Dehradun

Mom and I had planned to go to Dehradun for the weekend. She has decided to buy a house there... and she needed me as a joint applicant for the loan application.

So Friday night, after I came home from Office, she and I packed our bags and took off. The plan was to take the train and reach there by morning. But the train had a waiting of 130. This is the season of kanwarias. Roads in July-August are dotted with thousands of water-carrying, orange-clad kanwarias, devotees of Shiva.






We decided to take one of the private buses. We reached the ISBT and found an agent who was selling the tickets. So we bought 2 for Dehradun and went to board the bus. On reaching there, when we asked to be seated, we suddenly discovered that everybody else had been assigned seat numbers and we had not been. And now suddenly there was no seat in the bus for us also. I harrowed with the bus conductor and with the ticket counter shop they had. Soon it appears that they had actually sold tickets to 6-7 extra people. So I wrangled with them for a good 10 mins.

They tried getting another bus but since it was the kanwaria season so all the buses were directed towards Haridwar and there wasn’t any bus available for Dehradun. So they offered to pay back the money. I was relieved that at least we were not duped by a crook. The bus to Haridwar had a few seats left and we decided to take that one. Dehradun is about an hour’s drive from Haridwar and they tell me that there is a good bus service also from Haridwar to Dehradun.

The bus ride was a nice one and I had a chance to observe closely the mannerisms of kanwarias. Not a very elegant impression, however these guys know how to have fun. They sang and dance till wee hours of the night and we had a hard time trying to sleep. Mom was a bit tired and wanted to sleep but wasn’t able to. However I took my chance to doze off whenever I could.

After a rickety ride, we reached Haridwar and took a Marshal to Dehradun. Beware of these guys as they will smell your naivety and overcharge you at every step. We reached Dehradun around 7 in the morning and were treated to some very refreshing weather.







This trip has left quite a few impressions and I will be writing about them...

I turned 26 yesterday.

The entire morning was filled with birthday wish calls.

Had a small party with my extended family. Nothing special… Just some cake and dinner. Was really hot in the evening and so had a little hard time, otherwise had a lot of fun.

My brother gave me the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mein_Kampf by Adolf Hitler. I will read it in the next few days. He commented that 30% of the people who read it turn Nazi.

Anyways it will provide good insight into the mind of a great leader (whose motives are no doubt in question, but a great leader nevertheless).