Travels and travails

First,apologies for a late update. We could nt find time to come to a net cafe till now.

Wow, there are so many things to share. Dont know where to start from :)

Let me start from beginning. We started in Hyderabad on Wednesday night at 10pm. It was uneventful train journey jostling for space inspite having reserved berths. Let me tell you something, Second class train journey is not quite advisable if you are crossing south India. People have scant respect for rules around this place. Somewhere from Nagpur to Betul, people lose the common/civic sense I guess. It was annoying journey. At that point I decided to upgrade the entire trip from economy to luxury :-). So, trying to upgrade my tix from Second class to AC wherever possible. We took a break in Jabalpur. The station there really needs mention. They maintained it so well. It was welcome break. We also found first decent meal in 24 hours. Kashi thinks it is still the best meal we had so far :-(

Overnight we moved to Allahabad from Jabalpur. That train again was a pain fighting for berths that we righeously owned. Ever since we planned this trip, I was not sure of our accomodation in Allahabad. Dad warned me not to venture out of the station before the dawn breaks. So, I searched a lot on the net and found a contact in net who offered to come and pick us up at station, provide accomodation and do the works. We were quite relieved for such a big help, but what a crook that guy was. He took us to some dirty dingy in Allahabad. Imagine going all the way to Hyderabad and staying in pattarghatti..lol. From there we went to prayag ( the holy confluence of three rivers). That was my first moment of peace. We went in canoe for 6km to reach prayag. It was too good. All that hastle, irritation vaporized and when took a dip in the prayag, It felt like all this was worth it. When we came out of the river, it was back to square one. Seriously, Allahabad is shittiest place I have ever seen. Obviously,they dont seem to know the concept of Muncipality. We planned to visit two destinations in Allahabad. Prayag and Azad park (place where Chandrasekhar Azad took life fighting with British). One was over. After some crappy home cooked food (again a big swindle by Panda), we hired a car and I was glad I was getting out of town after visiting Azad park. Idiot of a driver that was driving, misunderstood our request and safely took us out of city in 15 minutes. The conversation was something like this..

Me: Bhayya, Azad park itna door hai kya?
Driver:
Nahi, city me hi hai.
Me: To hum idhar kyo hai? Aap rukhe kyo nahi?
Driver: Accha, aapko jaana tha kya? ab bhi chal sakte hai.
me: WTF? #%#^#$%?

Anyways, there went our Azad park trip. We could nt afford to go back as we were driving to Ayodhya and we had to reach in time to visit Ram janmabhoomi. It was around 12noon. There was 160km to cover. We had to reach by 5pm. Simple thing you would think. ha ha. it took us exactly 5hours to reach (there was a 30km road strip which took about 90mins :(, at the end of which everybody had every bone shaken in the body). We were late by 5 minutes to Ramjanmabhoomi and it was closed :(
For those who dont know, Ramjanmabhoomi is now guarded by 5000 ARMY (not police). They are very strict and do the business correctly. No amount of pleading, requesting on behalf of grandpa could help. We looked around the place and left to visit Ayodhya. Waise bhi, uske andhar ek tent ke siva kuch nahi hai. Karsevaks demolished the whole place and put up a tent as they were not allowed to build a temple. Then we went to take a look at Sarayu river which was again a delight. We badly wanted to take a dip, but it was late and was getting dark. Visited some temples and saw a baba who was apparently the head honcho who ran the whole Karsevak operation. Some pracharak was requesting (in a demanding tone) for funds. I got irritated and almost got into a fight. Baba asked me if I wanted to know something.
Baba: Kya jaanna chahte hai aap?
me: Nothing babaji. We are happy this way.
Baba: (irked by my response) yeh dekho..kuch nahi jaan na chahta hai.
me :(smiling to myself) thank you
and receded from that place.

Folks here are trying to rip you off all the time. god it was irritating. Finally at 3am on Friday, we arrived in Benarus.Benarus is a delight though. Benarus that we see in crappy bollywood movies, Benarus of Pandas, Benarus of yogis and babas like lahiri mahasay. Wow this city is an amazing place. The lean/mean streets of Benarus is a sight to watch. You can barely stretch yourself across the breadth of the street. Streets are that small. Width of the streets is quite comparable to walkers track in US parks. lol.. After some interesting experiences, which I will write in detail once I reach Hyderabad, We went to visit Kashi Viswanath Place. Once I reached inside, the feeling was amazing. I cant describe it, but it was so overwhelming. You forget the crowds, forget all the troubles that you take to reach there. (remember these are the words coming from not a religious or bhakti kind of person :-) and someone who does not like idol worship). Guess whole trip is worth that one moment. Wow. When I came out Kaushik was telling me about the samething. Then we came back and had a relaxed day.

Ganga in Benarus is too good. We stay nearby some remote ghat where there is not too much crowd. So, Me and Kashi are having great time at the river. Today, we woke up early at 5am to catch one of the most beautiful sunrises. I will post the pictures later. Took a long boat ride along the ghats of river and went for darshan again. Inspite of all the crowds, filth and dirt, I am loving this place. Benarus is a must visit place who like to travel even if you are not a religious person. I am definitely planning to come here again.OK, I guess I need to sign off here. I will post again either tomorrow or from Ujjain on 19th. Till then, cya folks.

PS: For folk waiting for tataiah's jibes, here is one.
On the train from sec'bad to Allahabad, I was using my backpack for a pillow as all
important stuff was in that backpack. Grandpa was having trouble with his bag, so I offered to exchange the bags. Here is the convesation.
Me: Taata, idi jara bhadram.
Grandpa: (pointing at Kashi) "gisuvanti puli undanga manakme bhayam" :))
Those who know Tataiah's timing for comedy can read these two lines well. I could nt control my laughter. (btw, tataiahs is getting irritated with my SLR camera, moment is ripe for his jibe ).
cya I gotta go and try some banarsi special sweets :)