Back to blogging ... after a 2 year gap!!

Finally.... my writer 's block (or rather blogger's block) seems to have gone! Hopefully, I will be more regular in blogging now.

My first post was 3 years ago... almost to the day- May 12, 2006. I was in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on an assignment. I had an audience online to share my thoughts with.... I had felt so excited!

My last post was in January 2007. And then something happened... too busy at work, home, life in general... and I stopped doing something which I feel comes so naturally to me... writing about myself :-)

So, what prompted me to get back to blogging Now???

A trip. Or rather, the memories of a trip - which I made with my parents exactly a year ago. Everything about the trip now seems quite amazing. The manner and speed in which it got planned. The complete confidence with which we planned it...blissfully unaware of so many possible ways in which it could go all wrong. The wonderful support that we received from so many quarters, some of it totally unexpected. The many instances of divine grace which seemed to flow like a stream throughout the journey. So many occurrences when things went totally wrong .. and then righted themselves ... miraculously :-). The total experience of India as it IS. The fresh mountain air... The rivers and streams... The heat and dust. The sights and sounds ... For some time, the feeling of being detached from the world...( imagine.. No mobile network for TEN days!!)

All these and more memories flood through my mind and make me want to share them. As it happened. I had wanted to write about it all soon after the trip... but never got around to it...

So, finally, after a long break, I have the perfect excuse; no, the perfect reason, to get back to blogging. Be warned though... when the urge strikes, I really churn out long posts... So, read at leisure... :-)

For the next couple of weeks, I will share through this blog whatever happened on that day exactly 1 year ago.

Here goes... First some background to the trip itself.

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Sometime last year, around this time, I realised that I had not taken a big break from work for a long , long time.It looked like my work-life balance was heavily tilted towards the work side.I really, really needed a break! Soon after, my mother asked me– “Son, When are you taking us to Badrinath?” That did it. I decided to start planning a trip to Badrinath. After all, what better way to take a break than to get away from it all and breathe in some fresh mountain air? For the uninitiated, Badrinath, up in the north Indian Himalayan state of Uttarakhand, is considered as one of the holiest places for a hindu to visit. While looking it up on the internet, I found that a lot of the pilgrims who visited Badarinath also visited Yamunotri, Gangotri (sources of the Sacred rivers Yamuna and Ganga respectively) and Kedarnath. Collectively, the four sites are termed as ‘Char-Dham’. Now, I thought-How about that? It made sense to cover all the four places as we were anyway traveling so far. My parents then went a step further saying that they wanted to visit another 3 sacred sites in the towns of Varanasi, Gaya, Allahabad. This was becoming a full fledged pilgrimage across north and central India and I was getting really excited just thinking about it.

We would need at least 10 days in the mountains for the 'char dham' and a week or so for the other sites. Some quick calculation and we found that even if we did the trip as soon as we could, it would take at least 18 days to cover completely. Which meant at least 12 days of vacation from work!! At first, asking for that much vacation seemed daunting, but soon I realised, it was perfect timing.. I was in the mid of transitioning from one role to another and work wise, it was not a particularly busy period for me. The first of the many miracles happened : My bosses were kind enough to approve the entire 12 work days of leave!

Now, on to the actual planning.. We thought of travelling by train to Hardwar with a change-over at Delhi. A rented taxi for 10 days would have us covering the 'Char Dham' circuit from Hardwar to Hardwar. Then, on by train to Varanasi, Gaya , Allahabad and finally back to home sweet Bangalore.

The enthusisasm was so high that the potential problems of the very short notice available for booking travel and accomodation at 10 different destinations just didn't occur to me. Thank God it didn't... otherwise I would have abandoned the journey before it began!

As it happened, we got help ... in various ways. A retired senior police officer -(ex) colleague of my dad (God bless him :-) ) - put us in touch with the local police SP who helped to book good accomodation for us at Haridwar. The local police SP also checked on and ensured that we had a reputable travel agency to rent the taxi from at Hardwar for the Char dham trip.

My dad's colleague, through local police again, also ensured that we had excellent and very reasonably priced accomodation at Allahabad with a car at our disposal thrown in for good measure.

The internet came in very handy for making the train bookings... few clicks of the mouse and I had my printed tickets in hand. No more waiting in long queues at railway stations.

Also booked a hotel room just opposite Delhi Railway station for a very reasonable rate through the internet. Truly, the power of the internet has revolutionised India as never before.

Finally, we were all packed and set to leave Bangalore for Delhi by train on the night of the 14th May, 2008. As we chugged along in the auto rickshaw to the railway station, I was still in a daze that we were actually doing the trip. I also had a couple of other thoughts- I was sorry that I could not take my wife and daughter along- Daughter was just over 2 years old and wouldnt be able to take the rough and tumble of the trip. The other thought was... How the hell did we manage to stuff in about 11 (or was it 8?) pieces of baggage AND the three of us in ONE auto???

Anyways, Got into the right train at the right time (you will realise why I mention this later)- the Rajdhani express from Bangalore to Delhi - It is really comfortable and it was a pleasure to travel in for 2 nights and a day. Reached Delhi on the early morning of 16th.

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So, what did we do on the 16th May, 2008? That, my dear reader, is in my next post which I publish on the night of 16th May, 2009. Till then... Ciao and have fun !