Just back from a “Broken Path” journey (instead of a path breaking one…!!) ! though ofcourse it was an absolutely BACK-breaking one!
Had gone to home state Uttarakhand (now) and hometown Dehradun.
All the romance and excitement associated with this regular journey of mine evaporated the moment we glided past the CWG Village area, and a little more of Delhi after that. We were in for a rude shock the very second we crossed the Delhi Border into UP. It felt as if suddenly someone had thrown us like a “discus” from the great Commonwealth Games host city of the “Shining India” only to land with a jerk into the maze of potholes called ROAD surrounded by the likes of stinking open garbage, broken railings, broken path, and terrible mess of a “Dhool Bhara Bharat” which we thought no more existed.
The whole- read (pot)hole- journey broke everything….. from hope to heart to thoughts to bones to body!
My neck, my back, in fact my whole body hurts & aches…. OUCH!! But much more than that hurts and aches my little heart!! What a shame. The ‘once upon a time’ good state and city is in such a mess.
The road connectivity to a great tourist destination like Uttarakhand is so un-travellable. When someone like me, who belongs to the state and has spent most my life there, now vows never to go there by road again, what a first time tourist will feel is surely guessable.
The Delhi-Dehradun road (except for the surprisingly smooth and perfect glide through the Muzaffarnagar bypass road) at present presents an extremely sorry and embarrassing “state” of affairs. This broken and potholed road will put even the “Sachin Tichkules” (character played by Akshaya Kumar in “Khatta Meetha”) of India to shame.
And the condition of the once great Dun city is still worse. Garbage lined by the sides of the road (even in the best localities/areas), no traffic sense, terribly broken roads …….and what not. To add to all this, Dehradun seems to be bursting at the seams too. The city infrastructure is quite in an urban mess!
But inspite of all this, I still got to learn a very valuable lesson of “The Greatest Journey”- the journey of life- from this unpleasant journey. Just like the small patch of lovely road of the Muzaffarnagar by-pass right in the middle of this otherwise terrible journey, so also is it in life.
The whole journey of life is but a bumpy road except for a brief smooth patch somewhere in between. And in the entire life, perhaps it is only at this particular stage, where one needs to enjoy and make the best of it! Only hope we can see and recognize that smooth patch in life when it comes!!
Happy travelling!!
Best/MG
If you come out of Delhi and go to any other place in India you'll think you have gone to a village from a palace. There is only a good patch in between but this journey is very important for our life as there are many difficulties in life and very few good moments. You should enjoy these moments and think these are good moments but better are going to come.
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