Day 7,8,9,10 : Haridwar, Delhi & back to Bangalore

A long journey awaited us that morning of 14th August.. 12 hours bus ride from Badrinath to Haridwar. After a few stops at Govindghat, Pipalkoti and Rishikesh, we finally reached Haridwar by 8 in the evening. As soon as we reached Haridwar, Subbu, Jayan and myself went to Har ki Pauri, to see river Ganga up close and personal. It wasn't but a pretty sight.. owing to the rains Ganga was all muddy and dirty. Subbu had to think twice before even dipping his hands in the water, even though he wanted to take bath and wash away all his sins. He decided its better to live with his sins than acquire some new ones by bathing in the dirty waters. By the time we returned to town, Rob and Yuvraj had arranged for our transport to Delhi. We had dinner at Big Ben hotel and soon embarked on our journey to Delhi.

We were traveling by Qualis and all of us were damn sleepy including the driver. So we took a few stops on the way for short naps and finally reached Delhi by 6 in the morning. Being August 15th, there was heavy checking as we entered Delhi. The policemen wanted to see what's inside our bags, but the stench of used clothes helped in speeding up the process. We reached Rob's house at Saket by 7 after dropping Subbu on the way. Subbu wanted to visit his relatives at Delhi while the rest of us planned to roam around Delhi, before starting for Bangalore the next day morning. It was raining for the past few days in Delhi and the weather was pleasant this time around. Soon after breakfast we started our Delhi tour in Rob's car. We visited the Qutab Minar, India Gate and finally Connaught Place. Independence day celebration was going on at India Gate and it was great to see so many people out in the streets in spite of the Swine Flue scare and the terror attack warnings.

The next day morning Yuvaraj left for the airport to catch his flight to Bangalore. Rob dropped myself and Jayan at Hazrat Nizamuddin station from where we took the Karnataka Sampark Kranti express train back to Bangalore. I had picked up a book "A Goddess in the stone" by Norman Lewis, from the used books market in Delhi. It was on his travel across Bihar, Orissa and Andhra during the early nineties, an interesting read infact. The weather was pleasant throughout the journey as we traveled through 6 states - Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. The train had just 5 scheduled stops at Jhansi, Bhopal, Nagpur, Bheemavaram and Kachiguda.

I did meet quite a few interesting people during the train journey as well. There was this doctor from Dehradun who is having a clinic near Mysore, there was an Agriculture Science graduate who is on his way to join a renewable energy products company in Karnataka after working with a Diary products company in Ludhiana. Then there was this guy who is doing his Aeronautical Engineering course at Delhi on his way to meet his sister and brother-in-law at Bangalore. In short we had a nice group of people and chatted for hours about anything from energy crisis to the swine flue scare. I also got few lessons on cattle management and setting up gober gas plants for cooking and lighting purposes. It is interesting how people whom you meet for a short while, make big impact on your way of thinking and outlook towards life. We are actually indebted to every moment in our life, for the lessons learned and insights revealed.

Once we reached Bangalore on 17th evening, I knew I just had the trip of my life... the kind that happens once in a life time. But this one trip had given me enough to go on for a few lifetimes. Afterall I had two more lives to live - one for my dreams and another for my fantasies!!

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Day 0 : Valley Trek - Team & Itinerary
Day 1 : Bangalore to Rudraprayag
Day 2 : Rudraprayag to Ghangaria
Day 3 : The Valley of Flowers
Day 4 : Hemkund Lake
Day 5 : Auli
Day 6 : Badrinath, Mana & Vasudhara Falls
Day 7,8,9,10 : Haridwar, Delhi & back to Bangalore