Kumbh Mela - Haridwar

The plan was quite whimsical, but had a long awaited desire to visit the place at this time - while the proverbial Kumbh ka mela was on.

To add to the occasionalability of the event, it was going to be a full-moon night when we reach, if we started off right then.

We - Khosla, Buddy, Kavita & me - were at A302.

We started off well from A302 - Buddy, Kavita and me -- then there were the chronicles of Badsra on the way.

Anyway, next scene, I'm on the couch and wondering how come I'm here, where am I?
after the regular-moments lasting balck-out, I realised I was at the Badsras' and certainly not anywhere near Haridwar.

But the plan was on!

So we started off at about 1200 Hrs on 28th -- although I was planning to head back to Gurgaon and get going with the regular, media exchange between hard disk, computer, TV, my head.
Good that I stuck on the Haridwar trip.

After 3-4 hours of driving (I was comfortably on the back seat though) we realised that we had traveled only about 60 kms - some wrong route that we had taken.

Anyway with a stop for samosas, fuel-refill we were there at the place by about 2030 hrs and the feeling was good.
The place was nowhere like I'd thought it'd be -- crowded, full of people and noise -- Probably it was the timing. The last pooja is at 1815Hrs so the crowd has dwindled -- although we did hear about babas and their shivirs which remain lively even after the last pooja, we thought we'd go there after our dips. The Dips, I must say were quite nice -- the water was cold and more than that the current was quite high. Much as I tried experimenting and applying different schemes to withstand the current, I could never stay there for more than 15s.

It was a full-moon night [Poornima, Poornmasi]After the holy dips - and the assumption that our sins have been washed away - we went out for pet-pooja.

Poori-sabzi, Khasta (kachori) chole, mal pooda halwa, kulfi, aloo-tikki, gol-gappe were experienced in our binge.

Despite having the tripod, could not manage to click the picture I had in my mind -- need to learn this stuff too!