Slow Boat Down the Ganges Update 63 Today was a watershed day. The final push to Calcutta to end what has been a fantastic journey. The excitement was coursing through my body through the night, sleep was sketchy, and when I woke up it was still dark outside. I was up and ready to hit…
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Slow Boat Down the Ganges Update 62 Murshid Quli Khan, the Diwan of Bengal under Aurangzeb transferred the capital from Dhaka, Bangladesh, and renamed the city Murshidabad after his own name, after getting Aurangzeb’s consent. Murshidabad became the capital of the Nawabs of Bengal, and even remained the seat of administration for the British. Murshid…
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Slow Boat Down the Ganges Update 61 One extra day at Farakka was called for. I have been to Farakka before, many years back, when I was motorbiking to Sikkim and Bhutan, and apart from the horrendous condition of the roads, I do not remember much of anything else. The Farakka Barrage was a must…
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Slow Boat Down the Ganges Update 60 We were in what is unkindly called the badlands of Bihar. Yes, these lands were made of legends, of stories of local gangsters, of complete lawlessness. Here lived people who had virtually no sense of worth of life and could and would kill for no other reason than…
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Slow Boat Down the Ganges Update 59 We woke up to the renewed hospitality of the Sharma brothers. It was fogged out outside, and the river ahead was not visible, with visibility down to a few hundred metres. There also did not seem to be any hurry on the side of the brothers to bid…
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Slow Boat Down the Ganges Update 58 At the very outset let me wish everyone a very happy 2019. Today, as the old gives way to the new, it provides an opportunity to make new dreams and look forward to an even better future. In the larger scheme of things, a new year is just…
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Slow Boat Down the Ganges Update 57 After many years of being partial to the teachings of the Lord Buddha, I finally managed to walk the path that he walked two thousand five hundred years ago. Well, it is impossible for a person like me to walk on the Buddha’s figurative footsteps, but I did…
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Slow Boat Down the Ganges Update 56 Needless to say, I slept like a log. Chandru and Raghu found a couple of tables that are otherwise used to display the wares that Golu sells from his shop, while I was more comfortable on the floor. The shack was closed in from all sides and the…
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Slow Boat Down the Ganges Update 55 Cracked rib, busted car, a couple of weddings, celebrations of a wedding conducted thirty one years ago, and finally I am back on the river again. And this time with a reality reminiscent of the time when the expedition started. I have a road support team. Chandrasekar Sambasivam…
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Slow Boat Down the Ganges Update 54 Dec 05 was our wedding anniversary. For people of my vintage, parties are few and far between, particularly those celebrating important watershed moments like birthdays and anniversaries. It is up to the children to set up some kind of celebration. And they did. The two daughters and the…
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