Pios Waters

It was around 11 AM when we came down to the road from our hotel room. The agenda was to witness the friendly takeover of Yamuna and the hidden partner by the ever so famous Ganga(I wonder why firngees call it Ganges instead of Ganga like all saneIndians) at Sangam. We decided to take a cycle rickshaw instead of an auto wanting to relish the taste of the city. AfterFinding 2 rickshaws in about 2 seconds we started off towards the river after agreeing at a fare of 5 rupees per rickshaw.Well as all corporate executives we thought the rickshaw pullers had robbed us of our hard earned money as we had Agreed to pay such an exorbitant fare without any haggling. Anyways I found the city really interesting. The traffic was mainly rickshaws, Tongas, auto rickshaws and two wheelers with no scope of anyone getting hurt in a road accident as all theVehicles moved with the speed of the cycle rickshaw and the pedestrians. The roads were full of men, women, and women in burkas And the omnipresent cows( I wonder if Danny Boyle captured the Indian urban COW which I think is another favorite of westernFilmmakers). Well we finally reached the Yamuna gat in about 30 minutes (about 4kms for which we paid 5 rupees of our hard Earned money) with a sound warning from our rick puller not to pay more than Rs.220 per head for the 3 km boat ride we wereabout to take.Now began the true haggling!!! The boatman asking for Rs.220 per head and two corporate executives ,a banker, a sw engineer along with her baby only ready to shell out Rs.400. Well after about half an hour of intensenegotiations an amount of Rs 500 was mutually agreed and hence commenced the boat ride.Well for those of you who have not seen Yamuna or for those who have only seen it in Delhi or Agra let me share another picture. Miraculously the river had width of about half a kilometer and was 40 feet deep. I wonder where it gets it watersfrom....after you see an almost dry stream of water in Delhi and Agra. And thus began our 2 km journey to the Holy Sangam one of the most important Hindu pilgrimages. Bol Siya Pati Ramchandra ki Jai.
The boatsman rowing the boat tock the additional responsibility of being our guide right from the word "GO", giving us the history of the rail bridge we were passing under. Well the only thing going through our minds at that time was....if bird droppings on your shoulder is considered lucky then what will a dropping from under a train be considered and we prayed for no such luck. We were told the story of the initiation of the area as Pryagraj and how Amitabh bachan won the election after Jaya Bachan promised Holy Ganga a tribute. How Rahul Gandhi performed the last rights of Rajiv Gandhi at the river after refusing to pay Rs. 15 lakhs to the greedy pandas and instead finding the genuine priests. Each story inching us towards the point of communion of the two rivers and the significance of shelling out some more money in the name of charity and areservation in heaven.On this heavenly journey we came across flocks of disputed ducks( disputed coz we have a hung jury as to whether they were ducks or sea-gulls of some variety...u decide for yourself) well feeding them was an awesome experience, they eat out of your hands. We also came across King Ashoka's fort, Amitabh Bachan's garden, a dead body and a water snake. And in about 90 minutes we were at the Holy Sangam. Well it's a sight to behold, two huge rivers coming together. Green waters of Yamunameeting the milky waters of Ganga to form a blue Ganga. It was simply AWESOME. This part of the river was full of priests on boats ready to help you to gain Moksha for just 11 rupees or to wash away all your sins by taking a holy dip for Rs 21. Wellwe decided to skip both and head back to Yamuna Ghat. The boatsman got quite annoyed and stopped talking and we no longer had a tour guide. We finally had to take matters in our own hands quite literally and we took the oars and started rowing...itwas great fun. Well we also called it truce and tipped the boatsman prematurely thus getting our guide back. He told us that his monthly CTC was Rs. 1500 and had four sons who didn't pursue their studies and now were boatmen like himself. And thenbegan the filmi situation of him singing a song and all of us just relaxing in the boat peacefully, reflecting on the ironyof life.How we take a dip in the Holy river hoping to be blessed with a long life when at last we will return to the same river asashes.How we haggle for menial amounts with some people whereas spend without a second thought at Pepe's and THF's.....How the things we enjoy the most come so cheap and yet we keep spending all our time earning more so that we can enjoy.Well this brought us back to from where we started thoroughly satisfied. Believe me these were 500 rupees which were worthspending.

The key and the door

"You were looking for the key for years/But the door was always open!"I came across this line in the book "The white tiger" and it got me thinking, isn't that what we keep doing throughort our lives. Or are we just looking for the key, not even having a door to open?Or even if I find the key wouldn't I be bored as soon as I enter the door, and start looking for a new door and a new key ?I wonder if happiness is in the object or in the persuit of the object.