Saturday, January 24, 2009

Manikaran, Himachal Pradesh

Its 3:45 pm and we just started back from Manikaran. The place is famous for hot water spring and cold water spring flowing together. Calling it "hot" would be an understatement. It was boiling and bubbling. You can't put your finger inside for more than 1/2 a second.

I bought a small bag of rice and kala chana for Rs. 10 each from there and left it dipping in the pool of hot water spring and it got cooked there. In 15 mins rice was completely done and kalachana was 75% done.

There is a gurudwara there and they cook the food in big earthen pots in one of the hot water pools. We ate at the 'langar' at the gurudwara and relished the kadhi with roti and rice. A young boy helping there told Anirudh that he is not supposed to waste the food and Betu followed his instruction to the T. He did not even leave one spoon of the food in his plate. When I asked him to eat as much as he wantsto, he told me in a very serious tone "unhone bola hai na ki bilkul khana nahi chhodna. Poora finish karna hai."

We were earlier planning to skip going to Manikaran because of tight schedule but am really glad we came here. It was an experience in its own. The pictures will follow few posts down when I reach back Delhi.

- Jan 24, 2009
~~ Keep Smiling! ~~
Sent on my BlackBerry®.

9 comments:

  1. Wow!!

    Looks like u are having a great time... I've always wanted to visit Himachal Pradesh...

    How cute is your son's comment about the food! :-)


    Hope you have a fun and safe trip back to Delhi... :)

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  2. can't wait for the pics. Betu is just too cute !

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  3. waiting for the pics!!!
    Be safe and enjoy!!

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  4. wow ..i would love to see that!

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  5. wow! this sounds so interesyting and fun! and i want some langar too! :D

    cheers!

    abha

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  6. Every time I read the words spoken by your son, they make me pause and think for a moment. I adore the psyche of the child which full of faith, trust, loyalty and is far away from being prejudice, unfair and corrupt. Hope you had a good holiday.

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  7. wah wah,
    loved the post,
    i been to manikaran and the experience was wonderful there.
    we went as campers, and cleaned the huge langar building with brooms, hot water, and huge wipers.

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