An unofficial BCF trip! Sounds weird?? Read through to know why…
How it all started?
In the recent times, I have developed my interest in travelling, as I started believing that travel teaches a lot. One day, when I was checking for latest travel plans on ‘meet up’ app, an interesting line grabbed my attention “Holi celebration @Mathura”, a post made by a travel group(do not want to disclose the name).
As a small-town South-Indian girl, I never got a chance to celebrate a full-fledged Holi at my place. As I moved to Hyderabad and with freedom that I got, without a second thought, I have registered myself and made the payment, followed by flight bookings. So, technically this was my first-ever Holi. I was super excited and did shopping for my trip, playing Holi in my imagination.
A disappointed day…
The travel group organizer has cancelled the trip, a week prior to the trip start date, due to the sudden outbreak of Covid-19 and the uncertainty out there. This lead to loss of a few hundreds of rupees towards cancellations (hotel and vehicle for local travel etc.) and a huge disappointment. 😒😒
I had to rethink about my travel plan. I almost lost the hope about my well-imagined Holi. But I am not someone who give-up things easily. So, I made up my mind to go ahead with my plan, no matter what. Though I was not sure about how.
Here comes the Hope! Ravi Teja… one of the member who was part of the same whats app group, the one who reiterated the hope in me, whom I have never met until then. He dropped a message “I am not going to give up, interested people can join me’, in our ‘Mathura trip’ WhatsApp group created by the organizer. This was the best thing about creating that group.
I contacted Ravi and after 15 minutes of conversation, I have got the confidence that he is decent enough😉 to travel with. Since all the other co-travelers were men, I was a bit worried. So, I pushed Vinodh, my best buddy, who works with me in the same office, to join me. He did not dare to say NO 😊. The plan is ON. Mention not, we have taken all the necessary preventive measures to stay safe! To be away from Covid.
All set to go… Day 1: 07 Mar 2020
We had to catch early morning flight from Rajiv Gandhi International airport at 5:25 hrs. So, as planned earlier, me (by the way, I am Sireesha😊) and Vinodh started at 2 am in the morning, towards Ravi’s office. My inner voice at that very moment was “this guy is crazy. How can he travel after a whole night work” as he just finished his night shift and came out to meet us. We parked our vehicle at Ravi’s office. Booked a cab and routed to the airport. Security check-ins, chit-chat, boarding, take-off, the beautiful clouds, Ravi’s cat sleep…the landing.
New Delhi: Arrived Indira Gandhi International airport by 7:40 hrs. The airport is directly connected to the Delhi Metro at Terminal 3. It is the largest metro in the country.
We had to go to Sector-34, Noida to meet RK (founder, BCF, which I did not know until the last day of our trip). By the time we finished our breakfast, RK and his friend (cannot recollect his name) have arrived the meeting spot, as planned before. Our vehicle (Ertiga) arrived, which was perfectly suitable for 6+1 passengers. After sending off RK’s friend, who came to drop him, all four of us has started our journey towards Agra.
Agra- The Taj Mahal: Noida to Agra the highway was extra-ordinary. Our driver (cannot recollect his name) about 45 years old, fair complexion, clean shave with a white and white attire, was very cool and well-behaved throughout. I still remember him blushing while he was narrating his teenage love story, during the travel. We stopped mid-way for a chai break for 10 minutes and resumed our journey. It took us about 2.5 hours to reach Agra.
It was around 2 pm by the time we check-in the hotel at Agra, which was booked during the journey. Our plan was to meet in the hotel lobby by 2:30 pm after freshen-up. But it was 3 pm by the time we are out, for lunch.
After a leisure lunch, around 4 pm we started towards Taj Mahal. After 15 minutes of walk, slowly we headed witnessing the great love monument Taj Mahal,an ivory-white marble mausoleum on the southern bank of the river Yamuna. It is one of the wonders of the world. The crowd was lesser than the usual. Thanks to Corona. Cool breeze from the surface of river Yamuna, wide range of flowers, well-maintained garden, the fragrance in the air brought out a heavenly vibe in all of us. I could feel the LOVE all over the place.
One of the best evenings I have ever had. The only disappointment was being SINGLE ☹️. We came out after a simple shopping.
Enter the Dragon: Another character Nandan Katragadda (A travel friend of RK) joined us by the time we returned to the hotel. All of us went out for local shopping and brought local-made special sweets and hand-loom Sarees, followed by a simple dinner. Back to the hotel at around 10:30 pm. We have agreed to start by 6 am in the next morning, so that we can see the real beauty of the Agra Fort.
Day 2: 08 Mar 2020:
The Agra Fort: The historical fort is the main residence of the emperors of the Mughal Dynasty until 1638. Early in the morning around 6:30 am, we entered the magnificent Fort. Light snow fall, beautiful flowers all over, it was a great feeling one must have. After dozens of pictures, we thoroughly explored the fort. The courtroom, huge halls, the mosque etc. It reminded me of the Bollywood blockbuster film Jhoda Akbar.
Then we started to Mathura. On the way we had a heavy breakfast.
Mathura: It took us an hour to reach Mathura. We did check-in at the hotel at around 10:30 am and headed out to visit Shri Krishna Janmastan temple, the birthplace of Lord Krishna. It took us an hour to explore the whole temple, and the JAIL. There was this interesting puppet exhibition, which explains the whole story of Lord Krishna’s birth and childhood. RK explained us the story behind lord Krishna’s birth in the jail and related stories based on those. ‘Jai bholo Radhe Radhe.. Aur Jhor se Bholo Radhe Radhe‘ This was our pick-up line through-out the trip. You hear this everywhere in Mathura and Vrindavan from the locals. They use this phrase to chant Lord Krishna.
We roamed in the streets of Mathura to explore the places. We have seen Holika Dahan also known as Kamudu pyre is celebrated by burning Holika, an asura (Evil).
After which, we went to a restaurant named two21 cafe and came to know that the manager of the cafe was at Hyderabad for his higher studies. The staff were extremely nice to us. They have played Telugu music for us, made customized meal with a complimentary ice-cream. We have had a nice time there.
A surprise birthday party… It was RK’s birthday the next day. So, we wanted to give him a surprise. I and Nandan went out to buy a cake and few other materials to celebrate the birthday. As planned earlier, Ravi Teja took RK and others out to buy something, just as an excuse to divert him from us, so that we can make the arrangements. The celebration was simple and sweet. I am sure RK was happy about it.
Day-3: 09 Mar 2020
Holi @ Vrindavan: Vrindavan is just half an hour drive from Mathura. If you want to experience the wildest version of Holi this is probably where you want to be! It is the perfect festival to laugh, play and have fun! Here comes the creative guy in the gang-Bharath Madhava Reddy, an organizer of BCF. By the time I come out of my room in the morning, I see this new guy with our team. He traveled all the way from Uttarakhand, after completion of his professional course-Wilderness First Responder from Wilderness Medicine, NDLS. After introductions, we stepped out of our hotel as we had a huge list of places to cover.
As the streets were narrow and filled with people with colors, the driver requested not to go by the car. So, we have hired an auto-rikshaw, which was different from Hyderabad autos. It has both sides open so we could see the happening festive atmosphere alongside of the lanes. We were happy to see the kids, who were filled with colors and extremely happy throwing color water at the people passing by.
Banke Bihari temple: We stopped near to Banke Bihari temple, where we brought colors to play Holi. I bought a hat (a local traditional one) for myself, to protect my hair from the colors 😊 We were extremely happy as the fun overloaded celebration was beyond our expectations. Repeat mode Jai Bholo Radhe Radhe. After playing for a couple of hours, we stepped out of the temple. That is when we realized the transformation of our attires. We were completely immersed in colors.
Boating: So, to take a break, we went for boating on the bank of Yamuna river. The cool breeze while we were passing by, feels awesome. We halted at a place at the other end for few mins to click few pictures.
ISKCON & Prem Mandir: Then, we have had a light snack wearing use and throw hand-gloves. After which, we headed to Sri Sri Krishna Balaram Mandir ISKCON.
Followed by Prem Madir, where we have witnessed the sample of Govardhan giri and, a few other small temples. We exhausted exploring the place.
Party Night: The next day was our last day of the trip. We wanted to have a nice meal together. So, we went to the best restaurant in the town The Flavour Galleria. It was the best meal in the entire trip with tasty food, nice music, lots of jokes, cool breeze, handsome boys and pretty girls around. And more over it was RK’s birthday, and a party was must!
Day-4: 10 Mar 2020
Holi@ Dwarakadhish Temple, Mathura: It was a long day for us. We woke up early in the morning and head out to the temple to play Holi as planned previous night.
We were there for about 2.5 hrs. We were completely immersed in colors.
It was the best joy one could have. A must-try thing at least once in lifetime.
Though we were not in a mood to come out of that place, we had no option but to come back to the hotel.
The time to Split up: I, Vinodh and Ravi had our respective flights at Delhi in the evening. So, we had to start at around 10:30 am from Mathura in the same vehicle by bidding farewell to our fellow travelers. RK and others had another day to spend, as their train was the next day. It was 2:30 pm by the time we reached Delhi. We had enough time, so we went to see Lotus temple. Though we could not go inside the temple, due to Corona, I feel that it was a nice place to visit because of its beautiful landscape and unique structure of the temple.
The India Gate: It is a war memorial located astride the Rajpath, on the eastern edge of the “ceremonial axis” of New Delhi. As we still left with some time, we visited this place too. And then rushed to the airport to catch our flight.
Time to bid farewell: Vinodh and I had the same flight whereas Ravi had a different flight at different terminal. So, we shook hands and thanked Ravi for the memorable fun-filled trip. We took leave from him and headed towards our terminal. Security check-in, boarding, takeoff, catnap, landing and YES we are back to Hyderabad. Wherever we go, when you come back to home, it gives a great relief. We were exactly in that mood at that point of time.
In the 4 days of trip, all of us have become good friends. I often feel that this travel happened for a great reason to meet these people from different backgrounds with different mindsets bonded by a common interest for traveling. As a HR in a firm, I generally try to understand people. Here was my understanding about each one of them on the trip. RK: Intellectual, Ravi Teja- Kind-hearted, Bharath- Creative, Nandan- Caring and I know Vinodh even before the trip as a fitness freak.
Overall, it was a well-executed, fun-loaded, memorable trip for all of us. I wind it up with the tag line of BCF- “Keep Travelling… Keep Learning”.
That’s how it turned out to be an unofficial BCF trip! 😊😊😊
More clicks:
Notes from BCF:
We shall organize this trip every year during Holi and Janmashtami. You can follow us on Instagram for regular updates. Insta ID –bcf.official. For more info on BCF upcoming events visit us here. About logo you can read here.
Article by Sireesha.
Thanks a lot, Sireesha for penning down your experiences from the event.
Lets Connect 😃😃
Does this trigger memories of similar experiences? Please share with us.
Would love to connect with an engaged audience. We shall post it on bcfblogs!
Backpackers and City Freaks (BCF) 
5 thoughts on “The Festival of colours @ Mathura and Vrindavan”