Jai Mata Di!!!

Date:14th - 16th June 2008
Who: Dad, Mom, Me n Ritz

Wanted to go to Vaishnodevi since long…the third time…well finally we managed to finalise the itinerary. I was to fly from Blr to Delhi on 14th morning and then join my parents at Delhi for Jammu…My flight to Delhi was at 7 in the morning…now the catch is, since the airport is around 60 kms from my home and it takes around 1.5 hours to reach there, i had to take a bus at 4!!!

So I decided to go to a friend’s place on Friday night and then take a bus from there… a couple of more friends were also to join us there since we had planned for a small party that night…so the day arrived… 13th June… as usual, Friday evening, had a hell lot of work to do…managed to complete everything on time, avoided all escalation very narrowly, then suddenly there was a meeting which was to be at 9 am….finally started at 7 in the evening and went on till 9 pm, it ended only when I said I HAD to go!! I left office at 9, luckily there wasn’t much traffic, so reached home by 2130, stuffed the last minute things into my bag… by 2145 we headed to Archana’s place…reached there at 2215 and had dinner. And guess what… from 2300 to 2400, I was working, then sent the mail to Boss’ boss at 12:09 am!! During this time, Shaonli was entertaining others by telling them about her all-that-great-Himalayan-trek…this was the nth time I was hearing this! mmm… from 12 to 2 we finally managed to play cards…wonderful game this is…shanghai!!! Just awesome! At 2:15, everyone decided to call it a day (jitna bhi bacha kucha thaa)…so everyone, but me, slept…well since I had to pack some of my things, which I couldn’t do at home coz of the lack of time, I did some packing! Finally slept at around 2:45 and had to keep the alarm for 3:30!!

So… after around 45 minutes of SOUND sleep, I got up and got ready. Woke Archana up at around 4 and then we both went to the bus stop which was around 200 feet from her home…waited there for around ½ and hour and then the bus came…took another power nap for around 20 minutes in the bus…reached airport at around 5:45 am!! Saw the sun-rise after soo many days…well it’s not that I don’t get up early, it’s just that due to the daily hustle -bustle, we never tend to notice the sun rise!!

huh...what a bz day/ night i had!!! Anyways, took the flight at around 7 in the morning, after around two and a half hour journey, wherein I just slept like a log, I reached Delhi. I went to my Di’s place where my parents were to come around afternoon. Chilled out with my niece and nephew. My parents and sis came in the afternoon and by 7:10 in the evening, we left for railway station to catch our train which was at 8:30….and aha…here come the surprise… actually, I was having this feeling, how can everything be soo very much alright….so first, our car’s tyre flattened…yess…in the middle of the road! Driver took around 15 minutes to replace it…we started again….next…the driver, wasn’t sure about the way, so because of his grace, we took the incorrect route which was comparatively longer…then when we were around ½ km away from the station there was a major traffic jam… a very patli gali and two cars blocked the way…and none of them were ready to budge!! We had lots of luggage…we grabbed it out of the car and decided to run towards the station…it was already 8:25!! Took around 50 steps when suddenly the traffic cleared and our cab came again… we thoosoed in it and off we reached the station at 8:28….and just look at our luck…the train is waiting at PLATFORM NO. 7!!!!! We ran like mad….pushing people and apologizing at the same time….gosh such a close miss!!! But we managed to reach the train at 8:31… since ours was earlier in RAC and which later confirmed so we had to search our boggie…me and dad went thru the platform to search our dabba and mom and ritz went thru the trains….well by now you would have guessed it, yes, although the train was at the right time, it left the platform only at 8:40….and I really thank the Indian railways for the delay, else we would have definitely missed the train… Had dinner and then slept and when we woke up…it was Jammu…wow…a wonderful weather welcomed us…a slight drizzle, a cool climate and a pleasant atmosphere.
We took a state transport bus from Jammu to Katra…it was one of those ST buses wherein I stepped after so many years. The journey started. We were mesmerized by the tall mountains…the greenery all over, small waterfalls of water flowing down the mountains…the roads were a bit scary with sharp twists and turns…the bus drivers really need to be experienced in order to drive on these ghats sections….one meter to the left and you are dead… there were a hell lot of checking on the way to katra. There was a checkpost, and like they show on movies…there was this policeman who came into the bus checking all the bags…frankly speaking, it was really scary!!

We reached Katra at around 11 am. Hotel was already booked, Hotel Varun, which was around one km from the main bus stand …checked into the hotel and got ready, had brunch packed the things which we had to take to Vaishnodevi…so we started our journey up to the temple at around 12 in the noon…started with full josh…all were excited. We took a stick also for helping us complete the trek, we carried one back-pack bag, which was carried by Ritz for around 85% of the time and balance 15% of the times, it was me who was the coolie.

14.5 kms till Bhairon Ghati was the one way distance! We started, had lots and lots of breaks. This place is commercialized like any thing… you have hundreds of shops on the way up specially in the first 3-4 kms, till ardhkwari. One of the bad things were that there were a lot of horses, and they created a mess all through the way till ardhkwari. Just before ardhkuwari, there is a deviation, which takes you directly to the bhawan. The best thing about this way is that there are no horses. So the path was clean. By the time we reached ardhkuwari, the weather was awesome, we were walking through the clouds. The clouds were so full of water that we could feel the water. No it wasn’t drizzling, it was due to the fact that we were talking through these clouds….awesome experience. Cant say it was an awesome view, coz the visibility was hardly some 20 feet…from one of the point it is said, that you can see Pakistan. Well I am not very sure whether this was just a rumor or truth, but the thing was, that we weren’t able to see that!

We had our lunch of rajma chaawal at around 4:30 which was yum! We reached Bhawan at around 6 in the evening. We had already thought that we will have a bath up there and then go in for the darshan…but trust me, that was the worst decision which we took in that trip..the place was horrible. Don’t really want to recollect that, it brings bitter memories only… after that we locked all our belongings into the cloak room, which was free of cost…can you believe it…free of cost!!! After that the struggle began. It was around 7:30 in the evening and we stood in the queue. After around 4 hours, lots of dhakka mukki, we manage to get mata ke darshan. They don’t allow you to stand there at all…you have to keep on moving. If you miss to spot the devi, then gone. They wont allow to take even one step back! so after having aroun1-2 seconds ke darshan, we came out… it was a nice experience, the only regret was that kaash it would have lasted a bit longer!

By the time we came out, my dad had severe cramps in his knees and it was very difficult for him to walk. We took our belongings from the cloak room and then me and mom decided to go to Bhairon baba and Ritz and dad were to take the same route back. We were to meet at Ardhakuwari where the two paths met. So me and mom started. Initially, it wasn’t difficult. It was just 2 kms from Bhawan, but it took an hour to reach there with god knows how many halts, the climb was very steep and on top of that, it started drizzling. The way up was quite deserted. A couple of times, we felt scared, but then, managed to reach Bharon Baba post mid-night. after spending about 10 minutes there, we started our descend. It seemed to be an endless task. We were walking and walking and walking. I was almost in tears since my knees were hurting like hell… on top of that it started raining and since this was the longer route, again we were accompanied by horses!! We crossed sanjhichaat and Himkoti. By the time, we reached Ardhakuwari, it started raining heavily…we somehow managed to reach and meet dad and ritz who reached there around ½ an hour before us…dad was in severe pains…they had stopped around 2-3 times on the way back to get the maalish done on his knees.

We decided that from here we will take horses. But the price which these people were charging were atrocious…around Rs. 500 per person for some 5 kms that too while going down…it was pouring heavily so we decided to wait for some time, till the rains stopped. It was damn cold there….we were shivering. Once the rain stopped, we took 4 horses @ Rs. 250 per head. First me and Ritz went. God…its so scary, and when they arrive at the U-pin bend, I actually had to shut my eyes. I couldn’t see that, just one step to the left and I would be dead! Ritz horse name was Chetak and mine was Rani…she was dumb and just followed Chetak. The amazing thing was that he understood the sound of the whistle. With one whistle he stopped, turned left, turned right, ran and halt…amazing…isn’t it!!

Well we reached Banganga at around 4:30 in the morning. There we waited for mom and dad who came after around ½ an hour. Then we took a rick back to our hotel and from 6 to around 10 am , had a nice sleep. But as soon as I got up, I realized, there isn’t any purza which isn’t hurting…job hi kasar bachi thee, ghode ne poori kar di thee….every thing was hurting… every action, made me realise the numerous places where I had pain!

At around 1 in the afternoon, we checked out from our hotel, after getting ready and having lunch.. headed towards the bus stand, took the bus to Jammu…the mountains way back again looked beautiful. The difference was that it was sunny and the sun-light was getting reflected from the mountain. We witnessed a horrible accident of a bus on our way back. the only good thing was that no one was hurt. Two tyres of the bus was hanging in air, and the bus was balancing on the other two. There was a deep khai below. Thank God, no one was hurt!

At around 4:30, we reached Jammu railway station. It was crowded. Lots of people and hot and sweaty weather! Me and Ritz waited at the station, whereas mom and dad went to get some dried apples and walnuts. Our train to jaipur arrived almost half-an-hour late. We got seats in two compartments. So me and dad went to one and Ritz and mom slept at the other. So after having dinner, I slept like a log. Dad was to get down at Delhi and the three of us were to continue our journey to jaipur. At delhi, we had to get Ritz ticked from Delhi to jaipur. Delhi came at 4 in the morning and I had no intentions of getting down the train…so finally dad and ritz went and got the ticket. I slept till I think 8 in the morning. Did some tp in the train…took some wonderful photos. When it rains on the sand, it looks beautiful! Amidst this beautiful scene, we reached Jaipur….Home sweet Home…next 5 days were full of fun...and then back to Bangalore…an back to work…just to plan for another exciting adventure!!!