“In this water, I invoke the presence of divine waters from the rivers Ganga, Yamuna, Godavari, Saraswati, Narmada, Sindhu and Kaveri”

As a kid, I have heard my father recite this shloka (hymn) everyday before he took a bath. However, I had hardly realised the importance of this Vedic hymn at that time.

Rivers are an important source for the development of any community. Around the world, almost every famous city in the past or present are by the banks of a river. In India, we consider all our rivers as divine and worship them. Even the word ‘India’ is derived from  the  word ‘Indus’ or ‘Sindhu’.

As I grew older, from the school’s social studies curriculum I learnt that the Indus Valley civilizations – Harappa and Mohenjodaro – lie in Pakistan. My knowledge of the region was also very vague. I knew that their big cities like Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad were similar to our cities and the rest , I assumed, consisted of feudal gun-toting tribesmen. That was before I read this book.

I bought Alice’s book since I had been told that it was a ‘best seller’ in the travel category. The book chronicles her Indus river journey and describes in detail the history, culture and important events that took place on the banks of this ancient river. As a historian and traveller, Alice leads one through different periods of history and its significance to the sacred Sindhu River – the bedrock of our very ancient civilization.

In the initial chapters one learns the importance of Pakistan’s low caste Hindus (Shudras) who keep the sewers clean in the fabric of Pakistan’s society. The chapter then describes the period of vivisection of India and Pakistan and reveals the stories of the refugees. At this stage, it did not speak much about the river itself. However, as one reads further, it becomes quite clear on what Alice is trying to achieve. She provides the socio-political events as a context to explain its impact on the Indus. Going through the travails of Sindh, the follies of the British and the power struggle in present Pakistan government, the tale is so absorbing that one feels that he is a silent spectator during the Pakistan’s  evolution.

Her journey is in reality as a set of travelogues interspersed with history. The volume of her travels is so huge that each chapter can become a story by itself. Whether it’s the rise of Sikhism or Buddhism or Islam on the banks of the river or the conquests of Alexander or Ghazni, the river becomes an important backbone to every tale.

Until she explained the similarities between Islam and Buddhism – intense religious learning, non-idolatry worship– one could have never believed that such a concept can exist. Swat, a place that has become a victim to Taliban was once known as Uddiyana, an ancient thoroughfare of trans-Asian Silk Road. This and many other similar facts unfolds the roots to early Vedic and Buddhist history of India. In fact, if  the Taliban had read this book they would never have destroyed the huge carving of Maitreya Buddha in Swat.

The famous Alexander and Puru’s battle on the banks of Indus has been often told with glorification of either of the great Kings. A much distorted (read Americanised) Hollywood movie, where Alexander speaks with a North American accent, was released a few years back. To understand the actual facts on how Alexander met his match at the Indus river and used his military tactics to defeat Puru’s huge army is a captivating tale in this book.

The migration of early Vedic civilizations from the Indus to the banks of Ganga, a more fertile region, the tempting but unsubstantiated claim of the Aryan-Dravidian theory and the distorted theory that the Aryans were early migrants from Europe depict the extent of research that has been done for the book.

As she travels further north into the vast spaces of Tibet and Ladakh in her quest to seek the source of Indus, civilizations and cultures are left behind and the river and the landscape takes over. The Indus is Senge Tsampo (Lion’s mouth) here, her guides are Drokpas, the terrain are mountains and valleys.  The last few pages narrate the end of her journey, to the source of a river that was known as ‘Saaransh’ (flowing for ever) in the ancient Vedas, and ends with a warning that the river might be ‘dammed out of existence’ due to man’s costly mistakes.

You can’t read this book in a day. Nor can you finish reading it just one time. Close the book now. I can guarantee that you’ll reopen it; maybe to read about a tribe or history of a conqueror or life of a Wajiristan’s tribal or about the ‘older than vedic age’ and yet surviving Kalash culture or about the Indus river herself. Awards or no awards, its a very spellbinding tale of a river that gave a name – India – to our country.

Rock Climbing Basics

“See this piece jutting out at the top? Its called the ‘jug’, that one where you have to hold below the rock is called undercut” explained Ravi, our group’s instructor as the sun blazed down on the rocks at Turahalli, a forest reserve, just 10 kilometres from namma Bengaluru. The group had collected at Adigas on Kanakapura Road for a steaming but surprisingly not-so-good breakfast of Idlis. The instructors, Narasimha & Ravi, freelancers who practise rock climbing at Turahalli every weekend, arrived at the right time. They work with ‘Wanderers’, an adventure and outdoor events group for rock climbing programs.

Off the busy Kanakapura Road the instructors led us through a meandering road that took one away from the civilization to a hill full of boulders, shrubs and trees. This hill at Turahalli was our rock climbing venue. As we climbed towards the base of huge boulders, I took a photo of the nearby Kanakapura skyline. Huge apartment townships stood looming at the forest region. Civilization has suddenly raced up this area.

Rock climbing theory was over in five minutes. And each one of us had to practice it on a good sized boulder in front of us. Rock-Climbing-123 had started. The group was a potpourri of people from different professions, and age groups. While Suchitra was in her mid forties, Amrinder looked very young. She and her husband had come here for a getaway from the mall-movie-dinner kind of outing. The four member north Indian group were fun-loving, chiding each other and very adept at climbing. The Chennai based techie had taken a course long back and came here to refresh his skills. As we climbed, we found the foot holds and grips that we didn’t notice earlier. Narasimha offered helpful instructions –“Notice the possible holds”, “do not panic”, “if you bend your leg towards the rock, you’ll end up scraping your knee” – and patiently explained our mistakes as we reached the top. If climbing one rock took our breath away, the next one was harder. The feeling of exhilaration as you reach the top is hard to describe. While Narasimha was professional, Ravi took the friendlier approach. With his earnestness spiced with funny one-liners, he seemed a part of the group rather than an instructor.

Turahalli is a hill full of boulders of various sizes and shapes. It is a dry deciduous region full of shrubs and trees like the eucalyptus. This hill is the rock climber’s paradise. Every weekend there’s almost six to eight individual groups who come here to practise rock climbing. While some like us are novices, who come here to enjoy the experience, there are also professional climbers who practice here for international climbing events.

In recent years however, there has been land encroachments. Though the land belongs to the forest department, there are illegal layouts made by a nexus of local officials and developers. It’s nearness to the city had caught the eye of the land sharks. I just hoped that the recession has driven the developer away.

Our activity for the day had been climbing four different levels of boulders followed by a hearty lunch and then rappelling down a 40 foot rock face! If our climbing experience was tough, rappelling down the huge rock was just the opposite. Though the height was challenging, the strain on the climber is minimal. The rope holds the weight as you slid down to safety. The day ended with a 3 kilometre trek downhill towards the base. As we drove towards the city, I had to agree with Amrinder. It was indeed a better way to spend the day than the usual shopping or movie. And the view from the top the rock is breath taking!