*The Inner Child in Bihar
Patna
1984. After a long and tiring train journey from Mumbai to Patna, Sunny Shobha was thrilled to be on the eastern side of India for the first time in her life. In those cost conscious times we had decided to spend one night in the railway retiring room. Our location was obviously in the heart of the city and our visit was during their main festival of Navrathri.
There was excitement in the air. I saw a lot of makeshift enclosures with idols of the Goddess with blaring loud music from the speakers. But what angered Sleepy Shobha was the close proximity of the two Devi pandals as they were locally called, both having different songs being played in very loud decibels - at the very same time! Our poor ears complained at this confusing cacophony and noise pollution, yet there was nothing much Sleepy Shobha could do about it.
We decided to get out and do as much of sight seeing as possible. The first stop was at the Golghar, a huge Granary - the place where the government stores the grains that have been collected from the local farmers. The impressive almost bee hive shaped structure had steps from outside to climb to the top if needed.
In our history text books Sleepy Shobha had read a lot about the ancient city of Pataliputra and was quite confused about its various Magadha, Mauryan, Nanda, and 'Mughal rulers. Sunny Shobha was proud that many foreign travellers to India also came to Pataliputra as it was a center of learning. Sleepy Shobha grumbled that even though this was the same city that was the capital of so many ancient empires, it looked quite ordinary and dirty in the present day times.
Sunny Shobha preferred to use her imagination when we went to Kumhrar- the archeological site to see the ruins of the Mauryan empire and wondered how the eighty pillared hall must have been filled, with riches and wealth around the year 250 BC. India really has such a rich and ancient culture and heritage to learn about.
We then went to theTakht Sri Harmandir Saheb at Patna, which is considered a very sacred place of pilgrimage for the Sikhs as their tenth Guru Gobind Singh was born in this city. This was our first visit ever inside a Gurudwara and Sunny Shobha listened carefully to the soothing religious prayer that was going on.
We then went to the Patna museum and we remember writing in the visitors book that we were happy to see the collection dedicated to the first President of India, Dr. Rajendra Prasad. We also saw a fossil of a tree said to be more than 200 million years old!
We did see some temples and the banks of the river Ganga, but because of the festival season there were noisy crowds that was for Sleepy Shobha to bear. Sadly this is the memory of Patna that stayed with us after our short visit to the capital of Bihar.
Patna
1984. After a long and tiring train journey from Mumbai to Patna, Sunny Shobha was thrilled to be on the eastern side of India for the first time in her life. In those cost conscious times we had decided to spend one night in the railway retiring room. Our location was obviously in the heart of the city and our visit was during their main festival of Navrathri.
There was excitement in the air. I saw a lot of makeshift enclosures with idols of the Goddess with blaring loud music from the speakers. But what angered Sleepy Shobha was the close proximity of the two Devi pandals as they were locally called, both having different songs being played in very loud decibels - at the very same time! Our poor ears complained at this confusing cacophony and noise pollution, yet there was nothing much Sleepy Shobha could do about it.
We decided to get out and do as much of sight seeing as possible. The first stop was at the Golghar, a huge Granary - the place where the government stores the grains that have been collected from the local farmers. The impressive almost bee hive shaped structure had steps from outside to climb to the top if needed.
In our history text books Sleepy Shobha had read a lot about the ancient city of Pataliputra and was quite confused about its various Magadha, Mauryan, Nanda, and 'Mughal rulers. Sunny Shobha was proud that many foreign travellers to India also came to Pataliputra as it was a center of learning. Sleepy Shobha grumbled that even though this was the same city that was the capital of so many ancient empires, it looked quite ordinary and dirty in the present day times.
Sunny Shobha preferred to use her imagination when we went to Kumhrar- the archeological site to see the ruins of the Mauryan empire and wondered how the eighty pillared hall must have been filled, with riches and wealth around the year 250 BC. India really has such a rich and ancient culture and heritage to learn about.
We then went to theTakht Sri Harmandir Saheb at Patna, which is considered a very sacred place of pilgrimage for the Sikhs as their tenth Guru Gobind Singh was born in this city. This was our first visit ever inside a Gurudwara and Sunny Shobha listened carefully to the soothing religious prayer that was going on.
We then went to the Patna museum and we remember writing in the visitors book that we were happy to see the collection dedicated to the first President of India, Dr. Rajendra Prasad. We also saw a fossil of a tree said to be more than 200 million years old!
We did see some temples and the banks of the river Ganga, but because of the festival season there were noisy crowds that was for Sleepy Shobha to bear. Sadly this is the memory of Patna that stayed with us after our short visit to the capital of Bihar.
Quie
Raxaul
India in the nineteen seventies was considered a developing economy. Without Internet and cable television, we hardly had any exposure to the international world. Whatever photographs we saw from our foreign return relatives made us open our jaws in amazement. Foreign travel was considered to be prohibitively expensive. So you can imagine our excitement when our family decided to go to our first foreign trip abroad- to Nepal.
We found ourselves at a relatively unknown border town called Raxaul. My dad told me that we were in the East Champaran district where Gandhiji had started the indigo movement, which was one of the first steps towards India's struggle for freedom.
And sleepy Shobha realized that our first foreign trip in 1984 did not start from some big plane in a big airport. Instead we went towards the border in a manually driven small cycle-rickshaw! We cycled past the customs building and went into the small room which was the Indian police check point. My father filled some forms there and then we were allowed to walk carrying our own luggage towards a gate on the other side of which was another country, Nepal.
This short dusty bumpy cycle rickshaw ride was in complete contrast to the huge anticipation of our first foreign trip. Sunny Shobha thought that this cycle rickshaw ride towards a foreign country was one of the most amusing memory that got etched in our mind about this border town of Bihar called Raxaul!
*(There is an inner child within all of us. One that we were born as - warm and happy, optimistic, capable of serving and loving others, believing in the possibility of extra-ordinary achievements, filled with a kind of inner light and positive energy, taking initiative and action...I will call that your Sunny inner child.
And then we are exposed to circumstances and experiences. Depending on the way we react to our situations, a new inner child emerges. One that we create - cold and sad, pessimistic, capable of being indifferent or hating others, believing oneself to be trapped within ordinary limits, filled with a kind of inner darkness and negative energy, lazily whining, not taking action, I will call that your Sleepy inner child.
You have a choice on which inner child you want to encourage in your life - your Sunny inner child or your inner Sleepy child?)
I will call my inner child as Sunny Shobha and Sleepy Shobha. Together we will travel around the world. )
No comments:
Post a Comment