Dharamsala a pictorial

There were enough  reasons why we planned a trip to Dharamsala

 One it was early summer and the upper reaches of Himachal Pradesh was a good place to be in as the weather would be pleasant 

Secondly it had the Sterling resorts of which we have been   members for the last two decades so accommodation was assured to be good 

Thirdly there weren't much hill stations in the  north or south of India for us left to be seen and above all we wished for a chance to see the Dalai Lama ,the spiritual head of Buddhism his holiness himself if there was a chance 

So we flew to Chandigarh from Chennai by Jet Airways 

 ,Chennai Domestic Airport was definitely better than its International counterpart with plenty of shopping choices
Jet airways too was pretty comfortable 

Reaching Chandigarh we booked a pre paid cab from airport to take us to Dharamsala a distance of 237 km .
Volvo luxury buses also plied between Chandigarh and Dharamsala the most economic was the HP Transport bus but it would be a rickety ride .

Chandigarh is a planned city designed by the great architect La Courbaisier and is divided neatly into sectors ,
we left the city and its broad roads and moved on to Punjab state and later into HP ,
the climb started by dusk and it started becoming darker and colder as we climbed up

Dharamsala itself is around 4500 feet ASL and is a crowded town ,
we reached there by going through quaint junctions like Sheela Chowk etc ,
Sterling resorts was a little way beyond the town and googling helped us find it ,
we checked in tired and it was only the next morning we knew that we were just behind a flowing stream and snow covered mountains .

After a short morning walk when we found out that there were local buses which could take us to Dharamsala town and later to upper Dharamsala or McLeod Ganj 

We had a quick egg bread breakfast in a Dhaba and in no time was in a bus with the locals going about their morning schedules to reach Chamundi temple as an auspicious start ,
The Chamundi temple  was one of the   Shaktipeeths 

there are 51 shaktipeeths totally 

Legend describes Sati who married Shiva immolates herself because Dakshan her father insulted her and her husband .An infuriated Shiva dances his angry Tandava holding her corpse 

As this dance of destruction of Shiva could destroy every world in the universe Lord Vishnu on being appealed by Devas uses his chakra to cut Satis corpse into pieces in order to calm Shiva who was dancing with it 

The parts of Sati fall in several parts of  India Nepal Bangladesh and Sri Lanka and these sites are called Shatipeeths so goes legend and faith .

There are 5 in HP 

Chamundi Temple ,Chindapurni, temple Jwalamukhi Temple ,Vijreshwar temple and Naina Devi temple

we would visit all except for Naina devi temple as the road to it was in repair .

The Banganga lake was by the side of Chamundi temple which was reached descending down  some steps 
Drummers sat on the steps and  reverently kept drumming 
the sound  would merge with the cymbals and bells ringing from inside the temple ,
devotees surged ahead to get a glimpse of the Devi and the priest was intoning his mantras .after partaking a simple prasad of puffed rice and dry fruits and getting a scarlet red mark on the forehead adorned by the priest himself we moved to the banks of Banganga with moneys loitering about ,

a slight drizzle was on and we quickly took photographs of the lovely river lake and the mountains in the background it was the Feet of Sati that was said to have fallen here .

we walked back to the small town and caught a bus to Dharamsala again and later to Mc Leod Ganj 

It was cold and drizzling as we walked along the crowded narrow streets which went up and down .

The snowy peaks towered high above us winking in their brilliance while a feeble sun attempted to give us some warmth .

We were at Mcleod Ganj up in the foothills of the Himalayas in HP 

During British rule Mcleod was the local Governor and he discovered this hill station also called upper Dharamsala 10 km above lower Dharamsala .

Later in 1959 His Holiness the Dalai Lama was given sanctuary by India here and it is now a Tibetan settlement and Govt in exile .
His escape from China was written by me as a post 
http://hariwrite.blogspot.com/2015/04/the-escape-of-dalai-lama.html

This place is thus  called Little Lhasa 
the Dalai Lamas home .in the Tsughalakang complex 

His holiness was in Japan when we went 
We were disappointed we had no chance to meet him or attend his prayer meets 

the center itself was perched on a mountain slope with lovely views it was spacious adorned with fluttering prayer flags and rolling prayer wheels ,red robed monks were in plenty several of them were in broad balconies playing some sort of meditation game where one would make noise while others gazed benignly some older monks walked with consternation some were meditating with a faraway look in their peaceful eyes .heavy tomes of  books lined the library and the huge worship hall was filled with Buddhas with a unfathomable but divine countenance 
 The town itself was filled with pizza eateries German bakeries and British pastry shops as plenty of foreigners were seen there with thier big cameras and tote bags 
trinkets statuettes bells Tibetan antiques were all on sale in small shops and the place was colorful 

we bought some hot Momos from a middle aged lady selling in the streets and ducked into an empty workshop as the rains became heavy to dip into the fiery sauce and eat our Momos under the shadow of an old car it was cool and romantic and we were reminded of our younger courting days 
the momos were delicious and melted in our mouths though we did try momos later in fancy restaurants it was never as tasty as this was 

We took a short trip in a hired car to interesting places around the town
We first saw a scenic lake later a view point to see the Dhauladhar ranges ,we also saw a trekking track which according to our driver who also would turn as trekking scout if needed was a bit strenous taking about 12 hours of hard climb ,we went o one to see the St Johns episcopal cathedral called st Johsn church inthe wilderness ,this was a qauint little church made of stones reached by a rock hewn path admidst Deodar trees ,lord Elgin once viceroy lay buried here as he died here in 1863 and the lovely stained glass windows are donated by his wife Lady Elgin ,probably one of the oldest cathedrals in India it still had regular sunday masses

Afternoon lunch was in a Tibetan restaurant and we had hot and sour soup ,momos rice and pepper chicken i think it was not bad 

India is the land of taste,the variety of food available and the different tastes of different regions is unparalleled any where else I feel 
we had pretty strong guts and were not very squeamish on street food too 

the streets of Dharamsala 

The walks in the mountains

the blue hills 

The Momos 

We slept tired back in the resort 
the next day day two we walked along way almost 5 to 6 km beyond the town and into a place called Shidbari ,we saw an art gallery on the way ,the roads were busy with buses and cars and people going for work children going to schools and we were the lonely walking couple with hats and caps and cameras the arch typical tourists but it was enjoyable as we saw the place better 
It was along walk to reach Chinmaya mission at Shidbari ,we went in and had a look but the place was quiet and not very busy as construction was on and no classes were on at the time 
we then took a car back visiting Gyuto monastery on way back again a few km away in Shidbari 
the Gyuto order was formed in 1475 by Jetsun Kunga Dhndup and is one of the main Tantric colleges of Gelug tradition ,their Vajrayana teaching was famous ,
in 1950 when China invaded Tibet there were around 1000 monks and 60 of them escaped ,they were in several places in India and now in Sidhbari Dharamsala and there were about 500 monks here now ,The monks are well known for their tradition of choral chanting which had been recorded in the west in best selling albums ,the baritone haunting chants is mesmerizing to hear and is supposed to have healing powers 



Gyuto monastery had as its titular head the Karmapa 
His holinesss the 17th Karmapa ogyen trinley dorje is the titular head of the 900 year old karma Kagyu lineage he is now 29 years old he had a dramatic escape from Tibet in 2000 when he was 14 years old 
 it was a lovely place with huge Buddhas and paintings ,there was also a good library and we talked to the bespectacled librarian who himself had made an escape via the mountains from China along with the Karmapa before coming here and settling down 

Gyuto monastery 

Afternoon saw us in the stream behind the resort ,the clear mountain stream flew fast and furious but we could sit on the rocks and dip our legs in the pristine coolness 

The next Morning we walked uphill on the road for more than a km 

Surprisingly we found a Shiv temple amongst the trees 
we walked up into a quiet neat temple 

Panditjee informed us of an older temple down near the rolling stream 

We clambered down the stone steps to find a narrow cave with a tiny opening 

The man who came from temple to guide us said we needed to prostrate ourselves to see the swayambhu or self formed shiv lingha in the place where Arjuna was offered blessings and heavenly arms by Lord Shiva in answer to his penance in Dhwapar yuga goes the legend 

It was really an enthralling walk and we felt blessed

We also visited the Norbulinga monastery and institute  just about a km from sterling resorts .

It has a beautiful monastery library painting sculpture Tangha painting workshops 

It also has a guest house

 — 

on our way back to Chandigarh in a cab we had booked from a travel agency in Mcleod ganj we could    see four more shaktipeeths ,

the first one was   Khangra vejeswari temple it was said that the breast of Sati had fallen here ,temple was crowded but there was an orderly line and we could see golden statuettes of lion packs in front of the deity 

most of the temples had huge markets where one could get all puja items and plenty of sweets and almost everything ,temple visits to many villagers around was also a shopping spree it was spiritually and materially fulfilling 

The Jwalamukhi temple was next in our list 

This temple is unique that it has no idols only a bluish natural flame between stones which is natural gas and never quenches ,said to represent the tongue of the godess which had fallen here 

The Kangra king built this  temple

In 1009 Mohammed Ghazni destroyed it 

Later Akbar the great visited the temple and tried to put the flame out by using waterjets but failed to do so he realized his folly and donated a golden umbrella but this turned onto a strange metal as Devi was unhappy with his acts as goes a story 

Guru Ranjit Singh gold plated the domes later 

So goes legend

We did see the dark blue flame burning with luster

Jwalamukhi indeed

After the temple visits we sat back and dozed as our car descended into the plains ,we passed the Anadthpur sahib Gurudwara by dusk and saw plenty of people walking great distances to reach there as a penance 

Ananthpur Sahib Gurudwara 


\By night we had checked in to IMA guest house in Chandigarh and tucked in a Punjabi tandoori chicken for all our troubles and the next day morning Ola cabs brought us to the Airport at a bargain price  lesser than an autorickshaw fare !
and Jet Airways safely put us in chennai 

The escape of the Dalai Lama

March 1959

The cold winds rattled the wooden latticed windows of the Potala palace in Lhasa  .
it was dark and late in the night

The potala  was massive and foreboding in the darkness ,rain was drizzling and the howling wind  making its eerie music added to the somber  note.

The man tiptoed into the bedroom of his holiness softly treading even at this time with the reverence deserved by his spiritual master

The Dalai Lama was the spiritual head of millions of Buddhists around the world his lineage hailing from Ancient Buddha and the Sakyamuni themselves.

The deeply asleep  teenager with a shaven head his round spectacles lying behind the heavy tome he had been reading  hardly betrayed the greatness bestowed upon  him .

Yes it was troubled times, the Chinese were already inside Tibet and all the diplomatic negations attempted by his holiness were in vain,
the Chinese were bent on taking over Tibet and did not care a bit for the Dalai Lama or Buddhism,

Today they had fired two shells into his holiness palace and this was the final act of defiance before the decision was made to take the Dalai Lama away from Tibet .
 

The frowning silhouette of the Dalai  Lama slowly came awake as he was gently shaken by the assistant

Your holiness please

Wake up its time

Time to go

He had been told that these would be the words for which he would have to flee his beloved country

The sacred Potala where the spirits of his ancients roamed the dark corridors ,where the millions of butter lamps glowed with brilliance removing the darkness of human minds where the devoted came prostrating with utmost reverence to their living God a lanky shaven teenager with thick glasses and sad eyes  rose from his slumber to his destiny .

He was filled with remorse at the act of fleeing his beloved people leaving them to the vagaries of the invaders of his blessed land ,
Everything told him to stay back in this land of his but he also knew it was needed for him to exit to guard the faint flicker of hope he had for a free Tibet and it was his duty to do so .

Men of Gods never have it easy they face hardships as none of their human brethren’s can even decipher,
their minds are in turmoil and everything they do is with selfless love for humanity .
 

And so the Dalai Lama rose from his slumber and  quickly gathered his meagre belongings tied in a bundle and went behind the man into the dark corridors of the Potala ,
he went through small corridors flickering dimly in the glow of dying butter lamps he crossed vast halls where during the day sat monks soberly intoning mantras deep from their souls to huge Buddha’s gazing benignly at them but in the dark of the night it was all empty and hollow

He ducked below stair cases and stepped gingerly on narrow footholds to descend down the steep crevices of the Potala looming in the heights of Lhasa

Some said it  was all organised by the CIA .
 

The whole adventure was highly secretive and was known only to a selective few .
 

The Dalai lamas mother too was brought out, a small door in the back led to a narrow tunnel, they bent low while stepping into its wet interiors and walked long to reach an indiscriminate part of the town after walking long distances .

A pack of ponies stood snorting white fog into the cold night sky .
 

The Dalai Lama ,his  mother and brothers were quickly huddled covered from head to foot to look like poor travellers and were put atop sturdy ponies

Without much ado the huge ear ringed turbaned Tibetan men who were warriors in disguise and body guards who would not hesitate to kill if needed to protect their holiness whatever their religion professed ,walked briskly

Spies were all around and the Chinese had already suspected that something was going on

 They would never want the Dalai Lama to leave Tibet as they would be morally in deep trouble in international circles.

Slowly the caravan moved to the outskirts of the town without incidence the way was quietly being cleared by indiscriminate men who knew the path and were looking for curious eyes

the night was cold and dark as they slipped away from Lhasa .

Days of climbing treacherous paths mostly in the dark with the neighs and grunts of the ponies as the only sound followed
the howling winds and splutter of distant avalanches were their company

Breathless and tired and dirty they climbed steep hills barren valleys where wild yaks roamed around occasionally catching a glimpse of the red eyes of a snow leopard as it crouched for possible prey
the guards would light a fire to scare it away .they would bite into hard bread and sip salted butter tea dehydrated they would drink from sheepskins

shepherds catching a glimpse of his holiness would fall flat in supplication and would not rise till the caravan passed into the distant dust

Days of climbing would bring them to the tall passes more than 17000 feet above sea level with snow covering the earth and the sky the cold and the meagre oxygen would make them struggle for breath and even the hardy bodyguards had to plod tiredly

while the Dalai lama gazed with sadness at his men and his ponies struggling for his safety his mind would go out to his people and he would pray fervently for them .
 

Crossing the high passes the Khenzimane pass wading through the rushing waters of lakes and streams crossing the mighty Brahmaputra in shaky boats the tired entourage would reach closer to India as it shuffled towards the Indian border

After more than two weeks of hardy travel it would reach Tawang in today’s Arunachal Pradesh

( I was lucky to visit this beautiful place once )

 it was precisely here that the Chinese would overrun India in the 1962 war taking their revenge but that would be a decade later .

the Dalai lama would stay four days in Tawang recouping from a ravaging diarrhoea

 later he would move down to Bomdila and still later to Tezpur in Assam .he would then stay in Mussorie while his home was made ready in Dharamshala in Himachal Pradesh 250 km away from Chandigarh and more than 7000 feet in height .

Called Mcleod Ganj or upper Dharamshala this would become the Government in exile for Tibet with the Dalai lama and more than 80000 of his followers who would settle down here

Iam writing this because I visited Dharamsala and Mcleod ganj recently and went back in my imagination to write how I felt his holiness would have escaped the Chinese

looking fees

Looking coolies
Nokku in malayalam is to look
now this can be used in several situations like for example an yesteryear wife may never call her husband by name but mostly as Nokkoo
when it comes to teenage boys brimming with hormones eda nokkada means look at that beauty !
There was a movie by name Nokkathadoorathe kannum nattu where veteran actress Padmini acted with debut Nadia Moidu and a young Mohanlal,it also had memorable songs by Jerry Amaldev the talented music Director
But to the malayalee Nokku is something else
in fact he prefers not to look at that
the only place in the world where one has to pay a charge to a laborer for his looking at a job ! should be this Stalins own country !
you can call it by any name
 labour terrorism is reasonably apt
no court indictments or law has till today  been able to touch this ignominy of the state
Nokku coolie means the coolie or fee paid for looking
most streets in cities of Kerala have these small shacks where colorfully head geared blue or red shirts worn according to their affiliations lay waiting for their prey .
Any laden lorry or small truck is waylaid and demanded to know what trier purpose Any packing or unpacking of goods in that region is dutifully supervised by them These days they allow the work to be done by others at economic rates as long as they get their demanded cut as nokku coolie
they then relax and lean on a tree light up a beedi and watch the work or rather look at the work
At times some expert suggestions are given as to how people should go about their jobs of unloading and loading probably getting nostalgic of their hardier days when they had to work
After a couple of teas and gazing inanimatedly they get up to recieve thier nokku coolie and are on thier way to catch the next victim
recently a foriegn terracota sculptor who needed to pack his creations after a show  in Cochin found this so absurd and he refused to partake his money for the rubbish and instead destroyed his creations breaking them like the Bamiyan statues but the nokku coolie veterans watched all this benignly and so did the law  !
the nooku koolans  had seen all this and more and they go about doing their job of looking and getting paid for it !
how nice

OK KANMANI ...FILM REVIEW

Romance and Love is an emotion that can touch one at any age
When young its as fresh as a just budded flower while as one ages its mellowed like fine wine .
Creativitiy has always expressed love as the finest among its creations and films too are no exception
Movies like Maro Charitra.Bobby.and several others have tingled the fine nerves of love
Maniratnam the ace Director always comes up with a winner after a couple of flops
This time his new film Ok Kanmani is an all time winner .
Be it in the melding of the lead pair Dulqar Salman and Nitya menon whose love had the freshness and sweet naivety
Prakash Raj and ms Samson were the older pair of love birds and the slow Alzeimers  that ate into his wifes brain
The young couple who had a live in relationship goes through a crisis involving thier older counterparts and so realise thier folly in thier short vision of love
The film had a feel of Titanic where the audience love the chirpy lovebirds
Worth seeing

Driver Swami

Dusk was slowly settling down as we returned from the middle of the River where the three rivers the Ganga ,the Yamuna and the mythical Sarasvati was supposed to have melded ,

To be able to go to this point in the middle of a maha kumbh mela was a feat by itself as the once in 12 years Maha kumbh which lasted for more than a month was the biggest congregation of humanity in one place .

Something which could be seen even from space!

On certain special days during the month long Kumbh millions would descend on its banks, though the day we went was not one of the big days .

The crowds still swelled on the banks of the flowing river gaily festooned with glimmering lights ,

we were lucky to get into one of the last boats and surreptiously glided out as the police were preventing any more people from going to the river centre as it was getting dark ,

After our ritual bath we felt clean and privileged to have had a rare opportunity

When we had told our friends before we left that we were off to the Kumbh mela they were aghast

The kumnbh mela, are you people crazy ?

The crowd is just abominable; one could get killed in those frequent stampedes

It was one of India’s enduring nightmares for anyone living in a an ensconced world

How could one  take such a risk ?

The very idea of even reaching the Mela grounds was unthinkable for many but we took the impulsive decision because one of our friends Pramodh Swamji of the Amritha group had invited us and till day we have felt it was one of our greatest blessing to have done so !

read this on my earlier post  

http://hariwrite.blogspot.com/2013/02/maha-kumbh-mela.html

The Kumbh mela was India in a microcosm and happened every four years at four different places in turns and the Maha kumbh was the 12 yearly once  mega bonanza ,

this year it was at Allahabad

 It had all the colour clamour and confusion which was India but it also had its serenity spirituality and surrealistic feel  .

In its teeming millions was the very soul of India .

In its air was the aura of history  .

The rich tapestries of spirituality of Bharath was melded into its sands .

In the wrinkles of its sanyasins lay the heart of India .

The dusts of the past gathered in its fogs.

The din of its footsteps was the music of India.

It is to savour all this that millions gathered here

It is to awaken their indianess from deep inside their souls that they came here in hordes.

We were one amongst the millions caught in the anonymity of its irrelevance.

We   floated as the jetsam in the lashing waves of time itself.

It was this unique experience which would be very difficult to explain here that we encountered this experience .

The exhilaration of dipping into the pure Ganga with its cold fingers embracing us and igniting our souls to bliss

This was something which was beyond all our past experiences

This was uniquely mystic and awe inspiring

For a long time after our boat reached the crowded banks and our feet touched the sandy shores and as we threaded our way through the milling crowds the trance of this awakening was on us

We were out of this world in a different dimension

Swamiji was more used to this and was more practical and realistic he was keeping an eye on us as we jostled through the crowd he knew there were many whose intentions were hardly spiritual and picking pockets were more common than saving souls in Indian Melas

So he shepherded us to safer environs and made us go into a spiritual supermarket of tents of several Akharas

These are pavilions of different orders of spiritual groups from all over India .

 Some were huge almost like tiny towns with massive cut outs of their main Swami

 In some sermons were being made

There were some where ash strewn Aghoras sat still some in grotesque postures while some deeply inhaled bhang and hemp and the smoke mingled with the fog of the early night

White tourists gaped and gawked and clicked their cameras furiously

Finally Swamiji took us inside a tent complex and introduced us to a surprisingly erudite young swamiji who spoke Cambridge English with a distinctly yankee accent

He asked us to sit down and graciously enquired swamiji  and us about our  welfare

Old friends they were swamiji quickly got to the point

The matter was we had to leave that night as we needed to be at luck now by mid-morning  the morrow to catch our flight back and getting our from the kumbh mela was another feat ,

swamiji had a car but no one to to drop us and return back and he could not leave the place too

It was very difficult to get a private car or taxi as they were all booked

The swamiji whispered something to his aide and shortly a very young almost boyish chubby  swami came and joined his palms in greeting to us

He will drive you to Lucknow tonight declared the swamiji and nodded at the boy

We were little apprehensive at the school boy selected by the swami

So it was agreed that we would go fast wasting no more time .

 we quickly got into car and went to collect our belongings

By then we found the car suddenly filled up as three more swamis had  joined for the trip to be dropped at luck now

So it was by now a bit crowded but the winter night was pretty cold hence it provided much needed warmth .

Our driver lad gaily drove us as we waved farewells to our swami Pramodh

It took more than an hour to leave the Mela ( fair ) grounds as it was around 10 pm when we reached the outskirts

The crowds were less but still one had to weave ones way out

The lad was full of smiles and jokes at the idiots who blocked his way and we were all thinking it was all good fun

We then reached the high way

 Uttar Pradesh may be the largest state of India and its rulers were all big politicians including many prime ministers who hailed from this state but it was pretty primitive in infrastructure .

Most of the highway were two laned and had no median barriers .

Most of  the roads were dark and the huge trucks that lumbered along blinded one with their headlights

Our boy was suspiciously straying to the middle of the road a little too much

a couple of times we almost brushed aside the opposite vehicles and we were a bit worried though our boy driver was nonchalant

But the moment he started becoming silent and nodding a bit and  probably dozing off we got real worried and made him stop

Enough was enough

We did not want the Kumbh mela to be our bodily exit from this world the spirit was another matter !

I asked the driver swami to get in the rear seat and the started driving

 He never protested and quiety made himself comfortable and promptly slept off snoring away to glory

I was stressed a bit at the unknown roads but slowly got the hang of things.

around late midnight we reached Rai Bareli the constituency of Ms Indira Gandhi herself who was our legendary prime minister who had passed away

Rae Bareli was just another dusty hick town and showed no signs of it being a pm constituency

 The plan was to get into some hotel and rest for some time and start at dawn but there were no such places

 A few we saw all had their gates locked and the government rest house had two retainers sleeping like the dead

We decided to just continue driving and we did that or rather I did that while the others slept

At around 5 Am we reached lucknow

Our swami boy had a resurrection as he woke up fresh and beamed at us

I gave him the wheel and got out into the luck now airport and luckily we could get a guest room for some hours of much needed sleep

And thus ended our kumbh mela  

But am still alive to tell this tale !