New Delhi and Delhi- 6

We spent one day in Delhi and saw a lot of places, from an evening drive through Old Delhi trying to catch glimpses of the Red Fort in peak traffic,

Moving through Delhi-6 in pouring rain,

sharing the roads with nice horsies which pulled loads

then visiting the Samadhi Complex and a Namaskaram to Gandhi Thatha at Raj Ghat,

It was raining, and within minutes the sun comes up and it is hot .. very hot.

This doggy guarded our van and cooled off at the same time

We had a short ice cream break..

or a chai and lassi break..

driving through the endless series of government buildings and landmarks that grace all currency notes,

a view point only trip of Akshardham temple,

the Bahai Lotus temple,

ISKON temple,

Birla Mandir,

some fast paced shopping at a place called Lajpat Nagar ending with another drive late in the night through the well lit government buildings...

One thing that was really interesting was the "New Delhi welcomes all Kavadi Pilgrims" banners flying everywhere.. There was a heavy congregation of them around this Carol Bagh area with the Giant Hanuman statue..

Did do my best to discourage the group from going to old Delhi, but.. they all wanted to see Delhi-6.

Thought the whole Kavadi thing was a south Indian Murugan temple concept. Did not know that it was prevalent in the north w.r.t. Haridhwar temple. There were guys walking all around Delhi with orange underwear carrying decorated Kavadis. We also saw people blaring religious songs in big trucks with a bunk bed on top of each truck, a motorcycle in each truck and 7-8 guys. The truck also looked like kitchen/living quarters for the 7-8 dudes. One guy runs 2 kilometers with the Kavadi, then he gets on the truck and another guy takes his place.

Apparently it is a Kavadi relay where they keep it going without the thing ever touching the ground all the way from Delhi to Haridhwar. . . It was interesting to watch to say the least.

We picked "the worlds slowest and most careful driver". He had no sense of urgency whatsoever. He stopped for every other car to cross us, slowed down at every yellow light and kept telling us the same diaglogue:

"sir, laal baththi ho gaya naa Sir. Ise liye traffic bad gaya!".. Many a time I was just tempted to clobber him over the head and take over the steering wheel. Still we made it to the Taj Mahal and back in one day.

We were told it is a 5 hour journey from Delhi and it took him a good 8 hours to go and a nice 7 hours to come back.

Spending 15 hours between 6AM and 11PM in a van with two little kids is an experience in itself. With the itch to clobber Mr. Laal Baththi every 30 minutes, it was definitely an interesting experience!

He was a nice guy and a family man.. so he kept giving me a lecture on safe driving. My point was "the risk between going 15 mph to 25 mph is not different"

Next time we will need to have the driver do a little 8 outside the hotel lobby before we get inside the vehicle.

Until then...

ps. on a funny note..

We went to Raj Ghat and Jr.'s sandals (Chappals) tore. So she had to stay put in the parking lot with grandma. Told her we were going to see the place where Gandhi's ashes were stored.

Jr. asked me "Ghandhi is like Martin Luther King for India right? He also had a dream?"

Me : Martin Luther King is like Gandhi for the USA. He had the dream first.. MLK was inspired by Gandhi. Did you know that?

Jr.: ?! (finally Jr. realized what she had learnt in her history class).

Saw this inscription on the way ..

Did not have the mind to post the picture I took of the paan that was spit on the side of this inscription just as you enter the grounds of Gandhiji's resting place.

My heart could not bear it. Who spits paan at Mahatmaji's memorial?

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Manikaran - heaven on earth

On our last day at Manali, we decided to go all the way to Manikaran and then drive back from Manikaran to Chandigarh airport to catch a 7 PM last flight out to Mumbai.

Left Manali at 6AM and drove in rain through mountain sides where there were many rocks that had fallen on the roads (we did not read the news.. and had no idea that the entire area was taking heavy rains. Leh which was 100 or kilometers away had a cloudburst and many people died that week) and finally reached Manikaran at 8 AM.

Our expert driver told us "if you want to see Chandigarh airport by 6:30 this evening in this weather, you have to be back here by 9:15. That is assuming you get 30 minutes for one break!"

We took him very seriously and went past the bridge, the Gurudwara, the cave, the shiva temple, the durga temple, the ram temple including me taking a dip in the hot springs at the Ram temple!

What an entrance to a temple!

Here is a video where the little one is bugging me about a dog. She has a biscuit in her hand and it is eye level with the dog! Of course she couldn't shake him off!

Another 4000 year plus old temple with the same construct as the Vashisht temple in Manali..

There is a place here where a board says "Shiva and Parvathi are said to have meditated here for 13,000 years".

The bell at the temple entrance echoes through when you ring it.

For a minute you can totally believe why anyone would chose that as a location to stay put for 13k years. The steep green and brown cliffs on one side, the raging river on the other side, the hot springs on yet another side make you feel the power of nature and the ephemeral nature of man.

We did manage to race back to Chandigarh and it was one glorious drive past the airport, the Beas (Byas) Parvathi rivers confluence (sangam)

all the way around the Bilaspur lake, Sundar Nagar and along the Sutlej river into Punjab. We even drove past a new IIT near Chandigarh!

Here is a beautiful but noisy video..

We made it just 45 minutes before our flight, but it was enough for us to get into the plane and be on our way to Mumbai.

One amazing thing at Manikaran is that both the Gurudwara and the Temple have a Langar where they provide free food for anyone who walks in. They do this by throwing in sacks of rice and lentils and potatoes into the hot spring (which is pretty much boiling over) and out comes cooked rice, dal and aalo! Mother nature's kitchen. Should ask the food network to cover this. Truly amazing.

They also take some water and put a tea bag in it and drink instant Chai! Apparently there is a place which is a 2 day hike from Manikaran called Kheer Ganga where the water is hot and foamy that it looks like Milk. There you make Chai Latte!

Our driver told me, "only way is to hike, but the place is beautiful. You should take more time and go with a trained guide. The two day hike is worth it" and I was thinking "let me see. cannot get that kind of time off now with the little kids. by the time they are old enough to join me on a hike like that, I will be too old to hike!"

In any case, if there is a next time, we will try to see KheerGanga.

Happy enough that we got to see Manikaran. It is truly heaven on earth and the ride along the river is truly worth it, rain or rocks!

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Matching isn't a new concept for these two..

Thanks to the platform stores at the Gandhi Market in Mumbai..

The little one is almost there. Another few millimeters and we will somehow find a way to pin a flower on it...

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When in Adayar, do as the Adayarians do..

The day Jr. and the little one landed in Chennai, their usual fascination with the dhoti wearing Madras thatha (grandpa) started!

For some reason, Bombay thatha does not wear a dhoti that often.

As for me, I stopped wearing it in the house and switched to shorts or track pants from the time we had Jr.

The reason was simple. When you throw a dhoti in the washing machine, it is bound to get crumpled and tangle with every other piece of clothing you put in that load. That means lot of time ironing the dhoti and all the other clothes. It got worse when my MIL / mom lived with us and the saris, dhoti's would all get tangled up and even tear clothes when we tried to pull them out of the washer. To minimize the damage I switched.

The kids saw thatha and promptly took the next piece of cloth they could find and started wandering around the house in their "veshti" or "dhoti"..

The little one was reluctant to even wear a vest borrowed from her cousins wardrobe. She also insisted on folding the dhoti and tying it in half "just like thatha"!

While Jr. was content with wandering around with a turkish towel folded in half, the little one insisted on being "just like thatha", and that meant going without a shirt! Had a tough time explaining why only boys go without a shirt, but it fell on deaf ears.

Even after grandma's advice and daddy's attempted threats/ bribes, she wandered around the house "just like thatha" for two days till she got bored of it.

My dad was so happy and amused that his grand kids wanted to be just like him, inspite of this being a bad idea.

The things kids do....

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Jahan Khan

My FIL decided to take us for a vacation within a vacation so we got a little unwinding between our trips to Chennai and Mumbai.

We went to Delhi and from there on to Agra for a day.

This being the first time daddy and the kids are seeing the Taj Mahal, there was a lot of expectation and a lot of hyping for the kids.

The story of Shah Jahan and his love for Mumtaj and how the Taj Mahal was built for her was repeated many times for the kids the day before and during the drive.

Once we reached the Taj and the kids went "oooh" and "aaah" there was a pop quiz for the kids...

Me: Who built the Taj Mahal?

Jr.: ask me ask me.. I know the answer

Me : okay you tell me.. who?

Jr.: Shah Rukh Khan!

Me : !!!!!! விடிய விடிய முகல் புராணம் கேட்டுட்டு, மும்தஜுக்கு புருஷன் ஷாருக்னு சொல்லறியே டீ!!

(vidia vidia Mughal Puranam kettutu, Mumtajukku purushan Shah Rukhnu sollariye di!!)

I don't know how to translate that last part into English from Tamlish. Needless to say, the education on the history of the Taj continued for another 15 minutes after that answer.

Here are some photos from our Taj Mahal trip.

It was truly breathtaking!

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