Driving along the Ganga

Driving along the Ganga

Note: We have just returned from a trek to the Valley of flowers and Hemkund. We had a long conversation with River Pushpavati, River Laxmanganga, and the mighty River Alakhnanda which finally gets to be called The Ganga. This poem is a tribute to these conversations. LaxmanGanga is also called the Byundar Ganga flows from Hemkund Lake and merges with Pushpavati in Ghangaria. This river then becomes a tributary to Alakhnanda in Govindghat.

Rivers meander, merge, and emerge
With large families of mountain streams
Now unafraid as their powers surge,
Travels with layers of immortal dreams.

Do they even know that down below
There are cities and industries waiting
With an elaborate effluence throw
Covering eons showing no signs of abating?

I met Pushpavati in the Valley of Flowers
Warned her of the future ahead
Told Laxmanganga that their powers
Would soon fail and drop dead.

I saw them merge happily to meet
Alakhnanda and asked them again to turn
I said, “Take a wild turn, go greet
A better future than as Ganga burn

With lives that deserve no purity.
Go etch a new path. Let the impure
Fret and wonder why. Their impunity
Must finally embrace a dry bed as cure.”

But no, I saw the Ganga go on as before
And at some point it waved and murmured:
“Yes, I’m a river but more than that, a lore
And with human follies must not get gored.

They will learn. They always do.”
I guess the river trusted jingles and slogans
Loved adverts, posters, had faith in the queues
Of politicians and their election puns

And thought the path ahead will be fine.
But I know the river is going to tie itself up
In knots, crawl with an eternal pine
And only near the sea, say Hoohah! Hup!

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River Pushpavati coming through the valley and from the glaciers beyond

River Pushpavati has a strong current and is probably in a rush to meet LaxmanGanga

LaxmanGanga rushing down from the Hemkund Lake

LaxmanGanga is powerful, decisive, and knows where it wants to go

The LaxmanGanga destroyed the earlier routes to Ghangaria and as a result the path is now longer and steeper and more trecherous

The Alakhnanda flows in from the top right and Govindghat is in that direction. The other river is Bhagirathi and they meet here

Just look at the restless clouds kissing the Alakhnanda This early morning cloud-river confluence is worth every moment

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Arvind Passey
27 August 2018