My visit to Lord Pashupatinath temple in Kathmandu

Embarked on a journey for Darshan of Lord Pashupatinath in Nepal recently. Below is the hurried travelogue of the holy journey. I will add pics and maybe videos to it soon.

23 Oct 11:05 pm – Boarded train no. 15008/LJN MUV express from Lucknow Junction station.

24 Oct 6:30 am reached Gorakhpur station on scheduled time

Got out of station and without waiting left for Sunauli the last stoppage before Indo-Nepal border on Indian side. Gorakhpur is not exactly famous for courteousness or honesty so I was expecting neither but the driver was a rather nice guy and we reached Sunauli in nearly two hours. The driver charged me Rs. 1500/-.  I was carrying my pass port as an id proof but neither the Indian immigration people nor Nepalese immigration people were interested in me since I was an Indian. I went to both the offices to make sure I did not miss any paperwork. Paperwork is required only if you are carrying a vehicle with Indian license plate into Nepal. That could be tricky I was told.

I had no prefixed plans for onward journey into Nepal. Once you cross into Nepal you land into Bhairahwaha or Siddharthnagar. It is a much undeveloped town with very little facilities. From my knowledge gathered from internet and bits of info from travel agents I could make out that there was an airport at Bhairahwa and that I could get a ticket at one of the several airline counters.

I quickly changed money from a bearded Muslim guy who used his waistcoat pockets as his bank lockers. He quickly gave me Nepalese rupees at the rate of 1.6 Nepalese rupees per Indian Rupee. In Nepal Indian rupee is popularly referred to as IC and at least in Kathmandu IC is accepted as freely as Nepalese rupee but the catch is that they do not like big notes like 500 and 1000 rupee notes so I had taken along lots of 100 rupee notes though that proved to be quite cumbersome.

At Bhairahawa parking I again met the driver who had brought me in from Gorakhpur. He offered to take me to Bhairahwaha airport for another Rs.250/- so I agreed. Bhairahwa airport is really a joke of an airport but the Nepalese staff is extremely polite and helpful both the airline staff as well as the police. I went to the first airline I could spot which was Yeti Airlines. The man said the flights are full and my heart sank but then he asked for an id proof and I presented my passport to him and he said there was one last seat for Rs.3900 approximately. I told him to give me the ticket right away which he did along with a pack of biscuits. The security check was hilarious but the man was extremely courteous. There was no X-ray scan just frisking. After the security check I was ushered into a medium sized hall full of Indians and tourists from, as far as I could make out, France, Japan and USA.

In a few minutes a really tiny cute little plane from Yeti Airlines showed up. The ladder was so hilariously small I almost laughed. I looked more like a plane from World War II movies though it was, as I later found out, a rather newish production a Jet stream.

The airhostess was very very polite and in a few minutes we were airborne. I took the liberty of taking out my camera and photographing the Himalayan mountain range though my vision was blocked by the turbofan engine of the plane to a great deal. The pilot was a lady but she flew the plane most smoothly and with no jerks or pressure changes.

Soon it was announced that the plane was about to land. I was flummoxed because there seemed to me no open space for a runway. We were right on top of densely crammed together houses but a landing strip soon appeared and the plane landed smoothly.

I was anxious all the time for my checked in baggage but I soon spotted it in the cargo cage and requested the airline bus driver whether I could pick it up out of turn, he allowed me and soon I had my precious baggage in my hands. The bus driver was all praise for India and said “I love India!” to which I answered “I love Nepal!” so this was a good beginning!

The departures terminal was even shabbier then the Bhairahawah airport but the people again were very friendly. I took a prepaid taxi for Nepali rupee 500 to Pashupatinath temple. I wanted to have darshan as soon as possible but felt extremely tired. I was told the aarti would be 6 pm.

Now was the turn to find a hotel. I located a neat looking hotel belonging to Indians after seeing a couple of other hotels. This hotel was Hotel Maharaja Palace right on Tilganga road and what sealed the decision was that the Shikhar of Pashupatinath temple was visible from my room window.

I checked in and ate a hearty meal in the hotel’s restaurant which served vegetarian meals freshly cooked. I wanted to take a small nap but dozed off and slept for nearly an hour and a half. Then I quickly woke up bathed and wore a new dress and after wearing my slippers and leaving behind my mobile and camera set out for darshan. The taxis in Kathmandu charge rather exorbitantly though they are really the discarded Maruti 800 mini cars from India and very poorly upholstered. The minimum that I could negotiate with them was Rs.100 in Nepali currency for the shortest distance. I took one such taxi and he took me from a roundabout way to the entrance of Pashupatinath temple. It was early yet only about 4:30 pm so I spent a lot of time sitting in front of temple gate and counting beads. At about 5 pm I decided to enter the temple. The temple gates were open but the gate of Garbha Griha or sanctum sanctorum were closed yet. It may be mentioned here that non-Hindus are strictly not permitted inside the temple according to temple rules.

I lingered around the sanctum sanctorum and started counting my beads there and to my amazement I found the temple to be extremely beautiful. It is built in Pagoda style with gilded top and all the doors covered with solid silver sheets. Outside the sanctum sanctorum are two figures of kings of Nepal prostrating themselves before Lord Pashupathinath. The decoration all over the temple, which is mainly made of wood, is extremely intricate with great attention being paid to detail. Not a square inch of space is left undecorated. It is not advisable to carry eatables inside the temple as an army of monkeys is always on the lookout for exotic delicacies though they are well fed otherwise. The temple staff is extremely friendly unlike most temples in India. One is not allowed to go and touch the shivalingam and has to watch from a distance while aarti is performed. I stayed for a long time in the temple as I could not take my eyes off Lord Shiva and left only with a heavy heart but having a sense of being blessed by Lord Pashupatinath himself.

The darshan done and my job over I suddenly became very homesick and wanted to return back home the very next day. I tried my luck at Yeti Airlines which has an office on Tilganga Road but the lady told me that the morning flight at 9AM for Bhairahwa was full so I rushed off to Buddha Airline office half a km ahead. The guy was closing down the office but as a special favour he again checked his system and said there was one ticket left for next day’s flight but it was held by an agent. I again ran to Yeti Air’s office and pleaded with the lady for a ticket for next day’s flight but she said everything was booked out. I returned crestfallen to the hotel but mentioned the fact of my not finding the ticket to the hotel owner. He immediately arranged for a ticket for me and there I was booked back to India the next day!

25^th October 2014 – I could hardly sleep and walked down to the temple in the morning. It was so peaceful and serene. I did not enter the temple though just bowed before Lord Pashupatinath. Then I walked down to shops selling Prasad and flowers. What I actually wanted were pictures of Lord Pashupatinath.

I went back to the hotel and had some breakfast with owner of the hotel.

Soon I checked out. The waiter brought me a taxi which charged me Rs. 500 Nepali.

Reached domestic airport. By mistake I had brought along a Swiss knife key ring so the security guy plucked off the Swiss knife and handed over the keys though very politely.

It was ok with me! Rules are rules!

I waited and then went for security check which was better than the one at Bhairahawah complete with and X-ray machine. After security check I found myself in a large hall crammed full with people but the vibes were good all around, not something one experiences generally in India. After about fifteen minutes we were ushered into the airline bus.

Buddha air ATR was in an excellent shape and the two airhostesses were extremely polite and helpful.

Soon we took off.

Flight took only 35 minutes!

At Bhairahwaha luggage collection was easy. Most passengers left for Lumbini. The Nepali drivers and rickshaw pullers started asking for insane amount of money to take me to Sunauli the Indian border. I decided not to co-operate with them. I waited for an Indian taxi but none turned up. Soon I saw an educated Nepali gentleman turn up in a battered jeep. I requested him to drop me to the border he agreed but the Nepali taxi drivers started a verbal duel with him too. He scolded them severely and said to them that they were standing on the land where Buddha was born and they had the bad manners to misbehave with guests from abroad who had come on pilgrimage. This cooled them down a bit but I do not think this is going to change anyone. Perhaps they had very strong reasons to do what they were doing. The gentleman had mentioned at the outset that he would not be able to go all the way to Sunauli but would drop me at a place where I could get a bus. It did not work out though since all buses were crammed full and I ended up paying a taxi guy just about the same amount the guys at the airport were asking.

I managed to reach Bhairahawa border taxi stand. A taxi guy approached me for drop to Gorakhpur for only Rs.1100 it was a large air conditioned taxi so I agreed. The guy was very nice and dropped me at Gorakhpur railway station. After making inquiries I understood I was not going to get an inch of space in any train so I decided to drive down to Lucknow in a taxi. It was tough almost 300 km and more than half the day gone.  Finally I found a taxi at the station itself which agreed to take me to Lucknow for Rs.6000 including toll tax expenses with I later realized were almost Rs.450.

The taxi driver drove like a man possessed and we were in Lucknow in almost five hours which was excellent for the areas we drove through!

So it was back to Lucknow safe and sound...God willing will go to Lord Pashupatinath once more!

Review of Lunchbox starring Irrfan

This is my first movie review and a series of awesome movies from a few talented and courageous directors like Tigmanshu Dhulia, Anurag Kashyap and Ram Gopal Varma absolutely forced me to take up movie review writing.

Coming back to the movie in question Lunchbox, watched it a couple of days back in Lucknow. I could guess the plot from stuff on the movie that one can find on social media. But my guess work was not altogether correct second half of the movie has its surprises. The character of Saajan Fernandes has many layers and his innate goodness shines through in moments that would have had even the most virtuous fall. I think this was the high point of the movie for me at least. But this is most subtly portrayed in the movie and the credit for this goes to not only Irrfan but the screenplay writer too. The Lunchbox offers a release from the drab and uninteresting lives of the two main characters but the force of habit and limitations of a middle class life are too strong as shackles to break. Watch the movie to see how it turns out between the two main characters. Any words used to describe the talent of Irrfan are words wasted because it appears as if Irrfan was created by God only to act. He has successfully put life in otherwise dead movies by his very presence. In this he resembles Marlon Brando and Rajesh Khanna who could carry the weight of dead movies on their soldiers. What happens when such an actor is supported by good direction and a very engaging story – sheer magic happens.  Nimrat Kaur plays the part like a veteran of many movies though this is her first movie. Much credit must go to the makeup man who changes Irrfan’s makeup subtly with each new turn in the plot. Direction is near flawless though I personally never liked open endings. As a middle class and middle aged person myself I can relate very much to this masterpiece by Ritesh Batra. Bravo!

Hope inspired by such movies, Bollywood takes a new road lately travelled by Tigmanshu Dhulia, Anurag Kashyap and which was created perhaps by Ram Gopal Varma.

First Lucknow Tweetup in 2010

Around August 2009 I came onto twitter and after that there was no looking back! I have loved twitter in all this while and found it an awesome source of knowledge. What differentiates twitter from other social networking sites is that there is so little element of anonymity and in general people who are active on twitter are highly educated and discerning individuals, there may be exceptions but in general the active ones are the very serious ones.

I had been thinking of a tweetup in Lucknow which is actually a 'meetup' of people active on twitter. Now Lucknow, to be honest is really not one of those cites where social networking sites are used by a large part of the population no it is not that way at all. I was not able to convince many people to come to a tweetup and had almost given up but then came this guy Gaurav Srivastava a software engineer, he had kind of dug his heels in and so this first tweetup happened. He named this 'when Nawabs meet' so I instantly thought of the fitting venue for Nawabs and that could only be Falaknuma roof top restaurant in Hotel Clarks Awadh the best restaurant in all Uttar Pradesh at least to my thinking.

Finally we met on 30th Jan 2010 and the tweetup started at 1pm and was scheduled to last till 2 pm but actually finished at about 3:30 pm. It was a blast. Falaknuma made everyone happy and I do not think any other venue could quite have brought about the desired effect. It was attended by me twitter username anuragkumarlko; Gaurav Srivastava twitter id sangfroid; Surendra Gupta twitter id SurendraGLKO; Raza Hasnain Naqvi twitter id RazaLucknow and Ashish Chandra twitter id AshishChandra.It was also attended by Mr. Manish Chandra Pandey Principal Correspondent Hindustan Times Lucknow who very kindly agreed to join us along with his colleague Mr. Dheeraj Dhawan who photographed the tweetup.

We had some really awesome food which included two types of veg kebabs - Surendra Gupta just loved the Hariyali Kebabs; two types of veg biryani with raita and one special pulao. You must be wondering why I never talked about what we discussed well I did not because our talks would have powered a battle tank we talked so much and we talked such innovative ideas. I can never put all that down in words it was so fascinating, those people had awesome ideas.

Hope others will take up the baton from us and organise many more tweetups in Lucknow. We made history in a way and well we did our bit for Lucknow! That was my primary concern - Lucknow - as far as I can help it I will never allow Lucknow to lag behind.

Now enjoy the pics!

I am a former journalist, historian and author. My first novel Recalcitrance was published in 1857 based on events of 1857 in Lucknow. I wrote it to commemorate the 150th anniversary of The Great Uprising of 1857.
My second novel Remembrance- of fading dreams is a sequel to Recalcitrance and is based on a plot to overthrow British rule by 'veterens' of the failed Uprising of 1857.

Social media versus mainstream media and how the former salvaged my novel !!

Social media versus conventional media - well I can go on and on about it but I will leave the broader topic for the experts and only talk about my own experience.

I have been interested in history from ever since I can remember. In early nineties I dropped out of medical college and suddenly had a lot of time on my hands. I discovered to my surprise that after reading one book on 'Mutiny' of 1857 I suddenly got hooked on to the topic. I read almost forty books on the subject over the  next few years. I then read almost everything there was to read on the internet. Then I moved on to actual historical papers in archives the ones the professional researchers should be reading but often do not.

I had hoped to write a book on the subject but not being able to control myself I churned a number of articles as a start, forgetting about the book for sometime. It was a different time altogether for traditional media, being yet free from clutches of revenue driven bosses. The editor still decided the content of newspapers. But the winds of change were already knocking at the doors of traditional media. Gradually, and I think it was precisely when traditional media, the newspapers really, turned colourful shedding the black and white past which had lasted nearly a century and a half. Suddenly the media content was in the hands of an unknown force and not the editor. They no longer wanted articles on history and I stopped trying to push my stuff.

It was suddenly 2008 and it dawned on the lazy me that this was the 150th anniversary year of 1857! I wanted to make it memorable for myself and for everybody interested in the event. Surprisingly not everyone, even in UP, the very epicentre of The Great Uprising of 1857, was interested ! I had hoped that a lot of books would be released but there were few very few.

Three to four months before the 150th anniversary year was due to end I suddenly decided to have my own book released. I had a nearly half finished novel, a historical novel, based on the events of 1857 and decided to complete it. It was hard very hard and the anxiety of finding a publisher always troubled me. Somehow I completed the novel though I amazed myself with the energy that I suddenly discovered while writing Recalcitrance, as I would later call the novel. My brother who works for a multinational company and is more than busy was kind enough to edit it. He did a very good job but he neither had time nor is a professional editor but somehow we were ready with a printable book. Less than a month was left for the 150th anniversary to end. I made a very wise decision then. I approached the only known printer publisher of some repute in Lucknow and told him to print the book. I was always very short of funds being a man of many unnecessary expenditures and small income but I was panicky and spent almost all my savings.

This was not the hardest part as one might imagine, it was still to come.

At this point I am tempted to criticize UP my state and its academics but maybe I would be making very broad generalizations so I must restrain myself.

I am a very unsocial being, not proud of it, but that is a fact. Most of my life has been spent in libraries. I did not have the courage to go to every editor in Lucknow and talk about my novel which incidentally was the only novel to be released in 150th anniversary year of 1857. I imagined that the editors would be thrilled beyond words and would invite me for a chat. I cannot say that it did not happen. A couple of papers did publish my interview but that was it!

I can say with some confidence that not even a single copy of the book was sold due to exposure by the aforementioned newspapers. They somehow were not the papers the book buying people in Lucknow read. The book buying paper in Lucknow never responded to my repeated letters to the editor. Perhaps they did not find my book good enough, was what I thought back then but now I know for sure that the editor I wrote to had virtually no control on the content of the supplement I was hoping would carry my interview. That control was with revenue driven bosses.

Then I suddenly discovered the world of blogs! I wrote a detailed blog about my novel. Soon after I was introduced to twitter and then to facebook. It was almost as if I had crash landed into a new world. A lot of people started connecting with me when they came to know about my novel. It helped that there was only one novel in whole of India at that time connected with the 'Mutiny'.

Major book chains like, you know the big guys refused to stock my novel; only a few old book stores in Lucknow were kind enough to stock it. I was very fortunate that the biggest book store in UP - Universal Booksellers in Hazratganj were rather enthusiastic in selling my novel.

But almost all my sales even local ones had their origins on either twitter or facebook.

On twitter I met some wonderful people who very kindly reviewed my novel on their blogs. I knew for sure that none of the professional reviewers in India would touch my novel with a barge pole. Perhaps they have good reasons for doing that perhaps they would have reviewed it after all but I never knew how to approach them back then.

Recently I came across an article in which Guy Kawasaki describes his experiences regarding self publishing and without knowing him I was doing something very similar to what he did. He criticizes mainstream publishers, I want to criticize them too but I know it is not going to help. They will do things exactly as they have been doing it and maybe will eventually have to close shop as Guy Kawasaki predicts who knows?

Meanwhile the very same people who helped me sell my first novel Recalcitrance by their combined efforts have forced me to write its sequel Remembrance and I am spending major part of the nights these days surfing the internet for finding ways to inform its potential readers that what they were looking for has suddenly started to exist but it is a long and hard journey and I know only social media can help me connect...

My pilgrimage to Trymbakeshwar Bhimashankar Grishneshwar Padli Vaijnath/Vaidyanath and Aundha Nagnath jyotirlingas in Maharashtra

20^th October 2012- Reached charbagh railway station at 12 AM to board Kushinagar Express. Had made nearly 6 bookings over previous two months in Pushpak Express but did not get confirmed tickets. Had in fact made bookings in another train from Jhansi but since was travelling with family never liked that journey plan. Plan would have involved waiting at Jhansi railway station all night.

Got a rude surprise when found that train was late by 1 hour. Later it increased to 2 hours and then nearly 2.5 hours. Little kiddo was co-operative otherwise it would have been hell.

Train came in and we boarded with the help of a coolie. Interiors of the train were dismal and seats looked smaller than normal. We had booked in First AC initially, the booking that never got cleared and now this! Anyway the people did not appear problematic. I forgot to mention that a day before the journey I booked Tatkal tickets in this train.

The journey was long almost exactly 24 hours thankfully the train food was good and kiddo enjoyed the journey.

21^st October 2012 – Reached Nasik railway station at about 2:30 pm in the night! Most stations in Maharashtra howsoever small are neat and clean. I am told there is heavy penalty for spitting in stations.  The problem that we had on our hands was that no coolie was present on our platform. This is becoming such a problem these days. My dad a senior citizen is the worst affected- no coolies specially outside UP! I did spot a coolie after walking towards the footbridge but he was standing on the other side of the tracks. Thankfully when I hailed him he crossed over. I was on platform 3 and two coolies together charged rs. 120. I first tried retiring rooms on the station but as often happens to me after travelling through nearly the whole of India – there was no vacancy. The only time I have managed to enjoy a retiring room was in Hyderabad and it had better ambience then a hotel!!

The two coolies strongly suggested that we leave straight away for Trimbakeshwar instead of staying in Nasik. They even negotiated with the taxi guy on our behalf. Now that was good! Coolies are seldom this gentle! We left for Trimbakeshwar with a pliable meek taxi driver who however charged us Rs.700 which was not much, as we got to know later, since he was driving us in the dead of the night.

Good thing about driving in the dead of the night is that roads are clear!! That is a big one if you are living in a city as crowded as mine and want to have some rest from the perpetual traffic jams! We reached Trimbakeshwar in about 1.5 hours. I saw a couple of hotels there and finally settled for the Taxi guy’s choice – it was Hotel Sahyadri ! A nice medium size hotel almost new! A good though a bit expensive restaurant!

Taxi guy was most co-operative poor thing and we took quite a bit of his time!

The room was almost exactly as I had dreamed nice clean toilets, floors lined with my favourite shade of marble. Woodwork and nice simple bed and of course with a very beautiful balcony opening on to the road.

We had planned to take a bath and go for darshan right away but we were so dead tired that we fell asleep like people drugged and only woke up at around 9 AM.

22 Oct. 12 – We woke up and ate a little breakfast we had brought in from Lucknow with tea with had ordered from the hotel. Here a word of advice – on a long travel trip it is advisable to bring along things like Bhujia, Mathri, Dalmoth, Saakhen/Namakpara and other food stuffs that can last out a few days. It helps you save time!

After breakfast we left our camera and mobile phones behind and set out for the temple. Due to terror threat most temples do not allow mobile phones and cameras. If you take them along you might have to deposit them at a stall outside temple complex as in Kashi Vishwanath temple where they might be swapped or damaged so it is better to leave them behind.

The temple is very neat and clean and well managed! It is advisable not to take a big bunch of flowers in a basket in the temple because you are not allowed to offer them inside Trimbakeshwar temple. Temple is of a very dark gray colour and I do not remember having seen a temple of this colour ever before. Floor is all lined with similar stone. It did not take us much time to do Darshan. Out of the queue for Darshan we emerged into a rather high but very dark hall at one end of which was the Garbha Griha housing the Trimbakeshwar Shivlingam. We were not allowed to go inside the Garbha Griha which was very disappointing. I was really upset about this because generally I managed to touch the shivlingam and it induces euphoria in me and makes me feel very near Lord Shiva.  I managed to talk to one temple staff. He asked me to wait for one hour. So we sat there on the steps for nearly one hour waiting patiently. Finally he made me change into a dhoti/lungi. Then he took me inside the temple and instructed one guard to take me into Garbha Griha. Now this was a really great moment for me. I managed to touch all three parts of sunken shivlingam representing Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh.  Then we left. We went back to Hotel Sahyadri and brought back the camera and took photographs of the temple from outside bought some pictures of the temple and went back to hotel.  We then took an auto rickshaw and went to the bus station. We took a bus back to Nasik.

Once in Nasik we took a private bus to Manchar for our onward journey to Bhimashankar. We reached Manchar in about 6 hours and checked into Paras Lodge and Hotel on highway just next to bus station. The room was the best so far in entire journey though staffs was a bit rude.

The next day we took a bus to Bhimashankar. The hotel guy suggested we leave our luggage behind but we did not take his advice and regretted it. Bus journey to Bhimashankar was very comfortable and rather short. The whole route is very picturesque specially near Bhimashankar. Darshan at Bhimashankar was very comfortable very few devotees were there. We touched the shivalingam and bowed our heads. In less than hour we were back in the bus back to Manchar. There is little if no facility for accommodation in Bhimashankar. A few dharmshalas were there but they were very shabby and absolutely no hotels. So we came back to Manchar. Once in Manchar we were advised to go to Ala Phatak and take a bus from there to Nagar, Nagar in this case stands for Ahmadnagar. We waited and waited but could not board a bus to Ala Phatak so we hired a taxi who charged us Rs. 500 for only 30 km.

Once at Ala Phatak we waited and waited for a bus to Nagar that is Ahmadnagar but none came for a long long time. Finally just as we were ready to give up one bus came. Unfortunately this was full of rowdy boys from college who shamelessly played music as loud as possible on their mobile phones and even presence of ladies did not deter them. These were all Marathi boys since they were speaking fluent Marathi. Ironically it is they who blocked the seats for us. They plagued us all the way till Ahmadnagar. I noticed this breed of teenager all over Maharashtra perhaps they are there all over India but it is very sad that this rowdy generation has come up powered by electronic media and internet.

In Ahmadnagar we stayed in Hotel Swastik near bus station. In fact the crossroads is called Swastik Chowk after the hotel. The hotel was very safe and comfortable only irritant was the they did not supply us mosquito repellent and we were too tired to ask them. In the morning daughter woke up with three mosquito bites on her cheeks which infuriated me.

23^rd October 2012 – At 9 we set off for Aurangabad. The bus was half full. It was a comfortable journey. We checked into Hotel ..... Once we reached. The auto driver took us to the hotel. Comfortable safe and nice hotel. We hired a taxi for taking us to Grishneshwar temple the last and the twelfth jyotirlinga. The driver was Muslim but his behaviour was exemplary. I have met very taxi drivers whose behaviour can be called exemplary. He never seemed to listen to what we were saying, never interfered and promptly answered all questions put to him. He always made a point to open the door for my wife which is something very uncommon for Maharashtra at least.

Ellora caves are on the way but the driver made sure that we knew the site was closed on Tuesdays. He told us so at the beginning of the journey in fact. We also came across tomb of Aurangzeb and Daulatabad Fort. The latter was a really impressive structure.

At Grishneshwara temple we seemed to have the whole temple to ourselves. We did puja and darshan to our heart’s content. It is worth mentioning that men have to go with naked torso inside the temple though whatever lower garments they are wearing is not a problem at all.

During return we inquired from the driver about Parli Vaidyanath and Aundha Nagnath temples and he gave us very accurate information.  Based on information given by him we chalked out our program and decided to go to Parli by bus.

We were dead tired by the time we returned to go to Daulatabad Fort and went straight to Central Bus Stand in Aurangabad to inquire about bus for Parli the next day. It was very intelligent of us to do that because the bus for Parli goes in fact from SUDCO bus station a bit outside the city where most five star hotels are located.  I had done another intelligent thing which was buying map of Maharashtra at Daulatabad fort though it cost us 100 bucks.

24^th October 2012 we started off from Hotel without any breakfast or tea at 6:30 am by an auto rickshaw and reached SUDCO bus station. We waited and waited and waited still there was no bus for Parli. The MSRTC inquiry staff was not in the least helpful though he could have helped us if he wanted. Then I remembered about a place called Ambajogai just before Parli so we boarded a bus for the aforementioned. The journey was relatively comfortable but I decided that this was going to be our last journey by MSRTC. I have fallen in love with UPSRTC ever since I used MSRTC buses. Our buses are much newer and AC bus facility in fact Volvo buses are available on many routes. Or it could be that the routes we took were to very remote areas that is why good buses did not ply.

We reached Ambajogai in about five and a half hours. Once there I went outside the bus stand and inquired about taxi which would take us to Parli, Aundha Nagnath and drop us as Parbhani. Parbhani was the place where we had decided to board the train to Mumbai CSTM. A couple of taxi guy quoted astronomical sums like 3K but finally found an Indica Taxi whose owner would settle for 1800 rupees. This guy was decent, efficient and a man of very few words. He drove like a mad man but I could feel that he knew exactly what he was doing. The roads on the whole aforementioned stretch are bad and it is advisable to use an SUV if possible.

Taxi guy had us standing in front of Padli Vaijnath in less than two hours. We had a darshan to our hearts content although if we would have been late by a few minutes the temple would have been in semi closed state with devotees not being allowed to touch the shivlingam covered in silver.

We took a mineral water bottle and a soft drink and rushed off to Aundha Nagnath temple my final destination. I was absolutely dead tired by now dozing off to sleep in the car something I have done very few times in life. The highway was very narrow lined by tall grass or crops all along. No streetlights and big craters at regular intervals. It took us about 2 more hours to reach Aundha Nagnath temple.

Now there is something very curious about this temple. The actual shivlingam is in the basement where you cannot stand but have to sit and one has to go through a rectangular opening only about 1.5 feet by three feet. In the basement Lord Shiva was all ready for the procession I think since it was Dusshera. Shivlingam was covered by a huge silver mask.

I came out and phoned up father saying finally I have paid my obeisance at 14 jyotirlingas and he said something very encouraging which almost made me weep due to overwhelming feeling of joy but I controlled myself and talked of mundane things.

The driver dropped us at Parbhani station and settled myself in Upper Class waiting area to answer some business emails just then I saw on platform one Devgiri express crawl in. I was under the impression that it would arrive at 10:15 hours. Somehow we gathered our luggage which was quite numerous and ran towards our bogie but thankfully were able to catch it. There is no restaurant at Parbhani it being a small station only a stall selling samosa, vada etc. But also Puri sabzi of a substandard quality. Outside the station there is one Udupi restaurant not the original one but it serves tolerable food both north and south Indian. I had the owner pack two dosas for me which were just about tolerable.

Bam Bhole !

My visit to Somnath, Nageshwarnath and Dwarkadheesh Temples

August 16 2012

Boarded jet konnect flight to Ahmedabad. Flight took off at about 10:50 AM

Landed at ahmedabad aiport at about 2:30 pm. Nice airport luggage was already on belt when I arrived at ARRIVALS.

Pre-paid taxi counter is available at Arrival lounge as also auto rickshaw.

I had to go to Paldi chau rasta from where all buses leave Ahmedabad. Pre-paid auto rickshaw counter wanted me to pay Rs.350 but I went on outside the airport and found an auto guy who agreed to take me to Paldi for Rs.200.

It was hot and I was a bit indecisive whether to check into a hotel or to leave for Somnath rightaway.

Reached Paldi around 3 o'clock and started inquiring about buses to Somanath. I was told that Patel Tours and Travels and Eagle Travels were the biggest operators but they did not have buses to Somnath starting in the afternoon. Then I went to Mahasagar Travels agent. He suggested I go to Junagadh by AC bus and from there Somnath would be much closer and I could take another bus to reach.

I paid the agent Rs.300 and he gave me a printed ticket to Junagadh for an AC bus.

I had some food already packed from Lucknow so I immediately boarded the bus. I paid the auto guy who was really helpful all the while and brought me a bottle of mineral water too. I also tipped him a little bit.

Bus started at 3:45 pm.

It was a video coach bus and he played popular Hindi movies.

Bus passed through Rajkot and other cities which I did not make not of.

It also stopped midway on a big dhaba kind of place though much cleaner than normal dhabas and much bigger in size, also more expensive. Place also had clean toilets.

Bus driver drove on and on except for stopping to take in more passengers who had booked their tickets online.

We reached Junagadh at about 10 pm.

We alighted from the bus and a mini bus was already waiting for us.

The bus was to take people to interior of Junagadh. Inside the bus I happened to spot a Bengali guy, a young boy. He told me to stay overnight at one of the hotels near bus stand less than half a km away and then start for Somnath the next day. I took his suggestion and started on foot. I was really tired and wanted to fall down on any bed I could get hold of. I reached the bus station and bang opposite it was a lodge named Shri Ram Lodge. It is bang opposite Junagadh Bus station however a very budget hotel.

I had my doubts whether they would be having AC rooms but it appeared that they did have one room with AC.

I checked out the room, there was something cosy about it and the AC worked! Mistake I made was not checking out the toilet which turned out to be a bit dirty. I was dead tired as I said before I paid him and advance of Rs.800 of which Rs. 100 was refundable.

I told him to wake me up at 6:30.

17 August 2012

Woke up next day due to the hotel guy's banging at my door. Immediately got ready had no breakfast just two cups of tea. Tea cup in Gujrat is about half the size in UP but cost is same. You can take the tea home when the tea vendor packs it in a polythene tube. In fact he pours it down the tube with a funnel. I found this very funny !!

Bus started soon, a non-AC bus but people said I would hardly notice due to being near the sea, they were correct and in any case there are no AC buses plying between Junagadh and Somnath.

Junagadh to Somnath is about 90 km.

The road is good and bus was comfortable.

I had been advised to stay at Veraval less than ten km from Somnath but I decicded to go directly to Somnath.

Bus dropped us at Prabhas (patan??) from there I took a shared auto to the temple.

It being last day of Gujrati Shrawan police stopped the auto about 1 km from temple near Lilavati Guest House belonging to Somnath Trust. If possible one should book room online in advance in this guest house it is cheaper. I however had done no such thing.

It was painful to drag along my stroller attache for a km specially when I had a laptop bag full of stuff.

I bought a new pair of slippers as I had not brought along any. The slipper guy told me about a hotel nearby .

I reached the said hotel but he had no rooms at least no AC rooms. I was a bit angry and frustrated then I found a young guy, the type who take people to hotels. He promised to take me to a Hotel with AC rooms near the temple. Having no option I followed him. He showed me two or three rooms which I did not find good. Finally he took me to Hotel Sharda who had a huge room vacant, the only AC room vacant at thattime. Catch was that it had yet not been vacated. I wanted to catch the 12 PM aarti and it was already 11:30 AM. He had me taken to another room where I quickly changed and had a bath and left my stuff in . Neither camera nor mobile phones are allowed inside temple.

I quickly readied myself and left for the temple.

The crowd was extremely well managed. There was a depot for depositing luggage and foot wear but I did not go there I just left my slippers outside the temple like many others had done. From then on it took only about 10 minutes to reach the temple. Just as I entered the temple the aarti started. If you miss this aarti, be sure that you have missed something divine. Like in Rameshwaram temple you have to do darshan from afar you cannot go near the Shiv Lingam. I wish it was otherwise. Also you are not allowed to stay for more than a few seconds before Shiv Lingam and will be showed out by somnath trust staff if you overstay. I went outside the the main temple but within hearing distance of big aarti drum. A shehnai is also played along with drums.

On my way out I bought parshad which is sold at a designated kiosk by temple staff.

I was very hungry by now so I immediately left for Sardar Restaurant in Lilavati Guest House campus. Food here is expensive but really delicious and the ambience is superb.

Here i met Nepali students who came from Nepalgunj on India-Nepal border. I talked on phone and by my accent the Nepali student who worked as manager of restaurant immediately understood that I was from Lucknow. He lamented that he knew nobody in Lucknow otherwise he would not have had to travel so very far from his home to work. I assured him that I would give work to anyone he would care to refer to me. I gave him my mobile number.

After this I went back to Hotel Sharda and swapped my room. The new room was huge really meant for four people. It was tolerably clean with TV and huge space for putting things in.

Tea was made inside the hotel itself this I found very convenient as I am hugely dependent on tea.

I tried to catch some sleep but after some effort I gave it up and strolled out.

The sea near Somnath temple is lovely and one can stand on the rocks piled up against the sea for hours on end. It is not a cluttered beach very few pilgrims at a given point of time. Beside this pile of rocks is the regular beach which is crowded with ppl sipping a drink or even venturing out into the sea waves. coconut water , cold drink, snacks and sea shell mementos are sold on this beach.

Afraid that it could rain I went back into the hotel and watched some news on TV .

I again visited the temple for the 7 am Aarti. It was again a very smooth darshan. No pushing and shoving and no rush.

This time I sat on one of the benches facing the sea inside temple complex and did mala jaap.

Temple closes at about 9:30 PM in sharp contrast to Jyotirlingas like Mahakaleshwar and Vishwanath which are open almost througout the day and night.

After this I went again to Sardar restaurant and had dinner.I also had fried rice and roti and sabzi packed. I always do this before starting on a journey and I really thanked myself for this later on.

The bus station is near the temple and the inquiry guy told me  that a bus to Dwarka, my next destination, would start at 6:30 AM in the morning. Of course a non-AC bus since AC buses did not ply between Somnath and Dwarka

Reached hotel and after watching TV and packing up my things I went to sleep.

 18^th August

Started from Hotel Sharda at 6o’clock reached Bus station just a few buildings away. Inquiry guy said at the bus station that bus will leave at 6:30 am. Bus did come and leave at allotted time but I was not on it reason being that I have not mastered the fine art of pushing and jostling and elbowing one’s way into a government buses.

 It was suggested to me that I go to Veraval and wait for another bus which would arrive at 7 am. I took an auto and went onto Veraval and waited. A bus did come for Dwarka but it was the same bus that I could not get into. 

There was a group of financially weak students there too facing the same plight. We inquired about private buses but none were available. Then a mini bus guy suggested we first take a mini bus to Porbandar and from there take another bus to Dwarka. This is what we did. 

I and those seven people got into a rickety mini bus which took us to Porbandar . It was a beautiful coastal road with strong breeze blowing. But we were cramped for space so a ride of nearly four hours was a torture.

 At Porbandar the bus guy dropped us near bus station . From there we took an auto and went to bus station. Just as we got there a bus for Dwarka came inside the bus station. 

We got onto this bus which had become  fully vacant due to most of the passengers alighting. When the bus started we heaved a sigh of relief. It was again near the coast and cool breeze blowed. 

We reached Dwarka at around 1:15 pm and were shocked to learn that the temple had closed and would open only at 5:30 pm. 

Temple of Dwarkadheesh closes at 12:30 pm.

I was deeply worried as I was very very far from Ahmedabad and had to catch the plane back to Lucknow in the afternoon the next day.  

We inquired about Nageshwar Nath and Bet Dwarka thinking of doing these in the meantime . We were told that buses charged only Rs.70 for the whole tour. 

We went in an auto to inquire about these buses but apparantely they were all full. At this point the group of seven told me to take a special auto and go on forward on my way and they would stay back and manage somehow.

 I got an auto for Rs.600 both ways . I got onto the auto and heaved a sigh of relief. It took me to Nageshwar Nath about 16 km from Dwarka. Nageshwar Nath ji mandir was in a dilapidated condition but Late Gulshan Kumar had it renovated and a gigantic statue of Lord Shiva was installed there by him.

 Here I again met the same guys who helped me in getting darshan quicker. 

As we drew nearer the temple I bought gangajal and Prasad from the vendors there. I was disappointed to see that one had to do darshan only from a distance as in Somnath but those guys I had travelled with pointed to me that some people were going near the shivalingam so I inquired from two Pandits sitting there and they said I had to pay Rs.210 to go near shivalingam I paid and started to go in but they said first I have to change into a dhoti, so I went and changed into a dhoti and poured some gangajal on myself as I had not taken a bath.

 I was allowed to touch the shivalingam covered in silver except for a small window from where i touched it. It was a very old shivalingam with stone highly corroded. No body checked me I also offered bel patra and gangajal . 

I was so overcome by emotion that I clutched at the feet of two staff members there. Even they felt embarrassed but at that point of time I did not know how to thank them. One of them perhaps the Mahant gave me a special picture of Nageshwarnath Ji. It was the only picture I could acquire and why you would know later.

I also bought two bags of prasad from prasad kiosk which i later distributed to people back in Lucknow.

From this point the auto took me to Bet Dwarka jetty . I passed through salt making factories. 

At the jetty I was really tired but had no option but to move on. There was a mad rush for getting onto the steamer which was a large boat acting as a ferry.Steamer people charged Rs.10 . the rickety vessel chugged its way towards bet dwarka jetty. There we alighted . I saw a restaurant in front of me and stopped for bread pakora and tea which were only items available there that interested me. 

I was really tired by now with my soles paining badly but somehow pushed on. At bet dwarka temple i deposited my camera and mobile and my luggage with the security guard. I quickly had darshan of Dwarkadheesh. 

Lord Krishna 's idol here is almost a copy of the one at Dwarkadheesh temple. 

After this I quickly moved back to jetty and boarded the same boat with the same unpleasant owner. When I got back I again met those students who did not want to go to Dwarka but wanted to push off. I said goodbye to them. It was nearly six . I got onto a bus for Dwarka. He charged me only rs. 20. I had bid adieu to the auto rickshaw guy as i found him too unpleasant.

In the bus I met a couple . The man told me that he would take me to the office from where I would be able to get a bus back to Ahmedabad in the night. He dropped me at an office but the guy there said there was no vacancy in any bus. Then I went to adjacent agent and he gave me the only seat available in a sleeper bus. Ticket cost was Rs. 360. It was 7:45 and the bus was to leave at 8:30. I quickly took an auto to Dwarka temple . There I met a young Panda clad in jeans. He took me past the long queue and made it possible for me to have Darshan of Lord Dwarkadheesh. I asked for a bit of Tulsi from temple guard and he gave me a whole mala. Outside the temple I gave the young Panda Rs.500 for making it possible for me to have Darshan of Lord Dwarkadheesh. 

 I quickly rushed back to Bhadrakali chauraha where the bus was to come. I got my ticket checked and bought some patties , cream roll and mineral water and sat or rather lay down inside the sleeper bus.

The bus reached Ahmedabad at about 7. One autowalla took me to three hotels, of these I liked Hotel Crystal. Very clean luxurious hotel with wi fi and everything neat and new . I ate food there took a bath repacked my luggage and left for airport. 

Room tarriff was nearly 2K but I negotiated with him and he agreed on 1200. I had a heavy meal there of dal roti and chappatis.

The auto guy who had dropped me earlier had sent his brother to take me to the airport.

Reached airport at around 12 and checked in immediately.

Took a flight and came back to Lucknow again

It will be 3 jyotirlingas again in winter.

Jai Baba Somnath n Nageshwarnath. Jai Dwarkadheesh !