"Jai Mata Di!"
Dec. 19th, 2002 09:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ravenSo, after an inauspicious start involving lots of shouting, uncivil behaviour on the part of a bunch of Congress party voters, we went to Haridwar today.
[Seeing as the next general election is god-knows-when, and the candidates are god-knows-who, now seemed as good a time as any for a Congress party rally in our street. At three am Pedar went out to yell at them for waking up the whole neightbourhood. T'was amusing.]
We left the house at five fifteen. When you hire a car in Delhi, you tend to get a driver to with it, and we were no exception. He muttered "Jai Mata Di" before leaving, and we were off. Our driver was charming, affable, easy-going, an amateur comedian...
He drove like a maniac. It was great.
Along the way, we went through Meerut and Roorkee, both towns Pedar lived in at some point, and he pointed everything out to me through the fog. There was so much fog... two metres visibility at one point, and when we stopped at a level crossing, we stole sugar cane off the back of a truck. It was wonderful. That was before we stopped at Cheetal, with resembles nothing more than a head-on collision between a motorway service station and a nature reserve. It's hard to explain.
The river Ganges, or Ganga-mata as she's affectionately known, approaches Delhi at its closest point at the town of Haridwar. It's always good luck to bathe in her waters, and more so now, a year after my grandfather died and his ashes were spread in the river. I only went in up to my knees, but I did like it. Made me stop being an atheist for just a short while.
On the way back from the river, we met a man with a basket. The basket had a snake in it. I saw it and screamed, and shrieked, and cried and shook, and hyperventilated...
Yes. I had a panic attack on the shores of the river Ganga. There's a piece of sweet irony to treasure.
So, what else happened? Yes... my Hindi has improved so much today. On our four hour journeys there and back, I read all the signs and notices I could see. After a while, I began to notice it getting easier, and easier...
I'm still Kindergarten level, but I'm getting better. Slowly.
And do I have anything else to say? Maybe not a lot... I'm tired now. Very tired. Mashi's coming tomorrow to take me somewhere, and then in the evening Pedar and I are going out to the airport. I'm looking forward to that, actually.
Crap. I have to go in ten minutes, but I'm glad we got to come here at all...
[Seeing as the next general election is god-knows-when, and the candidates are god-knows-who, now seemed as good a time as any for a Congress party rally in our street. At three am Pedar went out to yell at them for waking up the whole neightbourhood. T'was amusing.]
We left the house at five fifteen. When you hire a car in Delhi, you tend to get a driver to with it, and we were no exception. He muttered "Jai Mata Di" before leaving, and we were off. Our driver was charming, affable, easy-going, an amateur comedian...
He drove like a maniac. It was great.
Along the way, we went through Meerut and Roorkee, both towns Pedar lived in at some point, and he pointed everything out to me through the fog. There was so much fog... two metres visibility at one point, and when we stopped at a level crossing, we stole sugar cane off the back of a truck. It was wonderful. That was before we stopped at Cheetal, with resembles nothing more than a head-on collision between a motorway service station and a nature reserve. It's hard to explain.
The river Ganges, or Ganga-mata as she's affectionately known, approaches Delhi at its closest point at the town of Haridwar. It's always good luck to bathe in her waters, and more so now, a year after my grandfather died and his ashes were spread in the river. I only went in up to my knees, but I did like it. Made me stop being an atheist for just a short while.
On the way back from the river, we met a man with a basket. The basket had a snake in it. I saw it and screamed, and shrieked, and cried and shook, and hyperventilated...
Yes. I had a panic attack on the shores of the river Ganga. There's a piece of sweet irony to treasure.
So, what else happened? Yes... my Hindi has improved so much today. On our four hour journeys there and back, I read all the signs and notices I could see. After a while, I began to notice it getting easier, and easier...
I'm still Kindergarten level, but I'm getting better. Slowly.
And do I have anything else to say? Maybe not a lot... I'm tired now. Very tired. Mashi's coming tomorrow to take me somewhere, and then in the evening Pedar and I are going out to the airport. I'm looking forward to that, actually.
Crap. I have to go in ten minutes, but I'm glad we got to come here at all...
