and we returned spiritually uncleansed….

Last week I arranged my parents’ trip to Haridwar & Rishikesh. We started our drive from Gurgaon in morning 6:00 Hrs. We decided to take our route via Yamunanagar. On the way i.e. NH-1, after crossing Sonipat we stopped at famous ‘Sukhdev’ Dhaba. We quickly gobbled up aaloo parathas with desi white butter. My dad took more satisfaction in Achar than Parathas. I told him that these are Pachranga Achar and they are originated in Panipat. Now-a-days they are available through out the India. We reached Yamunanagar at 11:00 Hrs and after crossing Saharnpur & Rorkee we reached Haridwar by 15:00 Hrs. We had our booking at Hotel Ginger, after relaxing for few hours we went to Hari-ki-paudi. Hundreds of vehicles were parked in the area around Hari-ki-paudi. There was not much water and flow was slow. Thousands of people were assembled near Ganga temple. Water was very dirty, lot of waste material such as plastics, food, old cloths and even hairs were floating in the river. Thousands of people – man & women dressed or naked were bathing on river side. Crying and screaming, small- small children were forced by their parents to make plunge in that dirty water and scrub their sins made in past life. Looking at all these my mother was horrified….

My parents decided not to even dip their toe in holy water…..

And we returned spiritually uncleansed….