Dehradun & Haridwar

It was an early start to catch the train and as I found with my previous road trips, the landscape started to change.

Dehradun was a meet up spot so I wasn't planning on seeing the sights here, so I will talk about how I ended up there. When I first met my friend Shivali’s hubby, several years back, he told me he was from the outskirts of Dehradun, coincidentally, I ended up  working with someone who was from there and she was in town but for family reasons. 

Shivali and Naveen have always welcomed me to their home in Hamilton, Chai, navarathan mixture, Dal rice and roti, a lot of roti, even some to take home. When Naveen's parents visited to meet their new grandson, I was mesmerised watching his mother making roti. I get caught up in the beauty of it all, so tempted to give it a go but at the same time, fearful that I’d ruin it. 

I couldn’t stop huddling around her. Ma wanted to teach me, however the language barrier made it a tad difficult, plus I only wanted to watch. The language barrier didn’t stop Naveen’s parents from adopting me and that is how I got invited to my first Indian wedding. Which was now only a week away. 

Shivali's mum, mausi, maasi and brother were on their way to Dehradun. I had a day and a half of exploring before they would get there. I ventured out for food. There was a place near my hotel, I've had Chole bhature in Perth, so was excited to eat it in India. It was my first time having rasgulla which made me think of a cotton ball, some what tasty.

I moved hotels to meet up with Shivali’s family, I wanted to show the utmost respect to her mum . I had seen my Shivali touch the feet of our common friend’s parent’s feet and thought it a beautiful gesture. It just happened to be 3 days before meeting, I watched Karl Rocks video about it and that made me feel a bit more confident that I could do this.

Shivali's family were so warm and I appreciated the TLC after the past several days of solo travelling. 

We ventured out to the buddhist temple together. I grew up surrounded by Theravada buddhism and don't have much firsthand experience with others, so being at the buddhist temple grounds and all the religious structures was interesting, humourous at some points, but thats just me.

When we entered the Theravada temple and I saw the familiar statues and saffron robed monks, I felt at home and knew what to do, sitting with your legs under you but to the side, nop (the placing of two hands together in a prayer position at chest level) then prostrate (thanks google for helping me find this word). Going to the Wat with my mum, makes her so happy so whenever I am home, I try to do so. I have so many childhood memories there and the time sitting in prayer is worth the food that the community bring.

I choose to put Dehradun and Haridwar because the time I spent in these cities was short and sweet, both memorable in their own way. We visited Haridwar after the wedding. I knew nothing of the place and was told it is a very significant place for Hinduism, so became intrigued about what I would encounter there. Our first stop was a bridge, the colour of the Ganges river had me caught up so I had no interest walking across the bridge. Shivali's mum walked down the water to touch the water as doing so would bring good health. There just happened to be a man there that reminded me of the hermits in the buddhist stories I had grown up with, that may be what he is, however I never asked.

Shivali's family were catching a train from Haridwar so we bid farewell to them for now, as I was planning to go visit Shivali's family home. So there was only three, Revati and her mum. Revati opened my eyes to the whole arranged marriage thing, on the jeep ride up to Chamba, Revati invited me to her wedding, if I would be still in India at the time. I later asked how she had met her partner, her answered caught me off guard "we are still in the process of working that out", oh. It was not long after that it was all arranged. 

Just like Shivali, Revati and mum adopted me. Mum was constantly trying to communicate with regardless of the language barrier. We made our way up a hill luckily with a long staircase to a temple, mum asked people walking down, how far was there still to go?like a child asking "are we there yet". 

There was even a wild peacock along the way. No photography at the temple, it was definitely an experience, stone temple with many rooms and many gods to give offerings to, pooja being given, definitely needed after the workout, bahaha. 

The next temple we went to had gondola lift which we were all happy about. Unfortunately, I didn't think to ask the names of the temples I had visited. 

Our next stop was ganga aarti, the evening prayer, on the banks of the Ganges river. The current of the water made it scary, however the turquoise gleam made it alluring. We passed stalls of food and stopped for tea, the mountain of rotis has me questioning whether they expected to sell it all.. We eventually ended up at where we would stay, there were people selling some sort of pray kit, of course, they thought I was keen to do it. there were so many people around us and on the other side of the bank. There were men swirling around burning laterns of fire, right under a wooden frame. The whole thing was something, I had never experienced before, I felt the devotion these people have for their religion and the privilege it was to be amongst it all.