Pilgrimage to Garhmukteshwar
When I was growing up, I was taught a very famous phrase. I guess we all were. 'Morning shows the day'. Since then I started applying it to my daily life. However it remained far from true. An overcast morning progressed to a crystal clear sky and a bright sunny morning turned into raining cats and dogs. When I started applying it to a broader perspective, it resonated neither. Like a bad Monday chugged to a fruitful week and vice versa. In all, I started ignoring it altogether.
This year of mine started with a road trip. February to be precise. It was exciting as it was the first in one and half years and partly because I love being on the road! Then there was a road trip with friends in March. I became positive with the phrase (after so many years) And now in the first week of April, I went on an impromptu road trip to the city of brass (Peetal Ki Nagari) Moradabad. The catch was to visit Garhmukteshwar on the way...a holy place for Hindus.
It was a worktrip for the husband and he was kind enough to let me join him. What excited me most was that it was really impromptu. I mean after waking uo at half past six in the morning, I decided to join him and start our trip at eight am! I quickly packed two set of outfits and make up (fashion blogger plannings), camera and laptop and wooh! We were on the road!
Moradabad is just 150 kms from Delhi but the traffic can take a toll on the travelling time. Finally we reached after a mixed (pleasant and unpleasant both) drive of three and a half hours. Some parts of our journey were filled with stuck traffic and honking vehicles while the pleasant parts: the beautiful countryside.
Every holy place or pilgrim site have a few things in common: a waterbody ( river or even a huge pond), arrays of small temples, a primary large temple, a clock tower and hundreds of tiny shops selling everything from holy articles to toys and clothes. The waterbody is there as we believe in 'holy dip' or 'Nahaan'. Garhmukteshwar is no exception.
I had been longing to visit this place since long but as its said that you can't visit a God's place unless he calls you...held true for me! We stopped on our way back to Delhi. The river Ganges (not at all in its mighty glory) crosses the NH 24. Its just a two minute walk from the main road. However the festive atmosphere is palpable right from the highway itself. Numerous tourist buses can be seen parked and hoards of pilgrims boarding and deboarding from those buses. Rows of tiny shops were all over the place.
At first, I felt that I have stepped into some miniature version of Haridwar or Allahabad Sangam. Bsasically all the pilgrimage sites are similar as I have said before. Haridwar is more beautiful (tucked in the Himalayas) and The Ganges in Allahabad is vast. Garhmukteshwar is on the rural side, the visitors are mostly from villages and smaller towns. This place has been mentioned in the Bhagwat Puran and Mahabharata. Earlier it was part of hastinapur, the capital of Pandavas. The name of the place is derived from Mukteshwar Mahadev temple. This place has also got eighty Sati pillars, which mark the Sati of Hindu widows.
Of course we did not have time to take a dip. I took pictures of the place. It felt so festive and touristy. It was very hot and sunny out there. When the weather is like this you need to wear something super comfortable like this Bewakoof casual dress. With fine quality cotton like this, it is bound to cool you.
Dress: Bewakoof.com
Leggings: Forever21
Sunnies: Ray Ban
Purse: Shoppers Stop
Lip color: MAC Relentlessly Red
Necklace: CN Direct.com
3 comments
The first picture is so cute :)
ReplyDeleteI have so much travel envy babe! Looks like you had such an amazing time :)
ReplyDeleteXO Jessi,
http://www.mywhitet.com/white-ruffles-and-tie-dye/
U get to explore such cool places. M jealous. N u look fab as always.
ReplyDeleteAditi
www.sosaree.in