After seeing the map below I cannot help but recollect the overwhelming exp. we had on the trip to Gaumukh. Two Chem. profs got married afterwards- who were two of our three staff escorts/guides. Some may be enthused to try it themselves.
See Map of --Gaumukh - Cow's mouth shape - of the glacier in northern Himalayas (near China, Nepal) from which Ganga (Ganges) river originates is here below. The only landmark for googling it is Gangotri, India - the last town-if you can call it - it has rooms and temples though. One of Holiest places in Hinduism alongwith Gaumukh.
In Sep 1992 co-ed, college trip (costing $25 for 12 days) we trekked from Gangotri to Gaumukh in two days. First day to a campsite 4 kms from the glacier. We all stayed in the same tin-roofed room - guys, gals and teachers.My first. Then I used to bathe in cold water only -despite the cold-even at college.
We trekked along the brownish curve along the (frozen in this pic/map) river - forests called Bhojwasa and Cheervasa - for Bhoj (Sal?) and Cheer (teak?) trees . It was a near flat ,plain dirt track mostly-with an occasional land slide of loose rocks and gravel --due to deforestation. Famous for its snow leopards in the area. The glacier is visible at the Right Lower corner of the map . http://www.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=gangotri,+India&ll=30.978492,78.948784&spn=0.137168,0.343323&t=h&om=1
The better detail of the glacier is below where the glacier mouth is right in the center of the map--and you can see another small glacier joining it from the side: http://www.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=gangotri,+India&t=h&om=1&ll=30.962301,79.0765&spn=0.137191,0.343323
We climbed on the glacier -with help of a local guide and on to the mountain pleataue 800 metres above -I think at an angle of 60-70 degress to level gorund.
The Yoga instructors we met above (at Tapovan about 4,800 metres high - a green lush plateau surrounded by Shivling snow capped peaks -snowline above 6,000 metrs there, where out 55 year old male chem. prof. starting crying with emotion just as we made it to the heavenly green and warm plateau ) were very Westernised - Lal Baba had a female German disciple -who stayed there every six months in summers. The Muslim Yoga instructor shared his tent with a young
Korean girl : they were following Osho Rajneesh's way of Nirvana thru Sex.
Descent was more difficult and terrifying with loose gravel and slippery slope and the view was magnificent (as you can imagine seeing the map) with above 6,000 meter peaks all around and a clear view along the valley - the hoary glacier on one side and the flowing river from just down below us - the mouth of the glacier.
I think this Google map was taken in winter since the river was not frozen in Sep.
We had seen most of these pics from our college Geography instructor Mrs Seema Parihar's slide show, who had trekked thru these mountains for months with her Geo- specialist husband -touching Badrinath, Kedarnath, Gangotri, Jamnotri -in one go (all pilgrim spots --but they did it cross country - not along the river flow by bus) . She had left her year old child with her husband to
be with our trip . Incidently, the Geography Dept of our college (KiroriMal College, Delhi - nicknamed Karl Marx College) was the best in DU - so perhaps in whole of India - and had a colorful variety of people in it--just across from our economics dept. The topper every year of the univ was fromKMC.
The most colorful one was a "Bihari-Chinki" (Father Bihari , mother Nepali) who sometimes had to be sent back from class when he came drunk there. Always wearing his loud Adidas or Nike shoes. Small and slight, smart looking - he nontheless beat off 4 guys who had entered the hostel to beat him. They ran away before the alarm went off and we could catch them. He had left NDA (National Defense Academy) Air Force wing - to join this program to become IAS - geography scored highly in civil services entrance. Since , in his batch the univ marking rules changed - he broke records for all years - for Geography toppers'' grades/marks.
Nonetheless, he did not like my jogging around the campus. Once he commented whether I had come to study or to jog.
He followed the Bihari logic "Maar main bhi aage Padhaai main bhi Aage" : Ahead in studies , ahead in fighting. Making mischief in daytime and studying only late at night -so seen as a fun loving guy by all . During exam prep. time he would go home for a month to study there -after having disturbed everyone else at the hostel.
The next year topper was a girl from my batch - good looking but serious.
Umesh
PS: My father had served in this area in the army for over six months - climbing all peaks around - in warfare exercises esp around BadriNath. He would not fund any other trip except to pilgrim spots where people would be friendly and room rates cheap. We did meet a group of college students from California -
at Gangotri's Sundrarand Baba famous for his Himalayan pictures all over India -who mistook me and Prof. Seema Parihar to be a couple.
She was still doing her PhD then (at Delhi School of Economics - Geo deptt) and was one of the first persons to buy a Personal Computer - as I saw at her house with our group. As a group I am in still in touch with atleast the President of the Adventure Club -who later joined TERI - environmental group of TATA and shifted to Media -Indian Express.
umesh sharma <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
umesh sharma <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
see the grand view of Ganga (Ganges) from the left meeting Brahmaputra from the right (East) .and coming to together to form the greatest delta in the world at the center of the map (bottom). You can go up river and explore their origins. Brahmaputra's charting is dramaticSee Krishna's Dwarka. Where the long blue funnel of the river (Gomti?) meets the sea is where the main temple is - about a thousand years old. My first sea swim was aolng the long white patch (tiny-crabs filled beach) on the side of the sea.See the meeting of Ganga and Yamuna rivers in Allahabad . Yamuna (green) from the left and Ganga (whitish-brown) from above. If you want you can explore the rivers to their originsUmeshPS: " A meeting by the river " is the title of a fusion music audio by John McLaughlin and (perhaps) Jakir Hussain or Ravi Shankar.Sorry I was wrong about that : Vishwamohan Bhatt's collaboration started with Meeting By The River (1993) that he did with Ry Cooder, for which he won the Grammy.
Umesh Sharma
5121 Lackawanna ST
College Park, MD 20740
1-202-215-4328 [Cell Phone]
Ed.M. - International Education Policy
Harvard Graduate School of Education,
Harvard University,
Class of 2005
weblog: http://jaipurschool.bihu.in/
Yahoo! Cars NEW - sell your car and browse thousands of new and used cars online search now
_______________________________________________
assam mailing list
[email protected]
http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org
Umesh Sharma
5121 Lackawanna ST
College Park, MD 20740
1-202-215-4328 [Cell Phone]
Ed.M. - International Education Policy
Harvard Graduate School of Education,
Harvard University,
Class of 2005
weblog: http://jaipurschool.bihu.in/
Send instant messages to your online friends http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com
_______________________________________________ assam mailing list [email protected] http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org
