Affairs, unlike love, do not begin at first sight. Not the serious ones at least. And when they happen, they happen with a vengeance.
It was not the first time that I had seen any of the three sisters. I was born in Agra, located on the banks of Yamuna. A visit to Haathi-ghat for a dip in Yamuna on the day of Baisakhi was a yearly family routine. Today the ghat has vanished, its beautiful elephant gate destroyed by some land grabber who thereafter took control of the site near the river. Rishikesh and Haridwar were destinations of various family holidays and each such holiday started with a dip in Ganga at Har Ki Paudi in Haridwar. And I had crossed the bridge over Chambal at Dhaulpur many a times when my parents or uncles used to take me to Jabalpur for some of the family functions at my aunt’s place.
The first sight of these rivers did not evoke much in the child that I was or later in the teenager that I was. They were rivers, all the same, at times full of water and at other times dry to the bed.
In 2010 I had headed towards the Himalayas in Garhwal for a trekking trip. A friend of mine, who had grown up in Chamoli (a small town in Garhwal) had advised me to do a stopover at Rishikesh, instead of arriving straight at the high altitudes of Joshimath. Take it slow and it need not be steady either was the mantra. I am wired pretty much the opposite way, but for a change I decided to go against my own grain.
My arrival at Rishikesh was at 4:30 AM and in irritable frame of mind. I had had a fight with the UP Roadways’ bus driver and conductor. They had undertaken to drive the bus from Agra to Rishikesh as my ticket said, but they wanted to end the journey in Haridwar and wanted me to change the bus.
Change the bus? I had a bicycle with me and two backpacks (a mistake as I realized later) and a lot of emotional baggage (a reality that I had reckoned would follow me) and they wanted me to shift all that to another bus so that they could sleep at Haridwar and show the government that they did complete their entire run.
Article comments
1 - brij khandelwal
beautifully written, maza aa gaya. thanks so much. good to know you are from agra. i share your concern about the yamuna ghats. keep in touch
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2 - Gyanesh Pandey
Oh Lovely! Loved the characterisation of the rivers. Truly a River's affair. Somehow the way you characterise Ganga & Yamuna made me think about two singing legends - Lata & Asha. Though I must say that I missed your "Emotional Baggage", no mention of it after the bus incident. Did Ganga or Yamuna lighten it for you? Or even Chambal for that matter!
3 - manchale
"An affair to remember!"(A River Affair).
Beautiful!