My travels: 5/16/10

Day 35 to 39 (May-16 to 20) Lucknow my second home.

We left Varanasi on the morning of May-16 and reached Lucknow by evening. Lucknow is my father's hometown. I was also born there. We were initially planning to leave on May-20 but decided to extend our stay by one more day.

Visiting lucknow as always was a great pleasure. Apart from my grandmother and my fathers elder brother who stays there, there were quite a few other relatives also that were visiting which made the stay even more fun.

The brilliant Kulphi and Dalmoth are great on taste. We missed Tunda Kebab this time. I and my brother Bharat were busy designing a r.c. aircraft. We learnt that making a helicopter is very difficult with the hub, thrust, Jesus nut turning mechanism and what not. So, we turned from the Chinook to a simple airplane. Even that isn't simple. We buyed a r.c car and dismanteled it to make a remote control motor, rudder and elevator. Learnt how the Differntial works and spent a lot of time moving trains in train simulator.

Day 34 (May-15) : Benaras

My third cousins (Pragati and Unnati)

Benaras / Varansi is a wonderful old city with a very strong character. The temples are intensely carved but due to over-crowding, it has lost its calmness. If you happen to visit Benaras, don't miss the Ganga Pooja. or Ramnagar Saranath too is a must see. It is the first place where lord Buddha gave his first speech. The museum too is very interesting. The ashokan pillar with its four lions is very well preserved. Antother great pleasure was meeting my third cousins there. Shubham, Srushti, Pragati and unnati. Meeting Dhadhaji too was a surprise. Juhi or Srushthi made great Lemon Sherbet. I didn't get to see her drawings though. Again, I forgot to take a picture of her or her brother.

Sarnath

Crowded road in Benaras.

Foreigners waiting for ganga pooja

Ganga Pooja

Day 33 (May-14) : Bodhigaya

We decided to enjoy Bihar and not rush through it. So, after Nalanda we halted at Bodhgaya, the place where lord Buddha is said to be enlightened. The B.S.T.D.C. hotel was beautiful. It took some effort to find it. We initially gave up and went to a decent looking hotel called Siddarth. The rate was 5000/- a night with no guarantee of AC as electricity was unreliable. We resumed our search and finally found the BSTDC hotel. The rates were just 735/-, the location was much better and uninterrupted AC was assured!! I think people underrate government hotels.

We learnt that standard food like mixed veg too gets the local flavour.

Bodh gaya, is a very peaceful place. The Bodhi vriksha there is of the fourth generation. It is presently 150 years old. There is no problem of Pundas there, so the place gives a better peaceful effect. Some things are unexplained, for example, the question of what exactly am I? A constellation of thoughts perhaps, but you are something else of course to be able to observe it!. The answer of this question is what Buddha probably experienced.

We left Bodhgaya by 12:00 PM and reached Ramnagar before 5:00 PM. Ramnagar is one side of Ganga while Varanasi on other side. My father had spent 4 years in Ramnagar and we went to see his old college and house. We also had the famous lassi there. You had to fight through the crowd to get it. Other than that, I found it to be a peaceful place. Two or three peacocks had settled on a tree behind my dad’s old house. Ramleela takes place on avery big scale in this place. The entire city becomes the stage, and people who are rich enough see the thing from elephant backs.

Reached Varanasi in night and checked in a UPTDC hotel near railway station.

Small stupa

Bodhi vriksha

The middle column in railing is from Ashoka's time ie 2300 years ago!

Penancing monk

Buddha's statue

Dharam chakras

Thai temple

Sunset on Ganga in Ramnagar

Ramnagar fort. It belongs to King of Kashi (Varanasi).

Diving in to Ganga for a bath

Day 31,32 (May-12 and 13) : Nalanda

We were initially planning to drive through Bihar quickly. That we learnt would have been a great mistake. For we would have missed all the major Buddhist pilgrims, the Nalanda university and the great food.

Our first plan was to go via Darbhanga and Muzaffarpur. However after reaching pretty close to Darbhanga and Nepal border, we realized that the bridge there had been washed away in last year floods and had not been built as yet. So we had to backtrack 75 Km in night to halt at Purnia for night. Decided to take the Maoists infested area tomorrow to Gaya and then to Varanasi.

Leaving aside the lawlessness(we didn't witness any), Bihar is just wonderful. We had to go through Maoist problem area as the highway bridge was broken. We halted at Nalanda. The college is of dimensions 5km x 10km. However only 500mt x 500mt of it is excavated. An amazing fact about the university, is that when a certain portion of the complex became old, the kings simply filled it up with soil and built a new one over it ! The university had all facilities, including baths and a proper drainage system. The door gaurds would ask the students questions. Correct answerers alone would be allowed inside the complex.

As we walked over the stairs of the place, I could imagine the great scholars running up and down the same stairs, great minds at work.