Again goose bumps in my belly to choose a new place.. a new road... a new direction to break the jinx of my daily routine of my SO CALLED office routine. This time, I planned to visit Amritsar in Punjab. As soon as the plan stuck my mind, I opened the invitation for all my friends and this time TOO only one responded. We looked all the travelling sites to get the information about all the areas to visit, how to visit and things to take care in this trip and decided that we will leave on 28th March 2013 to Amritsar.
Reason for Choosing Amritsar:
1. Amritsar refers to Amrit + Sar which means “Pool of Nectar". It was said that earlier this place was not ploughable and one of the Sikh guru made this pool to help the local people. Later his disciples named this place "AMRITSAR" as it bring good luck for the natives and mark it as pilgrimage - THE GOLDEN TEMPLE.
2. To see the Bagha border. Bagha border or Ataari border is part of one of the most tense border between India and Pakistan. Still every evening, soldiers of both sides perform a flag lowering ceremony which is open for both sides citizens. It is the only road border crossing between Lahore(Pakistan) and Amritsar (India). The village was divided by independence in 1947. Today, the eastern half remains in the India while the western side is in Pakistan.
3. PUNJAB: one of the most juvilant state of india. Reason: PUNJABIYYAN di battery CHARGE rehndi hai!! Till this time, I have been to lot many places but always wants to roam in the heart of Punjab and got my chance via this Journey.
Plan: Board the train on 28th night, get down in amritsar on next morning. To roam Golden temple in morning, Jaliawala Bagh in afternoon and Bagha border in evening. Catch the night bus to come back to my BASE i.e. Delhi :)
Start of story:
A story is not a story until it gets a THRILLING turn in between. In this trip, we had a THRILL in start of the story. We have to board a train from Delhi to amritsar at 2015 hours and that evening, SUDDENLY RAIN STARTED. God was yelling at us " YOUR FIRST TEST". It started by 1600 and didn't stop till 1830 hours. I was waiting that even if it gets dimmer by a fraction i will jump on road, to go to railway station. Bust as i said God was in mood to give us a favor, not even a small portion. Finally by 1845 hours, i jumped out and was under the rain... ON my way to railway station. I asked my brother to walk with me till nearest metro station as he also wants to enjoy rain. By the time, i reached to metro station, we were fully drenched. I changed my clothes in common area of metro station and gave them to my brother. rest everything was quite fine. Thanks to my Water proof bag! From there, i boarded metro to reach Hazrat nizamuddin metro station. By the time, i reached there, it was 1945 in my watch! I called my friend who was on the way and was stuck in the jam because of rain. Finally train came. After few minutes, my frined also arrived. We had our dinner and went to sleep on our berths.
FIRST TEST OVER!!! ;-)
Got up the next morning in train, got fresh and got down on Amritsar railway station by 0830 hours. GOLDEN TEMPLE SHRINE runs a free of cost bus service in between temple and railway station to help the devotees. There was a long queue so we waited for a long 1 hour to get into that bus. Once started, bus took only 15 minutes to reach the temple. From outside, we saw a big market and big white walls of temple's shrine. As soon as we entered inside, someone told us to cover our heads. As per Sikh religion, everyone has to cover their head in temple premises. We bought 2 long handkerchiefs to do the same. we submitted our foot wears near the entrance, washed our hands and legs and entered in the temple from main entrance.
As soon as I entered in the main campus, I was surprised by the beauty inside the temple. In the center, there was the golden temple. With the term GOLDEN, I mean G O L D E N. It was sparkling YELLOW in the light of sun. Around it, was a big pond. There was one pathway which was joining the golden temple with the temple floor. all the devotees are queued on that pathway. Around the pool, White gurudwaara building are giving a royal look to this place.
I took bath in the pond. It was very cold and after a quick bath, we were ready to enter in the main temple. As we move near to the pathway. we saw a long queue and long means LOOOOOONG queue which was in shape of 6 fold snake near the entrance gate. at first, i thought of leaving my plan but my friend insisted and we move in the queue. It took 3 hours for us to reach inside the main temple where "GURU GRANTH SAHIB JEE" was worshiped. some devotees are chanting inside the temple, around the Granth Sahib jee. Finally we came out and got the prasad. It was hot but YUMMY. I went in the prasad queue thrice. :)
After that, I waited for my friend as he was still in that LOONG queue. Till then, i snapped few pics around the campus. As soon as my friend arrived we move out as it was already 1400 hours. We head towards the marked and had our BUTTER dipped lunch. reason for highlighting butter was that whatever we ordered, dal, paneer our chapatis... everything was dipped in butter and we are eating all those with our butter drenched fingers!! huf!!!! :D
After that we headed towards Jallaiwala bagh which was at 5 minutes distance from Golden temple. Jallianwala Bagh was a milestone in Indian independence movement. It was the evidence of the cruel British empire and their psychic mindset towards the Indians, at that time. It was the place where on 13 April 1919, around 20000 Indian were protesting peacefully against British government. It was a non-violent "Satyagrah Andolan", in which people of all age groups and religion were present. General Dawyer ordered his 150 men platoon to fire on these people. Soldiers shot for next 6 minutes continuously which caused a casualty or over 1000 people and left other wounded. Holes of the bullets on the sidewalls of the bagh are still there.
After paying our tributes to those unknown freedom fighters who shed their flood so that we can breathe in an independent air and can roam in this country without any worry. After this we headed to see the retreat ceremony at Bagha border. This ceremony takes place every evening before sunset at the Wagah border, which as part of the Grand Trunk Road was the only road link between these two countries before the opening of the "Aman Setu" in Kashmir in 1999. The ceremony starts with a blustering parade by the soldiers from both the sides, and ends up in the perfectly coordinated lowering of the two nations' flags.[2] It is called the beating retreat border ceremony on the international level. One infantryman stands at attention on each side of the gate. As the sun sets, the iron gates at the border are opened and the two flags are lowered simultaneously. The flags are folded and the ceremony ends with a retreat that involves a brusque handshake between soldiers from either side, followed by the closing of the gates again. The spectacle of the ceremony attracts many visitors from both sides of the border, as well as international tourists.
On the way to border, we saw a huge line of trucks carrying onions. Driver told us that all these trucks are meant for trade with Pakistan and in return we will get sugar. As soon as we reached the border. It was a delightful scene to watch. Patriotic songs in the background, Army peopel in their sparkling dresses and loud voice of the commander - it was giving a look of war front. But of course, presence of so many civilians around the post was the biggest catch. People from all part of counry were present to see the ceremony. everybody wants the best seat for him/her-self to see this ceremony. Since there are only few seats available in the stands so people choose trees, poles and othe possible places from where they can see the events. Even I fought for that and later found a center stand(not seat- but a stand) from where I can see the things clearly. Event started and army officer invited the girls in the crowd to come in the center of road and dance. It was a open house DJ invitation for them, which they joyfully expected. Even some foreigners joined them. After that 15 minutes DJ session, commander asked the people to evacuate and within next 5 minute the army proceedings for retreat ceremony got started.
At first two lady officers walked briskly towards the gate. Later, two infantry men followed them. At this moment, both sides opened the gate. It was the time when one can see the extension of G.T. road across the border. Just seeing the people across the wall, I thought even they walk on the same road as we do.
Even they eat the same food which we do. We give them our onions to enrich the taste of their vegetables in dinner and in return they provide us sugar bowls to make our sweets more sweeter. Just like a good neighbor.
As soon as the gate opened,Six men from each side, with high voices, reached the center. After that they started showing their brisk walk, high leg salutation in "I CAN YELL HIGHER THAN YOU" voice, to each other. It was continued for next 15 minutes. After that soldiers started lowering their flags and closed the door. Again the looks of our neighbor was barred by the walls which were raised by Britishers and now being watered by our politicians!
After the ceremony got over, everybody turned to head back to the city. This was the time when we have to go through the painful "yes sir"-"no sir" to convince the auto people to drop us to the golden temple. Although we had booked one while coming but due to ALMIGHTY AUTOWALA, he didnt came back to take us. So we are on the mercy of other autos to reach back. Finally we managed to get one and reached the Golden temple by 2030 hours.
Our return journey was quite peacefula s we had booked two sleeper seats in bus. We reached the bus station at right time. I felt asleep as soon as I sat on my seat. The next thing which i remember was .. conductor and my friend were yelling at me to get down on kashmiri gate bus stop in Delhi. My friend was amused by the way I was sleeping for those 8 hours.
With this, we came to an end of the amazing journey which start with a GODLY challange... meets with certain UP and DOWN (as expected ) and finally ended with lots of memories and click-clicks!! The warming nature of Pinjabis and taste of food was an EXTRA add-on on this trip which was most amazing part on this trip. The land of farmers has treasured us with lots of good experiences which will remain with us in all our trip... till our LAST trip!! See you again in the next trip ... till then, KEEP :) ;) !!
Saturday, 28 December 2013
Sunday, 7 April 2013
BANARAS Trip
Being an Indian means you got a inheritance from your motherland. An inheritance of Devotion, Era old culture and HISTORY! One can get a view of all these things at any of the pilgrimages in India which shows that what INDIA has given or still offering to this world. Be it the CHAAR DHAMS or any SHAKTI PEETHS or any other devotional places. There are several places in India where one can see the SPIRITUAL face of India and one of them is BANARAS - THE SPIRITUAL CITY of INDIA. The most exciting thing which pulled me in this direction was the THREE NAMES of this one place ... KASHI<-> BANARAS <-> VARANASI! All these names belongs to a single place which is historically and mythologically plays a important roles in India's history. City is located on the bank of river GANGA which is one of the most respected and worshiped river in India.
Ocassion : Baba's wedding - Invitation which was just a excuse used by the GOD to give me a chance to visit THIS part of INDIA. :)
Mode of Journey - TRAIN/BUS/AUTO/FAT-FAT(local name of shared AUTO)
Number of people - ALOOOONE!
Date: 8th February 2013 @ 6 PM
Unknowingly Baba helped me to make this plan by fixing his marriage on a TUESDAY which means by any chance I have to take 3 days leaves to attend his marriage. As soon as BABA told me about his marriage in December, I made plans to visit all nearby places. I started my trip on Friday itself with plans of Varanasi visit. I GOOGLED all the places to visit, things to EAT and other to-do items in this trip. Made a list, discussed with my friends who have been there or had any idea about that side. With all things packed in my bag and my camera, i boarded the train - "GARIB RATH" to Varanasi. This was the train meant for the lower class who can get the facilities which are available to higher income groups at low rates. I must say efforts and services are pretty good BUT Indian railway needs to improve a lot. Anyhow, I started chit-chat with my fellow passengers till they start felling on their berths. In the end, i too slept on my berth with the excitement of my next day journey! Train was suppose to reach Varanasi by 8 AM but due o some lorry accident on tracks, train was 4 hours delay and by 12, I was in Varanasi station.
My next aim was to find a room to dump all my belongings and start my expeditions. One of my friend told me to stay near LANKA which is kind of central place to many locations. I enquired a few places in Lanka and fixed one for my next 2 day stay. By the time, I took bath, it was 1 PM. I start the parade of the day on foot and went to see Banaras Bindu University (B.H.U). Established in early 19th century by Freedom fighter Late Madan Mohan Malviya Jee, B.H.U is One of Asia largest universities. It provides a good ambiance to students to develope their skills. It offers Engineering, medicine, arts, language, commerce and many different courses. I just traveled only one length of the university campus and that was more than 6-7 Kms (in around 1.5 hours). I visited the new KASHI VISHWANATH temple inside the campus and sat inside it for a moment. It was so peaceful that for a while i forgot about the pains in my legs!! :D Anyhow, the temple was very beautiful and is being maintained and cared by B.H.U trust. I came out of temple and had some "NASSHTAA" (term is explained later) and headed backward to my hotel, in a rickshaw.
After that, I went to SANKATMOCHAN temple. SANKATMOCHAN is the another name of lord Hanuman. Sankat+Mochan means One who take you out of your troubles. It was heavily crowded because of Saturday.I saw a long queue in front of every sweet stall where people were buying sweets to offer to lord as PRASAD. FYI, I am not a BIG devotee but just a believer of the supreme power. You can put any name for that power as per your religion. I entered in temple and was thrilled with the crowd's patience in queue and cheering up the voices of "JAI HO" every time someone calls for the lord name!!! This made me believe that the power of GOD lies in the heard of their believers. As long as people keep their belief on God and keep hard-working for their goals, blessings of GOD will work! After a stringent 40-50 minutes, I got the darshan and came out with other cheerful devotees. It was already 4:30 PM by that time. I head towards Durga temple. It has been said that in the "Navratras" festival, you can find the whole city in this temple. After that I head towards "Tulsi Manas Temple". It has been said that Doswami Tulsidas wrote Ramcharatmanas at same place. Temple is made up of white marble and it has whole Ramayan with all dohas written on its walls. Inside the temple, you can find idol of Ram, Laxman, Sita and Hanuman. By the time, i came out, it was 5 PM.
After that, I had no other place to visit so I head towards the ASSI GHAT to see the evening rituals on the ghat. I hired a BOAT to see the Banaras from GANGA jee's perspective. Munna, The boat driver was very much excited after seeing my camera and told me the history of all ghats sequentially. He told me there are 84 ghats in whole Banaras, named by people who created them or by their followers. There are many ghats which are named based on mythological stories. like SATYA ghat was named after King HarishChandra who was so loyal for his words that he gave his kingdom to his teacher because in his dreams, he promised to give it to them. It is believed that he worked on this ghat in his bad time as a person who takes money from people to burn their relatives as their last ritual after death. Similarly, Dasaswamedh Ghat was named after King Dasarath, Father of Lord Rama. There were Ghats named after Guru Shankarachaarya, Writer Munshi PremChand too. From the boat, the whole Varanasi city was seemed to be busy in their activity. On every ghat, people were taking walks, children were busy in their games while travelers were astonished with so many temples and the energy from this city. From boat, I took a bow on SHEETLA GHAT for SHEETLA MATA temple, Prayag ghat. Munna was showing me the small baskets flowing in the river which were being flown by people with the prayers for soul of there ancestors. We completed our round in around 90 minutes and dropped me back to Assi ghat.
By the time, i came back to Asii ghat, priests were busy in making arrangements for the evening pooja of Ganga. River was worshiped twice a day, morning and evening, as a THANKS for bringing peace in ur life. Scientifically speaking, Without rivers how could one can thought of fertile lands and prosperiety of a country!! As soon as the AARTI started, the whole public gathered near I start clicking the poses and process or priest in my Camera. It went on for next 30 minutes. I was able to listen the voice of "HAR HAR GANGE" for long back. After it got finished, I sat for next one hour on river's bank. It was complete silence with just one voice, the voice of my inner. It was an experience which can't be just stated in words, but the feel was AWESOME!!!
I came back to LANKA, had HEAVY dinner of 4 Paneer Parathey with curd and pickle accompanied with a glass of Lassi and then 250 gm s of Jalebi and then a SPECIAL Pan. By the way, Don't think it was the HUNGER which made me eat this much but it was the TASTE which make me "1 more SLICE" every time, i felt full! :D and finally, when i came back to my hotel, attendant told me to have a glass of milk to feel good! He ordered it by himself and offered me. Since I can't say No to such a sweet request so that 1 glass milk also went in my belly! :O :D
Next day, START with a FRESH note and after having a plate of NAASHTA- a plate with 4 kachori+ curried potato + 2 peices of Jalebis. got 4 more Kachoris as they were HOT and AWESOME and of course extra 250 gms of Jalebis too!! After this light breakfast, headed towards SARNATH - A place where Lord Buddha Gave his first lessons to his first five followers. It was around 15 KMs from Varanasi city but took around 1 hour in FAT-FAT Auto seva. As soon as I reached there, got confused with the name of temples which are based on countries name like: Chinese temple, Japanese temple, Vietnamese temple. Later I got to know that Every country which has Bhudhism in it has got a temple here including Sri Lanka. :) I roamed in Chinese, Sri Lankan and Thai temple which have different style to depict the lessons of Buddha to the people.
After that, I went to see the Sarnath Museums and Sarnath Stupas. These two places are under conservation of Indian archaeological department. This was the place from where NATIONAL EMBLEM of India has been taken. Apart from that it has several other items of 1000 AD, found by the archaeological department from this place. The Damekh stupa, Chaukhandi Stupa were so High. They are still standing tall even after getting disfigured during Mohammad Ghazni attack on Indian monuments.
After finishing this place, I had a quick Naashta (again) and headed towards Ramnagar fort. It has been the home of Kashi Naresh since the eighteenth century. The current king and the resident of the fort is Anant Narayan Singh, who is also known as the Maharaja of Varanasi. It has been told that during Vijaydashmi festival, the whole city is invited in fort for 10 days of celebration where people were offered variety of shows for their entertainment and 3 times food from King of Varanasi. The whole Varanasi King's fort and palace ahs been now converted into a museum showcasing the glorious era of Varanasi empire. They had the palakis, gifted by Emperor Akbar and Kings of other states, old Rolls Royce and several other cars, different kind of carts in their garage! Moving forward, we saw the different kind of guns, made of metal, stone, wood(the back part) with astonishing arts on their body! It was a very fine collection of all kind of weapons which includes knives, swords, small guns, long barrel guns and many others. On one corner, we saw some coins with a holes in them. It was mentioned these that king Narayan Singh was an ace shooter and used to practice by throwing coins in air and then shooting them. all those coins were the proof of his skills.
Next room has the king's different chairs which were either displaying a exquisite art form or are being gifted to king of Varanasi by other royal families. In the other room, we saw the snaps of king Varanasi with other royal families. It includes King of Belgium and different dukes also. There are certain oil painting, next to them showing the precision of painters to draw exact look-alike of the king on canvas. Amazing!!
After another round of brutal murder of my HUNGER, I went towards Prayag ghat. I went to other side of ghat for a quick bath in the river. It was 4 PM and a sunny day. As soon as i entered in water, all tiredness got dissolved in water and I was fresh again. I stayed on that side for another 1 hour and spent time in clicking Varanasi's ghats from front. As soon as it turned dark, i went to see the KASHI VISHWANATH temple. this temple is called to be a big pilgrimage of Indian Mythology. I took an auto to reach there. It was heavily crowded. Special thanks to the narrow lanes and strict police checking. After a 15 mins walk from road, I was in the temple. It was a Lord Shiva temple. wherever you will see , you will find SHIV-LING in this temple. As son as i entered in the temple, I heard the voice of temple bells and AZAAN together. There was a mosque just next to this temple. it has been said that Aurangzeb, great grandson of Emperor Akbar, demolished a part of this temple and got this mosque constructed. and not this mosque and temple are a unexempted proof of Hindu-Muslim unity in the area! I came out of temple and got a outer look of the mosque and came back to my room. It was a nice day which got ended with another highly delicious dinner and other amenities.
Another day: Sun rises again on the horizon and I had separate plans for the day. I was planning to go ALLAHABAD to see the KUMBH MELA. but as I repetitively mentioned in all my travelling that THERE IS NO FUN in your planned travelling until and unless your plan SPOILS! I got a call from my dad who told me that there is a stampede in Allahabad which causes some causalities. Hence he ORDERED me to drop that plan.
So I was in my room with the shocking news. I went out to eat to overcome the trauma that the first phase of my journey has been cut shot by GOD! :'( I called Baba that,I am coming one day early as i had no other plans. since i had too much time so i went to ASSI ghat to see hows the glittering ghats looks in sunlight? Answer was - same as of night. People has come to banaras with their beleifs and hopes. Many families were taking bath in Ganga to shed their Sins( a belief). Old-Young, Men-women, Uncles-Kids.... everybody was there. some people were getting some pooja done for good prosperity of their houses and for their ancestors. All this Events make me feel that Whatever is your belief, things around you always effects you. If this wasn't the case, why did i took a dip last evening even though i am not a guy who like to take a bath in evening. I don't know why i took dip even though I don't believe in "SHED YOUR SINS IN GANGA" theory! but might be it was the atmosphere, Energy, view which pushed me in the arms of GANGES!!!
After standing there for a while, I head backward to my hotel room, took my luggage and headed towards SASARAM- Baba nad his family were waiting for me!
Ocassion : Baba's wedding - Invitation which was just a excuse used by the GOD to give me a chance to visit THIS part of INDIA. :)
Mode of Journey - TRAIN/BUS/AUTO/FAT-FAT(local name of shared AUTO)
Number of people - ALOOOONE!
Date: 8th February 2013 @ 6 PM
Unknowingly Baba helped me to make this plan by fixing his marriage on a TUESDAY which means by any chance I have to take 3 days leaves to attend his marriage. As soon as BABA told me about his marriage in December, I made plans to visit all nearby places. I started my trip on Friday itself with plans of Varanasi visit. I GOOGLED all the places to visit, things to EAT and other to-do items in this trip. Made a list, discussed with my friends who have been there or had any idea about that side. With all things packed in my bag and my camera, i boarded the train - "GARIB RATH" to Varanasi. This was the train meant for the lower class who can get the facilities which are available to higher income groups at low rates. I must say efforts and services are pretty good BUT Indian railway needs to improve a lot. Anyhow, I started chit-chat with my fellow passengers till they start felling on their berths. In the end, i too slept on my berth with the excitement of my next day journey! Train was suppose to reach Varanasi by 8 AM but due o some lorry accident on tracks, train was 4 hours delay and by 12, I was in Varanasi station.
My next aim was to find a room to dump all my belongings and start my expeditions. One of my friend told me to stay near LANKA which is kind of central place to many locations. I enquired a few places in Lanka and fixed one for my next 2 day stay. By the time, I took bath, it was 1 PM. I start the parade of the day on foot and went to see Banaras Bindu University (B.H.U). Established in early 19th century by Freedom fighter Late Madan Mohan Malviya Jee, B.H.U is One of Asia largest universities. It provides a good ambiance to students to develope their skills. It offers Engineering, medicine, arts, language, commerce and many different courses. I just traveled only one length of the university campus and that was more than 6-7 Kms (in around 1.5 hours). I visited the new KASHI VISHWANATH temple inside the campus and sat inside it for a moment. It was so peaceful that for a while i forgot about the pains in my legs!! :D Anyhow, the temple was very beautiful and is being maintained and cared by B.H.U trust. I came out of temple and had some "NASSHTAA" (term is explained later) and headed backward to my hotel, in a rickshaw.
After that, I went to SANKATMOCHAN temple. SANKATMOCHAN is the another name of lord Hanuman. Sankat+Mochan means One who take you out of your troubles. It was heavily crowded because of Saturday.I saw a long queue in front of every sweet stall where people were buying sweets to offer to lord as PRASAD. FYI, I am not a BIG devotee but just a believer of the supreme power. You can put any name for that power as per your religion. I entered in temple and was thrilled with the crowd's patience in queue and cheering up the voices of "JAI HO" every time someone calls for the lord name!!! This made me believe that the power of GOD lies in the heard of their believers. As long as people keep their belief on God and keep hard-working for their goals, blessings of GOD will work! After a stringent 40-50 minutes, I got the darshan and came out with other cheerful devotees. It was already 4:30 PM by that time. I head towards Durga temple. It has been said that in the "Navratras" festival, you can find the whole city in this temple. After that I head towards "Tulsi Manas Temple". It has been said that Doswami Tulsidas wrote Ramcharatmanas at same place. Temple is made up of white marble and it has whole Ramayan with all dohas written on its walls. Inside the temple, you can find idol of Ram, Laxman, Sita and Hanuman. By the time, i came out, it was 5 PM.
After that, I had no other place to visit so I head towards the ASSI GHAT to see the evening rituals on the ghat. I hired a BOAT to see the Banaras from GANGA jee's perspective. Munna, The boat driver was very much excited after seeing my camera and told me the history of all ghats sequentially. He told me there are 84 ghats in whole Banaras, named by people who created them or by their followers. There are many ghats which are named based on mythological stories. like SATYA ghat was named after King HarishChandra who was so loyal for his words that he gave his kingdom to his teacher because in his dreams, he promised to give it to them. It is believed that he worked on this ghat in his bad time as a person who takes money from people to burn their relatives as their last ritual after death. Similarly, Dasaswamedh Ghat was named after King Dasarath, Father of Lord Rama. There were Ghats named after Guru Shankarachaarya, Writer Munshi PremChand too. From the boat, the whole Varanasi city was seemed to be busy in their activity. On every ghat, people were taking walks, children were busy in their games while travelers were astonished with so many temples and the energy from this city. From boat, I took a bow on SHEETLA GHAT for SHEETLA MATA temple, Prayag ghat. Munna was showing me the small baskets flowing in the river which were being flown by people with the prayers for soul of there ancestors. We completed our round in around 90 minutes and dropped me back to Assi ghat.
By the time, i came back to Asii ghat, priests were busy in making arrangements for the evening pooja of Ganga. River was worshiped twice a day, morning and evening, as a THANKS for bringing peace in ur life. Scientifically speaking, Without rivers how could one can thought of fertile lands and prosperiety of a country!! As soon as the AARTI started, the whole public gathered near I start clicking the poses and process or priest in my Camera. It went on for next 30 minutes. I was able to listen the voice of "HAR HAR GANGE" for long back. After it got finished, I sat for next one hour on river's bank. It was complete silence with just one voice, the voice of my inner. It was an experience which can't be just stated in words, but the feel was AWESOME!!!
I came back to LANKA, had HEAVY dinner of 4 Paneer Parathey with curd and pickle accompanied with a glass of Lassi and then 250 gm s of Jalebi and then a SPECIAL Pan. By the way, Don't think it was the HUNGER which made me eat this much but it was the TASTE which make me "1 more SLICE" every time, i felt full! :D and finally, when i came back to my hotel, attendant told me to have a glass of milk to feel good! He ordered it by himself and offered me. Since I can't say No to such a sweet request so that 1 glass milk also went in my belly! :O :D
Next day, START with a FRESH note and after having a plate of NAASHTA- a plate with 4 kachori+ curried potato + 2 peices of Jalebis. got 4 more Kachoris as they were HOT and AWESOME and of course extra 250 gms of Jalebis too!! After this light breakfast, headed towards SARNATH - A place where Lord Buddha Gave his first lessons to his first five followers. It was around 15 KMs from Varanasi city but took around 1 hour in FAT-FAT Auto seva. As soon as I reached there, got confused with the name of temples which are based on countries name like: Chinese temple, Japanese temple, Vietnamese temple. Later I got to know that Every country which has Bhudhism in it has got a temple here including Sri Lanka. :) I roamed in Chinese, Sri Lankan and Thai temple which have different style to depict the lessons of Buddha to the people.
After that, I went to see the Sarnath Museums and Sarnath Stupas. These two places are under conservation of Indian archaeological department. This was the place from where NATIONAL EMBLEM of India has been taken. Apart from that it has several other items of 1000 AD, found by the archaeological department from this place. The Damekh stupa, Chaukhandi Stupa were so High. They are still standing tall even after getting disfigured during Mohammad Ghazni attack on Indian monuments.
After finishing this place, I had a quick Naashta (again) and headed towards Ramnagar fort. It has been the home of Kashi Naresh since the eighteenth century. The current king and the resident of the fort is Anant Narayan Singh, who is also known as the Maharaja of Varanasi. It has been told that during Vijaydashmi festival, the whole city is invited in fort for 10 days of celebration where people were offered variety of shows for their entertainment and 3 times food from King of Varanasi. The whole Varanasi King's fort and palace ahs been now converted into a museum showcasing the glorious era of Varanasi empire. They had the palakis, gifted by Emperor Akbar and Kings of other states, old Rolls Royce and several other cars, different kind of carts in their garage! Moving forward, we saw the different kind of guns, made of metal, stone, wood(the back part) with astonishing arts on their body! It was a very fine collection of all kind of weapons which includes knives, swords, small guns, long barrel guns and many others. On one corner, we saw some coins with a holes in them. It was mentioned these that king Narayan Singh was an ace shooter and used to practice by throwing coins in air and then shooting them. all those coins were the proof of his skills.
Next room has the king's different chairs which were either displaying a exquisite art form or are being gifted to king of Varanasi by other royal families. In the other room, we saw the snaps of king Varanasi with other royal families. It includes King of Belgium and different dukes also. There are certain oil painting, next to them showing the precision of painters to draw exact look-alike of the king on canvas. Amazing!!
After another round of brutal murder of my HUNGER, I went towards Prayag ghat. I went to other side of ghat for a quick bath in the river. It was 4 PM and a sunny day. As soon as i entered in water, all tiredness got dissolved in water and I was fresh again. I stayed on that side for another 1 hour and spent time in clicking Varanasi's ghats from front. As soon as it turned dark, i went to see the KASHI VISHWANATH temple. this temple is called to be a big pilgrimage of Indian Mythology. I took an auto to reach there. It was heavily crowded. Special thanks to the narrow lanes and strict police checking. After a 15 mins walk from road, I was in the temple. It was a Lord Shiva temple. wherever you will see , you will find SHIV-LING in this temple. As son as i entered in the temple, I heard the voice of temple bells and AZAAN together. There was a mosque just next to this temple. it has been said that Aurangzeb, great grandson of Emperor Akbar, demolished a part of this temple and got this mosque constructed. and not this mosque and temple are a unexempted proof of Hindu-Muslim unity in the area! I came out of temple and got a outer look of the mosque and came back to my room. It was a nice day which got ended with another highly delicious dinner and other amenities.
Another day: Sun rises again on the horizon and I had separate plans for the day. I was planning to go ALLAHABAD to see the KUMBH MELA. but as I repetitively mentioned in all my travelling that THERE IS NO FUN in your planned travelling until and unless your plan SPOILS! I got a call from my dad who told me that there is a stampede in Allahabad which causes some causalities. Hence he ORDERED me to drop that plan.
So I was in my room with the shocking news. I went out to eat to overcome the trauma that the first phase of my journey has been cut shot by GOD! :'( I called Baba that,I am coming one day early as i had no other plans. since i had too much time so i went to ASSI ghat to see hows the glittering ghats looks in sunlight? Answer was - same as of night. People has come to banaras with their beleifs and hopes. Many families were taking bath in Ganga to shed their Sins( a belief). Old-Young, Men-women, Uncles-Kids.... everybody was there. some people were getting some pooja done for good prosperity of their houses and for their ancestors. All this Events make me feel that Whatever is your belief, things around you always effects you. If this wasn't the case, why did i took a dip last evening even though i am not a guy who like to take a bath in evening. I don't know why i took dip even though I don't believe in "SHED YOUR SINS IN GANGA" theory! but might be it was the atmosphere, Energy, view which pushed me in the arms of GANGES!!!
After standing there for a while, I head backward to my hotel room, took my luggage and headed towards SASARAM- Baba nad his family were waiting for me!
Tuesday, 25 September 2012
Aik Vivah..... AUR
It's wedding time. Not for me but for my friends. It seems that god wants everyone to get tied in the knots on 25th and 26th April 2012. Proof was the number of invitation cards, I had for those dates. Even, Gyan was getting married on 25th. It wasn't his invitation but my past experience of the love of the people of that part of country, pulled me to attend his marriage. We planned the journey to go to Patna and attend Gyan's marriage but for return, we had different plans.
Place - Patna
Mode of Journey - Ofcourse, Flight
Number of people - 2! YAA_YAA, I asked a lot many people whoever wants to join but got a single , ONLY a SINGLE nod from Alok.
People - Alok and ME
Date: 24th April2012 @ 12 in NIGHT!
Day 1: STARTING DAY---
We had flight on 25th morning but we were not sure whether we will get BIAL bus or proper cab early morning or not so we boarded the bus for airport on 24th night and started the prime motto of this journey!! NAA-NAA... Gyan didn't got married in that BUS! We started clicking pics as we were going to capture the whole Patna in our camera, on this trip. We were two people and had THREE cameras!!
By 2AM, we were at airport and had to kill 3 more hours to board our flight. AS PER ALOK's CONSCIOUS MIND AND MY UNKNOWN STATE, I SLEPT(or keep falling from chair). Flight was on time. This flight runs on a close loop, started from Bangalore in morning, then KOLKATA, PATNA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI and then back to BANGALORE in night! Meanwhile, Again I slept for next 3 hours in flight while Alok was trying to save himself from my falling head and my KARATE practicing HANDS! We landed at around 11 and Gyan was at airport to receive us. His house was just at 20 minutes distance from Airport.
As soon as we reached Gyan house. we are in a chaos where children were running here and there to catch each other on their game. Elders were shouting to get things done. Gyan's Mom and Dad were making sure thing that all things for all rituals are at right place. Gyan's Brother and Bhabhi jee are taking care of all guests. After greeting everyone, we went to take rest in Gyan's room and slept for 2 hours. It was a freshening sleep where I didn't fall from my seat and even Alok has a good sleep.
As soon as we were UP, everyone was scolding us for not getting ready. We managed to get our face WASHED, SHAVED and got ready with the dance moves which we had planned for the marriage. Suddenly everybody noticed that Everyone except the THE CAR for groom is ready. Since everyone was busy in something so this task came in my hands to get the car DECORATED with flowers from a near by shop. As soon as we reached there, I saw lots of cars and lots AND lots AND lots of FLOWERS. I had never seen these many flowers at one place, these are far more than what a Hindi movie hero throws on Heroine. IF he throws these many flowers at heroine, HEROINE will get buried under the HUGE PILE.
By the time, I came back in my active conscious state, we asked the person to do his job on our car first. Bhabhi jee (Gyan's Sister in law) has already told him to do it first on call so he started the job and within 1 hour, he turned that CAR in rose ARRAY!( Sorry, I am a computer engineer and can't take that part out of me!!) After getting the work done, we head back to home where everyone was ready and were waiting for the car to start the Baarat. I quickly made myself READY and came out to show my DANCE MOVES in Baarat. As soon the Baarat starts from the house, people kidnapped the orchestra and asked(tortured in funny way) to play their selective songs. and more to add on orchestra's people wound, they dance like HELL and even kicked them by there so called MOVES. At that moment, I was a spectator and was thinking whether I should take that risk or not! Luckily, some elderly figure came out for there rescue and Baarat starts moving. within next 20 mins, we reached our first meeting point.
Again baarat got re-assembled and people start coming in their dancing shoes after one or two pegs. This time, me and alok were also dragged in by Gyan's cousins and exchanged few kicks( Literaly i got some and I gave kicks by my newly invented MOVES to someone else). Finally we got our rhythms and dance for around 30-40 minutes till we reached the bride's place.
By the time, we reached Bride's place, they were thinking that baarat will reach by INDIAN STRETCH TIME while baarat was on time. Credit goes to Gyan's father, who keep pushing all dancers to move quickly! Finally people came to gate and welcomed us all. Gyan was taken to his SPECIAL SEAT by his new relatives i.e. in laws! We ate few chunks and accompanied Gyan in his nervous moments. After few minutes, Bhabhi jee arrived with lowered eyes, garland in her hands and accompanied with a gang of her sisters/friends! She was looking gorgeous. As some one said that "MARRIAGE is THE SPECIAL day in a girl's life when she can win the MISS WORLD title. As the moments of nervousness, excitement and shyness adding loads of beauty to her natural beauty!"
As soon as she came on stage, we start cheering in double frequency as earlier it was only for our friend and now it was for the couple. :) Finally garlands got exchanged and people blessed them. After Garland round, couple was entered in posing round where every elder came on stage for giving their exclusive blessing to the couple and the couple receiving the same with a BROAD smile, in front of camera. I wonder how could they maintained that smile for 50+ times. (number is reduced to lower the pain of cheeks of couple in addition of back ache to touch the feets of those elders!).
Finally, everyone was off stage to start the rituals of the marriage. Marriage was started with blessings and gift from Gyan's elder brother for the bride. After that Panditjee starts his murmerring while few people slept, few were trying to understand what panditjee is trying to ask. Among them, I was in the company of Alok and few cousin of Gyan and watching all ceremonies. They were quite similar as ceremonies on our side qith little differences.
Finally, marriage was over by 5 AM in morning. Then comes the most sobby part of the wedding, departure of the bride and the way the relatives say goodbye to her. Sometimes I wondered(in every marriage) if they have so much pain for her departure why they choose a groom who they knew that he will take their daughter away. They could have searched for a son-in-law who would agreed on to stay in his in-laws house. BUT a condition like that will make groom's parents cry!! Finally someone has to cry in the mariage last stage!! What a CEREMONY!! :O
Finally, we are back to Gyan's house alonwith his WIFE. Everyone was tired apart from Gyan's mom and other relatives who were not the part of Baraat. They were ready to start the another set of rituals for the couple. Even me and alok were headed towards bed because of last night rituals. By the time, we were up, all rituals were over and lunch was ready. Marriage of Gyan was over and we were busy in making plans for our lateral part of trip i.e to roam the palces around Patna.
For next one and half days we roamed around the city to calm down the rats/lions of my belly. Most of the time we roamed around the station road, near Hanuman temple. As this place is known for its litti-chokha, samosas, chandrakala and other sweets. visited all nearby sites which includes Bodhi tree in gyaa- Place where Lord Buddha got NIRVANA, PAVAPURI - A Jain pilgrimage in one day. Even in this trip, we keep our hungry parasites quite with Tilkut, anarsa, chaat and other stuffs. Caution: 1 point, all this food made my stomach go WILD for next two days.
Finally we ended our trip with a final goodbye to Gyan's family, newly got bhabhijee, ofcourse Gyan too ANDDDD few new friends, Gyan's Cousin. Alok was heading towards Kolkata to continue his instinct to explore east india while I was heading towards Delhi, my native. With all newly and freshly baked memories, I was heading towards airport with Extra special blessing for me from Gyan's parents, new memories of typical Bihari style marriage, lots of new friends whose names are out of my memory but the time which I spent with them, has left a mark in my memories FOREVER ..... and ofcourse my clicks will help me to do so. ;)
Thursday, 2 June 2011
A friend's Marriage in PURNIA!
So, I am on the verge of starting another journey. To navigate through the lands where I have never been. Places which were calling me from a long time but I didn't get FATE on my side to visit them. Finally, fate provide me this opportunity and I grabbed it COMPLETELY with BOTH (and all possible) hands!!
Setup of PLOT:
Rakesh was getting married in his hometown and he invited US( me and many more) to attend his marriage. That wasn't the voice of Rakesh, it was the call of FATE, asking me to visit BIHAR!
START:
Me and Sam both reached office on 25th with our bags as we were the only two guys going from Bangalore to the LAND OF EDUCATION of ancient INDIA. Worked the whole day (;-) ) and started our journey. We boarded the flight to Kolkata. Plan was to reach Kolkata, stay in Gyan's brother house. We reached Kolkata pretty late. Met Gyan's brother and bhabhi jee. As soon as we hit the bed, the day was OVER!
Second Day:
It was a time to visit BENGAL! As soon we hit the road, it was all "MITHAAYI" SHOP everywhere. People, who know me because of my habit, know my week point. It's not blood which flows in my veins. It’s the SUGAR SYRUP and after watching those many sweet shops, I went INSANE and ate whatever ... wherever I got. Laddu, gulabjamun, pede, burfi, jalebi, chamcham, mishti dahi, chhena, rassssgulley......... LIST was endless and quality was awesome! I ate until my stomach cries internally - “YOU MORON... I know you don't have LIMIT but I have. “And Sam cried the same as he is a CALORIE conscious guy who was calculating my calories and cost of whatever I ate. ;-)
As soon as we reached home, FIGHT started between my belly and tongue as bhabhi jee was all ready with her machi. I had the same when she visit Bangalore last year. Although my belly was crying for some rest but it’s impossible for me to say NO to her love which she poured in that MACHI. My senses supported my tongue. After that I was so full that it was difficult for me to start the next round of city visit. Even oxygen has to fight with food in my throat to reach till my lungs.
We Watched the world cup match between Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Shahid afrildi turned the whole match in his first spell. We spent the whole evening in front of T.V with snacks and sweets (can't live without that...) and had dinner (again fish and a delicious vegetable WITH SWEETS) to finish the day!
Third Day:
Plan was to go DAKSHINESHWAR temple on bank of HUGHALI! It is one of the most famous temple of goddess KAALI in Kolkata. We hired a cab. I was amazed to find that for a journey of about 1.5 hour, meter was showing just Rs 80/- but my findings were shattered instantly when cab driver told us that they are using ERA old meter and whatever it shows, you have to pay DOUBLE of that. We finished the darshan in next 30 minutes. Sat near the bank of hughali(Local name of Ganga jee). Then we headed towards another market to try MORE versions of Bengali food. Sam knew one good restaurant. Being a new person, I let Sam order the food with a clear instruction that food should be AWESOME. He ordered pator maach, sukhto, biryaani and chapaati. Believe me, this was the first time, I was having these dishes and THEY WERE AWESOME. Even at one time, I was ready to kill Sam for masala of pator maach!
After having lunch, we went to roam south Victoria palace, city mall, visited city's metro- India's first. After saying goodbye to bhaiya and bhabhi, we started the next phase of our journey. We caught the train to Purnia. It was an overnight journey so we went to our bed as soon as we entered in coach.
D-Day!- Reason for the TRIP
Rakesh's Wedding day.
We reached Katihar railway station at around 6 AM. Rakesh had sent a car to pick us to his home, which was around 60 KMs from there. As soon as we reached there, a warm welcome by his entire family! I already know his sister. But, I was surprised when his brother in law said "This must be Jeevan". I found that everyone seems to know me. But the reason was clear. Rakesh has explained all my features, habits and my weakness to them. Even for breakfast, they gave me a full box of rasgulley!! I showed a little courtesy in beginning but failed to keep resistance from that box for long and ended with finishing half (plz read almost full) box.
After finishing our breakfast, we headed towards our hotel. We got fresh and went out to roam in the city and ended into a sweet shop. ;-)
Since Sam wants to see Rakesh's village, so we headed towards the village. It was me, Sam, Rakesh and Rakesh's brother in law. It was a good sight of big wheat and corn's fields on both side of the road. The last stretch of the road was very bad. His village was a typical old Hindi movie kind of village, unlike villages in Uttaranchal. In Uttaranchal, one village's perimeter is around 1 KM as houses are very distant from each other because of their stepwise architecture. While here I witnessed close neighborhood, dry grass roof to keep the temperature down in summer. A nice experience!!
Since it was Rakesh's wedding day and it had been almost 3 days that Rakesh had not seen her "to be" wife so we decided that we will go back home via his "to be " in laws house. On the way to their house, Rakesh was so happy but when we are just around 100 meters away from the house. He was pale, frightened with his in laws or don't know what. He didn't let us get out of the car and without meeting our BHABHI JEE, we came back to hotel.
Baaraat was suppose to depart at 6 PM( I(Stretch)T- 7 PM) So we had enough time for a quick nap. By the time, I got up, Sam was ready. After making our self ready, we reached Rakesh's house. Rakesh and his parents were busy in performing last rituals of his BACHELOR life. Old people were discussing their issues in other groups. Some people were running here and there to prepare themselves for the occasion. Kids, they were very much fascinated with my camera and were busy in posing for me. Those cute faces refreshed my memories of my childhood, when we used to plead with our uncle to click our photo, with his 32 film kodak camera and most of the time, he used it's flash rather than roll, to make us happy! Thanks to my Digital camera, I was able to capture all those faces and poses in my camera and MEMORY forever!!
Finally Rakesh finished all customs and get ready with his attire. He came out and was all set to CHARGE on his in-laws house to rescue his wife, who might have feeling ALL ALONE there! All people started in cars and reunite in front of GIRL's house.
It was time for all invited people to show OFF their talent. These people are those UNKNOWN Participants who are talented but generous enough to let other people WIN in TV dance shows. It was time to show off their skill and let this world know that God created everyone with their dancing shoes and these shoes work in all stages of life. Be it an old woman of age 80 or a small kid of age 5! People showed their power during their dance step by lifting another person on their shoulders. Kids were trying to imitate elders while others were creating their own moves! Even i tried my hands... sorry legs (Actually both) in same and was all tired while entering the party hall. We got kicked by others. We pulled so many people to dance with us. All in all, enjoyed the dance session more than what we saw on those BAKWAAS channels.
Finally Baaraat entered in main Hall and everyone reached to the centre stage. Now Along with Rakesh, everyone was waiting for our (to be) Bhabhi jee. Wait was over and bhabhi jee entered in Hall. She was looking GORGEOUS; after all she was the MISS INDIA of the day. All eyes set to the couple which was standing on the centre stage for their VAR-MAALAA! Both looked (or trying to look) confused, tensed before varmaalaa but the tension fled as soon as varmaalaa was over. Both started smiling after looking at audiences as if they were saying- Thanks for being here!! :-)
Now it's time for DAAWAT( The DINNER). But before that, I clicked some pics of bhabhi jee and Rakesh. One of the Bhabhi jee's relative was telling her the all possible poses she might have seen in all photo albums and Bhabhi jee was giving them with full ISSHTYLE!! It was Rakesh, who was all shy, sitting on a corner, waiting to finish us with this photo shoot.
As soon as we finish this, I headed towards Dining room. I need not to ask anyone about the directions. It was the aromas which just hold my nose and directed me to my plate. I started with mutton, sabji, papad and chapati. Second round has homemade rasgulley, rice and veg curry. By this time, Sam was done with his dinner while my third round with rice curd, rasgulley and gulabjaamun was finished. I was done but as soon as I was getting up from my seat, Rakesh's elder brother came and asked me to join with him. I was unable to say No to him and accompanied him with ONLY sweets in my plate. People around me started looking at me as if they had never seen a sweet-aterian in their life. However finally we got up from the table and headed towards the PANDAAL to see the rest ceremony of the weddings.
It was month of February, neither cold nor hot. A perfect night to sit and see the rituals of wedding. Rituals were all similar as in our village. Role of bride's mother and father, brother, process to tie MANGAL-SUTRA, MAANG bharaayi. Everything was over by 4 AM.
Now Rakesh had officially (and willingly) lost his BACHLORS while his wife had gained her Masters HAPPILY. Now it was the time to come back to our HOME. We had a train from Katihaar to Patna at 6 AM. So we said Bye to Rakesh and his family. Rakesh arranged a car to drop us till railway station. Train was on time. With a night full of adventure and after being LIVE evidence of changing Rakesh status to SINGLE to MARRIED, we entered in our coach and fell asleep.
Next destination was Patna where we met Gyan's dad on railway station. We bought sweets from station as we have to fly from Patna to Bangalore in next 4 hours. Uncle insisted us to visit us to visit their home. Since it was our first trip to Patna, he told us about every single local point, museums and roads so that we won't face any problem. His hint was that Gyan's marriage is also approaching. Meanwhile, we reached Gyan's home where auntie jee was full ready with lunch. We finished our lunch and headed to see uncle's office as it was just 2 streets from their home. After meeting his whole office staff, we started our last phase of journey with a bag full of sweets, namkeens and SO MANY MEMORIES. While taking my seat in flight, I was just trying to run all my memories in FAST FORWARD and found the draft of this story.
Take off from this trip:
1. There is NO better place than KOLKATA, in terms of CHENNA sweets.
2. India is full of surprises. Same process... same task but different style of rituals. Be it a process of tieing saree knot or any particular wedding process.
3. If so many people know you because of your some habit, it means either you have a VERY BAD habit or you are JEEVAN NAILWAL. ;-)
4. Loved the warm hearted welcome from each and every person of Bihar. Be it my friend's family or their relatives or any local guy. Respect in the language - calling "HUM" for me and "AAP" for you. It feels AWESOME!
And last, but not the least, whenever you get an opportunity to visit eastern part of INDIA, just GRAB it. It will be a lifetime opportunity for you, as I did.
With this last advice, I am closing this blog and promise you to come back with more trip stories, more adventures and more incidents. Till then, Take care and KEEP EATING SWEETS... ;-)
Setup of PLOT:
Rakesh was getting married in his hometown and he invited US( me and many more) to attend his marriage. That wasn't the voice of Rakesh, it was the call of FATE, asking me to visit BIHAR!
START:
Me and Sam both reached office on 25th with our bags as we were the only two guys going from Bangalore to the LAND OF EDUCATION of ancient INDIA. Worked the whole day (;-) ) and started our journey. We boarded the flight to Kolkata. Plan was to reach Kolkata, stay in Gyan's brother house. We reached Kolkata pretty late. Met Gyan's brother and bhabhi jee. As soon as we hit the bed, the day was OVER!
Second Day:
It was a time to visit BENGAL! As soon we hit the road, it was all "MITHAAYI" SHOP everywhere. People, who know me because of my habit, know my week point. It's not blood which flows in my veins. It’s the SUGAR SYRUP and after watching those many sweet shops, I went INSANE and ate whatever ... wherever I got. Laddu, gulabjamun, pede, burfi, jalebi, chamcham, mishti dahi, chhena, rassssgulley......... LIST was endless and quality was awesome! I ate until my stomach cries internally - “YOU MORON... I know you don't have LIMIT but I have. “And Sam cried the same as he is a CALORIE conscious guy who was calculating my calories and cost of whatever I ate. ;-)
As soon as we reached home, FIGHT started between my belly and tongue as bhabhi jee was all ready with her machi. I had the same when she visit Bangalore last year. Although my belly was crying for some rest but it’s impossible for me to say NO to her love which she poured in that MACHI. My senses supported my tongue. After that I was so full that it was difficult for me to start the next round of city visit. Even oxygen has to fight with food in my throat to reach till my lungs.
We Watched the world cup match between Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Shahid afrildi turned the whole match in his first spell. We spent the whole evening in front of T.V with snacks and sweets (can't live without that...) and had dinner (again fish and a delicious vegetable WITH SWEETS) to finish the day!
Third Day:
Plan was to go DAKSHINESHWAR temple on bank of HUGHALI! It is one of the most famous temple of goddess KAALI in Kolkata. We hired a cab. I was amazed to find that for a journey of about 1.5 hour, meter was showing just Rs 80/- but my findings were shattered instantly when cab driver told us that they are using ERA old meter and whatever it shows, you have to pay DOUBLE of that. We finished the darshan in next 30 minutes. Sat near the bank of hughali(Local name of Ganga jee). Then we headed towards another market to try MORE versions of Bengali food. Sam knew one good restaurant. Being a new person, I let Sam order the food with a clear instruction that food should be AWESOME. He ordered pator maach, sukhto, biryaani and chapaati. Believe me, this was the first time, I was having these dishes and THEY WERE AWESOME. Even at one time, I was ready to kill Sam for masala of pator maach!
After having lunch, we went to roam south Victoria palace, city mall, visited city's metro- India's first. After saying goodbye to bhaiya and bhabhi, we started the next phase of our journey. We caught the train to Purnia. It was an overnight journey so we went to our bed as soon as we entered in coach.
D-Day!- Reason for the TRIP
Rakesh's Wedding day.
We reached Katihar railway station at around 6 AM. Rakesh had sent a car to pick us to his home, which was around 60 KMs from there. As soon as we reached there, a warm welcome by his entire family! I already know his sister. But, I was surprised when his brother in law said "This must be Jeevan". I found that everyone seems to know me. But the reason was clear. Rakesh has explained all my features, habits and my weakness to them. Even for breakfast, they gave me a full box of rasgulley!! I showed a little courtesy in beginning but failed to keep resistance from that box for long and ended with finishing half (plz read almost full) box.
After finishing our breakfast, we headed towards our hotel. We got fresh and went out to roam in the city and ended into a sweet shop. ;-)
Since Sam wants to see Rakesh's village, so we headed towards the village. It was me, Sam, Rakesh and Rakesh's brother in law. It was a good sight of big wheat and corn's fields on both side of the road. The last stretch of the road was very bad. His village was a typical old Hindi movie kind of village, unlike villages in Uttaranchal. In Uttaranchal, one village's perimeter is around 1 KM as houses are very distant from each other because of their stepwise architecture. While here I witnessed close neighborhood, dry grass roof to keep the temperature down in summer. A nice experience!!
Since it was Rakesh's wedding day and it had been almost 3 days that Rakesh had not seen her "to be" wife so we decided that we will go back home via his "to be " in laws house. On the way to their house, Rakesh was so happy but when we are just around 100 meters away from the house. He was pale, frightened with his in laws or don't know what. He didn't let us get out of the car and without meeting our BHABHI JEE, we came back to hotel.
Baaraat was suppose to depart at 6 PM( I(Stretch)T- 7 PM) So we had enough time for a quick nap. By the time, I got up, Sam was ready. After making our self ready, we reached Rakesh's house. Rakesh and his parents were busy in performing last rituals of his BACHELOR life. Old people were discussing their issues in other groups. Some people were running here and there to prepare themselves for the occasion. Kids, they were very much fascinated with my camera and were busy in posing for me. Those cute faces refreshed my memories of my childhood, when we used to plead with our uncle to click our photo, with his 32 film kodak camera and most of the time, he used it's flash rather than roll, to make us happy! Thanks to my Digital camera, I was able to capture all those faces and poses in my camera and MEMORY forever!!
Finally Rakesh finished all customs and get ready with his attire. He came out and was all set to CHARGE on his in-laws house to rescue his wife, who might have feeling ALL ALONE there! All people started in cars and reunite in front of GIRL's house.
It was time for all invited people to show OFF their talent. These people are those UNKNOWN Participants who are talented but generous enough to let other people WIN in TV dance shows. It was time to show off their skill and let this world know that God created everyone with their dancing shoes and these shoes work in all stages of life. Be it an old woman of age 80 or a small kid of age 5! People showed their power during their dance step by lifting another person on their shoulders. Kids were trying to imitate elders while others were creating their own moves! Even i tried my hands... sorry legs (Actually both) in same and was all tired while entering the party hall. We got kicked by others. We pulled so many people to dance with us. All in all, enjoyed the dance session more than what we saw on those BAKWAAS channels.
Finally Baaraat entered in main Hall and everyone reached to the centre stage. Now Along with Rakesh, everyone was waiting for our (to be) Bhabhi jee. Wait was over and bhabhi jee entered in Hall. She was looking GORGEOUS; after all she was the MISS INDIA of the day. All eyes set to the couple which was standing on the centre stage for their VAR-MAALAA! Both looked (or trying to look) confused, tensed before varmaalaa but the tension fled as soon as varmaalaa was over. Both started smiling after looking at audiences as if they were saying- Thanks for being here!! :-)
Now it's time for DAAWAT( The DINNER). But before that, I clicked some pics of bhabhi jee and Rakesh. One of the Bhabhi jee's relative was telling her the all possible poses she might have seen in all photo albums and Bhabhi jee was giving them with full ISSHTYLE!! It was Rakesh, who was all shy, sitting on a corner, waiting to finish us with this photo shoot.
As soon as we finish this, I headed towards Dining room. I need not to ask anyone about the directions. It was the aromas which just hold my nose and directed me to my plate. I started with mutton, sabji, papad and chapati. Second round has homemade rasgulley, rice and veg curry. By this time, Sam was done with his dinner while my third round with rice curd, rasgulley and gulabjaamun was finished. I was done but as soon as I was getting up from my seat, Rakesh's elder brother came and asked me to join with him. I was unable to say No to him and accompanied him with ONLY sweets in my plate. People around me started looking at me as if they had never seen a sweet-aterian in their life. However finally we got up from the table and headed towards the PANDAAL to see the rest ceremony of the weddings.
It was month of February, neither cold nor hot. A perfect night to sit and see the rituals of wedding. Rituals were all similar as in our village. Role of bride's mother and father, brother, process to tie MANGAL-SUTRA, MAANG bharaayi. Everything was over by 4 AM.
Now Rakesh had officially (and willingly) lost his BACHLORS while his wife had gained her Masters HAPPILY. Now it was the time to come back to our HOME. We had a train from Katihaar to Patna at 6 AM. So we said Bye to Rakesh and his family. Rakesh arranged a car to drop us till railway station. Train was on time. With a night full of adventure and after being LIVE evidence of changing Rakesh status to SINGLE to MARRIED, we entered in our coach and fell asleep.
Next destination was Patna where we met Gyan's dad on railway station. We bought sweets from station as we have to fly from Patna to Bangalore in next 4 hours. Uncle insisted us to visit us to visit their home. Since it was our first trip to Patna, he told us about every single local point, museums and roads so that we won't face any problem. His hint was that Gyan's marriage is also approaching. Meanwhile, we reached Gyan's home where auntie jee was full ready with lunch. We finished our lunch and headed to see uncle's office as it was just 2 streets from their home. After meeting his whole office staff, we started our last phase of journey with a bag full of sweets, namkeens and SO MANY MEMORIES. While taking my seat in flight, I was just trying to run all my memories in FAST FORWARD and found the draft of this story.
Take off from this trip:
1. There is NO better place than KOLKATA, in terms of CHENNA sweets.
2. India is full of surprises. Same process... same task but different style of rituals. Be it a process of tieing saree knot or any particular wedding process.
3. If so many people know you because of your some habit, it means either you have a VERY BAD habit or you are JEEVAN NAILWAL. ;-)
4. Loved the warm hearted welcome from each and every person of Bihar. Be it my friend's family or their relatives or any local guy. Respect in the language - calling "HUM" for me and "AAP" for you. It feels AWESOME!
And last, but not the least, whenever you get an opportunity to visit eastern part of INDIA, just GRAB it. It will be a lifetime opportunity for you, as I did.
With this last advice, I am closing this blog and promise you to come back with more trip stories, more adventures and more incidents. Till then, Take care and KEEP EATING SWEETS... ;-)
Friday, 25 March 2011
In search of Ancient INDIA
Again a pledge - to Find something NEW, in myself and in this world. While I was a kid, I always wondered and fascinated by those Red/white faces, big hats, cameras in hand. It always amused me what was that which pull so many foreigners to this country. Till this point of my LIFE and the journeys I had taken, I admit that I had been surprised by MOTHER NATURE for showing me such lovely and beautiful places in India.
But, this time I thought to give humans a chance to prove their artistic hands, minds to prove that even they are able to pull the audiences.
Trip details:
Place - Hampi, Northern Karnataka
Distance - Around 350 Kms from Bangalore
Mode of Journey - Car
Number of people - 7!
People - Alok, Baba, Gaurav, Gyanendu, Jeevan, Utkalika and Rupali
Date: 30th Nov 2010 @ 4 AM!
Day 1: STARTING DAY---
Packed and waiting for Cab at 4 AM. Yes, you read it right.. at 4 AM! As usual cab came late at 4:15 and we headed towards Ut's house to pick her up. Next destination was Koramangala, to pick Alok and her friend, Rupali. Now all the passengers were full and ready to hit the road with a pen drive of music, lots of snacks and of course, lots of BAKAR too!!
As soon the journey starts, everyone start pulling legs of each other as thats the only way to cut your time in that boring and SLOWWWW journey. Thanks to the old age driver who has taken an OATH for not to hit the speedometer bar over 70 KMPH even on a empty 4 lane highway! By the way, his habit, gives us lot of time to fight over various things.
At around 11, we reached Chitradurgaa fort. The place chitradurgaa is still standing high with his high tombs, made by ancient kings. The archeological department has taken care of the main fort but situation of outside walls and the welcome gate is pathetic! We entered in the fort with our cameras and start clicking the pics. pillars, flowers, Entrance of carious gates in fort, Big gigantic rocks, small temples..... these are just some things whose images, we stored in our cams to retain our memories of this FORT.
Dialogues of SHOLEY( A Hindi movie) and our pranks are always there to let the people of Chitradurgaa know that some MUSKETEERS were here!
We spent around 2 hours in exloring the fort and moved toward our next destination Hampi. We got information that the distance is just 150 KM so we thought that by 2 or 3PM, we will be at Hotel BUTTTTT here comes the real excitement. State highway 12 from Chitradurgaa to Hampi is one of the worst roads i have ever seen in my life. Road was such a BIG mess that once we allowed our driver to go faster . BUT, after geting 2-3 head bumps (FOR EACH ONE), we ask him to slow down. Result- We were at Hampi @ 5-6 PM, 3 hours late than our expectations!!
Since we have no time to explore Hampi on that day so we decided to see TUNGBHADRAA dam's evening show in evening. We left our hotel at 6. Sun was going down and that lovely RED light on sky was indicating that within few minutes, street light will lead us to our destination!
We visited a mini aquarium, A musical fountain and Tungbhadraa dam that night. It was a nice experience to see water in two different forms. At fountain, we saw some water streams, dancing on the beats of music and lights While at DAM, we saw the VAST amount of water to make the noise and generating electricity. IRONICAL!
The day was OVER with a late night dinner and then resting on our BED. Plan was to get up at 6 and be ready by 7 to see HAMPI.
DAY 2:
------
Got up by 7 AM while the plan to start was 6AM, thanks to individual's (I mean EVERY one's) laziness. finally we came out of our rooms, had a HEAVY breakfast as lodge owner told us that HAMPI is very dry place and we won't get much to eat on our way. After that we sat in Car and reached to Hampi in 30 minutes. Driver left us at a temple which was of 1300 AD era. We went in for darshan and came out with Tilak on everyone's forehead. After ward we had few drinks(SOFT-drinks) as it was very hot and Hampi is all rocky place which enhances the effects of solar heat. We took 2 Litre water bottle for each one and started with our HIGH ENERGY! We hired bicycle for the day and started the local sight seeing. Roads were going up and down testing our stamina and desire to roam around the city. Hampi is the place of temple and got destroyed by Adil Shah. But still One can see the master peice of old times in the ruines of the temples.
There were temples of almost every single God which includes, Vishnu, Lakshmi, Pandavas, Kuber and many others. Main highlight of all temples was the carvings on the stone over such a long areas. It might have taken years to build each temple. Each single temple has a story related to it. We went in so many temples and found a different style in every temple. Out of dis-figuring of these temple, one can still see the amount of labour and art of the artists of that era. It was enormously brilliant work - A MASTER PEICE!!
Riding to these places on our cycles was a fun. We keep shouting on the Ones who was going ahead to pull them with us while we are shouting to cheer/motivate to the guys who were behind to stay as group. We were making funs on ones who were loaded with extra KGS under their bellies. It was a trip in which everyone has a reason for smile. As people with extra fat are down because of their extra MASS while lean body people have to carry extra baggages on their cycle to make the balance! With people finishing their quota of water and eying on other's bottles. Sometimes they requested, sometime snatched to get away with their thirst. but the conversation in between was a great fun. Finally we came back, handed those bicycles to the owner had some COLD-drinks and sat in AC of car to take the LEISURE of advance technology.
Our next destination was a RAM MANDIR. It was on the hill top. With the help of Car's engine and under AC's cold air, it took few minutes and no efforts for us to reach there. There was a marriage happening in this temple. Elders were busy in their rituals while kids were running here and there, as usual. While other choose to rest in temple campus. We, Gyan and me, roam around to check the surrounding. We went to the backside of the temple and got flattened by the aerial view of HAMPI. this temple was at a height and from there we can see the other end of HAMPI. After reaching this place, that how much we traveled by cycle and why we are feeling that much exhausted!! After this view, we realized that how big this archaeological place was. As per our observation, it was more than 20 SQUARE KM out of which we covered around 20-25 KMs on cycle in those 4-4.5 hours(under scorching SUN). I called others to saw that view but none was ready to see that. They were happy in watching rituals of marriage and were busy in playing with local kids. We spent around one hour there and then moved back to our hotel.
By the time we came back to our hotel, we were all tired. We took some rest and then went out for dinner. We planned that we will start at 8 next day and will go from Bellary route to avoid the patchy state highway of Chitradurga. With this decision, everyone came back to their sleep and had SOUND SLEEP after the day's hard works!! ;)
It was a loooooooong journey than our expectation as this Bellary route was 100KMS addition + the speed with which our driver was driving was making us feel like we are travelling in a bullock cart!! We reached Bellary post afternoon and were pretty relaxed as we know that by this speed we won't reach bangalore prior to 7-8PM. we checked GOOGLE to see if we can visit any other place in our way. Luckily, Baba explaimed the name - Halebidu! It was a place in our way and is known for another archeological aspects, known for it's old Heritage temples. we made a small stop at Halibedu. While Baba finished his prayers in the local temple we click some photos of the place to keep the memories of those sculptures in our memory forever.
After that, we were headed to our HOME, Bangalore and everyone had a small nap meanwhile. we reached Bangalore by 8-8:30 PM and after dropping everyone, we were in our beds by 9:30. It was a LOOOONG journey with a slow but attentive driver, Full of MASTI and smiles in our group, A great display of ancient rock art and many more things. Carving on those stones or temples proves the fact that with his ART and INTELLIGENCE, human race can turn a STONE into a GOD!
But, this time I thought to give humans a chance to prove their artistic hands, minds to prove that even they are able to pull the audiences.
Trip details:
Place - Hampi, Northern Karnataka
Distance - Around 350 Kms from Bangalore
Mode of Journey - Car
Number of people - 7!
People - Alok, Baba, Gaurav, Gyanendu, Jeevan, Utkalika and Rupali
Date: 30th Nov 2010 @ 4 AM!
Day 1: STARTING DAY---
Packed and waiting for Cab at 4 AM. Yes, you read it right.. at 4 AM! As usual cab came late at 4:15 and we headed towards Ut's house to pick her up. Next destination was Koramangala, to pick Alok and her friend, Rupali. Now all the passengers were full and ready to hit the road with a pen drive of music, lots of snacks and of course, lots of BAKAR too!!
As soon the journey starts, everyone start pulling legs of each other as thats the only way to cut your time in that boring and SLOWWWW journey. Thanks to the old age driver who has taken an OATH for not to hit the speedometer bar over 70 KMPH even on a empty 4 lane highway! By the way, his habit, gives us lot of time to fight over various things.
At around 11, we reached Chitradurgaa fort. The place chitradurgaa is still standing high with his high tombs, made by ancient kings. The archeological department has taken care of the main fort but situation of outside walls and the welcome gate is pathetic! We entered in the fort with our cameras and start clicking the pics. pillars, flowers, Entrance of carious gates in fort, Big gigantic rocks, small temples..... these are just some things whose images, we stored in our cams to retain our memories of this FORT.
Dialogues of SHOLEY( A Hindi movie) and our pranks are always there to let the people of Chitradurgaa know that some MUSKETEERS were here!
We spent around 2 hours in exloring the fort and moved toward our next destination Hampi. We got information that the distance is just 150 KM so we thought that by 2 or 3PM, we will be at Hotel BUTTTTT here comes the real excitement. State highway 12 from Chitradurgaa to Hampi is one of the worst roads i have ever seen in my life. Road was such a BIG mess that once we allowed our driver to go faster . BUT, after geting 2-3 head bumps (FOR EACH ONE), we ask him to slow down. Result- We were at Hampi @ 5-6 PM, 3 hours late than our expectations!!
Since we have no time to explore Hampi on that day so we decided to see TUNGBHADRAA dam's evening show in evening. We left our hotel at 6. Sun was going down and that lovely RED light on sky was indicating that within few minutes, street light will lead us to our destination!
We visited a mini aquarium, A musical fountain and Tungbhadraa dam that night. It was a nice experience to see water in two different forms. At fountain, we saw some water streams, dancing on the beats of music and lights While at DAM, we saw the VAST amount of water to make the noise and generating electricity. IRONICAL!
The day was OVER with a late night dinner and then resting on our BED. Plan was to get up at 6 and be ready by 7 to see HAMPI.
DAY 2:
------
Got up by 7 AM while the plan to start was 6AM, thanks to individual's (I mean EVERY one's) laziness. finally we came out of our rooms, had a HEAVY breakfast as lodge owner told us that HAMPI is very dry place and we won't get much to eat on our way. After that we sat in Car and reached to Hampi in 30 minutes. Driver left us at a temple which was of 1300 AD era. We went in for darshan and came out with Tilak on everyone's forehead. After ward we had few drinks(SOFT-drinks) as it was very hot and Hampi is all rocky place which enhances the effects of solar heat. We took 2 Litre water bottle for each one and started with our HIGH ENERGY! We hired bicycle for the day and started the local sight seeing. Roads were going up and down testing our stamina and desire to roam around the city. Hampi is the place of temple and got destroyed by Adil Shah. But still One can see the master peice of old times in the ruines of the temples.
There were temples of almost every single God which includes, Vishnu, Lakshmi, Pandavas, Kuber and many others. Main highlight of all temples was the carvings on the stone over such a long areas. It might have taken years to build each temple. Each single temple has a story related to it. We went in so many temples and found a different style in every temple. Out of dis-figuring of these temple, one can still see the amount of labour and art of the artists of that era. It was enormously brilliant work - A MASTER PEICE!!
Riding to these places on our cycles was a fun. We keep shouting on the Ones who was going ahead to pull them with us while we are shouting to cheer/motivate to the guys who were behind to stay as group. We were making funs on ones who were loaded with extra KGS under their bellies. It was a trip in which everyone has a reason for smile. As people with extra fat are down because of their extra MASS while lean body people have to carry extra baggages on their cycle to make the balance! With people finishing their quota of water and eying on other's bottles. Sometimes they requested, sometime snatched to get away with their thirst. but the conversation in between was a great fun. Finally we came back, handed those bicycles to the owner had some COLD-drinks and sat in AC of car to take the LEISURE of advance technology.
Our next destination was a RAM MANDIR. It was on the hill top. With the help of Car's engine and under AC's cold air, it took few minutes and no efforts for us to reach there. There was a marriage happening in this temple. Elders were busy in their rituals while kids were running here and there, as usual. While other choose to rest in temple campus. We, Gyan and me, roam around to check the surrounding. We went to the backside of the temple and got flattened by the aerial view of HAMPI. this temple was at a height and from there we can see the other end of HAMPI. After reaching this place, that how much we traveled by cycle and why we are feeling that much exhausted!! After this view, we realized that how big this archaeological place was. As per our observation, it was more than 20 SQUARE KM out of which we covered around 20-25 KMs on cycle in those 4-4.5 hours(under scorching SUN). I called others to saw that view but none was ready to see that. They were happy in watching rituals of marriage and were busy in playing with local kids. We spent around one hour there and then moved back to our hotel.
By the time we came back to our hotel, we were all tired. We took some rest and then went out for dinner. We planned that we will start at 8 next day and will go from Bellary route to avoid the patchy state highway of Chitradurga. With this decision, everyone came back to their sleep and had SOUND SLEEP after the day's hard works!! ;)
It was a loooooooong journey than our expectation as this Bellary route was 100KMS addition + the speed with which our driver was driving was making us feel like we are travelling in a bullock cart!! We reached Bellary post afternoon and were pretty relaxed as we know that by this speed we won't reach bangalore prior to 7-8PM. we checked GOOGLE to see if we can visit any other place in our way. Luckily, Baba explaimed the name - Halebidu! It was a place in our way and is known for another archeological aspects, known for it's old Heritage temples. we made a small stop at Halibedu. While Baba finished his prayers in the local temple we click some photos of the place to keep the memories of those sculptures in our memory forever.
After that, we were headed to our HOME, Bangalore and everyone had a small nap meanwhile. we reached Bangalore by 8-8:30 PM and after dropping everyone, we were in our beds by 9:30. It was a LOOOONG journey with a slow but attentive driver, Full of MASTI and smiles in our group, A great display of ancient rock art and many more things. Carving on those stones or temples proves the fact that with his ART and INTELLIGENCE, human race can turn a STONE into a GOD!
Monday, 3 January 2011
Delhi's Darshan with Sachu!
Introduction: Sach is in Delhi for her North India Darshan. Agra and Brindavan are done in the night of a shady day . And finally with lots of hiccups( internal and external BOTH), we reached Delhi on 13th at 3AM!
Story:
Day 1:
The first thing which I did after reaching at my home at 3Am in morning was to make TEA for Sach and my mom! Next morning, my father woke us while he was leaving for office. That means clock has reached to 9AM mark. Got up and got refreshed, but it was my story. Sach was still watching her unfinished dreams with her open eyes. She browsed and checked her mails and went back to BED. The whole day went like that. I was trying to pull her blanket to get her out of the bed while she was trying to WIN this “TUG OF WAR” by pulling the same on her side. The whole day was over with this non verbal fight!
Day 2:
“THE” Second day started with a right note that Sach was up on her feet( with shoes) by 8 AM and we started for our first destination- INDIA GATE. As soon as we reached India gate, saw an Art Gallery where some models of Architect Anish kapoor were getting displayed. We visited the gallery for around 1 hour and watched his unique amazing masterpieces. After that we went to India gate - A monument which was built by British empire to mark a tribute to the soldiers killed in first world war. After saving the memories of our presence at India gate in our cameras, we went to Amar Jawaan Jyoti, which was created after independence. This eternal flame was lighted in commemoration of the unknown soldiers who laid their lives to serve this nation.
Next destination was Jantar Mantar. Another monument of 17th Centuary which was made by a Rajput king for astronomical observation. In earlier era, it was used to tell the exact location of various stars, planets and other heavenly bodies.
After finishing a glimpse of ancient India, we headed towards the market of modern india. Now, It was turn of JANPATH market near CP. We ate (YUMMY)Choley bhature at a stall at Ashok Road, roamed here and there. Sach tried her hand in her favourite PASSTIME – SHOPPING. After that, we had a quick view of inner CP.
Next destination was GURUDWARA BANGLA SAHIB, A sikh shrine made by a Hindu King to mark his homage towards Guru Harkishan Ji Maharaj. I always loved the gurbani and short stories, recited in gurudwara to tell the meaning and goals of the life of saints. I enjoyed every single second while I was there. Be it the time of listening Gurbaani, eating halwaa or clicking snaps of Sach to restore her memories.
Our next destination was Birla Temple but we made some last moment changes in plan to go to Lal quila and Chandni Chowk(CC) to have our Lunch. First we went to see Jama Masjid, One of the oldest mosque in Delhi. It was made by shahjahan in 17th Centuary.Then we went to see Lal Quila, the red building which stand tall behind our PM, on every 15th August. BUTTTTTTT if someone takes my soul out of my body and ask the best place in world. My answer (from brain and belly too) will be, there can’t be a better place than CC in Delhi. As my Dad Said, “Dareebaa ki JALEBI, Parathey wali gali ke PARATHEY, Sheeshganj ki LASSI aur CC ka HALWA” jisne nahi khaaya usne kyaa KHAAYA?? “ As soon as we entered CC streets, I memorized my college days. Those smells….. ignite my engine of HUNGER. As soon as we entered Agarwal Ji’s shop, we ordered 4 parathey and 2 plates of Rabri( First name of Lalu’s wife ;-) )!!! The aroma of food filed me by 5 % and I kept waiting for food to kill rest 195%. Sach was fully excited to taste the food. Even the process of making the parathas developed the curiosity in her. As soon as, she watched the paratha and oil in that, she was half full. I ate 3.25 paratha out of 4 that we ordered and 2 FULL plate of RABRI and was completely out of the world while paying the bill. I want to have a Patiyala of Lassi but left the will as Sach says that SHE will die even if she gulp a single drop of water. My problem is…. I can’t drink my “PEG” alone. ;-)
Next destination was Akshardhaam Temple. One of the beautiful and awesome master piece of recent times. There are only two types of such temples. One is in Gujarat and another one is in Delhi. Third one was proposed in New Jersey, America. The most amazing thing about the temple was that it has been created by 7000 people in just 5 years of time in an area of around 1 KM. The art was amazing whether it’s in the Elephant carving outside the main temple or on the wall or ceiling of temple. We saw a musical fountain there. Fountain started with Aarti and followed by the music representing the Trinity of Indian god- Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh. Music and the water show was ULTIMATE.
Finally, It was time to wind up the day’s activity and go back to home. But before that, it was time to see the latest HIGHLIGHT of Delhi-The Metro. We boarded metro from Akshardhaam temple till Nirman Vihar and reached home by 9:30 PM. I had a nice session of my scolding from my dad which Sach enjoyed. Even she adds inputs from her side to get maximum for me. She had a similar fit of laugh outside Akshardhaam temple when she started screaming by herself and 2 times, I was about to get arrested. For the information of general public who are reading this blog, Delhi police is one of the most FIERCEST police of the world which give a very (I mean VERRRRY) special treatment to eve-teasers!( I had seen a few examples when i was in DU.)
With these memories, loads of pics (all of Sach, not of mine) and a tired body, we went to sleep. It was time to gain our energy packs to start the new fight on the next day.
Day 3:
Plan was simple as we had just 2 things in our list, Qutub Minar and Lotus temple! I don’t want to drag Sach to many locations as on the next day; she has to travel back to her home town.
We started from home at around 10 and reached Mehrauli in an hour by Metro. After walking few steps from the metro station, we reached Qutab Minar- the highest monument of Mughal Era by noon. Created by Qut-ub-din-Aibak and later expanded by another emperor Khilji. The monument was closed from inside for public from last 2 decades. This place was filed up by ancient madarsaa(schools) and maqbaras(graves) of all those kings!
From there, we catch the bus to reach Nehru place- The hardware hub of computer market. Sach did some personal shopping from there. From there, we went to Lotus Temple- the Bahamese place for worship. One of the best creation by Bahamese society to mark their tribute the Saint (forgot his name) who gave the lesson of ONE god. There was a long queue there but once we reach inside. It was pin drop silence initially. Later they started prayers in different language. Echo of the voice of prayers in that hall was like the whole world is praying for PEACE!
Finally, we boarded the METRO to come back to our destination. Sach has to travel to her hometown next morning so she ate early and went to bed. On next day, at around 9 AM, she was out of Delhi, flying to her hometown!
With this, VOYAGE of Sach to see Delhi was over. It was a memorable one for me too. Like my second visit to Qutab Minar and Lotus temple after 15 years. Apart from refreshing my memories, I got some new memories too. Be it my close encounter with Delhi cops(twice) or my tension when Sach was lost at metro station! I will always memorize Sach’s face on her first counter with my area’s cows. and the way, she recited those voices which I told her to shoooo away the cows! Although, same cows seems to be hypnotized by Sach when they gave her way while moving out of house on next day.
With these details, I will sign out from this blog and would like to pass my thanks to all my friends who made their trips and included me in same either for FUN or for using my NAVIGATION skills. This way, they had helped me to press “F5” on my older memories and “CTRL+F” on new experiences too!
See you all again with a new blog with another trip with old/new friends and new experiences!!
Story:
Day 1:
The first thing which I did after reaching at my home at 3Am in morning was to make TEA for Sach and my mom! Next morning, my father woke us while he was leaving for office. That means clock has reached to 9AM mark. Got up and got refreshed, but it was my story. Sach was still watching her unfinished dreams with her open eyes. She browsed and checked her mails and went back to BED. The whole day went like that. I was trying to pull her blanket to get her out of the bed while she was trying to WIN this “TUG OF WAR” by pulling the same on her side. The whole day was over with this non verbal fight!
Day 2:
“THE” Second day started with a right note that Sach was up on her feet( with shoes) by 8 AM and we started for our first destination- INDIA GATE. As soon as we reached India gate, saw an Art Gallery where some models of Architect Anish kapoor were getting displayed. We visited the gallery for around 1 hour and watched his unique amazing masterpieces. After that we went to India gate - A monument which was built by British empire to mark a tribute to the soldiers killed in first world war. After saving the memories of our presence at India gate in our cameras, we went to Amar Jawaan Jyoti, which was created after independence. This eternal flame was lighted in commemoration of the unknown soldiers who laid their lives to serve this nation.
Next destination was Jantar Mantar. Another monument of 17th Centuary which was made by a Rajput king for astronomical observation. In earlier era, it was used to tell the exact location of various stars, planets and other heavenly bodies.
After finishing a glimpse of ancient India, we headed towards the market of modern india. Now, It was turn of JANPATH market near CP. We ate (YUMMY)Choley bhature at a stall at Ashok Road, roamed here and there. Sach tried her hand in her favourite PASSTIME – SHOPPING. After that, we had a quick view of inner CP.
Next destination was GURUDWARA BANGLA SAHIB, A sikh shrine made by a Hindu King to mark his homage towards Guru Harkishan Ji Maharaj. I always loved the gurbani and short stories, recited in gurudwara to tell the meaning and goals of the life of saints. I enjoyed every single second while I was there. Be it the time of listening Gurbaani, eating halwaa or clicking snaps of Sach to restore her memories.
Our next destination was Birla Temple but we made some last moment changes in plan to go to Lal quila and Chandni Chowk(CC) to have our Lunch. First we went to see Jama Masjid, One of the oldest mosque in Delhi. It was made by shahjahan in 17th Centuary.Then we went to see Lal Quila, the red building which stand tall behind our PM, on every 15th August. BUTTTTTTT if someone takes my soul out of my body and ask the best place in world. My answer (from brain and belly too) will be, there can’t be a better place than CC in Delhi. As my Dad Said, “Dareebaa ki JALEBI, Parathey wali gali ke PARATHEY, Sheeshganj ki LASSI aur CC ka HALWA” jisne nahi khaaya usne kyaa KHAAYA?? “ As soon as we entered CC streets, I memorized my college days. Those smells….. ignite my engine of HUNGER. As soon as we entered Agarwal Ji’s shop, we ordered 4 parathey and 2 plates of Rabri( First name of Lalu’s wife ;-) )!!! The aroma of food filed me by 5 % and I kept waiting for food to kill rest 195%. Sach was fully excited to taste the food. Even the process of making the parathas developed the curiosity in her. As soon as, she watched the paratha and oil in that, she was half full. I ate 3.25 paratha out of 4 that we ordered and 2 FULL plate of RABRI and was completely out of the world while paying the bill. I want to have a Patiyala of Lassi but left the will as Sach says that SHE will die even if she gulp a single drop of water. My problem is…. I can’t drink my “PEG” alone. ;-)
Next destination was Akshardhaam Temple. One of the beautiful and awesome master piece of recent times. There are only two types of such temples. One is in Gujarat and another one is in Delhi. Third one was proposed in New Jersey, America. The most amazing thing about the temple was that it has been created by 7000 people in just 5 years of time in an area of around 1 KM. The art was amazing whether it’s in the Elephant carving outside the main temple or on the wall or ceiling of temple. We saw a musical fountain there. Fountain started with Aarti and followed by the music representing the Trinity of Indian god- Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh. Music and the water show was ULTIMATE.
Finally, It was time to wind up the day’s activity and go back to home. But before that, it was time to see the latest HIGHLIGHT of Delhi-The Metro. We boarded metro from Akshardhaam temple till Nirman Vihar and reached home by 9:30 PM. I had a nice session of my scolding from my dad which Sach enjoyed. Even she adds inputs from her side to get maximum for me. She had a similar fit of laugh outside Akshardhaam temple when she started screaming by herself and 2 times, I was about to get arrested. For the information of general public who are reading this blog, Delhi police is one of the most FIERCEST police of the world which give a very (I mean VERRRRY) special treatment to eve-teasers!( I had seen a few examples when i was in DU.)
With these memories, loads of pics (all of Sach, not of mine) and a tired body, we went to sleep. It was time to gain our energy packs to start the new fight on the next day.
Day 3:
Plan was simple as we had just 2 things in our list, Qutub Minar and Lotus temple! I don’t want to drag Sach to many locations as on the next day; she has to travel back to her home town.
We started from home at around 10 and reached Mehrauli in an hour by Metro. After walking few steps from the metro station, we reached Qutab Minar- the highest monument of Mughal Era by noon. Created by Qut-ub-din-Aibak and later expanded by another emperor Khilji. The monument was closed from inside for public from last 2 decades. This place was filed up by ancient madarsaa(schools) and maqbaras(graves) of all those kings!
From there, we catch the bus to reach Nehru place- The hardware hub of computer market. Sach did some personal shopping from there. From there, we went to Lotus Temple- the Bahamese place for worship. One of the best creation by Bahamese society to mark their tribute the Saint (forgot his name) who gave the lesson of ONE god. There was a long queue there but once we reach inside. It was pin drop silence initially. Later they started prayers in different language. Echo of the voice of prayers in that hall was like the whole world is praying for PEACE!
Finally, we boarded the METRO to come back to our destination. Sach has to travel to her hometown next morning so she ate early and went to bed. On next day, at around 9 AM, she was out of Delhi, flying to her hometown!
With this, VOYAGE of Sach to see Delhi was over. It was a memorable one for me too. Like my second visit to Qutab Minar and Lotus temple after 15 years. Apart from refreshing my memories, I got some new memories too. Be it my close encounter with Delhi cops(twice) or my tension when Sach was lost at metro station! I will always memorize Sach’s face on her first counter with my area’s cows. and the way, she recited those voices which I told her to shoooo away the cows! Although, same cows seems to be hypnotized by Sach when they gave her way while moving out of house on next day.
With these details, I will sign out from this blog and would like to pass my thanks to all my friends who made their trips and included me in same either for FUN or for using my NAVIGATION skills. This way, they had helped me to press “F5” on my older memories and “CTRL+F” on new experiences too!
See you all again with a new blog with another trip with old/new friends and new experiences!!
Thursday, 30 December 2010
THE UUUUUuuuu turn from Orisa to Delhi (Via Agra!)
Introduction:
For those who didn’t read my blog for Delhi to Orisa:
I travelled from Delhi to Orisa to attend wedding of one of my friend on the cost of railway tickets and my lovely trouser. AND now it was time to move back….
PLAN:
From Jharsuguda to Delhi via Agra with Sachu
Start from Jharsuguda to Agra on 11th.... visit agra on 12th.... and finaly back to Delhi by 12th night...
Introduction of my new partner and conditions:
Sachu, one of my mate who had never crossed the territory of Bangalore( southern karnataka), is out there to explore the eastern and northern India. She wants to visit TAJ and the capital of India. She( or say WE) made this plan when she was in Italy. Main roadblock was that the plan was made in such a hurry that we didn’t get a booking in 3AC but managed to get a sleeper class ticket for 24 hour journey from JSG to AGRA. My plan of getting TATKAL ticket was also failed as I was mourning for my trouser in train at tatanagar while tatkal window was getting opened.
My old partner, MY FATE doesn’t seem good in this part of my journey as his first blow on me was evident that I wasn’t able to book my tatkal tickets. And to know, what all he did to me in journey, please read ON!
Our Journey starts from JSG railway station at 11:40 in Utkal express’s sleeper coach. A first, I was rounded by eunuch gang and thereafter ran almost 1 KM in search of water bottle. Anyhow, train started at 12, 20 minutes late! We were accompanied with family of Mr. Bhawani Singh from Riagarh station. I love traveling in sleeper coach as there you can open your window and see the running landscapes. You get the chance to meet so many variety of people in a small time span. Meanwhile, we chatted, played cards and ate to share the daylight as we know once SUN will be out of sight, we are not able to do anything. Reason: Sach was full ready with her skin thin jacket to fight with the night while I had only 1 shawl,only 1 sweater and just only 1 Jacket!
As the day turn into evening, Sach started growing FATTER as she started piling clothes(mine ONLY things too) over her body. By 9 PM, we slept in our berths. At around 11 PM, I got up. The wind didn’t allow me to sleep. I got up and started roaming here and there in the train. I had a very old habit that if someone annoy me, then I give him/her/IT their best chance to annoy me. So I went to the gate, opened it and sat there. Now it was just me, high speed wind and passing lights on other end.
After a while, I thought that now I should try to sleep. When I reached to my berth, a boy of age around 10-12, wearing a full shirt, a sleeveless sweater, SHORTS and chappal was there, on my seat. When I asked him to leave, he says that his station will come in 2 hours. He didn’t have any place to sit so I allowed him to sit there. He was going to his hometown after 2 years. We started chatting. He was like me. He likes to talk. We chatted on almost every topic which he wants to discuss. I AM NOT going to SHARE those things as the conversation between me and BHOLA made me realize that how lucky I am when I say that I have my caring parents, loving siblings, set of friends and education. We stand near gate as he loves to see to see the passing lights. I gave him my jacket to do the SAME! He departed from me at around 4. After a short while, my fellow passengers started waking up as it was their normal routine time to wake UP. I saw the changing colour of sky from black- dark blue- orange-pale red-yellow-light blue and finally blue and white.
At around 7-7:30, We met another co-passenger, Mr. Tomar. He was a jovial fellow boarded from Sagar to Gwalior. He was on a secret mission to meet his son in his in-laws house. It was a secret from his family as he has told them that he is going for a company work. He was also an interesting character. By profession, he was a collection officer and had banged a person with a chair just 2 day back! By my name, he memorizes character JEEVAN of movie “ Mainey Pyaar kiya” and gave me a dialogue too! We discussed ORIGIN of a rare species named Sachu, politics, India and lot many things in following 2 hours.
Once he gets down at Gwalior, we had 2 hour to kill before reaching Agra. We started playing Cards. This time, I want to kill time in funnier way. We played game “28” and every time I called for trump with highest bid. Out of 10 or 15 games, I won just 1 and by the time, train reached Agra, my Score was -28! PHEW!!
We got down at Agra and got refreshed in waiting room. We hired a cab to roam the city. After the initial hiccups, we reached at the entrance and fooled by a guide who took Rs. 200/- from us to get us inside the Taj. He told us that he has to bribed the guards for that but actually he has planted one of his mate in queue and just replaced that fellow with us. But once I had a look of the monument, I forgot the complete pain of my journey and started capturing the Taj in my camera. Sachu asked me to take her snaps and I clicked so many snaps of her that after some time, I started looking her in my FRAME, even though she wasn’t there! hallucination!!
Now it’s our time to get back to Delhi. I had booked our return trip in a bus which was scheduled to start from Agra at 6:30PM and should drop us in Delhi at around 11:30 PM. In between, it has 2 stops at Mathura and Brindavan. Just 5 hours drive ONLY!!
We have an old idiom that JOURNEY IS NOT OVER UNTIL YOU STEP INSIDE YOUR HOME! The worse of the trip was yet to start and it was planned by him(GOD) to be happened in this part of journey. This was started when we found that we have got the last seat of the bus. I looked at Sachu’s face and grin on that made me sad and nervous too. I sat quietly next to her. I made my best efforts to make that ride a proper but GOD, Driver and wind from the window just blow away all my efforts! Even at one moment, I was about to get a ZABARDAST blow from Sachu but same GOD saved me. But he returned me that blow with interest when Bus hit a hump and almost every passanger on last seat got his head banged with roof of the bus and I got a BLACK OUT for a minute! With delays at various places, fight with driver and passenger, we reached Delhi at 3 AM.
Finally, my U was completed with lots of glitches, funny, exciting and …XXYYZZZZ…. Moments. Dots are my feelings which I can’t express in words like crying on my trouser from inside and laughing on same with the watchmen on platforms, moment of standing on train’s door in half t-shirt and listening to Bhola’s story, trying to block air in the Bus with the visiting card of same Guide who fooled us in Agra and High prospectus of getting a SOLID punch from Sachu in BUS and ofcourse a physical BIG hump on my head …PHEW…..! While people like Aastha, Bhola, Mr. Tomar made my journey a memorable one.
Moral(2) of the STORY: It’s good to do planning for your trip as James Bond do. But God is always there to prove you that Mr. bond is a FICTIONAL character and there is no thing called “PERFECT PLANNING”!And always EXPECT UNEXPECTED as this is the way of life to TEACH us. We the dumb headed humans who loves to learn with their mistakes are being taught by the nature( someone says GOD) that Be happy what you have as somewhere someone is crying for those valuables things which you are wasting just for your FUN!
For those who didn’t read my blog for Delhi to Orisa:
I travelled from Delhi to Orisa to attend wedding of one of my friend on the cost of railway tickets and my lovely trouser. AND now it was time to move back….
PLAN:
From Jharsuguda to Delhi via Agra with Sachu
Start from Jharsuguda to Agra on 11th.... visit agra on 12th.... and finaly back to Delhi by 12th night...
Introduction of my new partner and conditions:
Sachu, one of my mate who had never crossed the territory of Bangalore( southern karnataka), is out there to explore the eastern and northern India. She wants to visit TAJ and the capital of India. She( or say WE) made this plan when she was in Italy. Main roadblock was that the plan was made in such a hurry that we didn’t get a booking in 3AC but managed to get a sleeper class ticket for 24 hour journey from JSG to AGRA. My plan of getting TATKAL ticket was also failed as I was mourning for my trouser in train at tatanagar while tatkal window was getting opened.
My old partner, MY FATE doesn’t seem good in this part of my journey as his first blow on me was evident that I wasn’t able to book my tatkal tickets. And to know, what all he did to me in journey, please read ON!
Our Journey starts from JSG railway station at 11:40 in Utkal express’s sleeper coach. A first, I was rounded by eunuch gang and thereafter ran almost 1 KM in search of water bottle. Anyhow, train started at 12, 20 minutes late! We were accompanied with family of Mr. Bhawani Singh from Riagarh station. I love traveling in sleeper coach as there you can open your window and see the running landscapes. You get the chance to meet so many variety of people in a small time span. Meanwhile, we chatted, played cards and ate to share the daylight as we know once SUN will be out of sight, we are not able to do anything. Reason: Sach was full ready with her skin thin jacket to fight with the night while I had only 1 shawl,only 1 sweater and just only 1 Jacket!
As the day turn into evening, Sach started growing FATTER as she started piling clothes(mine ONLY things too) over her body. By 9 PM, we slept in our berths. At around 11 PM, I got up. The wind didn’t allow me to sleep. I got up and started roaming here and there in the train. I had a very old habit that if someone annoy me, then I give him/her/IT their best chance to annoy me. So I went to the gate, opened it and sat there. Now it was just me, high speed wind and passing lights on other end.
After a while, I thought that now I should try to sleep. When I reached to my berth, a boy of age around 10-12, wearing a full shirt, a sleeveless sweater, SHORTS and chappal was there, on my seat. When I asked him to leave, he says that his station will come in 2 hours. He didn’t have any place to sit so I allowed him to sit there. He was going to his hometown after 2 years. We started chatting. He was like me. He likes to talk. We chatted on almost every topic which he wants to discuss. I AM NOT going to SHARE those things as the conversation between me and BHOLA made me realize that how lucky I am when I say that I have my caring parents, loving siblings, set of friends and education. We stand near gate as he loves to see to see the passing lights. I gave him my jacket to do the SAME! He departed from me at around 4. After a short while, my fellow passengers started waking up as it was their normal routine time to wake UP. I saw the changing colour of sky from black- dark blue- orange-pale red-yellow-light blue and finally blue and white.
At around 7-7:30, We met another co-passenger, Mr. Tomar. He was a jovial fellow boarded from Sagar to Gwalior. He was on a secret mission to meet his son in his in-laws house. It was a secret from his family as he has told them that he is going for a company work. He was also an interesting character. By profession, he was a collection officer and had banged a person with a chair just 2 day back! By my name, he memorizes character JEEVAN of movie “ Mainey Pyaar kiya” and gave me a dialogue too! We discussed ORIGIN of a rare species named Sachu, politics, India and lot many things in following 2 hours.
Once he gets down at Gwalior, we had 2 hour to kill before reaching Agra. We started playing Cards. This time, I want to kill time in funnier way. We played game “28” and every time I called for trump with highest bid. Out of 10 or 15 games, I won just 1 and by the time, train reached Agra, my Score was -28! PHEW!!
We got down at Agra and got refreshed in waiting room. We hired a cab to roam the city. After the initial hiccups, we reached at the entrance and fooled by a guide who took Rs. 200/- from us to get us inside the Taj. He told us that he has to bribed the guards for that but actually he has planted one of his mate in queue and just replaced that fellow with us. But once I had a look of the monument, I forgot the complete pain of my journey and started capturing the Taj in my camera. Sachu asked me to take her snaps and I clicked so many snaps of her that after some time, I started looking her in my FRAME, even though she wasn’t there! hallucination!!
Now it’s our time to get back to Delhi. I had booked our return trip in a bus which was scheduled to start from Agra at 6:30PM and should drop us in Delhi at around 11:30 PM. In between, it has 2 stops at Mathura and Brindavan. Just 5 hours drive ONLY!!
We have an old idiom that JOURNEY IS NOT OVER UNTIL YOU STEP INSIDE YOUR HOME! The worse of the trip was yet to start and it was planned by him(GOD) to be happened in this part of journey. This was started when we found that we have got the last seat of the bus. I looked at Sachu’s face and grin on that made me sad and nervous too. I sat quietly next to her. I made my best efforts to make that ride a proper but GOD, Driver and wind from the window just blow away all my efforts! Even at one moment, I was about to get a ZABARDAST blow from Sachu but same GOD saved me. But he returned me that blow with interest when Bus hit a hump and almost every passanger on last seat got his head banged with roof of the bus and I got a BLACK OUT for a minute! With delays at various places, fight with driver and passenger, we reached Delhi at 3 AM.
Finally, my U was completed with lots of glitches, funny, exciting and …XXYYZZZZ…. Moments. Dots are my feelings which I can’t express in words like crying on my trouser from inside and laughing on same with the watchmen on platforms, moment of standing on train’s door in half t-shirt and listening to Bhola’s story, trying to block air in the Bus with the visiting card of same Guide who fooled us in Agra and High prospectus of getting a SOLID punch from Sachu in BUS and ofcourse a physical BIG hump on my head …PHEW…..! While people like Aastha, Bhola, Mr. Tomar made my journey a memorable one.
Moral(2) of the STORY: It’s good to do planning for your trip as James Bond do. But God is always there to prove you that Mr. bond is a FICTIONAL character and there is no thing called “PERFECT PLANNING”!And always EXPECT UNEXPECTED as this is the way of life to TEACH us. We the dumb headed humans who loves to learn with their mistakes are being taught by the nature( someone says GOD) that Be happy what you have as somewhere someone is crying for those valuables things which you are wasting just for your FUN!
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