July 18, 2011

It was during the first week of June that one of my former colleagues in the college and friend in a telephonic conversation said that he was planning to undertake the ‘Char Dhams’ pilgrimage in the Garhwal Himalayan region of Uttarakhand and asked me whether I would like to join the group. He also cautioned me that the train journey by the Dehradun Express to and from Haridwar would take six days and the pilgrimage to the four holy places would take around ten days making a total duration of 16 days.

Though I was not very keen to undertake such a long journey, the lure of the Himalayas tempted me to say ‘yes’ to this proposal and after consulting my wife agreed to join the group along with. My chief interest in joining the tour was the prospect of travelling through the Himalayan mountain ranges and observing the people, their way of life, flora and fauna and of course clicking the pictures to cherish the memory of such unique experience.

The journey to the north was to start on 1 July and end on 16. Accordingly, my friend reserved tickets by 19019Dn/19020 Up Dehradun Express to and from Haridwar, the starting point of the ‘Char Dhams’ pilgrimage. Originally we were to be a group of nine. However, one couple dropped out at the last moment and the group was reduced to seven-three couples and a single person.

After packing the necessary clothing and collecting considerable amount of eatables, as we were told that the Dehradun Express does not have a pantry car and it would be difficult to get palatable food in the railway stations of north India, we proceeded to the Bandra Terminus after dinner on 1 July to board the 19019 Dehradun Express that started its journey of two nights and two days at 11.40 pm close to midnight.

19019 Dehradun Express, though designated as an ‘express’ train,  was in fact a little better than a normal ‘passenger’ train. The train passed through eight Indian states covering a distance of 1630 kilometers,  halting at 89 stations between Bandra Terminus and Haridwar and also stopping in between for crossings, signals, etc. Among the stations of halt,  4 are in Maharashtra, 20 in Gujarat, 18 in Madhya Pradesh, 23 in Rajasthan, 4 in Haryana, 3 in Delhi, 12 in Uttar Pradesh and 5 in Uttarakhand. The major stations and junctions on the way include Surat, Vadodara, Godhra, Dahod, Rathlam, Nagda, Kota,  Sawai madhopur, Bayana, Bharatpur, Mathura, Delhi-Hazrat Nizamuddin, Meerut, Muzaffarnagar, Deoband, Roorkee and Haridwar. The train proceeds further up to Dehradun with 3 more stations between Haridwar and Dehradun.

When we woke up in the morning of  2 July, the train was at the Ankleshwar station in southern Gujarat. As I had a window seat, I could observe the passing landscape and click pictures at will. Being watered by the two river systems-Tapi and Narmada, southern Gujarat is fertile with a lot of land being brought under cultivation. I could see banana plantations, fruit orchards, vegetable fields and rice cultivation at intermittent intervals.

However, as the train took diversion at the Vadodara Junction and passed  through the northern part of Gujarat and southwestern part of Madhya Pradesh one could observe the stark contrast. With scant rain fall, people in this region depend on dry farming. The land being barren and hilly and with the absence of other means of income people live frugal life which could be seen by the simplicity of their small tile-roofed houses. Most of the people inhabiting these border regions belong to tribal communities.

While passing through Madhya Pradesh, one can observe orange orchards at various places. As the train  entered Rajasthan unlike the common notion that the state  is full of deserts, one can  see vast tracts of land under cultivation. With monsoon having made its entry into Rajasthan, the farmers have sown pulses in major part of the land. I was told by a local person travelling for a short distance in the same train  that the chief crop of Rajasthan is soya bean followed by  other pulses, jowar, maize and bajra. Wherever water locking was possible, paddy cultivation could be seen.

Cattle and sheep rearing is another important occupation of the people in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan as I could observe shepherds guarding their sheep and a number of cattle grazing on the barren grassland. At a place in Rajasthan I could see a group of boys playing cricket as their cattle was grazing in the background.

As the sun was setting on 2 July, the 19019 Dehradun Express had entered the Kota region of Rajasthan, famous for the ‘Kota’ stones. I could see piles of stones that were being used for the fencing of land. The city of Kota is also famous for institutions that train IIT and MBA aspirants with high percentage of success. One of India’s nuclear plants is also situated at Kota.

We spent the second night in the train and  it was morning of 3 July when the 19019 Dehradun Express reached Delhi-Hazrat Nizamuddin Junction. The next phase of the journey was through Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. As the train passed through various stations, one could observe the rural scenes of the land with full of greenery. Being the land of the two main river system-Ganges and Yamuna and their tributaries, the land has been fertile. One can see the green fields stretching till the horizon. The chief Karif crops in this region are rice, maize, sugar cane, vegetables.  The rabi crops chiefly consists of wheat, potatoes and pulses. At different places heaps of  cattle fodder in neatly arranged conical shape could be seen.

Another unique feature in the rural Uttar Pradesh is the sight of the Poplar trees by the edge of the fields or being grown on the patches of fertile land. The Poplar trees are being used for variety of purposes such as boxes for packing, match boxes and sticks, plywood, fire-wood,  etc.

The housing pattern of the people living in small townships along the railway lines in Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh is more or less similar. These dwelling places are flat roofed small or medium structures, usually without outer windows and un-plastered walls.  

In certain stations when the train halted during the day time, I could capture on camera some of the unique scenes of people with their traditional dresses or in some kind of action or inaction which are self-evident when one sees the pictures.

It was 3.45 pm on 3 July when 19019 Dehradun Express reached Haridwar where we alighted following which four compartments meant exclusively for Haridwar were detached from the train and it proceeded further to Dehradun. Having quite tired of the long train journey the group of seven of us headed to the hotel and after freshening up proceeded to the centre of Haridwar where the temples were located on the bank of the sacred river Ganges.
Our return journey after the tour and pilgrimage of the ‘Char Dhams’ began on 14 July at 12.50 pm by 19020 Up Dehradun Express and after spending two days and two nights we reached Bandra Terminus at 4.15 am in the early morning of 16 July 2011.

Though it was a long journey by the Dehradun Express to and from Haridwar, it was quite memorable as we passed through eight states of India and observed varieties of landscapes, different cropping patterns, people with diverse culture, and unique types of housing.

On 4 July,  the group of seven of us began the nine days long tour cum pilgrimage of ‘Char Dhams’ in a Tata Sumo that took us through various mountain ranges and valleys to four holy places in Hindu tradition-Yamunotri, Gangotri, Kedarnath and Badrinath, the narration of which will follow in subsequent travelogue.