~SOUVENiR ENTHRALLED iN LUCKNOW AND UTTARAKHAND~

Way To Uttarakhand with Sowmitra, Sunny, Avishek & Sandip

A TRAVELOGUE BY ACHiN BHUNiA

TRAiN TO LUCKNOW

Holding the fear of forthcoming selection test for Higher Secondary, I had to go for the tour to Uttarakhand and Lucknow just before one month of the exam. Generally from long days I was fretting over for the tour, fixed it a new menace of my life. But during the first day of the tour, coming across with the kins and others, alleviated me from my tension and I found that my fervour was not dampened yet. At first we took the express to Lucknow. Inside the train it was boring to sit in my seat constantly, so I was strolling from one compartment to other. In our compartment a Mohammedan family sat. Among them a fair and beautiful lady was keeping vigil over their children and nurtured them so earnestly. Actually she was efficient to look over them. In my eyes she seemed to me as an embodiment of ideal mother.

During midnight our train was running past the dark forest area of Uttarpradesh. Our train grinded to sudden halt. Due to sound of the train I was awakened. “Probably a gang of thieves aged fifteen to seventeen years waited to steal bag or anything of the passengers at previous night, but finding passengers vigilant, they pulled the chain of the train to stop and fled through the dark jungle beside the rail line with their agile alacrity without any hesitation. That was why the train got stopped for an hour.”-a passenger said. A tremor of fear blew through my heart as well as others. In newspaper or news I heared a long about big train dacoity and thanked God that the previous night did not prove to be fatal. It was little past of 8’o clock our train reached at Lucknow station.

iN LUCKNOW

Reality came to light. The name I read in the history book, was analogous with the signboard of the station-“Lucknow Jn”. A piece of history was hovering over my mind surrounding Lucknow at that instant, as I first came in Lucknow. “Lucknow was one of the main centres of Indian traditional song (Ucchangya sangeet)!”- exclaimed my maternal uncle, which deepened me to put own self in the mist of history.

After all the Lucknow station was graceful of its edifice like structure. We went to hotel at Charbag. After sometimes break we went for sight seeing. Lucknow city was dusty and filthy as our Kolkata. Somewhere it was littered with the spittoons of paaneaters and equivalent to that.

Some days before, the Ayodha verdict was given. According to Ramayana, Ramchandra gifted the territory of Lucknow to his brother Lakshmana. So the real name of Lucknow was Lakshmanapur. Actually it was the part of large Ayodha.

At first we entered into the “Bara Imambara”, the grandest historical sight in Lucknow. From the guide I knew that this Imambara was built for the remembrance of Imam Hussain’s martyrdom, which will be like this if spoken explicitly-

In an armaggedon battle at Karbala in Iraq, Imam Hussain and his trustworthy 71 members sacrificed themselves to immortalize the Islamic value in the populace. As consequence they were kept starved for three days without victuals as well as slaughtered inhumanly after that.

My inner self learned a paradigm, where paganism turned to stoicism and transcended human history. Generally the sad demise touches everybody, learned about that.

This was built by Nawab Asaf Ud Daula, which provided food to the labours and saved them from the harrowing grasp of the famine. Even members of royal family worked for the building of Imambara at night to avoid attention. Their concerted effort turned to this vivacityful reality. The most wonderful thing is that no steel or wood was used to make the ceiling of Bara Imambara, which denotes the Persian or Islamic craftiness of architecture.

Now we entered into the most desired “Bhulbhulaiyan”, a complicated staircase outside the hall. Initially I felt a bit austere, as I heared a long about the labyrinthine staircase. Really every nook and corner seemed to be same; sometimes it was difficult to distinguish between door and window. But there was no fear, as the guide showed us the way. A secret window was there; from where anybody can behold the outside, but from outside no body can get view of the beholders inside.

Coming out from there we went to “Jalmahal” beside it. We felt a chilly ambience inside the mahal, built many years ago with technical plan, expels our modern air cooler. Inside there we saw a well where anybody can get clear reflection of the main gate of the palace.

Wonders were dominated for sometime until we left “Bara Imambara”. Then we visited “Chota Imambara”, a small replica of “Bara Imambara” and approached towards hotel.

In that night we again got into the train to “Lalkuan” in Uttarakhand. This time the train was ‘meter gauge’ train, was short in size and length. The ticket checker warned us to close all of windows and doors, as this train was passing through very risky area where theft or heist might be committed at any cost. We tighten all of our windows and doors according to the checker, but found two policemen were sitting on another seat without any seat reservation. From the experience of previous night all of us were cautious and informed to the checker, as they might be another in police’s apparel and can do anything harmful to us. The checker said-“They were local police, will early get down after two stations left, as they are habituated to travel like this.” Really they were local police of Uttarpradesh and showed their identity card. Everybody got consoled to see the name “UP POLICE” in their card. After spending that night in train with little or more tension, we reached in “Lalkuan” station in the morning. I inhaled a long to be safe till now, as I heared from another passenger that one time the passengers returned to Lucknow being totally insolvent by a big dacoity in that train.

ENTERiNG UTTARAKHAND

If anybody sees the map of the year 2000, he can not find any existence of the state ‘Uttarakhand’, as it was belonged to Uttarpradesh in that time. After the partition it was named ‘Uttarakhand’.

After all two buses were waiting for us, arranged by our travel agency. The bus was running swiftly at first in the plain road. The hilly road started after crossing ‘Kathgodam’. Slowly our bus was ascending to the top through the winding road. The vast expanse of hills became ardent, embellished with greenery look of countless trees. ‘Pine’, ‘Oak’, ‘Rhododrendon’,’Simul’,’Far’ and many nameless trees were visible. From the top myriads of ‘Pine’ trees seemed to be very marvellous to gaze. The numbers of houses became less to watch or I saw some small houses on the top of the hill, as the residents of those houses spend theirs life with too much hardship ascending the slope of the hill. I dipped in the thought of their daily lives, isolating from the busy and congested life of our cities. As in our society everybody is always in attempt to outdo others and themselves in the mere rally and competition of life, but in this remote hilly area the people have to live taking their lives in their hand.

In ‘Ranikhet’ our bus stopped for lunch. I and my one elder brother went to ‘Ranikhet’ golf ground. The area resembled with the scene where actor Sasi Kapoor danced in one film of mid seventies. I run and rolled in the ground to fill the taste of freedom, freedom from my daily monotonous life of heap of books and creation less prosaic life.

In that night we stayed in ‘Almora’ for night halt. It was about 1638 meters top. Next day we started for ‘Chakauri’. It was 90 km distant from Almora. On the way we stopped to see a temple, named “Ghanteswari” temple. Actually the temple is decorated with numerous bells. ‘Large’, ‘small’, and ‘short’, all kinds of bells were in this temple. Many followers tied bells to fulfill their offerings to God. I was surprised and a bit a humorous to see this bizarre temple, as various sorts of rituals and cultures exist in India.

That night we stopped in Chakauri. Our hotel was little distant from the fringes of main town of Chakauri, it was in remote and secluded hilly place. In that night I walked through the unfrequented pathway of there. The night was moonlit. The large trees and their shades seemed to be different in the dim light, a bit eerie.

The fuss surrounding the limitations of hiring bus of previous night was compromised by hiring small cars to see “Patal Bhuvaneswar”. On the way a snow laden mountain drew our attention. I was mesmerized by the snow encrusted ridge. At first we saw clouds over our heads, as we proceeded the clouds became close, now we could see clouds in front of our nose, clustered in the lap of the mountains. The presence of heaven seemed to at our hand.

A folk song of Uttarakhand was playing in our TATA Sumo. At last we reached at the shrine of “Patal Bhuvaneswar”. We trudged towards temple. The main temple was under a cave. From a sign board I knew that this “Patal Bhuvaneswar” was as old as of our earth and in ‘Dapar’ era ‘Pandavas’ (of Mahabharata) came to this cave temple. A narrow passage way led towards under, where we had to descend holding chain 90 ft down inside. It was cold inside. Water was falling from the limestone. The stone took the shape of various deities or Gods. One stone is believed to be the elephant, from where ‘Ganesh’ was created. A tongue like stone is believed to be the tongue of goddess ‘Bhairavi’. The guide told us that 33 crore Gods dwell there. Three stones, symbolize lord ‘Brahmha’, ‘Vishnu’ and ‘Maheswar’. Besides ‘Dapar’, ‘Dharma’ and ‘Kali’ era are symbolized by three stones. Among that the stone for ‘Kali’ era will touch the roof of a stone, when ‘Kali’ era will be ended, told the guide. What is the mystery of creation? The keys of creation seemed to lie in “Patal Bhuvaneswar”.

That day we went to ‘Koshani’, 120 km from ‘Chakauri’. In the bus journey the vertigo for winding hilly road was felt by me and I was like opiated bearing the twist, turn of the winding hilly road. At night we reached at ‘Koshani’. Next morning we went for sightseeing. Again we went a temple in the bank of the ‘Gomti’ river, where fishes were teemed in water. After that we entered a tea garden, saw tea processing and making. But the processing machine was bought from West Bengal, as the name ‘Titagarh’ was labelled on the machine. Next day we started for ‘Nainital’.

iN NAiNiTAL

In the afternoon we reached in ‘Nainital’. Then we proceeded towards hotel. Our hotel was too high to ascend, so I was exhausted breaking too much staircases. But my fatigue was soothed seeing the vast expanse of the lake ‘Nainital’. The exquisite picturesque beauty of this heavenly nature seemed to balm to my tiring eyes. I gazed to the bluish water of the lake and verdancy of the city surrounding it, with an imperturbable glance. Surely anybody would forget his despair to behold ‘Nainital’ and would get subdued by it. It is the best example for enjoying solitude and falling in romance by two lovers.

‘Nainital’ lake is stretched over 3.5 km in the chasm of hills. The clusters of houses along the greenish hill seemed to be blooming flowers in a garden, surrounding ‘Naini’ lake. ‘Nainital’ was about 6358 ft top from the sea level.

In the evening we traversed along the mall road. ‘Nainital’ mall can be called the heart of the city. The usual thronging of the people in the mall seemed ecstatic to me. In most of the shops we saw a large varieties of wax products, as ‘Nainital’ is famous for wax products and good. During night the lights and houses along the entire hills seemed to as if, multifarious candles were illuminating all together. At one end of the mall road a temple, called ‘Nainadevi’ is situated beside a football ground.

Next day we went for sight seeing. En route we saw “Nainital supreme court”. We went to a viewpoint and got a clear ice clad view of ‘Nandadevi’ and ‘Trishul’ mountains. Then we went to a spot called “Suicide point” and “Loving point”. In the way driver showed us another two lakes, ‘Khurpatal’ and ‘Sukhatal’. Then we saw a falls, formed by totally natural process. Water was gushing tirelessly from the top. From the top we get another hypnotic view of total ‘Nainital’.

At noon we hired boats for boating. From the boat I saw the sun kissed ‘Nainital’ city. That day I spent most of the times sitting in the roof of our hotel to watch the beauty and bounty of the lake as I could done and set it “bliss of solitude” in my life for ever.

Next day we had to leave Nainital with keeping reluctance to abandon this paradise. I still kept gazing from the window of the car, to the receding Nainital. After leaving Nainital we went to another lake, ‘Sattal’, 22 km distant from Nainital. Again we started for another lake, ‘Nakuchiatal’, which was called ‘Nikuchital’ by us in jest. Our departure from Uttarakhand came close. On the way we stopped to see a “Hanuman temple”, where it was glorified by a large statue of God ‘Hanuman’. But this statue turned a comical consequence to us, a bit insulting too. In our group most of the families were from Midnapur, but in another group it was of Kolkata. In our Kolkata group some young witty maidens called one, “monkey of Midnapur!” comparing with the statue. The man was plumpy in size and round faced. Actually their comparing was not wrong at all. But humiliation of anybody of our group made us contemptuous and we started to call them, “elephants”, as they were little fatty. They were abashed with this unexpected reciprocation.

After this little cold war we approached to our last visiting sight, lake ‘Bhimtal’. ‘Bhimtal’ has also a vast expanse and I filled the void, created in my mind for leaving ‘Nainital’ by seeing it.

Time is very fugitive. The day of travelling elapsed in the wink of an eye. The amenities and merry making for these days seemed to be ephemeral. The urgency of returning to daily life and firmness of reality made me sad. The tension of my ensuing exam reappeared and with that unforgettable beauty of ‘Nainital’ was flashed upon my mind. Being blended with these two feelings I stared at the moving nature of outside from the returning train.

About Achin:

Achin is very shy and short tempered. His nick name is "Sunny" and is resident of Behala,Kolkata. He loves to play cricket and very fan of Mr. Sachin Tendulkar. His hobby is indulging in English literature and loves to write.

And . . ohhh . . one more line . . . He is still Single,no Girlfriend. . . LoL. . :-)