May 28. I would have stayed in Rishikesh another night just for that sweet room but I felt like I was done there and I was ready to go. My restless feet need to be on the move again. I ended up taking a rickshaw all the way to Hardwar since it is so close and the shared rickshaws make that trip anyway. My plan was to get an AC room asap. I needed the cool air. I found a room, rested and watched TV. Hardwar is a bigger city, a bit more chaotic and about three times the population of Rishikesh. I was in no rush to hit the street once I was inside. The main thing here is the ganga aatri performed by the river at dusk. There is also a temple on a hill that pilgrims come to from afar. I thought why not start there.
The temple is reached by taking a cable car. The ticket window for the cable car had a sign that said “1 hour wait time.” along the way to the ticket window are stalls and shops selling offerings that people can buy to bring up to the temple. Ok so far pilgrims are paying to buy offerings and paying to buy a ticket to a cable car. Awesome. Once you have your ticket you go into a “waiting hall,” basically an area where they put up bamboo posts and a tarp on top for shade with some seats. As you enter this area you pick up a number. Groups are called in every 10 minutes or so. It took about an hour wait for my turn. Meantime I notice this boy and his friends looking at me and the boy comes to sit by me and tries to ask me questions like “what country, what name..”, I wish he knew more English or I knew Hindi to communicate, he was very cute and his friend was even cuter. I am sure they had no dubious intentions but after 11 days of traveling solo and no sex being approached by a group of handsome 20somethings will automatically trigger fantasies of orgies.
My number is finally called and I push and shove as you have to do, and walk down a cluster phobic path only to find another waiting area. What is this Six Flags? Ok fine, wait some more then finally we get called to get into another cluster phobic path towards the cable cars. “Oooh what is this? Another stall selling “offerings,” this is it folks buy up your offerings before its too late, its your last chance.” it was an awkward few moments as I was singled out since I was alone and each car takes four. Most people do things like this in groups, no solo pilgrims, tourists or visitors here. So I had to wait to the side until there was a group of three that I can tag along with. Finally a cute family, two parents and a little boy and me, their adopted cable car rider. We wiz up the side of the hill, it was a very nostalgic moment, especially with this nuclear family sitting across from me, I felt like I was peering into some random family’s family album. In fact they asked me to take a picture for them that will probably end up in an album. I was cute.
Once you get off the cable cars there are more stalls selling offerings. The selling never ends here, it was like a little bazaar at the temple. Architecturally there is nothing of interest. But I should have known that. This is not about grand architecture, it is a place where people believe a special power resides and they make it holy. Now the way people around here seem to experience the sacred it beyond me. There is so much money being thrown around. And the hundreds and thousands of identical prepackaged offerings are handed to two guards that are standing at the shrine who then dump the contents into a huge pile. Really? Is that it? I wasn’t very moved by any of this, not that I was resisting but it just seemed like such empty ritual to me, very different from my experience at the Golden Temple for example. There was a woman crawling on all fours, she must have sinned really bad or something, people were pulling their kids away from her, she was sweating perfusly and people were giving not so nice looks. I wonder what she did or what she wants to make her go at such lengths.
It was all so brief as I was pushed down the conveyer belt of pilgrims and visitors and before I knew it it was done. I was on my way out. It was all about 7 minutes but I am still glad I waited to experience this. I was shaken for some money, when I only put five rupees the “priest” shook my arm for more before he can give me my bindi.
I decided not to wait in line for the cable car down and just walked it. I had to go back to the hotel and shower after that.
In the evening I went to the main temple on the river, Har-Ki-Pairi Ghat to watch the ganga aarti. This was, like in Rishikesh, an awesome people watching event. It was much more crowded here, much bigger. I was trigger happy with my camera. It was pretty fun.
On my way back I found myself drawn into this restaurant, they had a printout advertising “Thali for 60 rupees” and without thinking, since I was hungry, I was inside waiting for food. I always attract funny looks here, people don’t know what I am. I look Indian but I guess something gives me away: the fact that I am alone, the way I sit and wait, the fact that I use hand sanitizer before I eat, that I eat with a spoon not my hands. I have no idea what the individual things were but that was by far the most amazing and delicious Indian dinner I’ve had yet. And it was just over a dollar. Im happy. The little boy that served looked so Asian, Chinese mixed and was a cute little happy kid who kept bringing me more to fill my plate. He was so happy to get a tip I felt like I made his day. I left smiling and with no unpleasant bowel movements :)
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