Grande
Voyage
(A small
trip to Kumbh #Prayag - 2013)
Kumbh: It’s not just largest human gathering on earth, it’s
all about religious faith, all about human tolerance, all about connectivity
and supremacy of Hindu dharm.
It’s my
pleasure to write another word about the happening moment on earth. I thank
almighty (para brahman), my parents, friends and all those who are part of this
journey directly or indirectly. I always believe that great journeys won’t
start with just another foot step; it starts in mind as an idea and transform
into a journey then, become part of the life
I had a big
idea of spending a Maha Shivratri (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maha_Shivaratri) day at Varanasi, one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world and the oldest in India. And this idea
transformed into plan of action and coupled with taking a holy dip at Maha
Kumbh (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maha_Kumbh) Prayag (Allahabad) just a week ago. Before going to start I
personally thank Narayan anna, Prakash anna, Ramakrishna anna and dearest
Naresh.
Making the trip to
Maha Kumbh:
Initially we
planned to attend kumbh along with friends from hyderabad, later on it went
through a big plan of 7 days so we called off. On a Saturday afternoon (23rd
Feb) an idea flashed into my mind to attend the kumbh along with Varansi in a
single go. It took almost a couple of days to make the plan with Narayan anna
and the dates finalized. We had waiting list tickets in hand but somehow able
to get Tatkal tickets just before the day of journey. (And trip confirmed..!
Woo.. Hoo..) The itinerary was:
8th
Friday: start from Pune by night 9 PM.
9th
Saturday: reach Prayag by 9 PM.
10th
Sunday: take a holy dip and proceed to Varanasi.
10th
Sunday: After reaching Varanasi, attend Ganga Harti and stood in line for Maha Dev Kashi Vishwanath darshan.
11th
Monday: Break the Shivratri fast and makeup for return journey.
12th
Tuesday: Reach Mumbai by evening and return to Pune by night.
The Kick
Start:
As per the itinerary, Prakash bhai and I started our journey to Prayag on Friday night via
Pune-Patna exp. We felt it was a long 24hr. journey but it was just a day of
travel gone in a blink. All the co passengers and inhabitants of train journey
made our travel easy. The crowded train compartments sometimes made us fuzzy
about the visit.
That
night @Allahabad:
Still I do
remember that night which we spent at prayag. The whole night we were searching
for good food and shelter. It’s not an easy business through, we tried our
best. Many of my friends advised me to avoid street food. Obviously we were
looking for a good restaurant to have our dinner. And finally we found one (may be
one of the best restaurants near around the Allahabad railway station) Shriya
restaurant, a newly opened one. The food here is not so disappointing one but
the waiting duration for food made our mobile batteries fully charged ones. It took almost 3 and half hours to
finish our dinner. Its 12:30 AM, Sunday morning they served hot n colorful
veg. Biryani on Shivratri day. We just started our Shivratri fast by veg.
Biryani. Sounds different rite? Then we went to take some rest at some spot in
railway station. Due to Kumbh, the station was crowded with thousands of people
arriving /departing from different parts of India. We felt very fortunate that
we are part of the most happening gathering on earth. And the night went with
some of the best/worst experiences.
Awaiting
friends’ arrival:
In the
morning we were awaiting friends’ arrival from Delhi & Hyderabad. Naresh
from delhi reached us by 8 AM in the morning so we made our plan to take holy
dip as the other train was late for couple of hours. We just started towards
Snan Ghat at banks of river Ganga (Ganges). It took almost 45 min. to reach just
4 kms. The old Allahabad city looks similar as earlier, no special arrangements
for Kumbh except security. It was really govt. fault to prepare the city for
happening gathering on earth. People from all over the globe visited the place
to witness the happening gathering. UP govt. might have showcased this occasion
up to world standards as this is the best occasion to spread a word about our
great cultural events. They might have provided improved transportation,
hygiene surroundings and planned security to assist the travelers. The roads
are not that impressive without traffic alerts. Even though the whole event is
lucrative to govt. they failed in providing basic needs to common travelers.
Holy Dip
@Kumbh gathering:
Its 10:45
AM, another sunny day of mid march. Finally time arrived for us to take holy
dip at Maha Kumbh. We three people finished our holy dip. Just for this moment, we traveled 1400 KM all the way from Pune to Allahabad. The security arrangements
of UP police are really impressive. The cops are really responsive and helping
the common public to their best. Many people here informed us about the chain
snatchers and pick picketers. Luckily nothing happened as such. Water levels at river Ganga is very
low. We found many slogans saying “Watching at river ganga is as equal as
taking a holy dip”, quite impressive but every other traveler made the travel
to take a holy dip.
Significance
of this bath is we 3 people, on Maha Shivratri day, at Maha Kumbh (last day ok
Kumbh) taking the holy dip, Bliss..! And the Kumbh Mission accomplished.
From this
point our journey turned towards Varanasi, and our Shivratri saga starts here.
Our journey to Kashi (another name of the holy city Varanasi) went very softly.
We took UP-parihar bus for this 126 KM travel. It’s another 3 hr. Journey
through.
Bliss..!
Again I made to Ganga Harti:
Mahashivratri,
4PM we reached Banaras, one of the world’s oldest cities (1200BC) still existing.
I am totally excited to attend Ganga Harti for the third time. Its starts
around 6:30 and goes for 1 hr. We had plenty of time in hand to go for Harti so
we booked a boat to take a look around all the Ghats of Varanasi. We met many fellow travelers from Andhra Pradesh. Our small boat was waiting quite opposite to
the Harti place at Dashashwamedha Ghat. It was spell bounding moment to watch
Ganga Harti from that distant. We captured some of the moments. It went till
8:00 PM. And finally late arrivals met us after an hour gap of Ganga Harti
(around 9 PM).
Un-Expected
Varanasi:
After taking
a small nap on river banks of Ganga we started towards Maha dev darshan. The
Maha Dev darshan arrangements were really pathetic. All the devotees were
standing along the road side barricades for hours. Even the streets are not so
clean with running drainage along sides of the roads. Stinking smell,
unsupportive wood barricades, police & Commando security made very
congestive way to the darshan path. We were standing for more than 6 hrs for
darshan and the moment when we reached the shrine all the priests and security
personnel made it very difficult to have easy lookup towards the Lingam (MahaDev
Shiva’s deity). They simply spared to blink at the temple and thrown the
devotees without any hesitation. The temple surroundings are littered with
garbage dump and the whole place is maintained with less hygiene levels. The whole scenario looks like an abandoned
temple from a remote village, not even looks like the great Kashi Vishwanath
Temple at any cost. There are more than a two dozens of priests inside the
grabha griha. Finally we made the
darshan even though it’s not exactly the darshan and came out of temple
surroundings. Gosh, really another poor hospitality from UP police and temple
committee. I would recommend not to make Varanasi trip at least during busy
schedule days and festive times. Now it’s our time to take bid adieu with all great experiences.
Again it’s going to be a long train journey from Varanasi to Pune via Mumbai.
Food
@Varanasi:
One of the
bad experiences is having street food @Varanasi. The stalls are not opened till
9 AM in the morning. The menu options are so limited with kachori, hot Jilebi
and Puri Bhaji. Being a south Indian living in Maharastra we are habituated to
have north Indian style of food. We never expected exact south Indian style
of food but expected hygiene food with eatable taste. No chance..! We purchased enough fruits
and biscuits for next 32 Hr long journey and took our return train. On our return journey we
also blessed to have Shirdi Sai Baba darshan. And finally we are back to Pune
with some of good experiences and happenings in mind.
The Final
call:
Overall trip went amazing except some bad experiences at
Varanasi. And now we got good experience to cope with the worst situations. Being part of the
huge gathering (7.5 Million people taken holy dip on Shivratri day) itself is
an achievement to the fullest. It’s estimated that 3-5 Lakh devotees took holy
dip on an average hour. So how exciting to host and participate on such humongous
event on earth. Proud to be Hindu, proud to be Indian and human.
Har Har
Mahadev....!
