Himalayan Jaunt - Part 2

The Next day early morning we set out for Gowrikund...

At this juncture I should definitely tell you about the state and the people of Uttaranchal. This newly formed state is rapidly developing its tourism activities and infrastructure in conjunction with kind of natural beauty it houses. It also has a number of universities like the Roorkee University,IIT – Roorkee etc., The people here are a very contented tribe. Most of them have there owned piece of lands for cultivation and are more than satisfied with what they possess. Highly God fearing people in nature they don’t attempt to step out of their small world. God Bless them!

We were already 8000 ft above sea level, the constant hurling sound of the river Mandakeni, the sweet herbal smell in every whiff of breeze that touched us more often was a very pleasant phenomenon that followed us almost till Kedar. The journey from Pipalkoti to Gowrikund seemed steeper than the rest of the uphill journey we had undertaken till that point of time. Our eyes were constantly scanning the skyline for the snow-clad mountains we could catch a glimpse now and then. Finally after about 4 hours of very steep climb we reached Gowrikund.

Gowrikund is a TapthKund (Hot-water spring). This place is filled with hawkers, small cottages etc., The taxi cannot proceed after this point. We had to walk about a km downhill to reach the spring. They have manually created partitions for bathing. The men as usual had the privilege of taking their holy bath in open air whereas we women folk resorted to closed quarters. Anyway it was fun.At this point what I was left wondering was - in such high altitudes we were still feeling hot and humid like Delhi. Before I started on this Yatra I have heard people describe this place to be freezing and advised us to carry loads of warm clothes.

After the Holy dip in the kund we proceeded to the taxi to dump our wet clothes and get ready to climb uphill to reach Kedar. As I described earlier after this point we cannot proceed by taxi or any such vehicle. The only way of climbing these 16 Kms to Kedar was either by foot, Goda (horse) or Doli (Palanquin). My mom and others decided to go by doli. The doli is just a chair tied to long sticks which four doliwallas carry. My brother and I alon with our guide decided to walk (I have no idea what on earth prompted us to take this decision). We all set out with full josh and bought sticks to help us tread these 16 Kms. Gasp! Gasp! Gasp! This is what one could hear after a few minutes. We hardly would have treaded about 100 yards and I could not take the next step forward. The brave hearts that decided to walk 16 Kms could not take a few steps. Reason – the Oxygen level in the air is too sparse for the body to support such kind of a steep walk. I instantly decided to go by a Goda. Whereas my brother and the guide (experienced man) decided to continue their journey to Kedar by foot. I bargained with a decent Godawalla and set out. There were hundreds of people undertaking this climb. The feeling at this juncture was wonderful…You feel you are part of a battalion marching towards an ultimate goal but again all-alone amidst the colossal mountains the deep valleys. I was thoughtless, speechless my mouth was simply uttering the 11 names of Lord Shiva as if it was programmed to do so. The air is filled with Spiritual fragrance throughout. These are times we realize that man is such a small part amidst God’s beautiful and flawless creation.

My Goda (named Beeru) and the Goodawala treaded the narrow ways with precision. The road is too narrow and some times covered with Ice. In some places I could see these Ice blocks are cut to make way. The Goda slipped in many places - my heart reached my mouth. As the journey progressed the weather too changed. The temperatures were falling at a steady rate. I pulled out all the warm clothes that I could lay my hands on from my bag. It was freezing. The journey continued. The Godawalla and the Goda took their lunch in a place called Ram Bada. I was sitting stretching my legs after a tiring 3hours journey (imagine the goda’s plight). Then I saw somebody wave at me Hmmm it was my brother and the guide…they also midway decided to go by Goda and hired couple of them.

The second half of the journey was a very steep climb…Snow-clad peak…the river which was flowing alongside till that point, was actually frozen after a certain altitude. The water was seeping out of the glaciers, which originates from Kedar. The water which seeps out from these glaciers flows down till RudraPrayag and is called Mandakeni. It is also called Kedar Ganga as it originates from Kedar.It was almost like tracing back the rivers origin. After 5 and half-hours we finally reached a plain surface on a mountaintop. I assumed we reached Kedar and I was right. The place again is filled with natural beauty. There were a lot springs, gras lands etc., My mom, brother and the guide reached after an hour’s time. I was fully clad in woolen clothes.

We reached a small gali were there was a cottage kind of a hotel booked for us already. Breathing becomes even more difficult here. Even if we had t take a few steps we had to halt for a few minutes. As soon we reached the room we dumped our bags and went to the temple. The temple is very unique and surrounded by mountains on all the sides. (Remember that one of these mountains is a sakthi sthal su-meru). It was time for aarthi in the temple. We went inside the temple and had the darshan of the Lord kedarnath. The lord is a Swayambhu (self originated). The sanctum was warm unlike the outside world. The darshan was beautiful.> > We came out and stood amidst a huge gathering for the aarthi. There a number of Nagas and sadhus who gather around the temple at that time. It seems these people live here throughout the year. They all looked so divine. Some of them have Damaroos (the small drum that Shiva is suppose to adorn). This temple is supposed to be covered with snow for about 6 months of the year. At that time the local people say that the Devas come and do the pooja here. At aarthi time all the gods and goddesses descend here to have a darshan of Lord kedarnath. The local people say that even when the temple is closed during winter and is covered by snow they still here the aarthi pooja everyday.

The aarthi began …A huge bell was constantly ringinging, songs and vedic chants filled the whole place..The nagas in turn played their damaroos. The whole place was charged. The feeling cannot be explained in words. I felt even the mountains around the temple (it was nightfall and all the snow clad mountains had a beautiful silver lining) joined us in worshiping the lord…> > After this divine experience we resorted to our rooms…we could hardly have dinner as all of were freezing inspite of our warm clothes. Throughout the night we of kept awake, as it was too cold. Our bodies were tired of shivering…My mom fell sick as she was constantly throwing up.. Anyway at 2:30 am we went to the temple for performing pooja as that was the time allocated for us. We could perform the pooja in whatever way we wish to. Lot of them were hugging the Shiva lingam. Even I had a chance to do it. > > After the pooja we rested for sometime and started towards Gowrikund again this time three of us by Goda and my mom in Doli.It seems the temperature reached -10 degress the previous night. No wonder my entire body was feeling numb!!!

Himalayan Jaunt - Part 1

This is actually an email that I wrote to Shilpa three years back about my Kedar-Badri trip, thought will make an interesting reading now....

When Daakshayani(Parvathi) sort permission from Lord shiva to attend the yajna conducted by her father King Daksha who was also Shiva's enemy, sent her reluctuntly. She was insulted throughtly in the yajna by her own father daksha for having married shiva a beggar (A guy who lived in the graveyard and wore snakes etc etc.,).Frustrated Daakshayani destroyed daksha's yajna and decided to end her life. Shiva hearing this news turned red in fury and arrived at that place. He destroyed daksha and carried the corpse of Daakshayani above his head and started doing his rudra thandava. Lord Vishnu in order to calm down shiva cut the Shakthi Daakshayani's body into 51 parts. These 51 parts fell in various parts of the the Indo - Asian region.Even today there are temples in these 51 Places and are worshipped as Shakthi Sthalas or Energy Centers. Most of them are found in India, few others in countries like Srilanks, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanisthan.The Shakhi Sthalas are spread all over India, Kanyakumari temple, Kancheepuram Kamakshi temple to Ksheer Bhavani, Vaishno Devi in Kashmir.Kamakya in Assam to Gnana Prasunambika in Andra Pradesh. Some of the famous sakthi Sthalas are - Madurai Meenakshi temple, The Manasoravar lake(near Kailash), the Kali temple in Calcutta etc.,

My Mom is writing her travelogue in Gnana Aalayam Magazine about her visit to these 51 places. She has covered over 15 temples now (including Kailash, Kamakhya in assam,and the temples in Bangladesh).

Kedarnath situated in the state of Uttaranchal is also a sakthi sthala. Though the deity lord Kedareshwar is very famous and thousands of pilgrims travel each year from various parts of India to see him - It is a sakthi sthala by virtue of Sakthi's right hand falling amidst the mountains behind the temple. The temple is surrounded by snow clad mountains and is situated 11000 ft above sea level. This particular mountain is called Su-Meru.

My mom planned to visit the Kedarnath temple for her travelogue. My Brother and me decided to join her this time. We decided to combine Badrinath also in this yatra. Deity Badri Vishal (Vishnu) is worshipped here.We set out to Delhi by flight. In Delhi we arranged for a taxi (Toyato Qualis) for our entire yatra. From this point onwards our yatra was fully by road. After a day’s sight seeing , we left to Haridwar about 200 Km from the capital. Here we had our first glimpse of the river Ganga. We also saw the famous Ganga Aarthi in Har ki Peri (the place where lord vishnu placed his feet). We stayed overnight in a hotel just by the riverside. The moonlight falling in the river water and the shimmer in the water was just too beautiful. I was admiring this sight for a long time. The next day morning we had our holy dip in the river. The water was freezing.

Then we set out to Srinagar (not the one in Kashmir) in Uttaranchal. Srinagar is the base camp for the Chaar Dham Yatras. The Four Dhams (Holy places) are Kedar, Badri, Gangotri and Yamunotri. We were only going to visit Kedar and Badri as my mom's busy schedule could not accomodate the other two yatras. We had lunch in Srinagar and started towards Gowri kund (Hot water spring) which is the starting point of the Kedar yatra. Gowri Kund is more than 600 Kms from Srinagar and the travel was totally uphill. The stretch from Srinagar to Gowri Kund was one of the most memorable in the entire yatra. It was filled with gigantic mountains of himalayas and beautiful rivers, which were flowing amidst these mountains. As you would recall Geography lessons of the 10th std these mountains are like blocks one after each other.Rivers like Alaknanda, Bhagirathi, Mandakeni all have their origins in the Himalayas and later become one with the Ganga. This stretch includes many Sangams(union) of the rivers. Each one of these Sangams are called Prayags. The union of Alaknanda and Bhagirathi is called Dev Prayag. Union of Alaknanda and Madakeni is called Rudra Prayag. These Prayags are considered holy and also provide a awesome sight. Each one of these rivers have their unique characteristic like color, force etc., For example; Alaknanda is dark Grey and is almost black. Bhagirathi is reddish brown,

Mandakeni is a very beautiful river with a serene green tint I instantly fell in love with this river.We decided to stay that night in a place called Pipalkoti. This place is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen in my life. We caught our first glimpse of the snow-clad mountains of Himalayas at this place. We seldom knew at that point that Kedar is situated amongst these Snow Clad Mountains and that the next day we are actually going to be there. The Cottage we stayed in Pipalkoti was at the riverside of Mandakeni which was my favorite river as I told you earlier.The Next day early morning we set out for Gowrikund....

If anything can go wrong, it will - Murphy's law

Add a corollary- When one goes wrong, everything will

I am having one of those worst days at work...my manager is sick, my senior analyst is serving his notice period and my client wants to take away every bit of happiness in my life. To sum up in one word STESS!

Side effects can be worse -

When I wake up, realize that I haven't slept yet.

My face becomes a reflection of the mind! starts looking like a burnt piece of wood....an aged orange peel, an over-cooked potato all at the same time.

My dressing sense goes for a six - I start dressing up like Mumtaz mahal...don’t misunderstand for queenly dressing…I start dressing in those flairu, ornamental salwar kameezs...

Start having hallucinations - Every other person who wanders past me (esp. at work) suddenly seems to be having hidden comments under his/her lips about me.

Feel like sticking out my tongue, show faces to my unusually caring, friendly boss (He knows I am working hard!)

Use the office ID card as my dog's leash.

I am feeling better already...YUHOOO...