The trip to Vaishnodevi - part-1

Its been a long time since I had gone out on tour like this…….

Aah what a trip it was…..i had never gone on a trip so very unplanned…… never had the guts to do so…..whenever I went on a tour it was chalked out to last detail. But this time it was all different. I was never sure whether I would go even half an hour before I started on the tour. Suddenly a presentation came up on the days on which we were supposed to be on tour and I was ready to drop out. But surprisingly my prof agreed to postpone the presentation for us. God factor at work.

So we were off……ahoy….we set sail…( not literally)…..but we hit the first road block. The buses were full. It was peak time. 3 days holidays , exams time had just finished and auspicious days of pournami etc had all conspired to come together and we had scores of people traveling to vaishno devi. Just when things looked bleak, we got a bus , a pretty rickety one with just the number of seats needed for us. So we were over another hurdle.

The journey was a literal pain. The bus was so very old and badly maintained that I could not get any sleep. Even as people around me were snoring away to glory, I was just sitting there lying awake exploring the possibilities of escape, just in case if the parts of the bus decided to get disentangled. But as I realized me lying awake was a boon in disguise. I would have missed such beauties of nature. As the bus winded through Haryana and Punjab, in the full moon the view of vast stretches of wheat fielded were such a scene to behold. The gentle and cool breeze hit my face, the moonlight was mesmeric and I was in love ….all over again…with nature.

But again disaster struck. The bus as I was fearing decided to give in and we had a breakdown. We were struck in village in Punjab. As people were cursing their luck I decided to look and explore around. It was a pretty stereotypical Punjabi village. But it seemed to be filled with damsels. Every girl was a pretty one and it seemed that the kind of “discovering damsels in villages” kinda stuff they show in the movies seemed to be true after all. Ah ..how I wished I had been in that Punjabi village. But as all good things come to n end, bus was put back in shape….at least that’s what the driver thought and we started on our journey again.

Soon we had entered Jammu and Kashmir. And mountains on the horizon welcomed us. Snow capped peaks in distance were really a sight to behold. But all around us were armed personnel. There were bunkers all around, a soldier was stationed at every few feet standing around shops and houses, a few were searching the fields and a lot more. But the funniest thing was how people seemed to be not minding them. Teenagers were sitting around and chatting just a little distance away from gunned men. Children were playing cricket and others were going on about their businesses. I realized whatever may happen life had to move on. And these people have learned that in a bitter way.

as i was exploring the sceneries around our bus had different ideas. it decided to break down again and this time the driver decided it was useless. he got us into a passing bus which looked like theone shahrukh took in swades. And passing through umpteen security checks we were at vaishno devi. We had reached more than 9 hours late. the bus had started at 9 pm the previous night and we reached katra, which is the footstep of vaisnodevi at 6 pm the next day.Soon we had refreshed ourselves and we were joined by our friends who had taken the train route. And we were ready to start the trek to top.

The trip to vaishnodevi- part 2

Now came the most fun part and most memorable part of our journey. This trek involved climbing by walk 6.5 km walk to Ard kuvaari which had the garb gufa. And then another 6.5 km walk to bhavan, where we had the main temple. And then we had to go to Bhairon temple another 1.5 km up with out which the trip was considered incomplete. So we were ready and raring to go. It was really fun trekking with friends and by the time we started from the room it was 12 in the night and by time we reached the footsteps and completed all the formalities it was 2 am and we started our climb.

Though I am making it sound all fun, there were people who were going barefooted, some people going on with out a break, some people going on rolling. Different manifestations of bhakthi. Old and infirm people were also walking braving their failing energies. Lot many people were using mules, horses and palanquins to carry them to the top. And there were people who were carrying others on their backs.

As we went climbing, the air got colder. We had great fun. Going with friends has this advantage. You don’t feel the tiredness of the trip. Soon it was dawn and as the first rays of sunlight came down, we were greeted by the breathtaking view of the mountains. They had edges like some one had cut them smoothly with a knife. And when we reached the top the view below was simply superb. The valley deep down seemed inviting. I felt jumping down and gliding like a bird, only it was not quite plausible. I felt like sitting there enjoying the breeze taking don the visual delight available out there. But we had to move and we did.

We reached the temple and we were in a shock. We took our tokens and realized that our turn was not due for another 14 to 15 hours. There were people who were waiting for so long for their turns. They were sleeping all along the halls and the pathways. This place was a great leveler. However rich, poor or powerful or desolate you may be. You had to wait for your turn. We had to find a way out otherwise our plans for way back would have to be seriously affected. One of our friends was son of a major general in army. Army people had a concession here. People with army passes had a special entrance which reduced the waiting time by quite some distance. So, due to our friend our passes were made and we were able to finish the whole thing in another couple of hours.

As we went in, it was a very minute fraction of the second that we were allowed to have a glimpse of God. After finishing darshan we went to bhairon temple and then we trekked back down to katra, that is down to the place where we started. So the trekking part ended there. Even though we were tired it was the most memorable trekof my life.

The adventure of the journey did not end there. As we came back to board the bus for which we had already booked, we realized that, the guy in travels had made a botch up and booked the same seats for more than couple of people. In the melee that followed it came down that we were left only a couple of sleeper berths. So 4 guys came back in a double sleeper and of course that ensured a almost sleepless night for me. By the next day we were back in IIT and it was “throw the bags aside and get to bed” time.

So this is the story of one of the most memorable trips of my life. As one of my friends quipped “ in our very small life, we had done a supposedly big thing, we had visited vaishnodevi…..”