GANGA....

OFF-TRACK

Amitabh Shukla

Whenever I find time and manage a leave from work, I escape for a couple of days to the cities of Hardwar and Rishikesh – the gateway of the mighty Ganges. The aarti at the Har ki Pauri and the sylvan surroundings of Rishikesh amidst the chant of slokas and blaring of bhajans attract not only someone like me who wants to escape the monotonous routine of a metro but hordes of Indian and foreigners alike

When friends and relatives ask me about my infatuation with the two places and the reasons for my visits, I have a one liner – the Ganges beckons me for a bath every few months. To others who persist – the experience is personal and cannot really be explained.

Spiritual pursuits of the Indians and the foreigners aside, what strikes me most in these towns is the role of religion in the livelihood of the people. Almost the entire work force of both Hardwar and Rishikesh depends on religion for its day to day earning.

Nothing is sold in the two towns if it does not concern religion. Every mundane activity has some religious meaning or the other. Even if nothing exists, the local pandas and priests have coined something to make their respective shrines historically ancient.

Even a simple boating experience across the Ganges has been spiritualised. The hoarding near the boating facility proclaims that this was the method and the transport used by Lord Rama. As the devout wander around, they read the notice board and rush towards the counters selling the tickets for a boat ride to relive the experience.

Almost every temple in the vicinity of the Laxman Jhoola proclaim their association with Lord Rama's brother, Laxman. He is said to have done a penance here after the killing of Ravana, a Brahmin, to get rid of the curse of "brahm hatya" (slaying a Brahmin).

The entire stretch from Laxman Jhoola to the Ram Jhoola has shops selling only religious momentos, photographs and cassettes of devotional songs. If someone does not have a capital to start a business, he sells small balls of flour so that you could offer it to the fish and satisfy its hunger buds. The auto wallas depend only on the pilgrims, the book seller sells mainly religious books and even the cloth shop has an entire row of shirts, kurtas and towels with Om and other mantras inscribed on them. The hotels too serve only vegetarian menu and the clients – the pilgrims.

As the pilgrims come on a charity mode, begging has become a lucrative profession. On one side of the sprawling Geeta Bhawan sit around 100 beggars. They do not ask you for any alms as most of them already have a few polythene bag full of fruits, other eatables and loose change. The hymns and bhajans praising daan (charity) forces the devout to donate liberally. The beggars who haven't found a place here roam around everywhere and at the end of the day change their coins for paper money.

As begging is quite remunerative here as compared to other towns and cities, the ratio of number of beggars to the common citizens must be one of the highest in the country. In fact, they have a separate colony on the other side of the Ganges though the colony still resembles a city slum rather that a middle class colony as some would believe.

"Commercialisation or not, the place would continue to attract the seeker of truth and those in need of spiritual help. You only have to look around, you would find a true spiritual master to help you out," summed up a Swami after his routine religious discourse when I posed him the question which only an ignorant like me would dare ask.