Rishikesh: Serenity in the Madness

Rishikesh must be one of the most beautiful places in India. The serenity of Ganga Ma and the possibility of getting really quick out of the usual Indian madness of traffic, touts and all sorts of screaming colours and intense smells into stunning nature make for a perfect balance.

The pictures of this trip do only capture the motionless, serene side of this equation though. I’d love to have a camera at hand when I’m riding the motorbike towards Rishikesh town. What’s happening there is quite hard to process for a Western mind. A good practice to come to a state of no-mind actually, accepting what is, or better totally surrender, flowing perfectly in the present moment and silently praying until arrival…

…while facing cows, goats, rickshaws, cars, buses, motorbikes with five people on them (the driver talking on the phone meanwhile), lines of pack donkeys, considerable amounts of vegetable vendors with their loaded carts coming towards me on what I perceive as “my” side of the road, then overtaking Ganga pilgrims walking in a row of four next to each other on what I think could be described as a main road while chanting loudly “Ram! Bolo! Ram! Bolo!”, me again trying not to get hit by a heavy goods vehicle, while also watching out for the Sadhus crawling out of their makeshift tents on same road, where they live with little more than their orange robes and a kettle, observing with interest the odd pig and quite a few monkeys crossing, next deciding to overtake the stinky rickshaw on the left side (everybody does it), but pulling back last minute, when one of the passengers gets sick out of the left window… oh these road trips!

The pictures of serene must do for now.