The Divine Trip - Part 1 Last night, over a conversation with a friend, I started talking about my last year's trip to Hrishikesh and Haridwar. Not having much to say to the world these days, I bring to you a travelogue in parts. Evidently, this is part 1. We started off from Bangalore on a Kingfisher flight to Delhi. A divine start, no doubt, with the air-hostesses assuring me that there is heaven indeed up there in the skies. We reach Delhi and our host drives us down to the United Coffee House at Connaught Place. A nice little quaint looking place in the middle of a busy street of Delhi, this place is anything but a small little coffee house. It is filled with Delhi's apparently-snooty crowd (I add apparently to absolve myself of all crimes). We eat some good north Indian food, something which comes at a fair premium down south. Then the night drive all the way to Mathura. In the meanwhile, I tend to recall Lord Krishna's appealing antics in the gardens of Brindavan. Brushing all that aside quickly, I resolve to be my religious self for the next few hours atleast. The first thing that strikes you about Mathura is its drainage system. All you see is drains. In front of shops, in front of hotels, across roads, underneath the parked vehicles - wherever you go, there are open drains. The place reeks of dirt and filth. I see that I forgot the main point here - Mathura is Lord Krishna's birth place. As you walk along the streets of Mathura, the smell of the drains is replaced by the smells of incense, smells of vermillion powder and the smells of huge stocks of dairy products. To negotiate through the crowded streets, one would be advised to hire one of those cycle rickshaws. A little bit of haggling is always due in India before buying any service. So is the case with these rickshaws. After settling down for a price of Rs. 100, you get rickshawed for about half a kilometer to the banks of the Yamuna. (Damn, I used "India" in the last but one sentence as though I don't belong here. Damn, I have begun to sound like those Lonely Planet travellers. Damn.) The Yamuna seems to have taken upon itself the task of looking as messed up as Matura. To put things in perspective - the river is dirty. We hire a small boat to go till the middle of the river and the priest assures us that there is some kind of ceremony that we should perform. So, as part of this, we drop two coconuts and some cloth along with vermillion and turmeric into the already full river. I cringe as I see all that colour disturbing the sanctity of the once-mighty river. But I immediately look at the people all around me, with their eyes closed and hands together in fervent prayer. God probably wants it this way, I tell myself, and close my eyes and bring my hands together. In the distance, you see old temples jutting out from the banks of the river. A beautiful sight. Getting back to the streets of Mathura, the one thing you will find here is the abundance of priests. Everyone of them comes running to you asking you to perform some seva or the other. They will also offer to be your guide during your stay in the town. They are, what a companion crudely called, fleecing experts. They can make your wallet lighter without you even knowing it. Our first stop was at the home where Krishna had swallowed sand and upon being asked to open his mouth, had revealed the entire universe to his mother. What was of interest to me was that the area surrounding this home still has very fine sand. No other area in and around Mathura has this sand. The sand is so fine that it almost feels like a carpet under your feet when you walk on it. There is free lunch served here and so there is always a sizeable crowd visiting this place every day from the nearby villages. Our next stop was at the prison where Krishna was born. The jail is a small one and the altar where he was born is still preserved. This is the main and the biggest Krishna temple in that area. On our way back, we were shown the ISKCON temple. The locals refer to it as the "Angrezo ka Mandir" and it has a large chunk of foriegn devotees. We then went to the Govardhan hill. Mythology states that this hill was lifted by Krishna with one finger. The devotees walk around the base of the hill many number of times as part of a ritual. Returning back to the central area of Mathura, we settle down for some puri-sabji, samosa, kachori and a earthern-jar-full of lassi. All this in front of an open drain. Surprisingly, I had never tasted such good food earlier. The lassi was divine. I think the enigma of Mathura reflected on its food as well. After spending two days in Mathura, we set off to the much-awaited entrance to the Lord's abode - Haridwar. More on that, in the second part.