'...mummy and I were always fighting about her obsession with faith and ritual...On

our yaatras, she would show such deep faith and perform such fevered rituals that the

whole exercise would leave me exhausted. Every time I told myself I'd never go with her

again. And every time I went. Again and again.'

For as long as the author can remember, he's been a willing companion to

his intrepid and devout mother on their countless journeys to sacred sites

along the Ganga. As a young man, he travels to these on his own-seven

key destinations from the snow-capped Himalayas to the Bay of Bengal-

exploring the faith of not only millions of fellow pilgrims but also his own.

In Gangotri, he meets renunciant babas who are glad to share with him their

stories, along with their meagre food. In Kedarnath, a sadhu tells him how

the Shiva temple miraculously survived the devastating floods of 2013. At

Badrinath, he attends the wedding ceremony of a family friend to Vishnu, to

undo a defect in her horoscope. In Rishikesh, he walks with the kanwariyas,

and at the Kumbh Mela at Prayagraj, immerses himself in the shadowy world

of the Naga sadhus. Varanasi, the city of light, offers diverse experiences,

from a bhang-induced revelry on Mahashivratri to conversations with

Aghoris, who tell him why they sometimes drink blood. He also reflects on

the ever changing cityscape of Varanasi-from ancient times to Aurangzeb to

the present-and the politics behind it. He ends his journey with a loop back

to Ganga Sagar, where the Ganga finally meets the sea.

An introspective memoir by a questioning Hindu, Tripping Down the Ganga is

simultaneously a captivating account of a sacred river and her devotees. It is

an ode to the mighty Ganga-sometimes turbulent and at others serene-

which has nestled in her life-giving embrace for millennia believer and nonbeliever

alike.