A 2 day whirlwind trip to Allahbad was a mixed bag. There was joy of being able to locate the client in a city as big as Prayag by just going around and asking his name. Reminded me of "Tu Kahan Yeh Bata ..." song of Tere Ghar ke Saamne where Dev Anand searches for Nutan by singing songs in streets of Shimla. There was no dimension of love only duty here.



Traveled in the Ford Endeavour with a politician client who claimed to be son of a poor farmer and hence a rightful claimant of a huge discount. As I hopped campaign meetings with him I realized how caste emotions are whipped up at election times. There was a corner meeting of Kshatriya - Sunar Samaj, in which the passionate Caste Leaders/Representatives goaded people to vote for the party because the Hon' CM had ensured that every IAS/IPS officer belonging to this particular community has been timely promoted. This was later linked to development of the whole caste group. In another meeting the caste was replaced by religion in a gathering in of the Muslim Community.



In a nearby mosque, the maulvi sahab was doubling as an exorcist. The wails of the poor woman filled the emptiness of the otherwise quite night. The next morning after excusing myself from the client I vistited Sangam. For a place that attracts tens of lacs of people the neglect of the government was appalling. Starting from 250 I managed to close a deal at 80 rupees with the boatman to take me to the Sangam, where the Holy Ganga, Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati meet. The colour of Yamuna and Ganga is different and you can appreciate the difference here. The boatmen did the job of a typical Indian tourist guide by informing us that on the new moon day in January the Blue water of Saraswati can be seen at Sangam also. Try as hard as you may, but you cannot bottle the water of Saraswati he added.



The Panda incharge of performing the Pind Daan was in my opinion an epitome of all the ills associated with Hinduism. His only concern was to extract an extra tenner from me on some pretext. In the end he said, you can immerse the pind in the water and throw some money also. I felt like throwing him in it, but better sense prevailed.



On the way back the temperature must have been 45+. I sat in the half full tempo and was hoping like others that it may start moving. As the assistant of the driver packed more people in the space available everyone started cursing under their breath. Everyone except one newly wed couple who was jostled into each other by the 4th man on their seat. Closer than it would be allowed in Indian settings, the lady started looking away, but her smile, half embarassed half expecting, gave it all away. She kept whispering sweet nothings to her husband, still looking away. It appeared they would kiss anytime.. but hey no such luck for the poor couple, we are Indians afterall.



Back at the office desk and getting over the Sangam hangover, trying to focus on work at hand now.