Saturday, March 14, 2009

Ganga, aghori and the holi cow


Random rumination.
Five days sans mobiles, laptops and routine. An evening with Aghoris, camping with pseudo-hippies (the i-phones gave them away) and rafting with absolute strangers. Uzbeki dopeheads know far more about India than I do or ever will. Haridwar serves the best thandai in the world. One must not judge. I must not stereotype. There are very few pleasures that can beat barbequing on the banks of the ganga on a full-moon night. I'm a tiny speck in this universe; a tad philosophical, a tad high, very tired. If you ever need to step out from the drudgery that life is, head to Rishikesh. I have never really been at a loss for words before. The world looks the same suspended upside-down. A thirty foot cliff jump into flowing water at five in the morning, amongst other things, leaves one cold. I still am the same speck.

38 comments:

kamna said...

Looks like u had a good time....ur post sounds weird though. Stop thinking so much... philosophizing never did anyone any good.

Anonymous said...

Awesome man. seems like u had a lot of fun :-)
U hav to write more about the aghoris though.

notgogol said...

@kamu: doesn't do no harm either na :) u need to go there to understand where im coming from :)

@vira: i should. they are amongst the most exotic people ive ever met.

payal.k said...

"The world looks the same suspended upside-down"-Interesting!

errormsg! said...

rishikesh?!! seriously?!! self got back from a week in hardwar-rishkesh, and feels as fresh as the brown paper on new school books :D these two places reveal themselves to you only if THEY feel like it, dont you think? going by that, you are fortunate...and 'upside down'? haha i missed that.
And the nom de plume...whats the story behind yours?

notgogol said...

@payal: yup. its still a very nice place. you must try "upside downing" though. I have quite a few handy tips on easy ways to do it as well. All u need is a rope, a building and a big rock. Interested? :D

@errormsg!: yup. ive traveled a lot but I really have seen few things quite as unique as the Ganga arti.. the foreigners I met knew most of the verses verbatim... and they were uzbeks and croats!!
actually, I believe that how much is revealed depends on how much, far and deep one wants to explore.. THEY can fight you but for how long? :).. you know i actually tend to ramble a lot when it comes to traveling.. i'll prolly bore you out :)

Anonymous said...

itna philosophical kyun ho raha hai mere bhai??? stay happy, stay foolish... suits u well :)... iit educated corporate richboys should leave philosophy to artsy-fartsy BAs like me :D

p.s. di asks you to pick up calls once in a while :P

notgogol said...

u called yourself an artsy-fartsy BA :P U should be ashamed og yourself :P

P.S. tell ur di that unlike her, i dont have the luxury of waking up at lunchtime on a weekday :(

Unknown said...

1. You have to have to write more about the agohoris. I need to read a first hand account, without the drama of Indian News Channels.

2. Psuedo-hippies! yes. I never say No to good gossip.

3. I've been around half the world, and Hardwar remains my absolute favourite. For the times I've been there (I think,6) we stayed in this immensely modest dharmshala, 2 minutes walk from Harki Paudi. I miss it so much, been a while

4. Did you go with a trek club or something? Or friends?

5. Hardward doesn't only have world's best Lassi, the Paneer Pakode have their own heavenly frenzy. Didn't miss it, did you?

This is a loonnggg comment :)

notgogol said...

1. I really cannot to justice to them in a blog man. I mean I barely manage to write anything serious. Yeh thoda mushkil hai :(

2. pseudo but very chill and perennially high hippies :) will write abt them over extended weekend provided i get back to bbay :(

3. been around half the world? nice :) Am not religious so I guess I didn't really appreciate Harki Paudi. On a different note, there was a baba with the largest collection of assorted chillums in the world on the harki paudi bridge.

4. solo from bbay. met up with a bunch I knew and some fascinating people I didn't. fabulous time. did a 7 hour rafting route. usual camping trekking illegal bungeeing :)

5. nope, I missed it. We lived solely on barbecued food (don't ask me how we got meat/fish in haridwar or how we got tequila or how we got what cows eat :P we jus did)

long reply :)

Anonymous said...

Why cant you take a vacation lik a normal person? I still cant understand the logic of choosing hardwar over maldives. you have lost it taran, completely lost it.

entwined said...

The pics be awesomely fabulous...the madras cafe and chillum collection...priceless...doobki maari ki nahi?

Unknown said...

You live in Bombay? In a very Ekta Kapoor inspiration - Kab, Kyun, Kahaan, Kaise Kaise? :P

notgogol said...

@prachi: not ur standard temple waale dubki but my raft overturned a lot so that qualifies as a dubki!

@instinctivecuriosity: yup - why the ekta kapooresque shak?

kab - paanch saal hone ko hai..
kyun - family kicked me outa home
kahan - such information like nancy stories, drunken stories and drunken nancy stories will not be divulged on public forums :)
kaise - life is only friday, saturday and sunday :)

notgogol said...

@anu: Oops. Didn't see ur comment. honest! :D Bored of sun, sand and umbrella hat cocktails. Thats why :)

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Clueless said...

twice i made a plan to that city both times i had to cancel because my busy world wouldnt let me, I guess one goes there only when ur ready for it!

notgogol said...

@clueless: I'm sure you can take out one week in a year re. It's really worth it :)

Anonymous said...

You're a good photographer man!

notgogol said...

Ure kidding right? its all wrong man. bad focus, lighting, angles. Thats what happens when you use trashy point-and shoot cameras :(

errormsg! said...

hey, blogrolled you.

iv been told blogger etiquette demands that i inform/seek permission of said person, so... :)

kamna said...

If his highness has completed his hop skip and jump visits to singa'pur', bang'pur' and hong'pur', he can perhaps grace his subjects with an update...

AtomicGitten said...

Sounds lovely...I always wanted to go to Rishikesh...
You may be a speck but
"... even a single hair stirs the ocean"
-Zen Saying

Poshgit said...

hello hello...look who wasn't dead! :)

on weird food: every tam-bram i mentioned 'tofu in beef sauce' to made the required 'eeeyyyuuu how can you even consider something like beef sauce veg???!!!' face...which i'm takin as an answer to my question until proven otherwise :)

speaking of blogs: i'm much, much worse than you. One was officially killed years ago, one is the result of the gits mass murdering it [shame on us :(], and the other, well...let's jus say it has risen with the risen lord today :) -read all about it-

and i'm assuming you managed to track down atomic, what with all the typo wars :)

p.s. agree with zeba's comment...this is good photography i say!

Poshgit said...

much much worse. baaaad english, that :P

notgogol said...

@kamu: No more travel for this month :D Will update over the weekend.

@atomicgitten: I notice you have updated. I shall read soon :) Also, for some reason too many people are giving me Zen related gyaan about almost everything these days :) I even got Zen gyaan while discussing IPL!

@poshgit: I think I've developed a tam-brahm allergy, especially to the ones in my office :|

on tracking down atomic - wasn't too much of a problem. an (un)intentional typo always stirs her up. likewise with mallu comments :)

P.S. very bad engrish. Check out engrishfunny.com for specimens that are far worse :)

Poshgit said...

engrish funny has renewed my lowe for ze chinese people :)

AtomicGitten said...

Zen is the way to go! (though I don't like the car much)
And hey! You want an audience with me, just ask man: what's all this tracking business?
I look forward to your comments on the updates :)

notgogol said...

@poshgit: they be wely wely ruvable people man :)

@atomicgitten: very bad joke (school level kadi PJ) my mallu friend :|
u dont need to look forward to comments and all.. im already a big fan of ur's and posh's giterature :) honest! :)

notgogol said...

@errormsg! - just 're'read ur comment.. thank u, thank u :) i know this amounts to pot calling the kettle kala and all, but u must blog more often :)

errormsg! said...

lapse of gone way beyond 'momentary' now.

says black kettle to pot: "please to be writing?"

errormsg! said...

*lapse HAS gone

notgogol said...

@errormsg!: yeah re. i know should :| to put a long story short - work be hectic and life be only saturday and sunday, and sometimes just sunday :|

entwined said...

and I thought wanderlusting was inspirin...atleast a lil bit...get urself to write man....like sit down n write....

errormsg! said...

just noticed your 'in flight companion-tokyo cancelled'

have you read his new one 'solo'?

(have to say this, your word verification is 'whort'. heehee.)

notgogol said...

@prachi: Its not actually. Clarification: work travel has nothing to do with wanderlust.

@abagfullofchi: Have you read Tokyo Cancelled? In parts, its a splendid piece of work. He has an uncanny ability to thaw the line between pure fiction and fantasy. Solo's been lying on my shelf for a while now; got a couple of so-so recommendations.

P.S. Lol. I don't exercise any control over the words that spring up. Honest! :D I once got an auto generated password - Doodey :P

Anonymous said...

Your blog keeps getting better and better! Your older articles are not as good as newer ones you have a lot more creativity and originality now keep it up!

Natalie Wilson said...

just noticed your 'in flight companion-tokyo cancelled' have you read his new one 'solo'? (have to say this, your word verification is 'whort'. heehee.)