finally meet her parents with some time in our hands. It was an amazing experience how different the thought of people in North and South of India is. Relationships and values of a relationship are the closest as far as I have seen in the northern part of the nation, Though it is a matter of fact that it depends on how you take it; but on a larger scale, I feel north India beats the southern part when it comes to valuing relationships. Must tell you, Rashi’s mom is an amazing cook!

After a good round of dinner it was time for me to leave to Delhi. I had a flight booked on Wednesday at 5PM from Delhi. So, I had decided to visit Surajkund in Haryana (near the Del-Har border). It was 4:30AM on 10^th when I reached ISBT. I put the luggage in the cloak room in ISBT, took bath in the public toilet and set my journey towards Surajkund. But, the journey was taking me too much of money as the border had to be crossed. Hence I decided against it and decided to see Delhi instead. I took am auto at 5:30AM and went to Redfort. I had to wait for 2 more hours for it to open. Hence I visited all the temples (Gurudwara, Jain templae, Ram temple and Masjid) on the Chandni chowk – Delhi 6. I then went into the metro station of Chandni Chowk just to check out how metro works in Delhi. Then it was 8 by the time I came back to Red fort. I had a quick glance on the Red fort and by 9:30 I was out and tired. Completely burnt out due to tiredness. I had developed fever as well. Hence I decided to return to the airport and take rest before I board my flight. After a lazy breakfast at CCD, I headed towards the airport. After a nice 4hr nap, I boarded the flight to Bangalore.

After all this, you might be wondering about the significance of the title. Well, these 5 days made me stretch beyond my limits. From a busy life to a slow moving city life to a immobile serene life to a ultra fast city life. I saw it all…

Hoping to have many more lovely trips like this. Cheers to all the lovely people I met in the due course of this trip and three cheers to my fellow travelers – Anand Sawkar and Puneet Agarwal!