Dr. Anil Kumar Agarwal

Dubai is a country known for its beauty and shopping at least in India though people from all over the world will be found there as  tourists. I have already visited it twice before getting one more invitation to go there. Naresh who is a big gun in Agarwal community, phoned me to go there as a guest. I told him how I could go there so early as a few months back we were there and asked him the purpose to go there. He tried to explain it on phone but I couldn’t get him so I invited him home or to my office. One day, on Sunday in the afternoon, he phoned me that he was coming to my house. I guided him the route of my house as he was coming there first time. Soon he along with his wife was at my residence. He told me about the invitation that he got from Dubai as a chief guest to attend the celebration of Maharaja Agarsain Jayanti. He wanted me to accompany him. In the end I accepted his offer.

Just after a few days we, four – Naresh, me and two lady workers of Agarwal community, were at Dubai international airport. It was mid-night when we were standing in a queue for immigration. Three of our group got immigration clearance and went out but I was still in the waiting as one VIP passenger went to the counter without bothering about others. At my turn the officer on the counter asked me the name of the hotel where I would stay. I replied him that my group leader who had gone outside knew the name of the hotel. Listening to my reply he advised me to wait in a nearby room, for this he sent an officer with me in the room where a lady-officer was sitting. She asked me so many questions but none of my answer satisfied her as she was quite rude. Then I talked to another officer about my problem. He thoroughly checked my passport and found that I had already visited his country twice. Then he told her something in his mother tongue. The lady allowed me to go after stamping my visa document.

After coming out where my colleagues were waiting for me anxiously, I asked angrily Naresh why he had not given us our itinerary. He gave me unsatisfactory answer; in the middle of the tour I realized that it was his habit of not sharing the information concerned so that I shouldn’t get angry.

Out side the air-port, the hotel driver was standing with a play-card in his hand to receive us. He took us to the hotel car, put our luggage in the trunk and drove away to the hotel, named the Royal. Having got the key of the rooms we went to the room and soon we were in the lap of sound sleep. In the morning we got up fresh and got ready by 10 o’clock. While we were having breakfast one of our hosts came to receive us.

Having reached at the host office we did some formal talk though the formal meeting was fixed on the lunch. When one of our team-mates desired to visit Abu-Dhabi on the same day, the host suggested us to change meeting from lunch to dinner. He told us that he would inform the celebration committee for the change.

The host’s driver took us to Abu-Dhabi where we first visited the hotel, named Emirates Palace. It was really very beautiful inside-outside both. It had four wings – two are reserved exclusively for Sheiks’s of UAE. Rooms in rest of the two wings are available for tourist though these are very costly in terms of dollars. Our luck was in our favor as a gentleman of the palace staff showed us the other part of the hotel too.

After coming out of the Emirate palace we looked for lunch as it was late afternoon and every body was feeling hungry. We got one vegetarian sweet shop after an exhaustive search. We had had some snacks as there was no other option left. On the way back to Dubai we visited the mosque that was very big and extremely beautiful. It has the rule for ladies that they can enter the mosque after wearing ‘Burka’.

We stopped at one more place for half an hour as we were already running short of time because our hosts were waiting for us on dinner cum meeting. The place was called ‘Ferrari world’. We went inside, wandered there without taking any ride and came out after taking some photographs.

We directly went to the Indian restaurant where we had to have dinner and planned the next day program.

Next day we attended the celebration and endorsed our presence. All the people attending the function were happy to see us as we were there just to attend the function. Children of the members presented some cultural program that was fantastic. After the function we went back to the hotel, did some rest and went to see Dubai. We were accompanied by a family who was the relative of one of our members. We came back to hotel late night.

Next day our flight was at 6 in the evening so got ready by 10 and went to Sharjah that was famous for cricket in olden time. We visited the Sharjah stadium too. Coming back we did some shopping, left the hotel and went to air-port. Having reached there we came to know that our scheduled flight had been cancelled and would get mid-night flight. After getting the boarding pass we came out of the air-port to enjoy some more hours in Dubai. By and large we enjoyed a lot in these three days. In the end we reached home in the same night.

Gangotri is a religious place for Hindus. It is said to be the source of Ganga River though it originates from ‘Gomukh’. I also had once got the opportunity to visit the place. We were in group of seven with three children. It was summer when we went there. We reached Rishikesh from where we hired a Jeep to go there that was the best mode of transport in the hills in my opinion. By the time we arrived at Uttarkashi, mid way in the route, it was about to be dark and it was drizzling. So we decided to stay there till morning.

In the morning, we again began to go up to the hills. The moment we reached Gangotri it was noon. We were feeling hungry so we went to a restaurant, where South-Indian dishes were available we had had them as per every body’s choice. I told them about my desire to go to Gomukh. Having listened to my desire Vaibhav and Sambhav also became ready to accompany me in this trip. So I told them to take their bag with one dress. I told them that we wanted to reach Bhoj –wasa, the last point near Gomukh to stay, before sun set. We had started our journey but just after five minutes Vaibhav’s mood had changed, the reason I didn’t know, so he went back to join the remaining group.

On way to Gomukh, just after about a kilometer, we hired a guide who would tell us about route and keep us up date for all necessary information. When we were a few kilometer away from Bhojwasa, the sun was about to set and the cold in the atmosphere had increased. I was just in half sleeve shirt along with a warmer inside. I looked at my forearm and found it red in color with semi-erected hair on it. I thought the color of my skin would have been changed by the effect of the weather. I couldn’t sense that it was the alarming sign as my body had been getting cold inside. By the time I arrived at Bhojwasa I got the attack of watery stool and my body was shaking with cold. I laid down under five-six quilt, even after an hour I was shivering. Then I asked the inn owner about the fire. After understanding my problem he took me near fire. Having sat there for about an hour I felt a little bit comfort. Sambhav and the guide also helped me a lot at that time. Sambhav proved himself matured though he was teenager.

In the morning, next day I was feeling well a lot, so we proceeded to Gomukh that was still five miles ahead. Some of the pilgrims also accompanied us, they were also quite young. I stopped going ahead the moment I saw Gomukh from distance but the other people said they would go just near the origin and told me to send Sambhav with them. After a few hours they all came back.

We decided to return to Gangotri. When we reached Gangotri it was quite dark and we didn’t know where they were staying. But just after a few minutes we found them as they were also eagerly waiting for us. We went to our hotel. I was still not feeling well. I vomited a lot of water twice at night. In the following morning I was feeling well but weakness remained with me. I took bath in hot water in the hotel to go to the temple. At the temple we met our some friends who also came there for the same cause. Meeting each other we felt very happy. After that we came back home.