A fantastic start to the Sangam Snan morning!
Spicy Bread pakora & chai!
A picture to remember!
Manu does the most tricky job. Pouring hot tea from polythene into ‘kulhads’.
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My local companion assigned to me by my Travel Company was Gulshan. He turns up in a bike to swerve me around town to reach me to Saraswati Ghat from where we make an onward journey by boat to Triveni Sangam.
This Army View Point there gave me some amazing view of the river.
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Gulshan, my local companion, is mostly clueless and I have to resort to my own agencies a lot more often than I was prepared for, I’m gradually gathering this.
While he goes looks for a boat for me to board I decide to have some fun clicking tangerine-kesar-maroon hues.
There is a great haggle and ruckus over fetching a boat and getting a seat seemed like a challenge.
I wait and take some selfies and other shots that interest me.
This was constantly a nagging knowledge imploring to stop me in my tracks right there and make a turn about.
At places, people are setting up a quick-fix Pooja ritual…
And at places washing themselves
Sport of Paragliding
Just one picture I could click of the myriad different murals painted all over the city. Just so much hardwork put in beautifying the city seemed commendable to say the least.
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My local companion tells me, ‘Here’s your boat, I’ll be here when you come back’, and I’m like what ?? NOOoo …
In a second, as I set one foot on the pulpit of that massive boat with one hand held to his and the other to the boatman, a piddly puny undernourished fella, I realise my future is not in good hands. I peer over his shoulder to look at the co-passengers… nope, I decide… none of them look like they’ll put their life at stake to keep me from drowning, were I to go down … and the faded, pale, life jackets asking for a mend of buckles and life themselves didn’t do the trick either… I wasn’t going on this one…
I take my step out of this boat. After so much time spent on finding one and haggle and coax, I felt sorry for Gulshan but as much as I was anxious and dying to step onto a boat which would take me to the spot where I m determined to cleanse my soul, I couldn’t step into it. ‘Maybe,another carrier, I thought but this one, not in this lifetime!’
I step out
My local companion runs behind me with diffidence and helplessness…he says, ‘you wait madame, I’ll do something!
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He does eventually find a boat for me, albeit, with an extra top-up ; the boatman said he’ll reach me to where the Triveni confluence occurs!
Hurray!!! (With renewed self belief!)
I find a suitable jacket
And a boatman suitable for his job
Later, I thank him for rising up to a job profile which requires trust be honoured & earned by performance. He said he’ll fix a motor very soon on his boat.
I found the perfect females’ company.
This was a good blessed day!
Thanking the Indian Army Facility.
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I was staying with a welcoming family which offered me tea and snacks and a let me in into their living space for both evenings with ‘अतिथि देवो भव‘ candor.
Julie, as the doting mother of three beautiful children and a loving husband is fondly known, invites me in for a delicious opportunity of Chai, Chat n chakli, which after an eventful day of the Snan felt like just the way I would want to end my day, on such occasions.Someone to talk to about everything because the stimuli were so much! Julie told me she cannot stand crowd and talked with great self pride as she refers to herself as ‘Hum’, which I absolutely loved.It was absolutely with admiration and gratitude, I listened as she recounted her sprees into the city with her family. That her family loves her, was so evident in the way she spoke about everything.
