Yes, at times journeys are not merely journeys. They are something much more. To begin with, a journey need not be a mere journey. It is a pilgrimage in the sense that you thus fulfill a word you gave yourself to honour your extremely sincere, genuine, over-caring father.
Papa must have gone to Gangasagar around the Ganga Sagar Mela, a mini mega Kumbh. The steamer boat has three days long queues that flood the jetty relentlessly Those days, food stalls were not so ubiquitous either. For three days, he survived on tender coconut water. It absolutely wrung my heart when he told me of it. There n then I had decided that one day I would go to Ganga Sagar to somehow allay his unspoken sufferings.
The Ganga Parikrama gave me a chance. I met Ganga at her origin, bouncing over boulders with the glee of a baby full of beans. At Rishikesh, she was deep, philosophical and respectful. At Haridwar, the evening Ganga aarti was a spectacle, though neither the banks nor the flow of river were much to write home about. Yet I collected the holy water. Thus I got a chance to return it to Ganga Sagar.
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