The Diary Game: July 31st - Celebration of Quitting the Cigarettes and Kanwar Yatra on Highway

When I got up this morning at 6.40 and opened the back gate of my house, the weather looked fine, so I asked my wife, "Let's go and celebrate my cigarette quitting day today."

  

By the way, I quit smoking on 28th July 2004 as I used to be a chain smoker, but then I felt that even one cigarette a day was not safe. I gave up in one go and probably added a few years in my life span.

We had our breakfast at nine while I was replying to my friends on Steemit and checking the development at Discord while my wife was busy with her daily activities and getting ready for the outing that was going to be a rare thing for her, a walk to the nearby mall.

It's not that I didn't feel like smoking, I did and wanted to smoke and even bought a cigarette after two days on July 30th, but when I was about to light it, I stopped and remembered what I had promised to my wife and daughter. I broke the cigarette and threw it in the bin. That was when I last touched a cigarette.

We celebrate this day by going out and donating money to charity exactly the same way as I did the day I quit my smoking habit. I will not give you the amount that we donate, as it will kill the aim of the donation, so I will keep it to myself, but that is enough to feed 100 orphan children for one day, twice.

When I am outside India, I send this amount to my brother-in-law, who is one of the founder members of an old age home. He treats the elderly living in his home by giving them gifts and treats, and I am grateful to him as he contributes to the amount to make people living in neglected conditions.

Back to my diary, by the time I finished my daily routine, it was cloudy again and it seemed as though we were going to miss our outing, and the fact that all the roads that lead to main road NH57 are closed for all vehicular traffic anyways.

We had light homemade snacks as we were getting ready for lunch outside but that was not possible because the roads were closed for normal traffic and we knew it in advance.

That's right I live on the NH57 that connects Delhi to Haridwar, Dehradun, and Mussoorie, and this highway remains closed to all vehicular traffic for almost a week except the vehicles driven by devotees that bring water from the River Ganga or are running to supply them with medical support.

NH-58, the Dehradun-Delhi highway, has been completely closed from Monday, July 29, to Aug 2 due to the increasing crowd of Kanwariyas. Both sides of the highway have been reserved exclusively for them.

This barefooted walk is the biggest event that brings out devotees walking with cans of water from the River Ganga, walking 100s of kilometers chanting religious slogans on the road that leads to Haridwar, one of the holiest cities for Hindu devotees. Incidentally, the devotees of Lord Shiva practice the same in different parts of India, but Haridwar attracts the most.

  
It's not that all of them walk, but at least 300 to 400 k Kanwariyas walk past this road every day during the final week, and this is not the only road but saffron color clothes clad devotees called Kanwaria walk on different roads, including the national highways that bring all vehicular traffic to a halt except the vehicles plying to help these devotees.

The road in front of my house that connects Delhi to Haridwar is full of devotees at this time, with millions walking, running, or driving in a spiritual mood. Each one brings water in pots of plastic, brass, or steel, on their shoulders, backs, or in their vehicles.

These devotees, called Kanwariyas, bring Ganga water to their hometowns, from Haridwar and other places in Uttarakhand situated in the Himalayas. Some of these devotees reach right up to the point where the River Ganga originates from the Gangotri glaciers in the Himalayas at more than 7000 meters above sea level and walk to their home towns.

  
This is not the only road that experiences this but some of these Kanwarias bring water from their closer holy places because the River Ganga has a total length of about 2525 kilometers in India before crossing over to Bangladesh and finally merging into the Bay of Bengal.

  
Back to my diary post, as you can see the administration closed down all exit points of the colonies situated on the roadside with heavy barricades, so going anywhere on a vehicle is impossible, but one can only walk. So we walked to the mall in our colony, and we did not have to cross the road.

  
At about eleven, we went to the point where we could see the Kanwariya walking towards their respective towns to offer this holy water to Lord Shiva.

You will be surprised to note that people of the localities organize camping, food, and medical facilities for everyone walking on the roads to make their journey comfortable; otherwise, walking this distance with water is not easy.

You can see these camps every 20-30 meters where thousands of Kanwariays eat, rest, and dance to the tune of devotional music day in and day out for about 10-12 days. They stay here for 20-30 minutes and then continue their journey.

We watched them for a while and then walked to the local mall in our colony to buy a few essential items that we needed on an urgent basis.

We went to the grocery section and bought the items that couldn't wait and then moved to a restaurant for an early lunch in a nearby restaurant since we celebrate this day every year. After all, my party for quitting my cigarettes is on my wife, and I never miss this opportunity.

As the roads were blocked there were not too many customers so we finished our shopping and came to the payment counter and all was done within minutes. That was for the first time I was the first in the queue and there was none behind me barring my wife.

Then we went to a local restaurant in our colony and had our lunch with Dahi Papri chat and Khasta Kachori and probably spent the least amount on a party on such an occasion. I will go to donate the amount to the orphanage where I go every year after 2nd August when the roads will open for normal traffic after the Shravan Shivarati celebration is over.

We came back at around 2.30 and opened my laptop because I wanted to design the template for our Professional Curation Team 2, although I am not yet sure whether our leader, @adlejose is designing his own templates, but I don't want to leave anything to chance.

It's 5.00 in the evening, and I am ready to have light snacks sitting in front of my laptop and keep working on my posts for Dream Steem and Travel Steem communities. After all, I will have less time for my regular posts come August sts since the curators teams' size has been reduced considerably.

It's 6.30, and I have to work on my SR report, which I intend to publish early tomorrow morning. I have done the rough work of my report, but there is a lot to add.

This is 7.30 in the evening, we are already done with our dinner which was a simple curry and homemade bread. Today, we had our dinner early because we hadn't eaten a proper lunch and then I have to be back to work as tomorrow begins our new assignment of curation work for the month of August.

I feel this is the time to publish this diary post, which is different from the regular diary posts, but then I wanted to write this post to let you know what's going on in my life and social circle at this moment.

I hope you liked the events going on in my life.

NCR, India
8 p.m.
July 31st, 2024