[ This post is a continued from my previuos post Bangalore to Gangotri ]
Day 3:: May 23rd-Friday :: Gangotri- New Tehri
We rise at 6.00 am. The first thing I do is , open the door and catch the early morning view of the beautiful mountains behind our room ...all covered with fog and mist. Perfect way to start the day!!
After getting fresh, we went to the bus stop and collected our tickets to Gaurikund (Kedarnath base camp) .We had paid little advance money previous day and made the booking. (Since traffic jams are very common here, tickets are issued, only after the bus arrives at the bus stop.) The person who issued the ticket told that, it will take one and half days to reach Gaurikund. He told there is an alternate shorter route, which takes only a days journey. But the bus does not take that route, because, there are more chances of landslides there, hence more chances of delays. He told the bus will go to Sri-Nagar by evening and after spending the night there, will continue next morning and reach Gaurikund by 3 in the afternoon. Since we had no time deadlines, we did not mind the bus taking the long route.
Our bus was scheduled to depart at 8.00 am. It was just 7.00 am. So we had enough time to complete one task which we forgot previous day. Its a ritual to carry Ganga jal from Gangotri and pour it on shiva ling during the pooja in Kedarnath. So we went to Ganga ghats of temple again, and collected Ganga Jal in a Bisleri bottle. Then we had breakfast at a roadside dhaba. We both had just recovered from viral fever and throat infection. We were still on anti-biotics. But the wonderful sight of many hot samosas frying in a huuuge kadai, just made us forget about everything and we thought "Lets go for it"!! When eating it ,we realized, it was totally worth it !! And I was shocked with what I was seeing. The man who was frying the samosas, was also making some dough and once in every minute, he was directly immersing his hand in the hot oil, boiling with the samosas!! I thought of asking him how he manages to do that, but then, he seemed to be too busy for it, so just started walking towards our bus.
When we reached our bus, we were shocked to see the crowd. The people in the entire bus, seemed to be from one family !!! And in reality, it was almost true. They were all farmers from a small village in UP...so almost like one big family. We had got the 2 seats in first row, right next to the front steps of the bus. We were very happy with our seats, because, it gave lots of leg space for our long legs!! There was one bengali family, in the cabin of the bus, on the long side seat near the driver. So apart from we two and the bengalis, everyone else in the bus, belonged to the farmers community. :)
So our journey was never silent. It was full time noisy. They were talking in the typical village style hindi...loud and clear enough for everyone in bus to understand. Some ladies were singing bhajans all day......and some were all time pulling each others legs with weird slogans and comments.....it was full day entertainment. I was again happy with our decision of choosing to travel on our own on these buses....because how else would I have this rare chance of observing people from different communities??
But soon....I started re-thinking if it was the right thing we chose to do!! Because, driver of our bus was very careless with his driving and he seemed highly frustrated. The entire journey between all CharDham is highly risky. As its all on highly curved roads, with a blind spot at every second, on very narrow and fragile roads, high on Himalayan ranges. This being the case, its very important to drive with high caution, honking at every curve without fail, and most importantly, driver has to keep a cool head all time. And when two buses face each other on road, the situation gets highly delicate, as the road is barely enough for two buses to pass. So the bus towards the mountain, gets as close to the mountain as possible, so that bus on the risky , open side has enough space to pass safely. This is the most common thing during the journey. The conductor of the bus, has a big role to play in such situation , as he has to guide the driver with how much space is left on the left hand side. Obviously, the driver cannot determine this , as he sits on the right hand side of the bus.
This being the case, our bus had highly dangerous combination of "frustrated driver with lazy conductor who do not trust each other" !!! Our driver was honking only once in 10 blind spots, our conductor was observing the left side and warning the driver only once in 10 delicate situation and even when the driver is warned not to come to left, he would not care and take the bus more to the left side.....taking the wheel sometimes on the last stone of the cliff!!!
I wished I had got a different seat. Because my journey was getting highly stressful just within 2 hours !! Our seat was on left hand side of the bus , next to the steps. So I could see very clearly when the wheels of our bus was almost in air !!! Also I could see the road ahead and the blind curves very well....and to make things worst, I could also listen to the driver-conductor conversation of anger and mutual dis-trust. I remembered all the wonderful, caring drivers and conductors of my previous journey and sent them a thank you in air and also a sorry for not realizing their importance earlier !!
Others in the bus too started feeling the fear. We all joined and told the driver to relax and drive carefully and honk at every curve. We tried telling it humorously, seriously, pleadingly.......but none of it worked. Infact, we felt he got more frustrated, so we gave it up. Then I just thought "Let him do his job, and I will do mine. I cant get out of the bus as no other buses are available from half way. So when there is no other option, let me try to enjoy this, I am sure god will save us". With this self conversation, I felt a little de-stressed and tried to stop my 'virtual-driving'. I then diverted my attention to nature...observing the beauty of wonderful ranges outside, the valley, the sky , the trees. I also started talking to Gautham about various topics on earth and Yeah....not to forget, In my mind, I started saying all the prayers I know :) Need not say, this really cooled me down !!!
Finally we reached Bhatwadi and stopped for lunch. After having a delicious baingan bhartha and dal roti, we started back in bus. In no time we reached Uttarkashi, but it started raining very heavily there. This was the last thing required to make our already bad journey, worst !! It was pouring and caused big traffic jams in Uttarkashi city. After about an hour of moving at snails pace, we got out of city and back to the curved roads of hills which were more dangerous due to the rains. I could again see stress building at the back of my mind and I tried best to suppress it. Luckily, the rain reduced and gradually stopped after about another hour.
Ohh...how could I forget to mention this!! Whenever any delicate situation arises, like our bus facing another bus, the villagers in our bus had a wonderful way of cheering up or I better say wonderful way of de-stressing. All scream at the top of their voice " Bolo Ganga maayi ki....Jai!!" "Bolo Kedar Baba ki ....Jai" ....and they would start singing some bhajans like "Aate hai bhagawan bhakthon dheer dharo" They seemed to be the most relaxed folks on bus !!! Lots to learn from them!!!
Our journey continued the same way, till evening. At 6.30 it started getting dark. Night driving is prohibitted everywhere on hills, obviously for the greater risks it involves. So we asked the conductor to stop at Chamba. But driver told he will stop at Nayi Tehri. So in the dark, from 7.00 to 8.00 the scary journey continued further and we finally reached Nayi Tehri. It was greatest relief to get down from the bus!! The place where we were taken, was not over-crowded by tourists. So for Rs 200 , we got a decent room. First reasonable priced hotel in our journey so far!! We had a nice dinner in a small dhaba, and slept at 9.00. After a highly stressful journey, It was a bliss to hit the bed and sleep. :)
Day 4 :: May 24th-Saturday:: New Tehri-AgasthyaMuni
Bus was supposed to start at 6.00. We were on time, but no one else came on time. The villagers started coming one by one slowly and the Bengali family were the last one to come. Most of the villagers were aged, and had a tough time climbing the steps of the bus. Since we were sitting near the steps, we helped most of them with their luggage, when they were climbing. I wondered how these aged folks will walk up 14 kms later during the day to reach Kedarnath temple !!
Our bus finally started at 7.00 am. Our driver seemed to be a little relaxed today. We were happy seeing that. When our journey started, we had wonderful sights of Tehri dam and our conductor was giving us the details. The city of Tehri was immersed in the dam. The entire city was re-constructed high on the hill again, and hence the name New-Tehri or Nayi Tehri.
A view of the Tehri Dam ....Hydro-Electricity projects are going on in full swing here.
The roads near Nayi-Tehri are very well constructed, as they have been done recently. The journey is very scenic , but its awesome to see how technology has been used to control nature. At some places, you see that Ganga is vanished. Thats because Ganges has been diverted entirely through huge tunnels hidden within the mountains!! We were also told that, the hydro-electric plants are all inside the mountains. So beneath the green sheet of trees , there lies multi-storeyed maze like structures, all inside the mountains!!! Amazing right??
So with all this discussion, and some nice bit of photography, we reached Sri-Nagar at about 11.00 am. Sri-Nagar is quite a big city with lots of schools and colleges. Our bus had just crossed the city and reached 3 kms ahead, when there was a "SURPRIIISE!! " . Our bus stopped at the side of the road and we got to know that there is a land-slide ahead and hence all vehicles blocked. We were not sure if it was rumor or truth, so we just waited for some more time in bus. After about half an hour, when there was no signs of traffic easing, we got down from bus. I was very hungry due to not having breakfast, so we thought of using this time for lunch!! But since we had come 3 kms ahead of city, there were no hotels/dhabas here. Going back to Srinagar would be stupidity, as if traffic eases, bus will move ahead. So we both started walking ahead and told the bus folks to pick us up on the way, if traffic eases.
In scorching sun, we started walking looking for Dhabas. We walked for about 1 and half kms, not finding even a single dhaba, but only ready made snacks shop. At about 12.00 traffic seemed to ease little, and our bus picked us from where we were. But in less than half a km ahead, traffic was stagnant again. We both again started our dhaba hunt, and luckily we found a place where there were a few dhabas.
We went in and had a yummy lunch. Roti, dal, sabzi!! And we were indeed very lucky, because just when we were having our lunch, many hungry stomachs came in search of food, and all were disappointed, because the food was empty. So we realized what we had just now was the last bit of food.
When we curiously asked Dhaba wala as to why he did not cook more, he told the jam is there from previous night after the rains, and so he has ran out of groceries to cook further. We realized that the traffic jam is far ahead than we had thought. It was 12.30 in the afternoon, temperature very high, roads were very very dusty. So we thought of spending some time in dhaba and sat there looking at the people walking here and there on road in search of food and drinking water. We were truly lucky to have lunch at right time.
We were wondering at the irresponsibility of the traffic police. The landslide happened previous evening and yet, traffic was not diverted before Sri-Nagar (There was an alternate route just before Sri-Nagar) Atleast traffic could have been with-held at Sri-Nagar to help people find food and water comfortably. Then we started laughing at the irony that, our bus driver had avoided all possible earlier shorter routes to escape landslides....and here we are, on the longest and so called safest route stuck up due to landslides!! There is no escape from nature !!!!
After about an hour, we heard rumors about traffic being eased. Even though we did not believe this much, fearing that we will miss our bus, we walked back to our bus. I got into the bus. Most of the women were in the bus and men were loitering outside.
Traffic jam actually helped breaking the ice between all of us!!! The Bengali family, the farmers family and I started interacting for the very first time. We all mutually spoke about the where-abouts of our families. Got to know that our guess that they were farmers was true. They told potato is their main produce. When I asked them why none of them had lunch, they told they all had home made dal snacks and also that they have enough food to survive even 4 days of traffic jam!! I was amazed!!!. We leave home thinking we have enough money to buy anything anywhere. They leave home making sure they don't have to buy anything anywhere.
Then our driver the great joined our conversation. When Bengali ladies asked him about the jam, he told "Yeh toh kuch nahin, pichle season toh hum aise hi ek hafthe raasthe par phass gaye thein"!! Meaning...."This is no big deal, last season, I was stuck in a jam like this on road for one week" !!! We all laughed out loud and the ladies asked him to shut his mouth and told "shubh shubh boliye" !!
This is the group of farmers from same village in our bus!!
We were done with our chit-chat and after that, time seemed to freeze. It was 4.00 in the evening and no signs of any traffic ease. Then it so happened that any silly event too, started entertaining all of us. May it be a small puppy running around on road, or may it be a big digger at the edge of the mountain digging stones and throwing in valley below it. After some time the farmers opened their food bags and they shared home made snacks with us too. They offered it with so much warmth that it was tough to decline it !!
Can You spot a yellow road digger doing its job??
Finally at 6.30 in the evening, traffic started moving!!! After few subsequent small jams, finally we passed through the land slide spot. Actually there were two land slides not very far from each other. So with this our 11-6.30 traffic jam came to an end :)
Long chain of vehicles waiting to move.
We were no doubt happy that traffic eased, but our real concern was about the drive ahead as it was getting dark. We all told conductor to stop at RudraPrayag overnight, as its quite a big city and so we can manage to get rooms and dormitories. When we reached Rudra-Prayag at about 7.30, it was over-crowded with vehicles. This was quite obvious, because all vehicles preferred it just like us. Our driver told that he will find it very difficult to park the bus here, so he told lets go ahead and check out.
We soon understood, it was a mistake that we let driver cross RudryaPrayag. The roads ahead were very very bad. I better say non-existant!! It was pitch dark and we could not see how high on hill we had come. And in this situation, when extra caution is required to drive, our driver started his weird behavior again. Whenever conductor warns him not to come further to the side, he had to come to the side to prove him wrong. There were so many times my heart literally skipped the beats. We stopped in between at couple of small hotels asking for rooms, but all of them were full. Then came Rampur, where everyone hoped to get rooms. There were rooms here, obviously over-priced. We both and Bengali family agreed, but the others in the bus did not like this place as the dormitories were also way too expensive. Since they were in majority, we had to oblige.
They told there is a place called AgasthyaMuni next where we have chances of getting rooms. So we started again, roads getting worst and driver getting more careless. I must admit, this was the most frustrating and scariest time of my entire journey. There was nothing to divert my attention from his driving, because all I could see was darkness outside. Traveling after 7.30 is banned in the hills for the obvious high risk it involves. I was asking Gautham how cum no one stops our driver even if its 8.15 !! There were hardly any vehicles on road. I was reaching heights of my patience and told Gautham that "Never ever will we travel like this again, because our lives are too good to give it in hands of such idiot drivers". Finally at 8.45 pm my prayers were answered and we saw police stop our bus near AgasthyaMuni. Ahh!! The sight of police had never bought so much happiness with it, as it did that day !! I was the happiest when the fence stopped us from moving ahead!!
We went out and saw that there are very few hotels there and all were full. We anyway had no hopes of finding rooms. We were absolutely okay with spending the night in bus. The Bengali family was quite desperate about not getting a room. They spoke to some govt officer there and he offered to give his room in his guest-house. There were two rooms and the Bengalis asked us to share it. But the price the officer was charging, was way above Un-reasonable, so we declined it and got excited about the never-before experience of spending night in a stationary bus ;-) Later got to know that the Bengalis too declined it. A man in their group told us "Deluxe hotel rooms are waiting for us in Gaurikund and we are sleeping on streets". They had done all the bookings previously.
And about our farmer friends. The moment they got down from the bus, most of them, especially aged ones, went to few closed shop corridors, opened their hand-made thin bed-spreads, opened their blankets and went for a cozy sleep!!! Sometimes I envy their simplicity !! Their requirements are so minimal and very little things to worry about in life. Again...Lots to learn from them !!!
We had dinner in a dhaba. Due to the un-expected crowd, our roti and dal was much like roti and water !! But we were so hungry that, it totally tasted like heaven!!
Ladies with young girls and small babies slept in the bus just like us. We locked the bus door for everyones safety (we were the door keepers ;-) and spent the night sitting on/below our seat. This experience still brings a smile on my face :)
Day 5:: 25th-Sunday :: AgasthyaMuni-Gaurikund
After a half-wake, half-sleep night, we waited for time to be 4.30 am. At 4.30 we walked out and woke up everyone from our bus sleeping at different places. Some on bus roof top, some on corridors, some in a dhaba and ofcourse some in bus. All got in and luckily, the bus started at 5.00 am as desired.
Driver stopped for tea at 6.30 am. But luckily or un-luckily, there was a borewell there and seeing this, most of the farmer friends got down from the bus with their tumblers, and also they started having their bath then and there and more-over few started washing their clothes !! Our driver kept honking for them to come back, but they had absolutely no reason to hurry, because they have no deadline to do anything !!! They are the most relaxed travelers!!! (In a way its good!!) Then the Bengali ladies started making lots of noise about the un-necessary delays and after this, they started getting back to bus one by one. So a 5 minute tea break , turned to 45 minutes tea break. I was wondering how we people from city are always getting late for one thing or other( its become a habit) and I pondered hard to find things for which these folks hurry in a village.
There was lots of small traffic jams of about half an hour at GuptaKashi and SonPrayag. To fill in anything missing, our bus hit a car slightly when one of the jams eased. All the four in the car got down and created a huuuuuuuuge drama about it. This created further traffic jam and police had to come to ask the car driver to move ahead with his car. We in the bus, started making fun of the entire situation and started laughing!!
So after all this never-before experience, we finally finally finally reached Gaurikund at 12.00 PM !!
[To be continued in my next post ....]
Day 3:: May 23rd-Friday :: Gangotri- New Tehri
We rise at 6.00 am. The first thing I do is , open the door and catch the early morning view of the beautiful mountains behind our room ...all covered with fog and mist. Perfect way to start the day!!
After getting fresh, we went to the bus stop and collected our tickets to Gaurikund (Kedarnath base camp) .We had paid little advance money previous day and made the booking. (Since traffic jams are very common here, tickets are issued, only after the bus arrives at the bus stop.) The person who issued the ticket told that, it will take one and half days to reach Gaurikund. He told there is an alternate shorter route, which takes only a days journey. But the bus does not take that route, because, there are more chances of landslides there, hence more chances of delays. He told the bus will go to Sri-Nagar by evening and after spending the night there, will continue next morning and reach Gaurikund by 3 in the afternoon. Since we had no time deadlines, we did not mind the bus taking the long route.Our bus was scheduled to depart at 8.00 am. It was just 7.00 am. So we had enough time to complete one task which we forgot previous day. Its a ritual to carry Ganga jal from Gangotri and pour it on shiva ling during the pooja in Kedarnath. So we went to Ganga ghats of temple again, and collected Ganga Jal in a Bisleri bottle. Then we had breakfast at a roadside dhaba. We both had just recovered from viral fever and throat infection. We were still on anti-biotics. But the wonderful sight of many hot samosas frying in a huuuge kadai, just made us forget about everything and we thought "Lets go for it"!! When eating it ,we realized, it was totally worth it !! And I was shocked with what I was seeing. The man who was frying the samosas, was also making some dough and once in every minute, he was directly immersing his hand in the hot oil, boiling with the samosas!! I thought of asking him how he manages to do that, but then, he seemed to be too busy for it, so just started walking towards our bus.
When we reached our bus, we were shocked to see the crowd. The people in the entire bus, seemed to be from one family !!! And in reality, it was almost true. They were all farmers from a small village in UP...so almost like one big family. We had got the 2 seats in first row, right next to the front steps of the bus. We were very happy with our seats, because, it gave lots of leg space for our long legs!! There was one bengali family, in the cabin of the bus, on the long side seat near the driver. So apart from we two and the bengalis, everyone else in the bus, belonged to the farmers community. :)
So our journey was never silent. It was full time noisy. They were talking in the typical village style hindi...loud and clear enough for everyone in bus to understand. Some ladies were singing bhajans all day......and some were all time pulling each others legs with weird slogans and comments.....it was full day entertainment. I was again happy with our decision of choosing to travel on our own on these buses....because how else would I have this rare chance of observing people from different communities??
But soon....I started re-thinking if it was the right thing we chose to do!! Because, driver of our bus was very careless with his driving and he seemed highly frustrated. The entire journey between all CharDham is highly risky. As its all on highly curved roads, with a blind spot at every second, on very narrow and fragile roads, high on Himalayan ranges. This being the case, its very important to drive with high caution, honking at every curve without fail, and most importantly, driver has to keep a cool head all time. And when two buses face each other on road, the situation gets highly delicate, as the road is barely enough for two buses to pass. So the bus towards the mountain, gets as close to the mountain as possible, so that bus on the risky , open side has enough space to pass safely. This is the most common thing during the journey. The conductor of the bus, has a big role to play in such situation , as he has to guide the driver with how much space is left on the left hand side. Obviously, the driver cannot determine this , as he sits on the right hand side of the bus.
This being the case, our bus had highly dangerous combination of "frustrated driver with lazy conductor who do not trust each other" !!! Our driver was honking only once in 10 blind spots, our conductor was observing the left side and warning the driver only once in 10 delicate situation and even when the driver is warned not to come to left, he would not care and take the bus more to the left side.....taking the wheel sometimes on the last stone of the cliff!!!
I wished I had got a different seat. Because my journey was getting highly stressful just within 2 hours !! Our seat was on left hand side of the bus , next to the steps. So I could see very clearly when the wheels of our bus was almost in air !!! Also I could see the road ahead and the blind curves very well....and to make things worst, I could also listen to the driver-conductor conversation of anger and mutual dis-trust. I remembered all the wonderful, caring drivers and conductors of my previous journey and sent them a thank you in air and also a sorry for not realizing their importance earlier !!
Others in the bus too started feeling the fear. We all joined and told the driver to relax and drive carefully and honk at every curve. We tried telling it humorously, seriously, pleadingly.......but none of it worked. Infact, we felt he got more frustrated, so we gave it up. Then I just thought "Let him do his job, and I will do mine. I cant get out of the bus as no other buses are available from half way. So when there is no other option, let me try to enjoy this, I am sure god will save us". With this self conversation, I felt a little de-stressed and tried to stop my 'virtual-driving'. I then diverted my attention to nature...observing the beauty of wonderful ranges outside, the valley, the sky , the trees. I also started talking to Gautham about various topics on earth and Yeah....not to forget, In my mind, I started saying all the prayers I know :) Need not say, this really cooled me down !!!
Finally we reached Bhatwadi and stopped for lunch. After having a delicious baingan bhartha and dal roti, we started back in bus. In no time we reached Uttarkashi, but it started raining very heavily there. This was the last thing required to make our already bad journey, worst !! It was pouring and caused big traffic jams in Uttarkashi city. After about an hour of moving at snails pace, we got out of city and back to the curved roads of hills which were more dangerous due to the rains. I could again see stress building at the back of my mind and I tried best to suppress it. Luckily, the rain reduced and gradually stopped after about another hour.
Ohh...how could I forget to mention this!! Whenever any delicate situation arises, like our bus facing another bus, the villagers in our bus had a wonderful way of cheering up or I better say wonderful way of de-stressing. All scream at the top of their voice " Bolo Ganga maayi ki....Jai!!" "Bolo Kedar Baba ki ....Jai" ....and they would start singing some bhajans like "Aate hai bhagawan bhakthon dheer dharo" They seemed to be the most relaxed folks on bus !!! Lots to learn from them!!!
Our journey continued the same way, till evening. At 6.30 it started getting dark. Night driving is prohibitted everywhere on hills, obviously for the greater risks it involves. So we asked the conductor to stop at Chamba. But driver told he will stop at Nayi Tehri. So in the dark, from 7.00 to 8.00 the scary journey continued further and we finally reached Nayi Tehri. It was greatest relief to get down from the bus!! The place where we were taken, was not over-crowded by tourists. So for Rs 200 , we got a decent room. First reasonable priced hotel in our journey so far!! We had a nice dinner in a small dhaba, and slept at 9.00. After a highly stressful journey, It was a bliss to hit the bed and sleep. :)
Day 4 :: May 24th-Saturday:: New Tehri-AgasthyaMuni
Bus was supposed to start at 6.00. We were on time, but no one else came on time. The villagers started coming one by one slowly and the Bengali family were the last one to come. Most of the villagers were aged, and had a tough time climbing the steps of the bus. Since we were sitting near the steps, we helped most of them with their luggage, when they were climbing. I wondered how these aged folks will walk up 14 kms later during the day to reach Kedarnath temple !!
Our bus finally started at 7.00 am. Our driver seemed to be a little relaxed today. We were happy seeing that. When our journey started, we had wonderful sights of Tehri dam and our conductor was giving us the details. The city of Tehri was immersed in the dam. The entire city was re-constructed high on the hill again, and hence the name New-Tehri or Nayi Tehri.
A view of the Tehri Dam ....Hydro-Electricity projects are going on in full swing here.The roads near Nayi-Tehri are very well constructed, as they have been done recently. The journey is very scenic , but its awesome to see how technology has been used to control nature. At some places, you see that Ganga is vanished. Thats because Ganges has been diverted entirely through huge tunnels hidden within the mountains!! We were also told that, the hydro-electric plants are all inside the mountains. So beneath the green sheet of trees , there lies multi-storeyed maze like structures, all inside the mountains!!! Amazing right??
So with all this discussion, and some nice bit of photography, we reached Sri-Nagar at about 11.00 am. Sri-Nagar is quite a big city with lots of schools and colleges. Our bus had just crossed the city and reached 3 kms ahead, when there was a "SURPRIIISE!! " . Our bus stopped at the side of the road and we got to know that there is a land-slide ahead and hence all vehicles blocked. We were not sure if it was rumor or truth, so we just waited for some more time in bus. After about half an hour, when there was no signs of traffic easing, we got down from bus. I was very hungry due to not having breakfast, so we thought of using this time for lunch!! But since we had come 3 kms ahead of city, there were no hotels/dhabas here. Going back to Srinagar would be stupidity, as if traffic eases, bus will move ahead. So we both started walking ahead and told the bus folks to pick us up on the way, if traffic eases.
In scorching sun, we started walking looking for Dhabas. We walked for about 1 and half kms, not finding even a single dhaba, but only ready made snacks shop. At about 12.00 traffic seemed to ease little, and our bus picked us from where we were. But in less than half a km ahead, traffic was stagnant again. We both again started our dhaba hunt, and luckily we found a place where there were a few dhabas.
We went in and had a yummy lunch. Roti, dal, sabzi!! And we were indeed very lucky, because just when we were having our lunch, many hungry stomachs came in search of food, and all were disappointed, because the food was empty. So we realized what we had just now was the last bit of food.
When we curiously asked Dhaba wala as to why he did not cook more, he told the jam is there from previous night after the rains, and so he has ran out of groceries to cook further. We realized that the traffic jam is far ahead than we had thought. It was 12.30 in the afternoon, temperature very high, roads were very very dusty. So we thought of spending some time in dhaba and sat there looking at the people walking here and there on road in search of food and drinking water. We were truly lucky to have lunch at right time.
We were wondering at the irresponsibility of the traffic police. The landslide happened previous evening and yet, traffic was not diverted before Sri-Nagar (There was an alternate route just before Sri-Nagar) Atleast traffic could have been with-held at Sri-Nagar to help people find food and water comfortably. Then we started laughing at the irony that, our bus driver had avoided all possible earlier shorter routes to escape landslides....and here we are, on the longest and so called safest route stuck up due to landslides!! There is no escape from nature !!!!
After about an hour, we heard rumors about traffic being eased. Even though we did not believe this much, fearing that we will miss our bus, we walked back to our bus. I got into the bus. Most of the women were in the bus and men were loitering outside.
Traffic jam actually helped breaking the ice between all of us!!! The Bengali family, the farmers family and I started interacting for the very first time. We all mutually spoke about the where-abouts of our families. Got to know that our guess that they were farmers was true. They told potato is their main produce. When I asked them why none of them had lunch, they told they all had home made dal snacks and also that they have enough food to survive even 4 days of traffic jam!! I was amazed!!!. We leave home thinking we have enough money to buy anything anywhere. They leave home making sure they don't have to buy anything anywhere.
Then our driver the great joined our conversation. When Bengali ladies asked him about the jam, he told "Yeh toh kuch nahin, pichle season toh hum aise hi ek hafthe raasthe par phass gaye thein"!! Meaning...."This is no big deal, last season, I was stuck in a jam like this on road for one week" !!! We all laughed out loud and the ladies asked him to shut his mouth and told "shubh shubh boliye" !!
This is the group of farmers from same village in our bus!!We were done with our chit-chat and after that, time seemed to freeze. It was 4.00 in the evening and no signs of any traffic ease. Then it so happened that any silly event too, started entertaining all of us. May it be a small puppy running around on road, or may it be a big digger at the edge of the mountain digging stones and throwing in valley below it. After some time the farmers opened their food bags and they shared home made snacks with us too. They offered it with so much warmth that it was tough to decline it !!
Can You spot a yellow road digger doing its job??Finally at 6.30 in the evening, traffic started moving!!! After few subsequent small jams, finally we passed through the land slide spot. Actually there were two land slides not very far from each other. So with this our 11-6.30 traffic jam came to an end :)
Long chain of vehicles waiting to move.We were no doubt happy that traffic eased, but our real concern was about the drive ahead as it was getting dark. We all told conductor to stop at RudraPrayag overnight, as its quite a big city and so we can manage to get rooms and dormitories. When we reached Rudra-Prayag at about 7.30, it was over-crowded with vehicles. This was quite obvious, because all vehicles preferred it just like us. Our driver told that he will find it very difficult to park the bus here, so he told lets go ahead and check out.
We soon understood, it was a mistake that we let driver cross RudryaPrayag. The roads ahead were very very bad. I better say non-existant!! It was pitch dark and we could not see how high on hill we had come. And in this situation, when extra caution is required to drive, our driver started his weird behavior again. Whenever conductor warns him not to come further to the side, he had to come to the side to prove him wrong. There were so many times my heart literally skipped the beats. We stopped in between at couple of small hotels asking for rooms, but all of them were full. Then came Rampur, where everyone hoped to get rooms. There were rooms here, obviously over-priced. We both and Bengali family agreed, but the others in the bus did not like this place as the dormitories were also way too expensive. Since they were in majority, we had to oblige.
They told there is a place called AgasthyaMuni next where we have chances of getting rooms. So we started again, roads getting worst and driver getting more careless. I must admit, this was the most frustrating and scariest time of my entire journey. There was nothing to divert my attention from his driving, because all I could see was darkness outside. Traveling after 7.30 is banned in the hills for the obvious high risk it involves. I was asking Gautham how cum no one stops our driver even if its 8.15 !! There were hardly any vehicles on road. I was reaching heights of my patience and told Gautham that "Never ever will we travel like this again, because our lives are too good to give it in hands of such idiot drivers". Finally at 8.45 pm my prayers were answered and we saw police stop our bus near AgasthyaMuni. Ahh!! The sight of police had never bought so much happiness with it, as it did that day !! I was the happiest when the fence stopped us from moving ahead!!
We went out and saw that there are very few hotels there and all were full. We anyway had no hopes of finding rooms. We were absolutely okay with spending the night in bus. The Bengali family was quite desperate about not getting a room. They spoke to some govt officer there and he offered to give his room in his guest-house. There were two rooms and the Bengalis asked us to share it. But the price the officer was charging, was way above Un-reasonable, so we declined it and got excited about the never-before experience of spending night in a stationary bus ;-) Later got to know that the Bengalis too declined it. A man in their group told us "Deluxe hotel rooms are waiting for us in Gaurikund and we are sleeping on streets". They had done all the bookings previously.
And about our farmer friends. The moment they got down from the bus, most of them, especially aged ones, went to few closed shop corridors, opened their hand-made thin bed-spreads, opened their blankets and went for a cozy sleep!!! Sometimes I envy their simplicity !! Their requirements are so minimal and very little things to worry about in life. Again...Lots to learn from them !!!
We had dinner in a dhaba. Due to the un-expected crowd, our roti and dal was much like roti and water !! But we were so hungry that, it totally tasted like heaven!!
Ladies with young girls and small babies slept in the bus just like us. We locked the bus door for everyones safety (we were the door keepers ;-) and spent the night sitting on/below our seat. This experience still brings a smile on my face :)
Day 5:: 25th-Sunday :: AgasthyaMuni-Gaurikund
After a half-wake, half-sleep night, we waited for time to be 4.30 am. At 4.30 we walked out and woke up everyone from our bus sleeping at different places. Some on bus roof top, some on corridors, some in a dhaba and ofcourse some in bus. All got in and luckily, the bus started at 5.00 am as desired.
Driver stopped for tea at 6.30 am. But luckily or un-luckily, there was a borewell there and seeing this, most of the farmer friends got down from the bus with their tumblers, and also they started having their bath then and there and more-over few started washing their clothes !! Our driver kept honking for them to come back, but they had absolutely no reason to hurry, because they have no deadline to do anything !!! They are the most relaxed travelers!!! (In a way its good!!) Then the Bengali ladies started making lots of noise about the un-necessary delays and after this, they started getting back to bus one by one. So a 5 minute tea break , turned to 45 minutes tea break. I was wondering how we people from city are always getting late for one thing or other( its become a habit) and I pondered hard to find things for which these folks hurry in a village.
There was lots of small traffic jams of about half an hour at GuptaKashi and SonPrayag. To fill in anything missing, our bus hit a car slightly when one of the jams eased. All the four in the car got down and created a huuuuuuuuge drama about it. This created further traffic jam and police had to come to ask the car driver to move ahead with his car. We in the bus, started making fun of the entire situation and started laughing!!
So after all this never-before experience, we finally finally finally reached Gaurikund at 12.00 PM !!
[To be continued in my next post ....]
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