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Over the last forty years I have visited India countless times. My most recent trip was in the early part of 2012, my last visit before that, however, was nearly five years ago. Even though I had known about the new Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi, seeing it with my own two eyes was truly a pleasant surprise. When I got on the Delhi subway after that, I became literally speechless.

The airport is magnificent, monumental and a real achievement. And the subway is a major accomplishment for a mega metropolis like Delhi to implement. The coverage of its lines is so extensive that one can now reach just about anywhere in Delhi metro within an hour. Even though it is certainly overcrowded all day, it is so namely for the men, as the women have their own designated carriages which are usually half-empty and almost always there is a seat available. The men, on the other hand, travel literally like sardines and with envy eye the roomy subway cars for women.

But so be it, the metro is certainly fast and convenient and beats the outdated bus system. On the other hand, given the significant increase in a number of private passenger cars the Delhi roads are now very congested and traffic is a continuous s traffic jam. And with the proportionately increasing car pollution bicycle rickshaws may just be allowed back to certain parts of inner cities to limit air and noise pollution. But finding the ideal solution is not easy and will take time in India.

In any case, bottom line is India has made phenomenal advances in the infrastructure development and individuals such as Kamal Nath Politician, one of the strongest proponents of this trend, get the credit for the endeavors.

When I look back at my initial experience of India some 41 years ago I can’t ever forget the first time I witnessed seeing the mob of people riding regularly atop roofs of trains. I recall when there was still a 3rd class on passenger trains, which was dreadful to travel on especially when there were still no bars on the windows. It got a little better when the iron bars were added later, but it was not until the 3rd class was abolished altogether that the quality of train travel started to gradually improve. Of course, news of atrocious accidents, such as passengers riding on rooftop being decapitated as trains entered a tunnel and similar horror stories continued pouring in for many years.

In the countryside today local passengers still ride on roofs of local buses. Despite the dangers it is a question to travel or be left behind, and local police certainly tolerate the practice. Although local buses move at snail’s pace, there is profusion of fast and air-conditioned transportation available just about anywhere in India today.

In recent years India completed number of four-lane national highways and many state highways have been widened and repaved, although traveling across India one is always under the impression that everywhere there is a perpetual construction going on. Most state and district roads are still atrocious and while there may be a semblance of improvements under way, the pace of change is often hardly noticeable as construction moves at slow speeds. Using gangs of female labor carrying baskets with dirt and employing huge numbers of the marginalized lowest casts pounding rocks with hammers making gravel is still a commonplace. While these primitive techniques may seem laughable, they provide employment and income for those who otherwise would go hungry. India is full of dilemmas, as always. After all there is no other place like it on earth.

As they say, Only in India!

Every year tens of thousands of pilgrims visit one of the 2,000-odd temples along the banks of the Ganges at Varanasi and bathe in the river. One of the seven sacred Hindu pilgrim sites in India, Varanasi is also one of the world’s oldest cities, where Lord Shiva is said to have made his home since the dawn of creation. Mentioned both in the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, Varanasi is to many the religious capital of India.

Varanasi takes its name from its location between the Varuna and Asi rivers which join the Ganges as it makes a broad curve north. The Hindus call the city Kashi, the city of light-after the golden luminescence of the temples, ghats and ashrams in the early morning. The name Benares was used by the British, and before them the Mughals called the town Muhammadabad for a short time. To this day Varanasi is a center of learning, especially for Sanskrit scholars.

Varanasi tour is one of the most popular tourist destinations in India, and is thus frequently mobbed by long weekends of explorers making their way to learn more about one of the India’s sites of cultural interest. Tourists visiting Varanasi also make a trip to places like Bodh Gaya (Lord Buddha received enlighten here), Taj Mahal, Sarnath and even Sikkim. Students of History too have also been known to frequent Varanasi as they attempt to widen their scope of learning. There are those who come to this holy city to participate in spiritually enriching activities, like the yoga and meditation, Hindu ceremonies and pujas, including cremation on the Ghats and visiting some of the other sacred places in and around the city.

The locals of India have grown to develop their lives along the ways of the Varanasi. It is advisable to try and travel around the Varanasi Ghats individually so as to learn your way around them. The Ghats are surrounded by some great hotels, restaurants, cafes, book and music cafes where you can take a rest, or interact with the locals. Just close by there are stalls where you can buy colorful accessories like chains, religious stones, idols and books. One of the things you cannot afford to miss while in India is a boat ride across the River Ganga. It usually takes around one hour, and is an out-of-the-world experience, especially during the morning hours. You can also take a stroll along Ghats of Varanasi, and witness the Hindu enthusiasts taking their holy bath in the river, while offering water to the Sun god, Surya.

Known as the largest religious gathering of mankind, the Kumbh Mela refers to a great gathering of Hindu pilgrims at auspicious locations. It takes place four times every twelve years, thus every three years, and rotates among four locations.

The most auspicious of these is Allahabad, known as the Prayag, the legendary confluence of the mighty Ganga, its tributary Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati River of the Hindu scriptures. At the Prayag occurs every 12 years the Maha Kumbh Mela, or the Great Kumbh Mela, next being in 2013. It is also at Allahabad that the greatest of the Maha Kumbh Melas is staged every 144 years, as the cycle of 12 Purna Kumbh Melas has been completed.

The last time the Maha Kumbha Mela had taken place was in 2001, when the most auspicious dates signified an exceptionally potent planetary equation of cosmic energy and the count of those in attendance had been given between 80 to as much as 100 million people.

Haridwar, a town on the Ganges river in northern India, Ujjain on the Kshipra River and Nashik on the Godavari River are the other three Kumbh Mela sites. The next Kumbh Mela, following 2004 Ardha Kumbha Mela, half-Kumbh mela, occurring every six years, is once again in Haridwar, the previous of which was in 1998.

Located at the foothills of the Shivalik Range, the front range of the Himalayas, Haridwar is one of the most sacred cities of India. Its religious significance stems from its prominent location where the glacier waters of sacred Ganga reach the plains after having tumbled down the course from the Adobe of Snow. It is for the very essence of constituting a gateway to the Himalaya that Haridwar carries its name, the Dwar of Har or Gateway to God, with its bathing ghat as the ultimate site, the awe inspiring Har-ki-pauri, or Lord Shiva’s Steps, from which pilgrims and holy men alike dip into the freezing waters of the Ganga.

Dates of the Haridwar Kumbh Mela are given as starting from January 14 and lasting until April 28, 2010. In reality the dates of the mela are not arbitrarily set but the starting date of the Kumbha Mela is associated with the astrological alignment of relevant planetary bodies, specifically when the Sun enters Capricorn. By this auspicious date, January 14, 2010, millions of pilgrims are expected to be present already. The date also corresponds with the celebrations of the Makara Samkranti festival throughout India. At the Kumbh Mela the date marks Makar Sankranti Snan, or the date of the First Snan, the First Holy Bath, when countless pilgrims submerge in the Ganga. From this date onwards until April 14, when the most sacred bathing day takes place on full moon day, the Shakh Purnima Snan, and the pilgrims celebrate Buddha’s birth, enlightenment and death, a day when all sins are washed away and the soul enters into union with the One, the Oneness of the Universe, the God Almighty. Between these two most auspicious dates, nine other important bathing dates take place.

For the simple reason of just attending the mela pilgrims believe to be honored with the utmost in blessings, not to mention those of the darshan, the blessings bestowed by the revered sadhus and other holy men, many of whom descend from the High Himalayas and remote caves, interrupting their years-long seclusions in meditation to bath in the Ganga and to appear among the mortals. For it is at the Maha Kumbh Mela to bath in the Ganga River is to taste amrit kalash, the nectar of immortality, and to embark on the ultimate in destiny with chance of ceasing the cycle of birth and rebirth and becoming One with God.

Throughout these three months the site of the Haridwar Kubh Mela becomes a photographer’s paradise. The Kumbh Mela is rendered an exceptional event not only for its spiritual significance and the sheer phenomenal number of mankind gathered but for the astounding myriad of gathered holy men, the sadhus, yogis and saints, that arrive from all corners of India and create an unbelievable spectacle especially bewitching for the Western mind.

The radiant ambiance of all imaginable colors and sounds of horns, trumpets, conchels and drums, shouts and mantras, these spectacles are as nourishing for the soul as they are for the mundane mind wishing just to take pleasure in observing the holy bathing rituals, watching the naked ash-smeared sadhus perform stunning feats of mind and body control, while engulfed in the endless gathering of humanity as well as members of animal kingdom, from monkeys to camels, elephants to beasts of burden, pulling chariots of saints and pilgrims too old to walk but having arrived to partake in the powerful energy, the shakti released by the saints, prophets or devotees alike, rendering the gathering the powerful nourishment that it is and has been for millennia.

Needless to say, if you are to come to the Kumbha Mela as visitor rather than a pilgrim, to find and be at certain sacred spots and witness memorable events throughout this enormous gathering you best know how to find your way around. To make the best of your journey you need a private guide – settle for no less than having someone who truly knows to guide you!

To make your trip to Haridwar Kumbha Mela complete, and to experience more of the unique that India has to offer, having a custom luxury tour of India designed to your specifications is your ideal approach to private independent travel in India.

Under the British Raj you could had ridden a train into India from Lahore in present day Pakistan. Since India’s independence you have to walk across the Wagha border between Pakistan and India, take bus to Amritsar and ride all over India from there. But now, Indian Railways has announced that it plans to establish rail links with Nepal, Bhutan and apparently concrete plans have been also drawn to connect the Indian rail network all the way with the Chinese railways.
With trade and tourism having reached large scale proportions in Kunming and Yunnan province of south-western China, the Chinese have already connected its rail system with that of Myanmar and plans are underway to extend it from there to Bangladesh with Dhaka being only a step from Kolkata, the eastern gateway to India. Once the network is fully in place and operational you’ll be able to tour Assam and Meghalaya from Kolkata and continue all the way to tour Yunnan in China.

With now being able to ride the iron rooster across China to Lhasa in Tibet, Chinese already started on extending the line across the High Himalaya down to Kathmandu in Nepal. Thus obviously after China you’ll be able to tour Nepal and then hop on a train and ride down into the plains of India. Of course this line will cost pretty penny as the road down from Kathmandu to Indian border is not an easy ride but the Chinese engineers have already blasted their way through much worse in Sichuan.

The third route in the works is to link southern Xinjiang Province of Western China with Pakistan. There is indeed another major obstacle in the way there and that’s the Karakoram. But never mind, just imagine, you could ride a train along the legendary Silk Road from Beijing via Kashgar over Kunjerab Pass, and along Karakoram Highway all the way to Deli and Mumbai!

Few years ago this Italian tourist asked me if I could arrange for her to take a taxi from Kathmandu to Mount Everest Base Camp! Now I wonder how soon will this really become possible.