One fine day we planned to go to Haridwar so I bought three train tickets from Old Delhi Railway Station. That time the tickets were made manually so it was in the hand of the man who was sitting on the booking window, whether he would sell you ticket or not. When I demanded him three tickets for Haridwar he refused me by saying that the tickets had already been sold out. I requested him in such a way as if I was accustomed to the corrupt system so he gave me three tickets. When I gave him money he said OK. I insisted on him to refund the balance amount. First, he stared at me and refunded me the balance.
Reaching home I told Mira about the program. I purchased third ticket for one of my nephews, my elder sister’s son – Pankaj, who was ready to go with us. We boarded the train on the scheduled date that was on Saturday evening. By the following day in the morning we arrived at Haridwar. We took the Rickshaw from the station to go to the Dharamshala that was near the bank of holy river Ganga. Having got the room we went to the ‘Har Ki Podi’ to take a holy dip into it. The flow of water was quite high and the water itself was very cold so it was difficult to enter the water in one shot. First I dipped my one foot into it and after a while second foot. Having accustomed the body to chilled water I put my one hand into the water. Slowly and gradually I wetted my whole body. After this we bathed and enjoyed into the water a lot. It was my first experience to such cold river though I had visited the Ganga at the place called ‘Garh Ganga’ but the water at ‘Garh Ganga was not as chilled as at ‘Har Ki Podi’.
Having taken bath we changed our dresses and went to the nearby restaurant to take a breakfast though my sister had prepared some eatables and packed it for the journey but we left it at home in haste. Having the breakfast we went to see many famous temples of Haridwar. They were all beautiful.
Next day we went to Rishikesh that is also very beautiful and in between the hills. There were so many big Dharamshalas and temples in Rishikesh where many ‘Sadhus’ live and meditate religiously. After spending two-three days we returned to Delhi. When we reached ISBT (Inter State Bus Terminus) the time was 3 am. I hired an auto rickshaw and went home. After dropping us at home, the auto rickshaw driver asked me to say something. Getting my permission he said, ‘Sir, it was not the right time to go home from ISBT, you had better stay there till 5 o’ clock.’ I said to him, ‘Thanks for nice advice and got into home.’