Delhi to Dharchula
12th June 2013 dawned ! We were all ready pretty early that day due to various reasons ( Ritesh from Gujarat was seen organising the common luggage till 3 am, I wonder when he got to sleep - as we assembled for morning prayers by 5 am on 12th) - we assembled at Mr Uday Kaushik's room where some special havan was conducted by him where we all participated by putting a small camphor in the Agni. Prayers today were really from the heart of each one and we went down carrying our hand-bags to the bus. One local group had come with sweets, cool-drinks, Jaimalas and Tulsi malas - they wished us safe Yatra and we boarded the bus. We got to see all Delhi Yatris who were given farewell by their family members at GSS!
Finally we left after some commotion on luggage etc. I understood that Delhi State Government had also given good quantity of wheat flour, rice, cooking essentials, and maggie! All these were packed in water-proof bags. Luggage other than hand-luggage were loaded in a small truck under supervision of members of luggage committee and our bus left with slogans of "Jai Kare Bheer Bhajrangi - Har Har Mahadev". This sounds something like our "Swamiyae Charanam Ayyappa".
We reached Ghaziabad where the local committee comprising of a hotel owner, Yoga teacher, people who had completed Kailash Yatra and some more VIPs of the city had assembled in a hotel where our bus stopped. We were given royal reception with garlands and flowers thrown on us. Some speeches were made - dos and do nots informed - prayers and wishes given for safe Yatra. Breakfast was served and we left with one more garland and too much food in our stomachs towards Kath Godam.
The senior most member of our Batch, Mr Lekhraj Matta and our LO are sitting on the dias. We left for Kath Godam where we were welcomed with traditional dance of Kumaon and were again garlanded and Tilak applied to our foreheads.
There were speeches by the Finance Minister of Uttarakhand State followed by speech of MD of Kumaon Mandal Vikas Nigam Ltd., Nainital.
We had good lunch and left Kath Godam in two mini-buses towards Almora. The route from Kath Godam to Almora is a mountainous road where mini-buses and jeeps alone can travel easily. Everyone tried to grab good seats so that those like me who is not in the habit of running to get the best, were left to fend for ourselves. Though they announced that ladies and seniors should be given front seats - people were happy to reserve seats for themselves and their friends. A couple who both were very tall had difficulty sitting in the cramped seats!
Anyway, the beauty of the mountains kept us all mesmerised and Ashish started singing some bhajans. Everyone joined the chorus and for the first time we all were like one group - singing together and feeling us one group. I should say that the mountains did this trick on us and tried to bring us as one group. Manik from Nagpur had a notebook full of patriotic songs and she was joined in her singing by Sweety and Charulata. We had good time travelling, singing, listening and enjoying the lower Himalayan beauty!
By 7 pm we reached Almora - the famous "Colombo to Almora" lecture of Swami Vivekananda. I did notice a Swami Vivekananda Memorial Hall on our way to guest house though we did not stop there. Almora is a big town on the hills. We were given rooms - comfortable ones with bathroom and geyser - nice single beds with quilts - so I had a hot water shower and rushed to the cultural programme that was organised for us. The local artists gave a beautiful performance of flute recital with vocal singing and a group of girls and boys danced wearing traditional costume. Flute was especially good; the girls danced with so much expression (Bhava) that we could get the meaning for the song! We were given nice dinner and then we retired to our comfortable beds by 10 pm.
Next day morning, that is on 13th June morning we left Almora in the mini-buses towards Dharchula.
By now the group has become a real group with almost everyone knowing the other person and "relationship" blossoming into aunty, mausi, thayi, deedhi etc.
By now, I had some very wonderful people getting closer to me - Narayan and Radha from Bangalore, Deepashree from Bangalore, Manik from Nagpur, Prasad and Anuradha Reddy from Delhi, Ashish and Piyush from Khandwa, Sanjay and Sweety from Chattisgarh, Bakshiji and Omprakashji from Delhi, Akhilesh from Raipur, Vikrant from Kanpur, Sachin from Bangalore, Kamlesh and Mattaji from Delhi, Praveen Tyagi and Tejprakash from Delhi, Charulata and Sunita from Pune, Sasi from Trichur, Deepkiran from Jaipur - each one had a special charm of their own and everyone was feeling warmer, closer and like a family. The initial inhibitions have vanished and we were all in one big group.
I have to make a special mention of many men / women in this group but would suffice to say that each one is very special to me in his / her own way. Each one has contributed in making me get the full depth of the Yatra in its fullest possible way! "Uma mausi" from Ashish rings in my ears even now - "maaji" from Praveen is sounding so sweet to me now also - sound of "Madam" by Narayanji kept me alert and attentive even in the night, because he will not say anything unnecessary or unwanted - a principled man of few words, but those few words would be only praise or good things about others. "Umaji", "Uma aunty" and "Uma Deedhi" from others echoes in my ears even today... thank you all for lovely one month we all spent together!
Next part would be on Dharuchala and further! Har Har Mahadev! Jai BholeNath! Om NamaShivaya!
1 comment:
Please include us (all the remaining batch members)in the journey with you...superb
Post a Comment