Haridwar and Rishikesh are traditionally spiritual getaways, but have enough sights and sounds to excite the agnostic or even the atheistic.
I celebrated my birthday last year by packing my bags and leaving for the twin, holy towns, rather than going through the usual routine of a midnight birthday bash and partying till the alcohol starts pouring out of my ears. Boarding an early-morning train from Delhi that was headed to Dehradun, I got down at Haridwar by late lunchtime. After a short auto rickshaw ride and a post-lunch siesta, my battery was recharged.
Here are five things I did for the next couple of days:
Visit the Mansa Devi Temple. Divinity and devotion, both have been taken to a new commercial high here. The cable car ride all the way to the top brings out the six-year-old in you. Try the descent on foot (you’ve got a comfortable set of steps to aid you) because you can pause and take some breathtaking shots of the town’s heart, as the Ganga meanders through it.
Har Ki Pauri
Be an early bird and get yourself a front-row spot before dusk at the Har Ki Pauri (Steps of the Lord) ghat to witness the evening arti. Chants of Maa Ganga, which start from the loudspeaker, amplify through the voices of thousands around you, as they twirl with their hands up in the air. It’s Woodstock all over again. Just wait until darkness sets in; huge flames, powered by camphor and oil, will provide the perfect setting by the river banks for an Instagram shot that can be confidently hashtagged with #IncredibleIndia
Take a dip
Be bold! Take a (half) skinny dip in the middle of the Ganga at Rishikesh. But be safe; don’t be fooled by either the seemingly slow speed at which it flows or how invitingly cool it might be. That’s freshly melted ice right from the glaciers above travelling at nearly 80 kmph. That’s why people river-raft on it, remember?
Chew on this
Eat your heart out at Cafe Divine. Holy cities don’t have to necessarily equate with traditional food. Thanks to the significant influx of foreign hippies, we have quite a number of choices that provide alternatives to our regular dal-chawal-roti combos. Cafe Divine offers you great shashliks and chop sueys at very affordable rates. Oh … and not to forget the snug ambience. Seriously, why would you come all the way to the hills to eat paneer and naan again?
Love The Fab Four?
Visit The Beatles’ Ashram. One of the most bizarre things on a traveller’s list, this sprawling ashram is currently abandoned (and a bit spooky). But in the 1970s, it was the go-to place for celebrity hippies, the most famous of them being the legendary British rock ‘n’ roll band, The Beatles.
The Fab Four stayed here for a few months under the hospitality of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and penned some of their greatest hits such as ‘Back in the USSR’ and ‘Dear Prudence’ in Uttarakhand. What remains today are their murals and lyrics on the walls inside, besides free-spirited travellers recreating their music.
Revel in the reverberations, and also in the otherworldly architecture.
