11 Nov

Rain Fury in Chakrata, Uttarakhand in June 2013 (Part II)

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With loud jaikaras of mighty Lord, journey was resumed. It was going good for 10 odd kilometres, our car was leading the show with Atit car following us. Soon the task of clearing boulders and rocks from road started as they were all on the road due to landslides. We all were going mad by getting out of the car in the rain after every 200 m to get various kinds of blockages cleared. We were actually afraid by not seeing any human existence in the entire stretch of road and having not seen any vehicle crossing us in the past 3 hours. It was not a journey of 22 kms, it was manifolds, and appearing to be never ending due to disastrous hurdles coming our way. To add to our fear and bring our jaws out of the mouth, we saw a mighty river flowing over a bridge that we were supposed to cross. There was no point of going back, and crossing that flooding river over the bridge was a task we have never ever imagined, so after much courage both the cars decided to keep accelerating without any thought of applying brakes. Both the cars managed to cross the river but that courage comes with a price, and the bumper of our car was washed off by the river flowing perpendicularly to the motion of car with mighty pace. Had we even thought of applying brakes, we could have been flowing in river along with cars. We celebrated our victory of crossing the hurdle by clicking a photograph and moved ahead.

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Some Days in Gujarat…. Adalaj Ni Vav and GandhiNagar sojourn

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Legend says that Mahmud Begara was mesmerised by the beauty of the Queen Roopoba, the wife of the chieftain and had promised to complete the structure if the queen marry the ruler as the Vaghela ruler had died till then. Structure was completed by Mahmud but the queen instead of marrying him, committed suicide by jumping from the uppermost story of this step well.

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Kareri Lake ~ a poetic trail

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Gaddis are basically a nomadic tribe who mainly lead a pastoral life depending on their cattle for their livelihood and wander in the high altitude alpine meadows for green and protein rich grass for their cattle and the nectar like pure water. These gaddis seem to be the happiest souls in the world without any worry cheering and living life happily in the lap of mother nature enjoying her eternal and purest beauty to the fullest. You envy at their life for a moment and then wish if you were born a gaddi, maybe in your next life…:)

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Road Journeys – Somnath to Diu – Sea and Sand

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On the way, we deliberately stopped at one point sighting a very unusual Palm-Tree with multiple branches. Later we found jungles of such trees in entire Diu and its adjoining areas. Browsing, it revealed, those were the Hokka-Trees, African specie of Palm brought by the Portuguese which in due course adapted Diu’s atmosphere and grow in plenty throughout. Locals call it Hokka, not found any where else in the country and also bore edible fruits that have medicinal properties.

Unlike Daman it was pleasing to notice a decent surrounding without the chaos of liquor shops and drunken-brawls instead, the hard drinks were available in much civilized and socialised manner. The places worth a visit in Diu are the Ghoghla Beach, Diu Fort, St. Paul’s Church, Nagoa Beach, Gangeshwar Mahadev Temple, Shell Museum, Naida Caves and Fortim-do-mar (Panikota).

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Road Journeys – Towards Somnath, In search of enlightenment

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Soon, we reached at my fourth Jyotirling, Somnath. Parking the car a few meters away in a very large space with unorganized parking facility though I hurriedly jogged to have the glance of the magnificent temple about which I have read so much in our history books during school and also in visual media. Soon a right turn left me in awe with eyes wide open to see the magnitude and glamour of the historical and mythological grand shrine at the shores of Arabian Sea, an architectural marvel standing erect in pride.

A large boundary around the shrine, with many visible vigil eyes, armed guards, innumerable CCTV cameras and steel barricading with metal detectors, scanners besides checking physically to every entrant beyond the permissible limit, reminds the history of destructions of the shrine in the past and its prone to vulnerability in the future.

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Sanchi – of Serene and Secluded Stups

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After wandering around the hill, you are drawn back to the crown jewel that is the Stup 1. The four magnificent gateways with their exquisite carvings are the main attraction of Sanchi and its trademark. The stup was embellished with the eye-popping carved torans in the 1st century BC by the Satavahans. Satavahans were the right people with the right credentials for the job. They gave us the glorious Ajanta temples. You are just relieved that the torans have survived for over two thousand years in almost pristine condition. Of course credit goes to Cunningham and Marshall for the restoration efforts.

The four gateways are installed at four cardinal directions of the stup. They have a common design – two square pillars with capitals and surmounted by three parallel architraves. All sides of the columns and the rear and front of the architraves are profusely carved. You could mistake the carved panels for wood or ivory. A lot of carving is overlapping and would require highly skilled workers. Reportedly, the workers were ivory carvers of Vidisha.

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Road Journeys – Towards Sinh Saheb’s Abode at GIR

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How many of you have sighted a big cat in wild? Will all of you agree that sighting it for the first time is a nerve-breaking, shaky, crazy, ecstatic, intoxicating, heavenly, euphoric, blissful and rapturous…….., short of words to explain, state of mind and body! All eyes still, hoping another sight of the shy animal petrified motionlessly for another few seconds. No chance, assured by the whispers of the guide. Everyone on board was busy browsing their cameras, for the best clip out of multiple shots taken in few seconds. Triumphantly, only my camera crowned the honor with one better close-up with a promise to share it with everyone later.

Soon, we sighted one more leopard crossing the road much closer, but that one was in haste and soon out of sight before, anyone could shoot it. The guide and driver were unanimous view of our better luck to spot two, too shy animals so easily in our first few minutes. I feel, they were right because back home, surprisingly we were informed that none have sighted any big cat that morning.

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Some days in Gujarat : Kankaria lakefront (Part 2)

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Exit gate of the glass cabin led us into the park in real with various species of flowers thrown in great abundance and small placards indicating to us that a particular flower catered to which particular species of Butterfly. As the weather was quite hot, we could not find the butterflies in a significant number though.

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एक यात्रा ऐसी भी… पीरान कलियर, पुरकाजी और रुढ़की का सफरनामा

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समय की सुईयां,  अपनी रफ़तार से आगे सरक रही हैं, अत: रात मे एक बार दुबारा से लौटने का वादा कर, पुरकाजी से विदा लेकर हम रूढ़की की तरफ बढ़ चले | रूढ़की शहर पार करके हरिद्वार की तरफ लगभग 24 किमी दूर पीरान कलियर गाँव पड़ता है जो यदि हरिद्वार की तरफ से आया जाये तो वहाँ से 12 किमी के आसपास है | सब कुछ ठीक चलते चलते अचानक ही हमारी गाड़ी की अगली खिड़की के पावर विंडो ने काम करना बंद कर दिया | सारे यत्न करके देख लिये, शीशा बीच में ही अटका पढ़ा था, फौरन रूड़की शहर वापिस लौटकर एक कार मैकेनिक को ढूँढा, जिसने अगले दरवाजे की सारी पैकिंग वगैरह खोल कर, सिद्ध किया कि इसका प्लग खराब हो गया है, अब ये तो बड़ा और झंझट का काम था, मगर उसने किसी तरह शीशा ऊपर चढ़ा दिया और कनैक्शन हटा दिया, जिससे कोई गलती से शीशा नीचे ना कर दे, क्यूंकि शीशा एक बार नीचे उतर कर ऊपर नही जा पाता | बहरहाल, चलताऊ काम हो गया, मगर इस सब में एक महत्वपूर्ण घंटा निकल गया | लेकिन अब हम निश्चिंत होकर अपनी कार कहीं भी खडी कर सकते थे | इस अकस्मात हुये अवरोध की वजह से हमारे पीरान गाँव पहुंचते-पहुँचते, शाम की धुंधिलका छानी शुरू हो गयी थी, अब समर समय के साथ भी था, अत: रुकने की जगह सब कुछ जल्दी जल्दी करना था | तमाम तरह के झंझावातों से पार पाते हुये, आखिरकार गौधूली की  बेला में हम इस गाँव में पहुंचे | बिल्कुल साधारण सा गाँव है, यूपी के तमाम दूसरे गाँवों की तरह ही, तरक्की से बिल्कुल अछूता, गाँव में अंदर की तरफ जाती कच्ची-पक्की सढ़क और दूर तक फैला मिटटी का मैदान | हाँ, गाँव के प्रवेश स्थान पर पत्थर का बना एक बड़ा सा गेट, इस गाँव की कुछ विलक्षणता की मुनादी सा करता प्रतीत होता है, मगर इतना समय नही निकाल पाये कि चंद पल रुक कर, इस गेट की फोटो उतार पाते, क्यूंकि जंग अब घड़ी की सुईओं के साथ भी थी, और इधर शाम अब अपना सुरमई रूप बदल, कालिमा की तरफ़ बड़ने को अग्रसर थी | अत: फोटो का मोह छोड़ सीधे इमाम साहब की खानकाह में सजदा करने पहुंचे | ऐसी रवायत है कि हजरत साबिर अली की दरगाह पर दस्तक देने से पहले इमाम साहब और शाह बाबा की दरगाह पर हाजिरी भरनी पडती है, और दोनों जगहें एक दूसरे से लगभग 2 किमी की दूरी पर हैं | पहले हमने यहीं इमाम साहब की दरगाह पर अपना सजदा किया और अपनी मन्नत का धागा बाँधा | बाहर सेहन में कितने ही धागे और अर्जियां लोग अपनी मनोकामनायों की पूर्ती हेतु बाँध गये थे |

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Road Journeys – Ahmedabad to Jungarh

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Finally a huge granary, a few steps from the step-wells, covered with stage wise storage facilities enabled the curators to use the stocks in hardships as per its requirement by taking it out of the selected chamber designed by high class engineering technique without disturbing the entire storage. Preserved with natural herbs and their way of modern-ancient techniques of keeping the grains dry and free from pesticides is a matter of research. We are happy with pride to know that we were always ahead of time.

An interesting fact, which I feel prominent to mention, is that Zulfikar Ali Bhutta, the deceased veteran of Pakistan, hanged in a political trial was an administrator of the Nawab of Junagadh and played a role during annexation, post independence. Also the very famous, beautiful actor in Bollywood, Parvin Babi was a kin to Junagadh Nawab of Babi dynasty, sadly died in pitiable condition. A few fresh blooms and a solitary eagle on a dead dried tree impressed me with the balance of nature.

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Road journeys – Nashik to Ahmedabad

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In 30 minutes we reached the famous abode of the Mahatma, the father of the nation and a legend preaching lessons on peace even today. We were enthralled with the mere feeling that we are actually at the site where, Mahatma Gandhi once lived, preached, enlightened our political revolutionists with his successful spiritual ideas of peaceful revolution and earned independence through his ardent anshans, un-armed and without blood shed. The river Sabarmati alongside flowing timidly adds tranquility in the already pacific atmosphere of the heavenly adobe. A few foreign visitors accompanied with philosophers on Gandhian studies were keen in learning with humility. We visited the whole area pursuing every facts preserved in pictures, models and writings with great respect and honour. A stall with Gandhiji’s books and relevant works by other legends was very worth visiting. A classic piece on crystal with Gandhiji’s portrait in it was what we couldn’t resist purchasing besides few artifacts and books. The hutment of Mahatma, a much revered place and the replicas of the items used by the immortal was also of interest. A charkha in working condition at its verandah is still there, in remembrance to the veteran, honouring his omnipresence in every Indian heart and beyond. A man weaving on the charkha drew every ones attention and was framed in all cameras including mine. The room, where Gandhiji resided was found locked for no better reasons but one can see through the netted wires on its windows, the resting place of the Mahatma, Later we also visited Vinobaji’s hut which is a thatched roofed mud hutment with two rooms one for him and another for Mira Ben the Anglo follower of Gandhiji.

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