Factored in some time for the evening prayers (conducted daily) at Har-ki-Pauri when I overnight-ed at Rishikesh on my way to Garhwal this summer. It seemed, so had the entire world…and its uncle. Though it took me well over an hour to make the 15 kms between the two spiritual centers, it was worth every minute of the muggy June evening.
Hope this glimpse tempts you into a visit, for images do the brightly lit spectacle little justice. Loud, incessant chants, aromatic incense, fresh flowers, beating cymbals, floating diyas, devoted crowds; all lend themselves to a remarkable yet indescribable experience.
Puneetinder Kaur Sidhu, travel enthusiast and the author of Adrift: A junket junkie in Europe is the youngest of four siblings born into an aristocratic family of Punjab. Dogged in her resistance to conform, and with parental pressure easing sufficiently over the years, she had plenty of freedom of choice. And she chose travel.
She was born in Shimla, and spent her formative years at their home, Windsor Terrace, in Kasumpti while schooling at Convent of Jesus & Mary, Chelsea. The irrepressible wanderlust in her found her changing vocations midstream and she joined Singapore International Airlines to give wing to her passion. She has travelled extensively in Asia, North America, Australia, Europe, South Africa and SE Asia; simultaneously exploring the charms within India.
When she is not travelling, she is writing about it. Over the past decade or so, she has created an impressive writing repertoire for herself: as a columnist with Hindustan Times, as a book reviewer for The Tribune and as a contributor to travel magazines in India and overseas. Her work-in-progress, the documenting of colonial heritage along the Old Hindustan-Tibet Road, is an outcome of her long-standing romance with the Himalayas.
