This marriage was happening as a result of a romance which started a few years ago when our nephew, due to the breakdown of his car, was forced to take a
bus to Delhi from the hills and met his future wife during the journey. He was a public school educated and London educated young man. She was a simple girl from the hills. The romance blossomed. Such things do happen in real life.
The family decided to honour Anjali’s last wish of the
marriage happening in the hills, and friends and relative converged to Delhi
from USA, UK, Canada, Spain, Hyderabad and hordes of other places. It was
decided to leave the period of mourning behind and move forward to a period
of celebrations. This would be a perfect tribute to Anjali.
The travel to the hills
At the crack of dawn on October 17th several
vehicles left Delhi for Bhowali. Once you cross East Delhi, you find some good
roads. The Hapur bypass and Moradabad bypass are pretty good. The roads might be good but the traffic most of the times is chaotic.
The highway driving in India is full of perils as cows cross the roads, the
rickshaws appear from nowhere, villagers cut through the highway and cross the
roads with bullock carts, the trucks don’t think twice coming on your face from
wrong side and vehicles of all sizes and shapes zip left and right at a great speed. Once you
reach your destination, one always feels blessed not to have been hit by
anything on the way. Unfortunately one of the cars in our cavalcade was not so
lucky.
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| A common sight on our highways |
There was a time when there were no decent dhabas on this
route. Those going towards Chandigarh and Punjab always prided themselves with
some great dhabas like ‘Puran Singh ka dhaba’ at Ambala.
Puran Singh ka Dhaba was once voted as one of the finest dhabas
in the country and its amazing chicken curry had drawn the elite as well as
middle class in route to Himachal or Punjab. On that route you could not go wrong as far as
food was concerned. Traveling towards Uttar Pradesh was always a pain. For many
years we stopped at ‘Giani ka Dhaba’ for its stuffed tandoori paranthas at
Gajraula. Gajraula is around 110 km from South Delhi and it was a good place to
stop for loo break and paranthas. A few years ago a decent place called ‘Meriton’
opened and that became the most popular place for a stop. Now suddenly we find
Bikanerwala, Udupiwala, McDonald, Sagar Ratna and McDonald’s all over Gajraula. Meriton finds itself
isolated so it gives incentives to drivers who stop there for food. We did stop
at Meriton on the way back and even though I was the driver of my car, no one
offered me any incentive !
It was fairly smooth sailing till Rampur when suddenly the
roads disappeared. It was a fairly decent road till last year but advent of
Samajwadi Party seems to have taken a toll on the roads in UP. We had been
constantly paying toll till Moradabad and didn’t mind it as roads were fairly
good. From Rampur onwards till border of Uttranchal we found what cannot be
called potholes by any imagination. For 2 hours what we got were huge craters
which took a toll on the car as well as passengers. some enterprising politicians in India have often
compared the smooth roads in their constituencies with the cheeks of dream girl of yesteryear's Hema
Malini. Last few days I have been thinking the synonym to this crater filled
road but have not been able to think of any name which comes close to this
disaster. No one could be this ugly.
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| The craters of UP |
The hills of Kumaon
Once the climb to the hills start beyond Haldwani, you are mesmerized
by the beauty of our hills. The lush green mountains , the rivers , and lakes are
a pleasure to view. Once you reach a small town or village , you witness the
filth and garbage spread all around. This
seems to be an integral part of our country. Just 40 minutes from Haldwani is
Bhimtal and close by are Naukuchiyatal and Sattal. Nainital is just 20 minutes
from Bhimtal. Each of these places are blessed by a ‘ tal’ or lake. As this is
not a touristy season, these places look more serene and beautiful. After a
good monsoon, the lakes are full and the mountains look greener. It felt great
to breathe the fresh air of these lovely mountains.
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| The beautiful lake of Naukuchiyatal |
Bhowali is around 10 km from Bhimtal. Nainital is also
around similar distance away. The road further goes towards Ramgarh and Mukteshwar.
Many people use it as an overnight resting point while going to Almora and Kusauni. From
Kusauni the snow covered Himalayas can be seen at all times. One has to go further up to see all those beautiful views and nature at it's very best.
The wedding
arrangements had been made in a hotel a km from Bhowali. As the dusk fell, the
beautiful lights came on. A lot of effort seem to have gone in decorations.The
party started a few hours after our arrival and while we retired at around
midnight, the youngsters partied till 5 AM in the morning.
The Wedding and the fun
It was a ‘day wedding ‘next afternoon. The weather was
perfect and the sun was bright. The place had been well decorated and looked
lovely . The vibrant colours against the backdrop of green mountains was
pleasing to the eye. The wedding
ceremony of the hilly people was different from ours and it made a good change
for us to view a different kind of ceremony. The women continuously sang folk
songs while the pundit performed the ceremony. The songs reverberated throughout
the venue as the wedding vows were taken by the couple.
After a short break the party started again. As the sun went
behind the mountains the lights came on and DJ started shattering the peace of
this sleepy town. The evening was cold
and crisp.All of us drank and danced and made merry. The youngsters were in full flow. The kids from Hyderabad
won many hearts with a song and dance performance. The special crackers had
been transported from Delhi and they lightened up the sky. They were some most
amazing fireworks that I had seen. I am sure people of Bhowali would have gone
miles to see such kind of fireworks. We did not feel guilty shattering their
peace.
We experimented with a different route on the way back. We
went round to Ram Nagar near Corbett Park. The drive up to Kashipur was lovely
through the forests. Kashipur onwards the roads collapsed again and we were
back to square one. In UP, you cannot escape the bad roads.
Destination weddings are always fun as you don’t have to
worry about your office or the kids’ school the next day. This wedding showed that it does not have to be a high profile destination like palaces of Udaipur or Beaches of Bali. It had been a short trip to the hills but
definitely a very enjoyable one. With many more nephews and nieces yet to get
married, I hope we will get to see more such fun weddings.
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