Destination Wedding in the Mountains

 My sister in law Anjali was involved with making arrangements for her son’s wedding at Bhowali when the cruel fate intervened and took her away from us. It was the the girls’ parent’s wish that the wedding happened in their home town and Anjali had gone just a week before her death to book the hotels and fix the menus.

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 17^th 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.

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.

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.

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.