View of Nar-Narayan Parvat

People used to say that it is necessary to get call from destination, otherwise you can not go there. I do not know whether the destination called or not?, but I know very well that my three friends did not want to ruin coming consecutive holidays. Seeing their faces, it felt like all three will be enlighten on these three days holidays, and maybe even me along with them.

Their talk had changed the weather and now my condition was so weird. They used to talk about these three holidays from morning to evening. So far we three did not know what to do with these three golden days?. When the time passed gradually, the result came out.

One said, "Lets Go Badrinath Dham".
Me, "Which Dham and Where to Go?".

Badrinath Temple

Now his words were going beyond my understanding. Sometimes I got blanked as Bose has refused to pay the salary of this month. "This is Badrinath temple", Rajat sir said after showing the photo. I lost myself while looking at the photo which was showing the view of snow covered mountains. "Do you understand what I am saying to you?", these words of Rajat Sir brought me back to the computer screen. What did they explain?, I did not have any idea, but yes...now it was very clear that anyhow and on any cost we have to go there.

Rajat Sir was leading the entire plan in front of us, according to which, we will go to Kashmiri Gate direct from the office on Wednesday 13th October 2010, from there the bus will take us to the very famous Haridwar and then by changing bus from there directly to Badrinath. "How is you plan?". Pravin seems like an lost kid, but I only thought that "who gave so much information to Rajat Sir about this place?". We both agreed to the plan like a nice boy.

According to the details provided by the Master (we called Rajat sir as Master), I prepared a bag containing 2 pairs of clothes, hair oil, toothbrush, towel, jacket and a underwear. Reached the office on time where Pravin and Master were standing at gate with two heavy bags.

My friends Rajat and Praveen

Today, I was not in the mood of work. It had been landscape flying in my thoughts since last few days. After finishing all the works we were ready to move after shaking hands with office colleagues. Even today, remembering the faces of all of them, seeing their expressions, it seemed as though NASA had betrayed with them and gave us the chance to go to the moon.

We left for the Haridwar from the evening bus of 7:30pm. We have not reached anywhere yet, but inside the chest, the heart was beating such fast like the chest would get blow by the heart beats. The bus got stuck in the famous jam of Delhi. Nowadays, Delhi is hosting the Commonwealth Games of this year (2010) that's why we faced little jam.

I was dreaming when the bus stopped, "Where have we reached?", I asked, "Come Rohit have some food", the words of Pravin gave the answer. We were in Muzaffarnagar and it would take a few hours to reach Haridwar.
I do not know whether I have come to this place before or not but everything here is giving me a sense of belonging. After an eight hour journey, the bus unloaded us at 3:30am in the morning at Haridwar bus stand.

Somewhere at Haridwar

The temperature was freezing here, I immediately protected myself by wearing jacket, the other two friends copied the move. "Let's find a taxi", master said, without talking to the master, both of us were walking behind him. "I thought that according to the plan, we had to take bus, suddenly from where did this taxi come?", Pravin asked the same question from Master.

"The road is closed further, due to the landslide, it will be closed just for a few days", one taxi driver told us. "On this trip if we will not hire the taxi then the journey is over here, what do you say?". We had been came so far now and feeling enthusiastic about this journey. Now no force in the world could prevent us from reaching Badrinath. "Lets hire a taxi", both of us said in one voice.

We spent entire 3 hours to looking for a budget taxi. 8000 INR (115 USD) was too much amount for person like me who was getting only 5000 INR (77 USD) per month, but the good thing was that we were three. An emergency meeting was organized next to the Ganga river, under which it was decided that "if we get a taxi for up to 6000 thousand INR (85 USD) then we will book the taxi, what do you say guys?", both of us took a deep breath and said 'YES'.

The taxi driver was probably waiting for the results of our meeting, only then in next 10 minutes we all were in all the cab. It was a Tata-Indigo car that 'Govind Singh' was the driving.

"The taxi was completely clean from inside and we were totally dirty from the outside, the tires were dirty from outside and we were from the inside". On starting the car cab driver shouts, "Jo Bole So Nihal - Sat Sri Akal" (Whoever utters, shall be fulfilled, eternal is the Holy/Great timeless lord), behind Master and Pravin I also repeated his words by saying "Jai Bhairon Baba ki" (Hindu Lord Name), listening to our cheer.

The Happiness Being at Himalaya

The shorty Govind ji ("Ji" we use in India to give respect), who is living in Haridwar, has been driving a taxi for the last several years, and knows the entire roads of India. Gurnabanis (Sikh Holy Poems) were going on inside and the outside the Ganga was flowing. Soon we crossed the traffic and reached Rishikesh where driver filled the gas in taxi.

We did not even know the ABCD of the mountains, so we were repeatedly questioning to Govind ji. Out of nothing, we only knew one thing that both of us would give 2000 INR (29 USD) and the rest of all amount master will pay because his salary was a little more than the two of us.As the vehicle going ahead, the heat also increased, so our jackets were again locked in bag. At 9am. we crossed the Rishikesh. I did not know by which route we were going but wanted to know so much about when would these hill road end?. I started dizziness, so I closed my eyes and Slept.

13 Kms before Srinagar

Bus stopped, people are roaming from here to there, some are drinking juice and some are smoking. Master said that we have reached 'Devprayag'. Everyone ate something, I just got a lime juice.

As soon as we started moving forward, we had seen an unusual view that even the eyelids stopped blinking. On the one side the water is green, and on the other side water is grey. I lost my all senses by seeing this magical view, Master told me, 'This is Devprayag, there is a confluence of Alaknanda and Bhagirathi river, from here on wards, this river is called 'Holy Mother Ganga'. For me everything was strange, "now how did Srinagar shift from Kashmir to Uttarakhand?".

Govind ji totally got me and immediately responded "Paji Ki Hoya? (What happen brother?), This is Srinagar of Uttarakhand, not of Kashmir", that means there are 2 Srinagar in our country India, one in Kashmir and second here in Uttarakhand.

The Ganga river at Srinagar

I liked this city because all the facilities are available to the locals here. While on one side the river was cutting the edges and making space for herself, in the same way, the future of education was also increasing in this city.

Moving forward, then another Prayag (Confluence) came. According to the information given by Master, we were crossing the second out of 5 Prayags, which is 'Rudraprayag'. Here is the confluence of 'Alaknanda' and 'Mandakini river'. The third Prayag came after the lunch, 'Karnprayag', there is a mix of 'Alaknanda' and 'Pindar river'.

The blessings from Himalaya

It was little ahead and we faced a big land slide. There was a long traffic jam like Delhi. The entire road after Karanpryag was broken like the hell. It was dust and stone empire. It was a long queue, some driver were busy honking to other cars, some were smoking and some were talking to each other, while some were shouting on JCB driver for late coming. After clearing the road, me and Praveen handled the situation and helped to clear the traffic. It took 3 hours to get out from there.

JCB clearing the landslide

In the pink shadows of the sun we crossed the fourth Prayag 'Nandprayag', according to the taxi driver, 'Alaknanda' and 'Nandakini river' left on the long journey to the sea by melting with each other here. "I wish to go on a journey to search myself from deep inside."

"The headlights were shutted down, the key came out from the keyhole, and the bags came out from the trunk". We have arrived but this is not our destination, but it is part of that. After rented a room of 600 INR (9 USD), we all had dinner while enjoying the closing ceremony of the Commonwealth Games.

The Destination

Love Nature, Love Himalaya

"Welcome to Chamoli"

Rest in next part. Till then stay tuned friends.