The sacred seat of religion for the Christian Community- Basilica of Our Lady of Graces at Sardhana, near Meerut captured our imagination on the Easter Weekend. Pashatuks has the greatest respect for all faiths.
So on Easter Sunday, we trooped into PashTukmobile(thats what we lovingly call our SUV from Mahindras) and hit for the road. Sardhana is 67 Kms from Delhi and one has to cut off from Meerut.
We took the East bank of the Ganges canal from Modinagar and moved towards the direction of Meerut.
The overflowing canal on our left and acres of sugar-cane fields made a pretty sight. Dribbling through the potholes on the road, missing some, hitting most made us acutely aware of what travelling the royal Indian style meant. The cow dung cakes all out in the sun added to the rustic flavour.
Ouches and uffs juxtaposed with the rustic music belted out on the car radio found us wishing that we were exploring elsewhere. The dust flying all across, everytime we overtook or were overtaken automatically covered the car in a shade of dusty grey.
It took us almost 3 hours to reach our destination and lo behold the beautiful shrine in gold and white was looking at us invitingly.
The irritation wiped off in seconds and we were all set to make our entrance.
However to our chagrin we realized that the church was closed. A place of worship closed on its own festival?
However it took us some persuasion for the guards to allow us to take a stroll through the premises.
Once done, we hunted around for the famed palace of Begum Sombres, better known as Samru in local dialects. To our disappointment the palace is now a school and not accessible to outsiders.
A day wasted? Not quite. Pashatuks never has a bad day- on the way back to Delhi, we stopped at the sugar cane fields, broke off sugar cane from the trees, munched them like natives - had freshly squeezed sugar cane juice, enjoyed the serenity of the overflowing Ganges canal and came back.
Pashatuks can enjoy themselves anywhere, but people looking for some excitement and zing on the travel- Sardhana can be avoided
We took the East bank of the Ganges canal from Modinagar and moved towards the direction of Meerut.
The irritation wiped off in seconds and we were all set to make our entrance.
However to our chagrin we realized that the church was closed. A place of worship closed on its own festival?
However it took us some persuasion for the guards to allow us to take a stroll through the premises.
A day wasted? Not quite. Pashatuks never has a bad day- on the way back to Delhi, we stopped at the sugar cane fields, broke off sugar cane from the trees, munched them like natives - had freshly squeezed sugar cane juice, enjoyed the serenity of the overflowing Ganges canal and came back.
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