North India Tour!!

Delhi-Chandigarh-Amritsar –McLeodganj- Dharamshala -Delhi-Mathura-Agra-Delhi

Like every other year ends, this time also we planned for the tour. This time we thought to “cover” north India part. I was stationed in Delhi for the brief period. And my other tour mates were from Pune, Jamshedpur, Gurgaon, and Chandigarh. We all were connected through Hangout [Google’s product!] initially and then decided to make a group on Whatsapp [this is a mobile application of messaging and people THiNK that it is next to impossible to remain connected without this app. I am an exception to this mentality and well connected to all my dear ones. I was on Whatsapp for exact 7 days!]. After hours and hours of chat, we all were confused about destinations. But everything was finalized before making the first booking towards the tour.

The task of booking Hotels and Vehicles was distributed. We decided to book Zoomcar – Scorpio!  [Zoomcar is a car renting concept. You just need one/two good drivers among your group. It’s a very good option. It gives flexibility and freedom of choices of routes.] We booked our vehicle from Chandigarh, but it had Delhi passing, which created a bit problem in Himachal Pradesh.

The journey started from ISBT Delhi. Half of the group was already on the bus and the other half was calling them trying to locate them. Finally, we all came together before Shri Ganesha of the bus. A new group mate was introduced to all. And the journey began.

We had heard of clean and planned Chandigarh. Le Corbusier (Swiss-French Architect) had really done a good job. It is indeed a beautiful city. No tall buildings like "our" Mumbai but much cleaner and wider roads. This smoke free city was refreshing for our lungs which suffered badly in Delhi for last few months. In the evening we visited Sukhana lake, but missed Rock Garden because of less time we had. We had planned to touch Amritsar same night.

We reached Amritsar late night, around 11.30 pm. Hotel was already booked and Harmandir Sahib’s langar saved our hungry stomachs. Golden Temple was looking beautiful in the night.

Next day early morning we went to Golden Temple. It was very peaceful and spiritual moment for all of us. We captured memories around temple. Though we all had visited Gurudwara sometime in past, this was our close interaction with Religion of Sikhism. Gurubani was being sung. Everything was so peaceful and we all were mesmerized in listening to gurbani.

Then we went to Jalianwala Baug. In Baug, it was more like game of saving yourself from sprinkles. We found one ever lasting Jyot in Jalianwala Baug, similar to Hutatma Chauk – Mumbai!

Then we started our journey to Dharamshala. We first went to McLeod Ganj. It was -2 degree temperature when we reached the location. It was coldest for all of us. That night some of us did enjoyed full trek and some enjoyed half trek and hotel’s terrace. That night was destined to unfold fun and memories of old days and debate/discussion and what not. Next day morning, we all went up to Shiva’s café, hill point. It is indeed an awesome place.

Next day we went to Dalai Lama’s monastery. It is a peaceful and calm place. We had “authentic” momos in nearby restaurant. You will find Momo kiosk every 100 mt in Old Rajendra Nagar, Delhi, where I lived for four months.

Dalai Lama’s Monastery is surrounded by many shops where you can buy stuffs like Special Tibetian Sweaters, Sounding Bowls which is used for meditation, Buddha’s various sculptures, and many more stuff related to Buddhism. It was a beautiful evening.

The Mantra written on these cylinders also called Prayer Wheels, reads “Om Mani Padme Hum” and revolving it means reading it.

On our return journey, we also visited Anadpur Sahib Gurudwara. And before that we also covered (not actually, we just crossed it!) Bhakra Nagal Dam, which we could not see because it was already dark and we had less time left to return to Chandigarh. But, yes, we can say that we have been there also ;)

The group dispersed when we came back to Delhi (ISBT again!). Only two (Rohit and Sachin) of us then continued with Mathura and then Agra.

Mathura was disappointing. Too much crowd. We chose to go to Vrindavan – where Lord Krishna used to do his RaasLilas. After Golden Temple visit, we found this place much unorganized. No place for your chappals also. You have to be exceptional rugby player to get closer to God. 

Then we traveled to Agra in State transportation which was altogether in bad state. We hired an autorickshaw for whole traveling in and around Agra. It is good option, where local guy can help you. He suggested us different permutations and combinations of nearby places to visit in limited time we had. We could see three places. Two of them, Agra Fort and The Taj.

Agra Fort: Just in front of the main entrance, there is real life statue of the Great Maratha king Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. It was proud moment for both the Maharashtrians. We saluted our King and then entered to grand fort, which had many bravery stories of Maharaj (Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj is called Maharaj by many Maharashtrians like me!). That Grand structure was really beautiful. You will find more foreigners in the area than Indians. We confirmed if The Taj really can be seen from back yard of Agra Fort. We saw the place where Jai Singh betrayed Maharaj. We also realized one thing; History should be learnt at Historical places than mere reading books.

The Entrance of Agra Fort resembles to Shaniwar Wada Entrance, Pune. But of course Agra Fort entrance is much grand.

The Taj: It is damn beautiful. I’m not even able to explain its beauty. I will share a picture instead

यु तो हर दिल मै एक कशिश होती है, हर कशिश मै एक ख्वाहिश होती है!

मुमकिन नही सभी के लिये ताज महल बनाना, लेकीन हर दिल मे एक मुमताज होती है!!

And after The Taj, we went to paratha house – Ram Babu Parathe Wale, who serves deep fry parathas. It was awesome end of journey.

I thank to our divers (as we used to call our expert buddy-cum-drivers) – Ashish and Binesh!

I thank to our official Photo Grapher – Rohit!

I thank to Arundhati “and” Kishore too! (for nothing :p)

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