Next day I was in Hariyana, a bustling state between Delhi and Punjab. This time very brown and dry as the rains had not yet started but almost everywhere we went there was cultivation taking place.
Rohtak was having very good roads and a very active city. According to Saini a few years back it had been a very sleepy backwater town but now the one Minister in the parliament was from Rohtak so he was channeling a lot of business to his hometown transforming the roads and infrastructure. The market of Rohtak was quite huge going in a ziggurat of narrow roads with the hustle and bustle of small shops lining each other.
Dilapitated cast iron building at the Market district
Tailor where I bought a dhoti
Sonepat was very much alike Rohtak, just a tad less busy and developed than Rohtak, apparently they did not have their man in parliament. Nevertheless it was acity in its own right and was flanked by paddies in all directions. Holy cows could be seen roaming th streets as well as some houses had the usual cowpat drying going on their rooftops.
Drying cowpats
Holy cow
Chandigarh was he first planned city of India and was started by 2 Americans. One of them died unexoectedly and so the remaining chap resigned. Their place was taken by the Swiss architect Le Corbusier. He has planned a very orderly city on a square grid with wide boulevards and big housing compounds. Actually quite pleasing to the eye considering the crammed roads of Mumbai and elsewhere. At the northern side of the city there is an artificial lake, Sukhna Lake, where people go for their leisure. One could rent paddle boats there but I did not find that appealing. They also had a small sailing club established but I think the sailing was off as the Lake seemd quite dried out before the rains.
Chandigarh boulevards
More on Chandigarh
Next we went to see the Nek Chand Rock Garden that was actually built illegally on a nature reserve but once discovered declared as an recreation Park for the public. It was a quite huge maze of walkways and I think we spent a well over 2 hours waking around. The garden is nice but at many places unkept, mainetnance lacking. In our opinion it could have the potential for much more if some effort was applied to it.
Rock Garden
Rock Garden
More on Nek Chand
The time was drawing nigh again and we headed for Kurukshetra. We arrived there just a bit before sunset and I saw the tank that was supposedly made by Ram. There was aso a big brass chariot depicting Krishna driving the four horse chariot for Emperor Arjun. Around the tank were many "baba's", some of them I suppose real, some of them not better than any common beggar.
Art at temple
At another place was a temple where it was said that Krishna delivered his Bagavad Ghita under a banyan tree. The tree had a shrine and surrounding it were speakers that blared out the Krishna mantra of "hare krishna, hare om...". When the sun set a sound and light show started in Hindi telling the story of Arjun and Krishna. I was not so impressed as compared to the one I had seen in Andaman Islands at the Cellular Prison.
The water tank
Arjun and Krishna
"The" banyan tree
Actually Kurukshetra has so many sights that it would warrant a full days roaming around.
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