Gurus, Ganges and Great Fireworks!

In my desire to relate everything chronologically (it's the teacher in me, sorry) I will backtrack back to Dharamsala. After hanging out with the Dalai Lama, we took a night train to Rishikesh, in itself an adventure. We were in a 3AC coach, which means 3rd class sleeper with air conditioning. In this set-up there are six beds in every "cubicle", I wouldn't call it a compartment since there are no curtains or doors. It's pretty much like a moving dormitory: you just never know who will be sleeping beside you! Since this is on the "luxury end" of the options, most of the travellers in these coaches are foreigners, Indian businessmen or well-off families. The average person certainly can't afford the air conditioning, or even a bed, so they mostly travel in seats, squashed like sardines. I think we need to try this at least once.
Rishikesh is on the shores of the Ganges (Ganga in Hindi) and this is where the Beatles hung out for a while in 1968, at Swarg Ashram, closed now, to write many of the songs on The White Album.This is a small town with lots of ashrams, although we didn't stay in one, or do any yoga, since anything under a week is not considered very serious, and we only stayed for three days!Evelyne and I did however climb the thirteen stories of the Swarg Niwas temple (the Lonely Planet describes it as a 'wedding cake temple), each floor lined with dozens of cubicles containing shrines to Hindu deities.We were also lucky enough to arrive the day before a major celebration, Dussehra, which celebrates the victory of the Hindu God Rama over the demon-king Ravana and the triumph of good over evil (taken from Lonely Planet, p.1137, no plagiarism!!).This involved a whole series of fireworks (with teenagers lighting them any which way, no security whatsoever!), we kept our distance, then a re-enactment done by lots of costumed children, and finally the burning of a huge, 10 meter high effigie of Ravana on the beach, with more, very loud fireworks!
The highlight of this portion (if you ask Julien) is most certainly our rafting adventure on the Ganges. Now, I've never been rafting before, so I can't really compare it to anything, but I figure you have to start somewhere, right?The river is generally pretty calm with rapids (up to level? 4) here and there, bumpy enough for me to scream and holler, much to my kid's embarassment!I even jumped into the river off a 15 foot rock, quite the feat for me. And no, we didn't get sick, we were upstream where the water seemed a bit cleaner.
After this, another night train to Delhi, 2AC this time, only 4 bunks to a cubicle, and curtains!
True luxury. In all trains there are employees who circulate selling meals (rice and vegetable curry, of course) and chai (indian spiced tea), starting at 6:30 in the morning. You can get omelets (with peas!) and dry toast for breakfast, or more curry, if you prefer. I loved taking the train, there's no shortage of stuff to watch, both inside and outside, especially as we arrived in Delhi around eight o'clock in the morning. Many people live in shacks a few feet away from the tracks: It's a pretty horrendous thing to see, kids wandering around and garbage everywhere. Every minute of this trip is a reminder of how 'lucky' we are to be witnesses, only having to observe from behind a window.