Varnasi-Allahabad-Gaya - A Pilgrimage

How many to celebrate Holi in Bihar? This strange occurence happened to me and my uncle who wanted to explore that part of the India. The number of days I had was reduced from four to three a as my esteemed company cancelled the vacation for Good Friday.

Allahabad

ney started from New Delhi Railway Station and the next morning when i woke up on Holi it was Allahabad Junction. Since my uncle was doing the kriyas which are required to be done in Allahabad Sangam, we got hold of tamil gurukkal who had sent us a Tonga to reach their home. So after finishing the ablutions at the Mutt and a super filter coffee(wherever i went i was eating silly south Indian food), The tonga headed towards to the Triveni Sangam where a boat was ready for us to go to the sangam. We were at the shores of Yamuna, i was astonished to hear from our boatman that Yamuna brings in more water than Ganga in terms of Volume. Also astonishingly Yamuna was so clean on that day(which was confirmed by a flock of Sea Gulls merrily enjoying their lunch there). How would you feel when you are walking in between two Sumo Wrestlers, much similar was the junction of these two big giants. We had a bath in Sangam in the middle of the day and returned back to the mutt to continue the rest of the ritual process.

Varnasi:
The same day afternoon we started towards Varnasi by road and it was a smooth 3 hour journey. There we had to stay in a Mutt in Hanuman Ghat which was much closer to the great Harishcandra ghat(where cremation of bodies take place in large scale). The same day night we visited the Kasi Vishwanath Mandir and list of other temples(quite difficult to follow). The same night we decided to finish of the rituals in GAYA. So that on the third day we are back to Varnasi which is well connected with allahabad(mainly for our return trip).

GAYA

Amazingly there was less crowd in all trains bound to BIHAR because of Holi, so we escaped the agony of travel to that place. But once we landed in Gaya i had use all my pigeon hindi to convince them for a ride in their auto, we also came to know that Bihar celebrates HOLI for 4 days. Tourists were not spared of the colours and cow dung, we got enough of them too, my aunt had got colour in her eyes and many were looking at her as if she had descended from an alien planet, with eyes swollen and fully drenched in colors. So in a Fast forward manner all the rituals and we were able to visit only the Vishnupad temple only. Rest of the places even to go to Bodh Gaya there was not enough transport available. Our only rescuer there was the Northern Railways, which was not hindered much out of the HOLI fete.

Returning back to Banaras by night we did a local tour the last day of our trip, went to Sarnath, Birla Mandir, Banaras Hindu Unviersity, Tulsi Manas mandir etc. Also went in the boat along the various ghats. Since our return train from Allahabad to Delhi was @ 12:00 AM we casually strolled in Varnasi. Then took the same road to allahabad to reach the station by 9:00 PM.

The trip had made my entire body weak(mainly because of the south indian food) and luggage I carried(mostly ganges water to be distributed to all relatives !!).