A Variety of excursions

A Variety of Excursions – January to March 2008

During the winter period I went on a number of weekend and day long excursions starting with a visit to Badhave Village in January. I will write just a few words about each excursion and let the photos tell the story.

January 12 & 13: Visit to Badhave Village
After many false starts I finally got organized. Badhave Village is about four km north of Shamli a medium sized town in Muzaffarnagar District of Uttar Pradesh. It is about 120 km from Roorkee. I went by taxi as I was advised getting there could be difficult with a good chance of getting lost. My host was Anil Deshwal, wife Madhu and adopted children Nilu (daughter) and Som (son). They own a farm of about 11 acres which is mostly in cane, some wheat and a small wood lot. Anil is Gita’s brother and the only member of Ummaji’s family that I had not met before. They are relatively prosperous farmers in a relatively prosperous village. They have a couple of cows and a buffalo but use a tractor for farm work. I enjoyed the company and home cooking and ate and drank too much!

January 25 & 26: Visit to Bhilaugana and Tehri Hydro Projects
I joined colleagues D.K.Agarwal, M.S.Verma and Deepak on an inspection trip to look at progress on construction of Bhilaugana Hydro Project. Although small by the Indian classification system (3 units of 7.5 MW = 22.5 MW) it is still a challenging job involving a low diversion dam and intake, and waterway comprising a 3.5 km long power tunnel in two sections, an underground desander (or settling basin) in a huge cavern and a surface powerhouse on the river bank; but the head is only about 90 m. It is a run-of-river project with a minimal reservoir. The project is about three quarters complete. Many features reminded me of Cat Arm and Paradise River Hydro projects in Newfoundland. The extensive civil engineering works, dam and tunnels in particular would have made a project like this un-economic in Canada. While the cost of power (in international terms) will be quite low from this project, it will be expensive when compared with the consumer’s ability to pay. We spent a rather cold night at Ghansyali after completing our inspection.

On the way back we stopped and took many photos of Tehri Hydro Project that is one of India’s proudest accomplishments in hydro design and construction (and one of the most controversial). The large project includes a 60 km long storage reservoir that required relocation of several thousand people into a new town - predictably called New Tehri. The present capacity is 1000 MW but it is planned to add another 500 MW of pumped storage capacity that will operate in tandem with a new re-regulating station downstream. We didn’t go into the station which is underground but had a good view of the dam, intakes and spillways from the road.


Add Bhilaugana/Tehri photos here.
January 29: Visit to Belka and Manal Small Hydro Projects
I joined students attending an international course on small hydro put on by AHEC. We went on a one day excursion to see two hydro plants. We left the campus after breakfast at 9:00am and reached Belka Hydro Station at about 11:00 am. This station utilizes the head of two old drop structures on the East Yamuna Canal - about 6 m to produce 3 MW. This is a very low head project that is economic only because the flow in the canal is large. After lunch at Paonta Sahib a town on the Uttar Pradesh / Himalchal Pradesh border we continued into the hills to visit Manal Hydel, another small hydro station but of a very different type. It also produces 3 MW but uses much less water as this station is a high head plant where the head utilized is 220 m. After this visit it was a long return trip to the campus which we reached at 8:00 pm. I gave a lecture on design of head works in this course so I earned the day off! There were about twenty students mainly from Africa and Asia. I was offered a possible assignment in Kurdistan Province of Iraq by one of the attendees but I think I would rather go to a more peaceful place.


February 10: Mittal Wedding.
This was my fourth wedding feast but only the first to hold the festivities during the day. The wedding was between Namita Mittal, daughter of the professor whose course I audited and Lucky Saini. I think he is indeed a lucky fellow. The weather was perfect.

March 1 to 5: Excursions with Naipal.
My good friend Naipal from Halifax was visiting India to see friends and family and I joined him in Ghaziabad for the weekend plus a couple of days. The highlight of this visit was our Sunday excursion to Badave (again) and Gurana villages, respectively Gita’s and Naipal’s home villages. Ummaji had recently returned from Canada and had sponsored a five day havan ceremony for villagers, friends and relatives. We arrived just at the very end of the fifth day of the program in time to join the feast but too late for the religious ceremonies. After a couple of hours of socializing we headed off to Gurana - Naipal’s village to meet his brothers and see his 100 year old mother. It was a rather short visit but we saw everyone and had a quick look at the fields of sugar cane. Naipal’s two older brothers manage the farm. Of their sons I think only one or two will remain in the village as farmers. It seems few of the younger generation are interested in farming and I suspect there is quite an exodus of talent from village to town. Also farm incomes are not keeping up with incomes in other sectors especially as costs to farmers are rising faster than prices for their produce. I spent a couple more days in Ghaziabad commuting into Delhi to get my Bangladeshi visa. It is frustrating business dealing with governments who contrive to make a half hour transaction take a full day to complete.

VISIT TO BANGLADESH: March 22 to April 4, 2008

I left Roorkee by the morning train on March 22, 2008. This was not the best day to travel as it was Holi a day given to much rambunctious behavior. The only incident was a bomb thrown at our carriage! A bomb made of fresh cow manure loaded in a plastic bag! A young lady sitting by the window was hit directly and her clothes messed up, really not very funny. I got to Delhi at mid day. It took some time to arrange a taxi to Tejvir’s home in Gurgaon. Tejvir is Naipal’s nephew and works as a pilot for Kingfisher Airlines. The travel agent had booked me with the competitor Jet Airways. I flew from New Delhi to Kolkata (Calcutta) with Jet Lite. From Kolkata to Chittagong I flew by GWG a Bangladeshi airline that flies Canadian Dash 8 aircraft. It was a relatively short hop across the Ganga-Brahmaputra delta. The complexity of the river channels – main channels and distributaries is amazing. We saw only a part of this on the way out but more was visible on the return journey. At the airport in Chittagong I was met by my host Debesh Chakraborty. I was the only tourist on the plane. Bangladesh is not a hot tourist destination. Debesh is the father of a good friend from St.John’s.

I stayed with the Debesh and wife Anjulika (Didi) as a member of their family and met friends and relations many of whom live close by. Their house is close to the bazaar district. On the second day there I was taken on a tour of Chittagong City and environs. Chittagong is the main sea port and second city of Bangladesh and famous for its ship breaking industry. Following a visit to a ship breaking yard, or more correctly an abandoned yard, we then visited the cantonment area characterized by low hills and several small lakes and popular picnic areas.

A highlight of my visit was a trip to Cox’s Bazaar a beach resort area some 150 km south of Chittagong. I stayed with in the Burmese market with the Mong family a friend of Debesh in an apartment above their store. A group (tribe) of Burmese people was settled in Cox’s Bazaar by the British following a colonial misadventure of a century ago. The people retain their language and Buddhist culture and the town and surrounding area contains several Buddhist temples. I traveled to Cox’s Bazaar and back on buses of the S.Alam Company. Over my three day visit to Cox’s Bazaar I saw the most famous temples, visited a safari park (zoo) and inspected the famous beach, reputed to be one of the longest in the world. It was impressive enough but I prefer the golden sand beaches of Sri Lanka to the brownish beach at Cox’s Bazaar.

While in Chittagong I would go out every day to explore the nearby bazaars and look for fruit or coconuts etc. I was disappointed to find out that much of the fruit was imported – apples from China, mangoes from India and papayas from Thailand! Local fruit was also available but the quality was poor, typically fruit were picked too green and quality further compromised by lack of care in handling and transportation. As elsewhere in South Asia different types of businesses tend to be grouped together. On Satish Badu Lane near the house was the drum bazaar, with two shops manufacturing drums (dolaks and tables) and a third shop renting drums and regalia for anyone needing to dress-up a wedding band. A couple of streets over was a bazaar specializing in selling clothes that were rejected for export (mainly missed orders) as the quality of the clothes were perfectly acceptable. I bought three shirts for about $ 7.00 which will keep me looking respectable for another year at least.

I would have liked to visit Karnafuli Hydropower Station and Reservoir, located in the Chittagong Hill Tract. It was recommended in my somewhat outdated tourist guide book but I discovered that a special permit is required and besides the area was considered somewhat dangerous. (Since my passport was with the Indian High Commission this venture was not feasible in any case.) The large lake created behind the dam (246 sq.km) is the main attraction. In countries where lakes are few - reservoirs are much appreciated! This is Bangladesh’s only hydro plant and supplies 25% of the country’s electricity. Bangladesh has a large resource of natural gas that is used for powering cars and scooter rickshaws and also thermal power plants.

I left Bangladesh on April 2 via air to Kolkata. I found a hotel on Sutter Street near the Maidan (Central Park) and spent the balance of the afternoon exploring. I visited the Indian Museum: Gallery on Economic Botany. The custodians would not allow me to take my bag and camera inside and unfortunately I also left my glasses with them. The exhibits hall was dark and the exhibits very old. It was interesting but badly in need of rejuvenation. From there I crossed the road into the Maidan. I enjoyed a horse show (a rehearsal probably) by the Kolkata mounted police. The music was from another age – Daisy-Daisy a favourite of my Mother’s and popular in the 1920’s!

The following morning I left Howrah Station on the Poorva Express to New Delhi. On the way to the station I caught glimpses of the famous Writer’s Building and some of the other old buildings and realized that there was a lot to see and do in Kolkata and that I really should have stayed there two or three days.

We left the station at 8:30 a.m. more or less on time. The route took us across West Bengal, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. One could see the gradual evolution from wet tropical Bengal to the dry savannas of Bihar. In the afternoon we ran into an un-seasonal rain storm that slowed us down. We reached Uttar Pradesh at nightfall and should have traversed the whole state in the dark but we did get to see quite a bit of it the following morning as the train was running three hours behind schedule by then.

I traveled in a Three Tier Air Conditioned coach. It was similar in layout to the old (1960’s) trains with compartments for eight. The seat, luggage rack and back rest provide three berths. The back rest is hinged so at bed time it can be raised into a horizontal position and suspended by a couple of chains. Opposite there was a similar setup. Across the aisle there were two berths, the upper a luggage rack and the lower formed by lowering the high back rests. This layout favours socializing and I enjoyed the company of fellow passengers: a business man from Kashmir, a Sikh mechanic, a police officer and an old lady on pilgrimage. In the adjacent compartment were a couple of Bengali families on holiday.

Clean pillows bed sheets and blankets were provided and meals could be ordered – the usual choices veg and non-veg! Vendors patrolled the aisle selling snacks, tomato soup, newspapers, sweets and namkeen (salty snacks, nuts and chips and the like) as we traveled along.

I had traveled much of this route in 1964 and remembered the stations that I had visited then – Durgapur, Gaya and Varanasi Junction.

The late arrival in New Delhi meant that we arrived at a more convenient hour, 10:00 a.m. rather than 7:00 a.m. I had some time to kill in Delhi, as my connecting train was not until 3:25 p.m. So after freshening up at the YWCA I headed out to the National Museum. This modern museum is devoted to archaeology and history and has some rare collections, notably: artifacts from the Harappan civilization that must be 5000 years old. The museum policy is very customer friendly and one is permitted to take pictures - as many as one likes. There is also a good restaurant in the museum. So after having my full of sights, photos and food, I headed back to the YWCA to pick up my knapsack and from there went to catch my train back to Roorkee.

The cost of rail travel is amazingly low amounting to Rs. 1023/- ($ 25.00) for travel across India and Roorkee to New Delhi both ways, about 1850 km in total. Additionally as a senior citizen I got a 20% reduction! Then next day it was back to work.

Enjoy the photos.

MORE ON NICOLE’S VISIT (DEC. 18. - 29)

I will attempt to recapitulate the high points about the remainder of Nicole’s visit.

Early on Tuesday Dec 18 we left Ghaziabad by train for Roorkee. Ghaziabad Station is old and grimy unlike some of the smaller stations I saw elsewhere which are cleaner and prettier often embellished by shade trees and/or small gardens-cum-rest areas. At about 7:45 a.m. we boarded the train and then dragged our luggage through several coaches until we arrived at the correct one and found our seats. The train (Janshatabdi Express) is a comfortable way to travel and the country side scenes from the train more appealing than the continuous strip development visible along the highway. We also were served breakfast that was included in our tickets. After a relaxing trip we arrived in Roorkee at about 10:30 a.m. From the station we hired a bicycle-rickshaw to take us to the campus of I.I.T Roorkee and my apartment.

While on campus Nicole joined me and my professor friends for our regular 6:00 p.m. tea sessions at the K.I.H. Café. She also met my younger student friends, Sarah from Mongolia, Chintamanie from Guyana, Ravindra from Calcutta and others at the K.I.H Mess and Café or at the trendier Nescafe Cafe. She also came over to the office to meet my colleagues and use my computer. I.I.T. Roorkee is known more for simple pleasures of tea and conversation plus the delightful lawns and gardens. The bird life is also varied and at times noisy. While Nicole explored I had to go back to work.

On Friday Dec 21 we left on another adventure via rented car some 250 km to Ramnagar. This town is at the south east corner of Corbett National Park: India’s first nature reserve which is named after the English writer and naturalist Jim Corbett. Corbett lived most of his life in the area and was famous for hunting down man-eating tigers that were once a problem here. His books are well known and still in print after more than 80 years. Corbett was one of my father’s favourite authors and I remember reading some of his stories in Jamaica when I was 10 or 11 years old. I did not imagine then that one day I would visit Rudraprayag District scene of one of Corbett’s most famous books! But I digress. We did not realize that we had chosen the most popular weekend of the year for visiting the park. This limited our options. The lodges within the park were all full and the day long safaris all booked up. Our only option was the afternoon (4 hour) tour through the southern part of the park on the afternoon of December 22 (I spent most of the morning at the park office lining up to get our permit). For our safari we hired a Gypsy (Suzuki jeep) and guide. The park is located on the flanks of the Siwalik range of the Himalayas and lies partly on the plains and partly in the hills. The Ramganga River and its smaller tributaries Mandal, Palain and Sonanadi flow through the park. The river is controlled by a dam at Kakagarh and its reservoir also lies within the park. This location provides a wide variety of habitats and is reflected by the exceptional variety of plants, birds and animals that are found in the park. In the park we encountered a fair variety of bird life, notably: water fowl, a pair of eagles and their nest, peacocks in their roosting area, etc. We saw many deer of three varieties, sambur deer, spotted deer and barking deer and troops of langur monkeys. We saw lots of tiger tracks in the dust, a tiger den but no tigers (we were told that there about 143 tigers and 60 leopards in the park based on the last census). As we were leaving the park we came upon an elephant family: father, mother and baby. This in part compensated us for not seeing a tiger; unfortunately, it was too late to take pictures.

Friday and Saturday nights we stayed in a pleasant two star hotel in Ramnagar. On our last day Sunday Dec 23 we traveled to nearby Corbett Falls and Kaladunghi where we visited Corbett’s home which is now a museum. Then we headed back to Roorkee. On the way back we had time for a quick visit to Haridwar to see the famous bathing ghats along the Ganga and lo and behold I bumped into one of my acquaintances from I.I.T. Roorkee! At this time of year the crowds are small but during the summer pilgrim (yatri) season the visitors are numbered in the hundreds of thousands!

Next evening it was Christmas Eve and we decided to attend the campus church. We joined a camp fire for songs (just a few) and tea. The small group seemed to be mostly the pastor’s extended family. The next day we attended the English service that was led by one of the students. Nicole was recruited to join the choir of 3 or 4. They wisely did not extend an invitation to me. The sermon went well for about ten minutes but the speaker kept on for another 35 minutes but added no further enlightenment. Later that afternoon we visited Dr. Satya Prakash and wife Ilona for tea and pastries. Satya was a post doctoral student in Budapest many years ago where he met and married Ilona. So it was an occasion to swap stories about Hungary. We finished the day with Christmas dinner prepared by Cintamanie in his apartment. Chintamanie has come further than anyone else to study at Roorkee. His home is Guyana in South America. I am the second furthest travellor!

On our last night (Dec 27) we were treated to supper by Snigdha Sanyal a horticulturist and architect. Since this meeting Snigdha has married and moved to England where she has recently fond a job as a landscape architect (Nicole keeps in touch).

Nicole’s last day was Dec 28. We left by train to Delhi arriving at 11:00 a.m. and headed over to the YWCA where I had reserved a room for the night. As her plane did not leave until the wee hours of the Dec 29 we had most of the day to explore other sights in New Delhi; so after lunch we went over to the railway museum to view the trains and carriages of earlier times, some quite familiar to me from the 1960’s during the last days of the age of steam.

Note added by Nicole:

Back in New Delhi, we returned to the Kwality restaurant for a final meal before my flight. Yummy mutton kebabs, peas pullao, lentils and tutti-frutti ice cream were on the menu.

Our kind and friendly waiter, tentatively struck up a conversation with us. (Dad’s ability to communicate in Hindi was often a source of curiousity).

It turned out that the waiter’s grandfather, a retired Gurkha, had worked at the Canadian embassy in Delhi, and as a child, our waiter used to play with the Canadian children
(Wait – it gets even more interesting!)

If Gurkha, then Nepal! This provided Dad with an opportunity to speak some Nepali – and need I say our waiter was delighted. I hazarded to ask him where he was from exactly and he replied, figuring we’d never have heard of his village.

But then Dad surprised him again, but saying he’d even stayed there overnight in a hotel!

There was laughter and, taking a photo of us with his mobile phone as a souvenir, he shook our hands and with smiles, greeted us a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

What a great way to end my visit with Daddio in India! 

Me again: After an early supper and a few relaxing hours at the YMCA we left by taxi to the airport 2½ hours ahead of the scheduled flight departure. I left Nicole to fend for herself in the chaos of the airport. She managed well enough but needed the full 2½ hours to get through all the formalities.

It was fun to have company over Christmas and Nicole also enjoyed her holiday with Dad. Enjoy the attached pictures.