When Sriman mentioned to me that he and his family may be making a trip to Rishikesh in July for a mini holiday, Krishnan and I decided to take the opportunity to make the trip to Rishikesh. Till we lived in Patparganj, Rishikesh and Haridwar were easily accessible and we have been there several times. Then the river rafting bug bit us, alongwith Kapil and Deepa’s friendship 🙂 and for three years we did an annual trip for river rafting with Kapil and Deepa. The last time we went to Haridwar was in 2005, when I had an offsite managers meet in Rishikesh. The day the offsite was completed, Krishnan drove up and we took a mini break for my birthday.
When we went for our cycling trip to Rishikesh in 2009, we didnt stop at Haridwar. And again when we were in Dehradun in 2015, we didnt make the trip to Haridwar. Several reasons for not going there … the highway was getting built and before that, the roads were pathetic. Every time we had gone towards Rishikesh and Haridwar, our return trip would always be delayed. Sometimes we have driven through fields and at other times, it was just a traffic jam.
Now that the Meerut highway is built, we decided to make the trip. After figuring out places to stay etc, we asked Sriman if they could come upto Haridwar instead of our going to Rishikesh. He readily agreed. Initially we thought of a day trip but then better sense prevailed and we booked a hotel in Haridwar.
We started at 6.20 am from home and were in the Bikanervala, at Muzaffarnagar by 8.40 am. The Meerut expressway is just that – express all the way ! The old highway after Meerut has also been expanded to a four-lane one. No potholes or no random speed breakers, just a nice highway.
Bikanervala at Muzaffarnagar is part of a food court. The rest rooms here are clean, so a good place to stop. We had our breakfast here and then reached the hotel in Haridwar by 11.15 am.
So total time taken was 5 hours with a half hour stop. Driving time was 4.5 hours for approx 240 kms. We were in Haridwar after 20 years to meet a friend I have known for 45 years !!
Sriman and Kiran also reached the hotel a few minutes later. We just checked in so that Amma could take rest while the four of us went Lassi shopping :).
Moti Bazar – Haridwar
We took Sriman’s taxi for the day and got ourselves dropped at one end of Moti Bazar. The Kanwariyas were still in Haridwar in good numbers so no vehicles were allowed into the Upper Road. The weather was humid, thankfully not hot. But within the first half a kilometre, I was sweating buckets. Krishnan was very worried that I will start complaining, but the incentive of drinking chilled Lassi kept me going.
We crossed the famous Mohan Ji Puri Wale on our way to Prakash Lok. Our plan was to come back there and pack our lunch.
Finally we reached Prakash Lok and Ajay Saini was there, just a little older.. well, all of us were older :). The shop has been expanded a bit, so we went upto the 1st floor to sit at a table there. A tad bit disappointed when the lassi arrived… it was really tasty like we remembered but wasnt cold.
Earlier in the day there had been a stampede unfortunately with some fatalities as well, at the Mansa Devi temple. Sriman and Kiran couldnt go in, and were asked to turn back from the temple door. So the corporation had cut electricity to all of Haridwar as a precautionary measure since the stampede seems to have started with someone stepping on a live wire. The deep freezers and refrigerators in all the shops were not up and running and hence the not so cold Lassi.
We then tried the kulfis and they were delicious.
Got a few glasses of Lassi packed for Sriman’s kids and Amma (supposedly… we drank most of it) and took lots of pics with Ajay Saini before leaving Prakash Lok.
We discovered Prakash Lok Lassi shop, in our very first trip to Haridwar in 1998, …. with a very young Ajay Saini serving chilled Lassi that was just nectar :). My brother-in-law got so hooked to the taste, that he and my sister-in-law ensured the car was stopped in Haridwar during their Badrinath trip. My brother-in-law walked across and bought enough lassi to satisfy his taste buds and his soul buds.
From Prakash Lok Lassi shop we headed back towards the car, but not before buying our lunch at Mohan Ji Poori Wale. We got extra halwa as prasad…. the poori-subzi and samosas tasted great, but the halwa was the highlight. Got back to the room and took some more pics with Amma.
I have to mention the cleanliness in Haridwar was a pleasant surprise. We had read about the 7000 metric tonnes of waste that was left behind due to the Kanwar yatra over two weeks, but there was no sign of that volume of garbage. There were a few mounds of garbage but neatly piled and the moti bazar road was really clean. We had no difficulty in walking up and down those narrow streets.
Sriman and Kiran went back to Rishikesh and we decided to stay back for the night, since the “sweaty” walk made us feel tired.
Return Trip
We left Haridwar at 5.30 am and till we reached Meerut, there wasnt much traffic on the way… The Meerut expressway was quite busy and as we neared Ghaziabad, every exit had traffic backed up. It was the peak of office traffic so we did get slowed down. We reached home around 10.15 am, totally exhausted.
The sleep pattern had been disturbed because Haridwar was noisy. We could clearly hear the loud music that the Kanwariyas were playing well into the night. Just slept for a couple of hours before getting on with the day’s work.
Flashback – Aug 4 1998
Exactly 27 years back on this day, we were in Haridwar. My in-laws, Nachi, Kousalya, Krishnan and I were on our way to Badrinath. Had stopped in Haridwar and this is the trip when we discovered Prakash Lok Lassi shop.
Remembering my father as well today ….. 17 years back this was the last day that I heard your voice. I still remember coming into the ICU at Apollo Hyderabad and I just broke down seeing you with all those tubes. Miss you Nanagaru, especially when we do the road trips because we know you loved to drive.