“Our happiest moments as tourists always seem to
come when we stumble upon one thing while in pursuit of something else.” —
Lawrence Block
Little Ludhiana
“This is like a little Ludhiana!”, exclaimed +Vinay Sekar as he looked at the hordes
of pilgrims. I join him to see a sea of turbans bobbing up and down in the main
street of Govindghat. Along with it, I can hear the distinctive yet familiar
beat of Bhangra music – I really can’t blame VS for that comment.
Govindghat which is
propped on the banks of the Alakananda is just one narrow street, packed with
vendors selling everything from apparel to Punjabi music CDs. Now, if you are
looking for Govindghat in the map of Punjab, you are in the wrong state. I am
in the hill state of Uttaranchal, with the hope of getting to the fairy tale
‘valley of flowers’. Most of the
pilgrims on the other hand are on their way to Hem Kund Sahib, a Sikh
pilgrimage point.
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| Route from Govindghat to the valley of flowers |
If you are not familiar with the trail, here goes
- You start off from Govindghat, which is 24 km from Joshimath. This is as far
as wheels can take you, from here is either horseback or on foot. Starting at
Govindghat is the long arduous trek of 14kms to Ghangaria, which serves as a base
for treks to the Valley of flowers and HemKund Sahib. The Valley of Flowers is
about 3km from Ghangaria and Hemkund Sahib, around 6km.
VS and I are joined by a colleague of mine
AS, and his friend. We start of in the early evening, hoping to make it to
Ghangaria by around 9-10 pm. But fate had other plans, and what we then thought
was an ‘unfortunate’ series of events, soon became a unique travelling
experience.
First,
one succumbs to the trek and the higher altitudes, then off comes the sole of
another’s shoe, rain, darkness, rumours of bears ahead and in about 2 hours we
are embarrassingly headed back to Govindghat only to find that every room is
booked solid. Our only hope is the Gurudwara here in Govindghat.
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| Govindghat |
A
lesson in Sikh etiquette
Owing to the large number of pilgrims to
HemKund, the Gurudwara not only provides spiritual comfort, but some more
temporal ones as well – a guesthouse for the not so affluent and perhaps ones
like us – stranded without shelter, even if you aren’t Sikh. It has a few rooms
and a large dormitory – spartan no doubt, but bear in mind that all this runs
on just donations! A bit of pleading is required – the guesthouse is also full,
even the dorm! But AS (who is Sikh himself) finally gets them to let us sleep
on the common balcony. But the good Sikh hospitality didn’t end there – we are
soon ushered into a large dining hall for langar.
What is langar?
The word langar (लंगर) can be
traced back to Persian- it means ‘an alms house’, 'an asylum for the poor and
the destitute' or 'a public kitchen kept by a great man for his followers and
dependents, the holy men and the needy.' In the case of Sikhism, it’s
more of the third. Langar is also known as Guru-ka –langar (langar in the name
of the guru). It was first started by Guru Nanak to demonstrate the principle
of equality. In the hall, everyone irrespective of social status gather to eat.
However, this isn’t a simple dinner – food is often blessed in the Gurudwara
and then mixed with the rest –so it is considered sacred and referred to as ‘Guru-prashad’.
The kind of food and the frequency of service depends solely on the resources
of the Gurudwara- money/food donated and volunteers to prepare and serve the
food.
[I have written this note with the help of internet
resources (http://www.searchsikhism.com/institution.html,
http://www.sikhiwiki.org/index.php/Langar)
and a few friends-Thanks +Alamjit Singh Sekhon and +Supriya Bhogal . If you need more
information, there is enough on the net. You can also contact your friendly
neighbourhood Sardar]
We cover our heads with handkerchiefs or
any cloth that we have on hand and remove our sandals before we enter. It’s my
first time in a Gurudwara premises and I’m certainly quite self-conscious.
After we sit, volunteers or sevadars
come around serving us dal, vegetable and rotis.
He comes to me to serve offer me a roti and drops it in my plate – no big deal
right? But then, I look towards AS who receives his roti with two open palms and
head bent down in reverence. Okay so that’s one goof up – I guess I’m allowed
one mistake right? Towards the end of my meal, the sevadar returns to serve me
some more. This time, I am determined to be extra respectful and reply with my
politest ‘No Thank You’ and a smile. I then turn to AS again, with the fear and
suspense of a quiz participant, hoping that his calculated guess turns out to
be right. But AS, who is also done with his meal, again lowers his head, covers his plate with both palms facing down and
says ‘Bas’ . I look around to see if
anyone is disturbed by my blatant discourtesies, but everything seems to be
fine. I guess, when you are dark skinned and 5 feet 6 inches tall, people sort
of know you‘re not from the Punjab! But one piece of tradition I did manage to
follow was to wash my plate – it is compulsory for all to do so. Regardless of
my ill-mannered behaviour, I do feel a certain humility present in the
gathering, an equality that redefines people’s roles to fulfil the most basic
of human needs. It reinforces a belief I have always held – only Religion can
achieve true equality of men, where the haves and have-nots are only too happy
to oblige.
We collect our sheets and blankets and head
to the balcony – there is a roof over our heads for the night!
Garden
of Eden
We start again at the break of dawn the next
morning, but take mules to catch up on lost time – embarrassing, yes, but it is
the fastest way up to Gangaria. With the Valley of flowers trek, it’s a case of
the journey being as captivating as the destination. The route to Gangharia
runs along the Lakshman Ganga River and sound of the roaring river accompanies
you all the way. There was ofcourse for us the added monsoon bonus of lush
green mountains with waterfalls gushing and sparkling on their way down. The
journey lasted just 4.5 hours- those
mules are quick!
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| Village on the way |
Gangaria is a collection of luxury tents, guesthouses
and horse owners trying to get customers going back down to Govindghat. And
standing amidst all this is a helipad. So much for the mules being the fastest
transportation! It is at this point that the pilgrims and us part ways – they move
on to HemKund Sahib perched at an altitude of 4000m. We push on, with little
time to spare – it’s another 3 km to the Valley.
If you find the trail to Gangaria
enchanting, then the route to the Valley of flowers will blow you away. As we
move closer to the destination, the trail gets steeper and more rugged, I begin
to notice flowers growing wild by the sides almost reassuring us that we are on
the right track. The river begins to get boisterous and noisy. And then
finally, we go across a makeshift wooden bridge to reach the valley – the
narrow trail opens up to a wide and fairly flat land of floral patina. The
noise of the river dulls down, the clouds creep into the valley and with them,
the serenity of being lost in the Himalayas.
The only sound now is the patter
of raindrops and our lungs gasping for breath after the climb. No doubt the
clouds have prevented us from getting a postcard view of the place, but we were
finally here. People often say that it’s the journey that matters and not the
destination, it could not be more true with this excursion. At no point
was I not in awe of the landscape around me and the people around me – an
entire setup created to get a multitude of pilgrims to Hem Kund and few others
to what was in semblance, the garden of Eden.
Pointers
- If you do happen to participate in the langar, do not waste food – it is definitely frowned upon
- The easiest way to Joshimath/Govindghat are the ‘press’ cabs which start from Rishikesh. They take newspapers to smaller towns on the way and start off early. The only better option is to hire the entire vehicle for yourself.
- Don’t miss the host of sangams (confluence of rivers)on the way to Joshimath, including the Devprayag – the origin of the Ganga, after the Bagirathi and Alakananda meet.
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