Vaishno Devi - Mata ne bulaya hai!

To the popular belief, that one gets to visit Vaishnodevi only when she invites. I was in Gurgaon for more than a year and I could not visit Vaishno Devi, yes after many trials.

So finally, she did call us. And we were glad to go there.

From Delhi we took a flight to Jammu. The special Security treatment started from New Delhi itself. In the airport, we were asked to identify the bags even after the security check.

Jammu Tawi river from the plane was looking dry even in August! We landed and were surprised to see that our mobiles though on, were not working. After 15-20 minutes, we realised that only local postpaid mobiles work! Could see army personnel everywhere. First impression of Jammu turned out to be what we had imagined of Jammu except that the city turned out to be bigger than what we imagined.

We had already booked the car and the driver was waiting for us. Driver suggested that we directly head to Katra, the basecamp for Vaishnodevi trek. It took us a little more than an hour to reach Katra.

Hotel Asia Vaishnodevi is a good one to stay. We got the room with the view of Trikoota hills. That was good. We took rest in the afternoon. We checked with the hotel for Darshan details. It turned out to be very useful for us.

This is what he said. "When you go for the pindi darshan, take the chunri for the pooja. People mistake that there is an idol inside which they try to find. There's no idol. There are only 3 Pindi's of Mata Lakshmi, Saraswati and Parvati. There will be two Pandits sitting. One from the Shrine Board and one from a family. The priest appointed by the Board sits at the other end of the artificial gufa(cave). Give him the things you want to offer. He will offer it to the Mata on your behalf and you will get sometime to have the darshan, as well. And for climbing/trekking, it is better that you start in the night and reach by early morning. The crowd will be less and you can have good darshan. If it's raining buy 'use-n-throw' raincoats which are available for 15-20rs. It will help you to cover from the rains"

We followed everything to the core except for buying raincoats. After buying the tickets, we started ascending by 9.30pm to cover 13km stretch in 5 hours. Almost, for the first 3 kms stretch there are lots of shops on either side. We expected that it will be continue till the temple and we were wrong. After this, there are many points where the shops are setup but not through the whole stretch.

We walked continuously for an hour or more and had some coffee. Then, with short breaks, we reached Ardh Kuwari, at around 12.00pm. Here we booked the ticket for our Ardh Kuwari Darshan. They told us that we can come back in the morning for the darshan as the queue was long!

We continued. At some places we started taking stairs instead of the road. It rained heavily, and intermittently, and we got drenched. And a little after Ardh Kuwari, the power also went off. We were a little surprised, waited for sometime and then continued to walk.

Prem se bolo, Jay mata di,
pyar se bolo, Jay mata di,
mote bolo, Jay mata di,
chote bolo, Jay mata di,
bade bolo, Jay mata di,
bolo re bolo Jay mata di,
Jay mata di, Jay mata di,

this was heard all along. We also tried chanting as we continued. Dirty roads, no light, too many horses on either sides, at times we would feel a little awkward, scared and all. But nothing stopped us from moving ahead. We had heard that it is safe to walk in the night, hence we mustered courage to go ahead, even when we were alone on those roads/stairs.

We reached the camp around 3.00am in the morning. We got the token converted into our gate pass no. and proceeded ahead. Kept our small bagpacks in the locker and got into the queue to get darshan.

By 3.15am we were in the new Gufa where the Pindis are located (Access to the old gufa is blocked, though the new articial gufa is just next to the old one.). We gave our offerings to the Shrine Board pandit, got a good view of Mata ji, and moved ahead. Hardly a minutes' time for the darshan! But, worth all the effort. A sense of satisfaction surrounds you!

We came out and requested the security guards to help us enter again. They denied. We went to the place of gate pass and requested. They also denied.

So, we decided to proceed to Bhairav nath darshan after few minutes of resting. Also, we had heard that the Bhairav Nath will be closed between 5.00am - 8.00am for the morning pooja, to which we hurried to reach before 5.00am. I guess, the ascend here is steep and almost vertical.

After a patch of road, we took only stairs to reach Bhairav nath, a stretch of around 2kms from Vaishno devi. Reached there a little after 5.00am. Had darshan and moved and came out. Were extremely tired. There was no proper place to sit, as well. We waited there till 6.30am to have a glimpse of the sunrise, but to our dismay, it was cloudy and raining.

Started our descend around 6.30am from another way. Finally, clicked some snaps! :) The view was very beautiful. We started seeing that people were already on job and were doing early morning duties of cleaning roads, toilets etc. Some relief to see a little cleaner roads while walking.

Had breakfast in between and continued to walk down. We tried to take the stairs wherever possible.

Reached Ardh-kuwari, around 8.30am. After waiting for sometime, we got to know that the number we had got for the darshan, would probably take a day's time to be counted. We did not have one more day in our plan, to wait, so we moved ahead.

There are two Cafe Coffee Day outlets - one at Ardh-kuwari and one at base camp! There was no place to sit, so we moved downwards. We took stairs. Though it was quick, it was tiring, too. The stairs were more dangerous as they were slippery due to heavy rains in the night. Reached base camp, had a cup of milk with little traces of coffee in it, in CCD and moved, ahead.

It took us two more hours to reach the hotel. Extremely tired, we went, freshened up and slept like logs! :)

Woke up in the evening and went around for shopping! :) We could hardly walk. You can get good Kashmiri work done on dress materials, sarees and shawls. You get good apricots, and other dry fruits, also. Worth buying with little price bargain, at some places.

Be careful about the local food. We ate at a famous eatery and next day fell prey into food poisoning.

All in all, a good trip! Hope, Mata calls you to Vaishno Devi, soon.

Few quick facts:
Distance from base camp : 13km
How to Ascend: Take horse ride, walk by stairs or roads, or take helicopter
Time taken to ascend: Depends on people. Generally, 5-6 hours is required
Precautions: If rainy season take raincoats, jackets. Walk light. Keep a torch and a shawl. Wear good shoes if you plan to walk.
Don't drink too much of tea/coffee/water on the way.
Best time to trek: During night.
Accomodation: Plenty of hotels available. Even the Board has retiring rooms atop the hill.

Calcutta - culturally yours!

A deserted Calcutta Street

Backside view of Victoria Memorial

Front view of Victoria Memorial


Victoria Memorial

Victoria Memorial

The New Bridge - Vidya sagar setu

The Howrah Bridge

The Kalighat street

The word "North-east India" always has a magical sway on me and I have been wanting to visit some of the places, there, for a long time. When, recently, I got an option to go to Calcutta, I was on my toes to welcome the surprise package.

Calcutta - gateway to North Eastern states, ex-capital of Delhi, place of intellectuals, culturally vibrant, and what not, is true to all its nameplates.

The torrential rains played spoil sport in our trip. The Victoria Memorial, Kali Ghat, The Howrah Bridge, is all what we could see. And, yes, we did some shopping, too.

Kali Ghat - the place where there's the Kali mandir, was like a dreaded place becuase of the priests and the vendors. The people were literally like pounding on you for services and suck money. The driver was mentioning that they take as much as Rs.200 for taking care of your chappals/shoes! Beware of them, if you have to visit this place. The Golden rule is to be on your own and not to talk/heed to anyone speaking to you.

I have never seen such beautiful pose of Goddess Kali. The beautiful and expressive eyes of Goddess Kali have magical powers that one gets struck to his feet upon seeing Her. I wish, I could spend more time seeing her.

Best time to visit: Early morning before 9 or 9.30am. Avoid Saturdays.

Victoria Memorial - Good place to revitalise your national spirits. The muesuem has a good collection of paintings. A very good and well maintianed lawn. A must visit.

Howrah Bridge - the engineering marvel, the Ravindra Setu, travelling on which, for me was a great experience. Could not get out of the car and watch the river and near by surroundings due to rain.

Shopping
We were during the right time. Durga Pooja is around the corner and people were busy setting up their home and themselves for the Pooja.

The New Market or The Hogg Market, Garia Hat were full with festive activities despite the "torrential" rains.

The New Market is pretty impressive for Cotton Suits, dresses, bed sheets for Kantha work, Leather products - especially Purses and bags with Shantiniketan prints, Jute products and artificial flowers.

Garia Hat is famous for Calcutta Saree's - Calcutta Cotton with Kantha work, Printed, or Silk, Dhaka Cotton and so many varieties, were there. We could not do much as we had less time and it was raining too much.

Prefer to go to a fixed price shop to avoid being cheated.


Sweets
We bought the Bengali sweets from Mithai, and savoured Mishti Dahi, Sandesh, Ras gulla.

Roads
Road condition was okay, not very good. The rains had caused too much of water clogging and to our scare at certain places. Looks like the good development stopped in Calcutta after the British left to New Delhi.

We could not make it to many places. Shantiniketan, Dakshineshwar - Ramakrishna Math, Belur Math, trams, etc are still drawing my attention to Calcutta.

Calcutta, when will you invite me, again?