A trip to the land of 'Radhe Radhe'

I had written this a long time back when I had visited Mathura on a short trip. So while I am on the blogging spree it seemed unfair that I leave out this little article just because it talked about my experiences with a small Indian town. It was by no means dwarfed in front of the Shanghais and Mexicos of the world.


Family of a friend recites 'Radhe Radhe' day in and day out. I used to wonder how anyone could be so devoted to the name. Well! If I was surprised by their devotion, I was in for a shock (a pleasant one) when I visited Mathura.


In India they say this for all religious places, that you do not get to visit them unless the lord almighty calls you. Guess it was his way of calling me there when I was invited to a dear cousin’s wedding in Agra. We decided to travel by road and as a result touch the feet of Lord Krishna himself en route.

Due to the tourism focus on Mathura-Vrindavan and then Agra, the drive from Delhi to Agra is endowed with very good quality highway with ample road side eatries thrown in (yes I look for food everywhere!!!). There is even a McDonald's outlet (not a very common sight on other drives), which is a family favourite stop over generally en route to my hometown every year.

We started off at a lazy 8 AM (though we had planned on a 5 AM start :) (ambitious I know)) armed with juice, chips,fruits etc etc. Its a sin not to eat on a intercity drive (Travel rule 123)

First stop (breakfast stop!!) was to be Mathura. Other than the traffic one has to battle while tryin to get out of Delhi, it was a good drive.

A little mythological trivia for readers who might not be aware of the significance Mathura has in the Hindu religion. Mathura is the birthplace of one of the most loved deities of India, Lord Krishna (incarnate of Lord Vishnu). It is also known as Brij Bhoomi.

The city (or town if I may call it) lives, eats, sleeps and breathes Krishna. You know it when you are approaching Mathura. Everything speaks of it, even the mode of transportations.

It was an interesting journey, given the fact that I had taken along the camera to shoot the wedding. However as I figured later, I had found better use for it en route. The true life India shows itself in all its colors when you travel by road. Adjustment is the name of the game. संतुष्ट (content) as Shahrukh Khan would put it. It runs in our blood I guess.

The jam packed scooters, autos, trucks would make us city dwellers feel claustrophobic for a second. But the only emotion I could see on these faces was that of contentment. They seemed to feel lucky to have got at least this and not walk on the roads in the scorching heat. And we were cribbing inside the air conditioned car! :) 

Funnily enough all the gender bias we talk about as being prevalant in smaller towns was not nowhere to be seen here in any mode of transport with guys squashed in between ladies on a bike or vice versa.

Was this the effect of Bansi waala as Lord Krishna is fondly called or is life in all small towns of India like this...contended?


As my father put it, even a stop over trip to Mathura would be incomplete without …. (No not the clichéd statement of ‘a visit to the numerous temples’!) a visit to Brijwaasi a famous sweet shop and eat their pedha. And since we visited in summers, the road side lassi was a must to kill the heat. And the prices were so amazing that a Metro dweller would just not believe! Rs 10 for a glass of Lassi, an ordinary person cannot finish (I could not!!!). Having refreshed ourselves with the लस्सी and the कचोरी breakfast, we set off again to our end destination....the Taj city

Oh and did I forget talk about the interesting jobs people around the toll bridges have taken up to help you kill time when a long queue of trucks welcomes you to Uttar Pradesh?

We ran across a ‘Madaari’(I did not bother to search the English word of this profession as I doubt any other part of the world would even have anything similar) who was proudly showing off his miniature monkey performing all imaginable acrobatic activities. I thought of just clicking a snap of this ultimately adorable creature. The owner of the primate asked us to shell out Rs 50 to just have done that!! So here I present to you the picture for which I paid Rs 20!!!!

Then there were the acrobats… dressed in nothing but a pair of shorts and an oversized cap and accompanied by someone who looked like an elder brother, this little gymnast would jump to the tune of an aluminum plate and a wooden stick in the scorching heat and on the tar road (that's where the gymnastic gold medals are sitting!!). My heart just went out to this 5 year old. But at that time I could do nothing but hand him a 5 rupee coin. The smile was worth it.

And with this we reached Agra… I think in this trip, more than the lavish wedding I attended, I would remember these small things. And a camera helped me capture them forever lest I forget all this in a week of work pressure. The impact of these pictures was more than just this article. I now truly appreciate small town life. With all our electricity and water problem and hectic work schedules we forget to thank बंसी वाला for what the good that we have.