Amritsar-Vaishno Devi--DAY 3 and DAY 4

SATURDAY, 04-04-09 and SUNDAY, 05-04-09

"Impossible!!! How can be their seat numbers same as ours? Check their journey date", replied an agitated Sandy. True he was. The people who were thinking berth nos. 1,2 and 3 as theirs, didn't notice that theirs were a previous day's ticket. Happened due to confusion of departure time. After the T.T. cleared their doubts, another family took their seats in front of ours. Chalo, problem solved. Now sleeping time. But no. God did not allow me and Dipak to sleep. The family in front of us were constantly chatting at high pitched voices the whole night. Great! What a way to start the journey! Anyways. At around 4:00 in the morning did we get some sleep. The train reached Jammu Tawi station at around 7:00 AM. The station had not changed in terms of cleanliness. We came out of the station and got into line to book bus tickets to Katra. Sandy suggested that I look for private buses too. They would hardly charge 10 to 20 bucks extra. Right he was. We got into a private bus at Rs.60 each. But we did not get any seats to sit. Instead, we were asked to sit on upturned coke crates, with cushion on top as the consolation. This way we started our 2 hr journey to Katra.

In between, when the conductor was collecting the money for the ticket, a few people fought with him regarding miscommunication with ticket fares. As a result around 10 people got down. So we got lucky and took the vacant seats. But eventually, after 5 mins they returned as a result of settlement between them and the conductor. As soon as they arrived, they started demanding their seats back. I had an 1/2 hr long verbal fight with 3 of them which resulted in my partial-victory. Why partial? Bcoz, as soon as I stepped down the bus, when it took a break from the journey, my seat was taken by one of the idiots. I thought what kind of shit head people you have to come across. Anyways, we reached Katra by noon. There, though my eyes were searching a hotel, a guy was pestering us to go to his Dharamshala and I had listen to him unwillingly. Sandy asked him about the fare. He said no charge. Sandy asked him to show the rooms. We followed him to a narrow lane, and when we reached the Dharamshala, the truth came forward. We would only freshen up before the ascend to the temple. Before leaving, we need to keep our luggage in their cloak room and have to surrender the room. Though they were not charging for the room, we will have to buy the Prasad from their stall. And if we wanted to keep the room booked, we would need to pay 300 bucks for a night. So this was the case.

After freshening up and reluctantly buying prasad from the dharmashala, we had our brunch in a nearby cafe. After that, when Sandy had gone to get passes for entrance, me and Dipak were discussing about returning in Helicopter. But since we didn't have that much of money, so we scraped off the idea. After some more purchases, we finally started our ascend. Though Sandy showed a lot of enthusiasm at start, eventually he had mellowed down and we took a lot of stoppages in between. During those periods, we bought water ad eatables, munching on each and everything we found on our way. Since the whole ascend was of 14 kms and technically it should take us 5 hrs to reach the top, we had taken 7 hrs bcoz of our long stoppages and also bcoz we were not in a hurry to reach there. Interesting things that happened in between -

• Munched a lot of things
• Drank around 3 ltrs of water and 1 ltrs of soft-drinks each
• Took a lot of snaps
• Came across a very nice girl whom we named a Miss Cyber-Shot, bcoz she had one. I think she was from Delhi. Should have taken a snap of hers too.
• A monkey attacked Dipak's Prasad packet. Took away some of it. Dipak consoled himself saying "Hanumaan Ji le gaye. Accha hai"
• Ate the worst jalebis you can ever get.
• Met Miss Cyber-Shot a lot of times. SHIT! Got infatuated with her
• Met a person walking all the way from Haridwar to Vaishno Devi.

After we reached Bhawan(the entrance to Vaishno Devi), saw huge rush. Though people were being given batch numbers for darshan, it didn't matter how you went inside. We could not take anything, apart from prasad, inside. So had to get into line for lockers. But the person at the counter said, unless others who have already taken lockers, return from darshan and return the key, we could not get any. So I asked Sandy to search other places for lockers while I waited in this line. Luckily he got one and we went to keep our belongings in that locker. Before moving for darshan, we had our dinner, which was quite tasty. But now came the most difficult part-the darshan. though our line moved very swiftly, we were literally pushed inside the temple, so Dipak and I could not have a glimpse of the deity. Anyways, we roamed around the premises, though we were not satisfied with our darshan. After taking our belongings, and a cup of coffee, we moved on the trail to Bhairon Baba Temple. Sandy and Dipak took the roads, while I took the stairs. I felt disgusted seeing the half-breed ponies shitting all around the place(those who do not know, ponies are used in the whole area to carry old and tired people while ascending and descending). After Bhairon Baba's darshan and some nice snaps, we started our descend through some dim-lit trails. In between, we made a few stoppages for ice-creams and coffee, that too around 2:00 in the morning.

After we descended, we hurried to get our luggage from the dharamshala cloak room, and I became desperate to find a hotel bcoz it was already 6:00 in the morning, and I was feeling so sleepy that it was difficult to keep my eyes open. We again went on our negotiation skills, and took a room at Rs.600 in a pretty decent hotel. We were supposed to check out at 2:00 PM(instead of normal check out time of 12 PM which we got changed as a request). But we got up late and hence and checked out a little later than 2 PM. After checking out, we again had our brunch and finally looked for a cab to Jammu city. Here, too, we had an altercation with a family, who finally decided not to travel with us. While returning to Jammu City, we caught a glimpse of a scene of accident, where a bike was lying on the road, with 2 smashed helmets, one bag and a shoe but no blood. GOSH!

We returned to Jammu bus stand at around 4:30 in the evening, from where we took an auto to the railway station. There, we spent a long time watching the crowd come and go. We saw a lot of jawans in Jammu Tawi station, as a part of beefed up security. Our train was at 8 in the evening, so we had our dinner quite early just outside the station. After getting our luggage checked through the new X-ray machines installed in the station, we reached the designated platform waiting for the train. It was a nice train, the newer ones where you have three berths on the aisle side too. We chatted for a while in the train while it was moving towards New Delhi. Eventually everyone went into deep state of slumber, before our eyes opened to the sights of New Delhi station the next morning.

Amritsar-Vaishno Devi--DAY 2

FRIDAY, 03-04-09

After getting up from not-so-good sleep, 'coz someone was snoring horribly, we went to Golden Temple for a dip in the holy tank. After the dip, which was fun, came back to hotel, freshened up, and headed to Jallianwala Bagh after checking out from the hotel. There, we saw the Amar Jyoti, the Memorial, bullet marks, Martyr's Well and the museum. We had a small discussion relating to the official and unofficial counts of bodies and rounds fired. After visiting the whole Jallianwala Bagh, a thought came to my mind that, how could Britain, one of the most civilised countries of those times, honour General Dyer with the title of Sir, after such a heinous act?

After having a brunch of Dosas, we again went inside Golden Temple, this time for darshan. After getting in the main building, in my mind, I went back to those days when I used to stay in Mumbai and visited Haji Ali whenever some relatives came over. After the darshan, we visited the Central Sikh Museum, where we came to know a bit about Sikh history. Then, we bought souvenirs and "kadas" for ourselves. "Punjab aake Lassi nahi piyenge, aisa kabhi ho sakta hai?", said Sandy. SO all 3 of us had a glass full of Malaiwala Lassi. We were then looking for a taxi to Wagah Border. After negotiations with a few of them, we finally fixed a private car at Rs.350. But when we were being led to the taxi, a foreigner was walking along with us. It was quite surprising when that driver told us she would sharing our cab. We tried to reason out the deal we had made with the driver, but he said he was helpless as she had been pestering him along with her 'hotel wala' to take her too. So we were 3 helpless dumb people, who couldn't even think what to do. Anyways we travel in a Maruti 800 to Wagah, in between passing the famous Khalsa College, where SRK-starrer Rab Ne Banadi Jodi was filmed, and OCM Mills. When we reached within 1/2 km of Wagah Border, we were asked by the driver to leave our bags inside the car itself. "How can I leave my passport and Visa in the car?", asked the lady. But she was not allowed to take the bag inside. So she had to carry her passport and Visa in her hands and leave the rest with the driver. By the way, her name was Manu, short for something which I didn't hear. She was a French National and Accountant by profession. As we walked towards the main area, we passed along the immigrations office, customs office and a temple. Manu had to go to the VIP area while we were suppose to seat in the amphitheatre-type stands.

After we reached those stands, we saw a huge crowd on the Indian side, while not so many people on the other side of the border. Patriotic songs of Bollywood were being played at high volume. People were asked to settle down. The announcer seemed to be some Captain or something. He said we could only chant "Hindustan Zindabad", "Bharat Mata Ki Jai" and "Vande Mataram" and nothing else. We saw girls, small kids and women were allowed to run to the gate with national flag in their hand. They were also encouraged to dance to the songs being played. Then, as everyone eventually settled down, the 25-min long parade started with the sound of bugle and orders from a sentry. People chanted as instructed and were making noise, encouraging the jawaans. We saw the opening of the gates, the hand-shakes, the famous "High Leg Lift" steps of jawaans, the taunts, the lowering of flags, orders and march till 6:15 PM. We returned to our cab after taking snaps of the Swarna Jayanti Dwar, No Man's Land and the Electric Fencing on the border. It was totally an unusual experience.

While returning to the main city, we stopped at the Khalsa College gates to takes pictures of the well-lit building. After dropping Manu at her hotel, we went on to experience the Amritsari Gol-gappas but it turned out to be a bad session. Then we strolled into a restaurant for our dinner. An attempt to have Mushroom Masala for Sandy and myself failed when the waiter brought us a wrong order of Paneer Butter Masala. Dipak, as usual, was happy with his Chowmein. After dinner, and an attempt to charge my cell phone, we again entered Golden Temple, this time to rest for a while before catching a train to Jammu Tawi which was at 01:20 in the morning. While the other two slept soundly, I was struggling with my unnecessary luggage. At around 11:45 we decide to head for the station, as we were not sure whether we would find any conveyance at that point of time. After we reached station, we had to wait for 1/2 hr before our train arrived from Bhatinda. When we occupied our berths, we breathed a sigh of relief as we had just a night's journey which we would spend sleeping....

Amritsar-Vaishno Devi--DAY 1

THURSDAY, 02-04-09

Finally, Sandy's prayers were answered. A trip, which in some way, was planned a long time ago. But could not materialised because of the one of my sins-SLOTH. Frankly, I could not muster enough courage to decide whether to go or not. But finally we boarded train no-2013-AMRITSAR SHATABDI.

After hailing an auto from our place to NDLS, a commute of 45 mins spent half sleeping, we waited for the train on Platform 1, Dipak went around with his uncanny talent of bird-watching. After boarding the train and settling down in our seats, we were informed by the train PA system that it would take 5 hrs and 40 mins to reach Amritsar. After a round of snacks consisting of 4 biscuits(not enough!!!), only 1 Samosa(again not enough!!!), 1 cheese-butter sandwich(thankfully only 1!!!) and a choice between Tea or Coffee, we passed out time with music and sleep. The train departed at right time of 16:30 hrs.

In-between, we had conversations about Sandy and some coincidences, esp. those lost-smiles-on-his-face types. The mention of all coincidences again made him smile and he tried to present some weak arguments over the denials of those coincidences. I don't know when will he become more pragmatic than be lost in fantasy world. He also went into his Gluttony-mode, asking more food before time. Seeing so many laptops, I felt restless for still not able to but one. A kid behind me was making such a racket.

At around 19:45 hrs, we had our dinner comprising 2 rhombus-shaped paranthas, rice(or was it pulao??), watery Dal, Paneer Butter Masala/Chicken Preparation, pickle, curd and Vanilla Ice-cream. I slept most of the time after that, with y iPod plugged into my ears. Dipak, after failing to decipher Agatha Christie, went off to sleep too. Sandy, in his usual way, drifted in and out of slumber frequently. Somewhere()may be in the train PA system), "Jadoo hai nasha hai" was being played.

At 22:35 hrs, we reached Amritsar. We were very excited, more so, because our salaries were credited to our accounts that instant. Took an auto to Golden Temple so that a hotel in that place would mean easy trips to Jallianwala Bagh and Wagah Border too. We had already checked out some decent hotels on net, but they were quite expensive. A few names cropped up when we asked about this to a policeman. One was Archana Guest House. Price??-Rs.300. By its look, looked like a rundown place. Not worth. A Sikh guy pestered us and took us to another shady types. Everything same. He said he can get us better rooms for Rs. 400 too. Dipak said, "Enough is Enough. There is one down there. Lets check that". HOTEL GOLDEN CASTLE. Turned out to be a good place. Rent?? Rs. 600.

"Babuji, 400 ka budget tha. Aap to 600 maang rahe ho. Abhi to season bhi nahi hai".

"Betaji, hamare yahaan to hamesha full rehta hai. Chalo 500 de dena".

"Chalo na aapki na meri, 450 final".

"Oye Room ki chaabi le. Sahaab logon ko le jaa".

Fixed. Nice room. Then went out for a stroll to Golden Temple.. Here you need to cover your head with a cloth, deposit your shoes, and walk through a pit of water before entering the main premises. It was exhilarating. The view, the air, everything. Looked at the watch. It was 12 in the morning. Lightening with drizzle added up to the nice background for snaps. It started to rain heavily after sometime. So we ran into the building where Langar is served. Had a cup of "Masala" tea. Then lead by Sandy towards the Community Service, where people voluntarily wash dishes used in Langar. Stayed there for 15-20 minutes, after which went for a round of Langar food-Rotis, Kali Dal, rice and water. After roaming around for some more time in the premises, we headed back to hotel for a nice sleep.

The Tribulations of a Philanthropical Hero

Okay...this is an inspired description....the inspiration was quite close to me....not much but still. I knew a bit of him.....and was unraveling him (now don't get me wrong on this) as we spent a lot of time together.....

Once there was a guy....a simple guy from a small town located somewhere in India, born in a religious family with decent teachings and principles. Had a family of 4 - Himself, his parents and his younger brother.

His father was the sole bread winner of the family. He used to study in a decent government school. He was also a brilliant and talented child, earning quite a few accolades in his growing years, and had all the impetus to make himself and people around him happy in whatever resources he had at his disposal. In short he was very content with what he got from his parents, though his parents never stopped him from doing anything and rather encouraged him to take risks. He had ambitions to make his and his family's life better. He knew only one thing that its his family which has to be considered first in whatever decision he would take in future.

Since he took science in his +2 course and because he had the notion that he would do better in Engg rather than in any other stream, he wrote competitive exams. The first year did not yield anything much except a seat in his state colleges and a not-so-good rank in AIEEE. So he determined to crack them the next year, for which he even joined a coaching institute. The same institute, which helped his cousin to materialise his dream of getting into IIT-B. When the results came, he missed out the cut-offs by a very thin line. So he had to give other exams, where his marks were fair enough to get him a good seat in a top-notch college/university. Instead of going for the type of branch he opted for brand name of the institute. Got into NIT, his haven for next four years. It was this place which took him on a roller-coaster ride and his life would be much different from what it used to be.

He met some new people who were going to change his life completely, a change about which he never knew or contemplated. People, some of whom where going to be his best buddies and some who will stand on the other side. And there were a very few people who were going to be something more than just buddies. The first year of college went, as for anyone else, into ragging and stuff , though his ragging could not be taken lightly as he belonged to such a region of India, whose seniors behave inhumanely. He did all the chores his seniors asked him to do, and went all those places where he never expected himself to be. So it was at this time when he found solace in unexpected places. He gelled with people whom he might had despised at one point of time. Then came the welcome party after which he finally got included in the motley crew of his seniors. It was also the time when something very interesting happened. He met someone.

Though a studious kind of kid, but not those nerd types, he had the traits of a big flirt. He had quite a few female friends in his school life. One of them even had a crush on him. But he did not want to get into all that, just friendly relations. So talking to a girl came naturally to him. Also by this time he was quite popular among other people in the institute. But this particular female had the right vibes to entice him into talking to her. That talk did not result into anything but it did give them a chance to look forward. Then came a major event which gave him another chance to ponder over this relation since the college was closed due to neglect of authorities in proper functioning of the system. After he came back, he thought this is the time to act, later than this would only be a loss. He proposed to her. She was a bit skeptical because of her family background. He said he would care take of everything. She agreed. Suddenly, his life was full of tulips and daisies. He was on cloud nine. BUT.....

Then came an incident which had created fissures in his life. An act of friendship which caused him embarrassment, earned him rebukes and taunts and which had made him feel so disgusted about himself. But the irony is people for whom he showed his friendship had turned their backs on him and accused him of divulging their names to college authorities regarding the tussle with police. He was shattered. He thought how would his parents and his love would take this incident. But he was happy to see that they rather became his support and backed him in his future endeavours. He returned the favour by promising his parents never again to get into situations like these and tried to change himself according to the likeness of his love. But his love started to become a bit restless after a few months. She even came up with this problem and told him that she feels so left-out when people link-up other girls to other boys but they don't even try to do that with her fearing the consequences they would have to face at his hands. He felt as if it was his fault that she is suffering. His act of friendship had turned him into a monster. He hated himself. But she cajoled him saying its not a big deal. Saying this, they continued to be happy being present in each other's life. But there was something he felt that was not going right. There had been a few trivial fights but not any big to cause any damage.

Then came the time when he had to do something to make his this relation permanent i.e something to make her parents agree of this relation. For this, either he should have a decent fat-paying job or he should be well-qualified. Where his academics were concerned and the events that came in before this period, he became an average student from the one very-brilliant one. Though he came to know about the world around him and shed some of the conservative/narrow-minded nature, he was not able to excel much in academics. He was good in extra-curriculars but academics were not his cup of tea. So he settled for whatever job came to him, his first one in an IT company alongwith hundred others. He tried his hand at preparing for competitive exams for post-graduation. He did secure some marks but not enough to get him a seat anywhere. So again the pursuit of job started. Finally he did secure a second one on the basis that his two friends were going there too. Last day of college arrived soon. Everyone in college was full with emotions and fear of leaving friends behind. He, himself, feared of losing and not seeing his love ever again. To fight this, he spent a whole night with her in a coffee shop and while he went to see her off to the station, she gave him, as a memory, a bunch of cash memos of all times they dined in a restaurant. With this his 4 years of life in college came to an end.

After a fortnight, he landed up in a cosmopolitan city with regards to his job. He was very happy to be there and also because of the things that the company had in store for him. He enjoyed his time there, after which he was posted in another cosmo city. He did not complain about this. More so because he found out that his love in college returned to his life. Whether it was sheer luck or his destiny, he did not know. But he definitely knew one thing that till the time she was posted in the same city for her job, he would give ample time to the relation he once had. Though his new office place and the work there sucked big time, he never complained. He was happy to be close to her. He had lengthy discussion about this with her, who too, was very eager to make her relation permanent. But as the months went by, he again started to have those feelings of something not going as thought. She laughed it off saying he was getting paranoid. But his worst fears came true, when small altercations turned into big arguments. It was this time when he thought may be because he was from a middle class family or from a small town which had resulted into this. He started to share these with his room-mates and said its altogether his fault that he has still not able to impart the courage into her to make her parents agree. He also said that its his PHILANTHROPIC nature that has caused all the damage in his life. He tried to be good for the sake of his family. He went against everyone for his friends. He even changed himself for the sake of his love. But what did he get in return? He said its his this inherited trait that may cause further damage. His friends tried to console him and even tried to be mediators between him and his love. But in vain. Then came a time when he and his love parted ways on cordial grounds. No dumping. No bad break-ups. On mutual grounds. But he said he would definitely wait for her to return. To make him happy, his friends went around enjoying every moment with him. They even made new friends. But his mind always wandered off. One of his friends even tried to use rude words in relating to him and that girl, trying to knock him off the whole episode. But he always kept a small flame of hope burning in his heart.

Even after returning from a break to his favourite place, he still has hopes. Hopes, which he claims to be the only thing running his life. Hopes, which his friends think he should give up and move on. But the important thing his friends say is his PHILANTHROPIC nature that he needs to change. A nature which is making a victim out of him. A victim to situations which he used to despise. It is his this nature which has always been an obstacle in his pursuit of goals, a nature which will always result into despair unless he changes.......