Vaishno Devi temple

Vaishno devi trip

Years back we planned a trip to Vaishnodevi temple in Jammu and Kashmir .
In nineties terrorism has already sprung in kashmir valley ,and Vaishnodevi was in the hotspot .
Premilas cousin was a senior army officer .
We requested him for help before we ventured .
He arranged everything through his friend as ettan was not posted there.

So we took a train to Jammu from Delhi .

Since it was winter and AC tkts were not available to book ,we booked in sleeper compartment .9
Never did we think our journey would be a horror.
From the moment we set foot on platform with two small children and luggage ,we knew we were in deep trouble .

North Indian stations in winter those days is not a pretty sight.
The platform was filled with people of all kinds ,old ,young  ,children ,families ,sleeping ,sitting,smoking ,
 some were even cooking with tiny stoves .

Coming from south india this was new to us .
The train too didnt come to platform on time
We wondered if we could reach our compartment comfortably
And when it did it was with great struggle .

We managed to reach our reserved compartment but found it full of army people lying on every available space .

Many had warned us that sleeper compartments in north india have no rules

We managed to evict them from our berths as they respected families and ladies .

We slept tired and cold but going to toilet wasnt easy .
By morning we found train was much delayed due to thick fogs and we would reach Jammu only by late afternoon .

The cold fields of Punjab sped by in a haze
Hungry and exhausted we blamed ourselves for this colossal mistake .

Somehow we reached Jammu got out .

Our destiny changed then .

We saw two military police smartly dressed saluting us and taking our bags .
They escorted us into army room in station and later to an army jeep .
We would go to Udhampur army headqaurters  and spend the night in the  officers guest house ,and the next day leave to Katra the foothill to Vaishnodevi temple .

The army guest house and camp was neat , sophisticated ,and as guests of a senior officer we were given an excellent place to stay.

We had dinner in the officers mess and slept well .

Two jawans were deputed to take us up to Vaishnodevi and back till we returned to Delhi from Jammu .

They were Bhagwan from UP and Pande from Bihar both were in civil dress.

We instantly got close to them and they both were very friendly with Sruthi and Shyam .
After breakfast an unmarked army ambassador car came for us .

The road to khatra from Udhampur was high range and fraught with danger as terrorism was rampant in those parts and it was snowing on off too .

An obvious army car would be a sitting target .

Both Bhagwan and Pande regaled us with tales .

The car left us at khatra .

Now a train goes upto khatra as Modiji has  extended railway line for pilgrims .

From khatra we needed to climb the hills .

Though there were nice sloping tiled paths with steps on off ,plenty of shops, it was steep and a hardy climb .

Gulshan Kumar of T series a great devotee of ma Vaishnodevi had built the path .

Pande and Bhagwan took each of our kids , as they were not very happy in climbing a mountain whose top is reached after a couple of hours .

There were two other modes of climbing,one can be carried on a chair like a palanquin or on back strapped to climber caled Pithu  specially for children ,
 or  by horse back .

Bhagwan and pande said those were not  needed .
They asked us both to plod up slowly with our sticks which we all bought
they started running up with the children who joined them laughing.
Soon we lost sight of them .

It was hot in the lower area but got colder as we climbed higher.
The magnificient Himalayas stretched in front of us in panoramic beauty
The snowy peaks glistened in the pale sun .

We could have tea etc on the way and songs blared from shops .

Devotees danced sang and chanted Jai Mata jee to drumbeats to inspire those who plodded on .

After around 3 hours we reached the top.

The children were waiting happy with their army uncles .
We went into an army outpost and office freshened ourselves removed footwear to go into the temple.

The altar was inside a cave .

Earlier one needed to crawl a long distance those days there was a covered path .

Still nearing altar one needed to walk bent for a short distance .

Luckily we went by VIP entrance as army guests .

The army was all powerful in those areas .

After darshan we refreshed ourselves had some food .

We needed to climb some more to reach the  Bhairon temple
This time we took horses though it was scary as the horses more like ponies tended to go the edges .

After Bhairon we started walking down.
I thought going down would be easy but it wasnt so at all .
Our knees hurt as we climbed down steeply .
Evening came but we were only half way through.
In the great distance we could see Khatras lights.
It was around 6 pm when we reached khatra totally exhausted .

Both children were tired
Thanks to bhagwan and pande who carried them down for some way
Our car was waiting and we were taken to a hill station called Patnitop .
We were to stay in CRPF camp there that night .
Pande and Bhagwan left us in a lovely guest cottage in a snowy slope and went to thier lodgings there.
An army cook made us hot chappatis with sabji .
He had to go for sentry duty after that ,so told us to have good rest and went away .

Children had already slept off in bedroom under heavy blankets
We too tried to sleep off but it was bone chilling cold.
There was no electricity only an iron fire bucket  in hall .
We both foolishly carried the bucket with hot coals  into bedroom for warmth .

As we were dozing off ,we suddenly realised we could all be dead of carbon monoxide poisoning by morning in the closed room .

In a panic we carried the hot fire bucket  back to hall calling ourselves rank idiots .

Morning came
It was scintillating
Our cottage in camp was like in a fairy tale with powdery snow ,tall firs and poplars and so cool .
Children too were fresh .
We told of our idiocy to Bhagwan and Pande who had a hearty laugh.

After breakfast we went by our car to a skeing area where we threw snowballs and enjoyed ourselves .

Later we drove back to Jammu station and we parted with Pande and Bhagwan hugging them and giving them some gifts we had bought for their families .
We were in touch with them for some years .

This time the military police in smart uniforms escorted us in Jammu station  into our berths
They  stood gaurd in front of doors to see only reserved passengers got in .

So we returned very comfortably

Jai mata jee

Glimpses of Gujarat

It was in february 2020 we went to Gujarat .
Me for first time
We flew from Cochin via Mumbai  into Ahmedabad Airport .
We had booked in the Indian Medical Association guest room in Ahmedbad .

Though it wasnt very impressive like a hotel and was an old building it was in center of city and as no one else was staying there we had unlimited attention

Ahmedabad is actually a twin city an older more unkempt one and a more spacious and planned Gandhi nagar the capital .
Ahmedabad was our first stop for a holiday  to Rajasthan .
In Gujarat our plan was only Ahmedabad and the Statue of unity which was far from the city .
I always heard about Gujarat riots and how unkempt the place was.
I was amazed to see a sprawling big city around a flowing river .
The central bus lanes were a novelty and they had bus stations too in middle of road covering almost most of the city .
The riversides had parks and were well kept.
There were plenty of food courts and eating places some iconic too .

The broad Sabarmati flows through the city with more than seven bridges across .

The serene ashram of our Mahatma is on its banks .
Gujarat has given many stalwarts to Indian politics .
Gandhijee of course
Sardar vallabhai patel
Morarjee Desai
And now
Narendra modi

I may have left out many .
Gujaratis are fun loving colourful devout and also known for thier astuteness in Business
Be it the Adanis or Ambanis you can greet them with a Kem chu .

Thier food too is different
From thier kaleidosopic thalis to healthy dhoklas or masala kevdias to theplas the Gujarati palate tickles a lot .

Manek Chowk in Ahmedabad we heard is like a chameleon market .
In day time its a silver gold jewellery market accounting for more than 3 million rupees annual sales ,by evening it turns into a textile market and by 9.30 the place becomes a street food center.
The favourites are dosa pau and pau baji several sandwiches samosas chinese food  hundreds of varieties of mouth freshners and ice creams specially kulfis .
All from carts in a jumbled confusion .
Unlike food streets seen this one had no traffic restriction so it was full of autos bikes few cars .
Everything in this place was only vegetarian .
Its named after maneknath singh a saint who helped Ahmed founder of city build his fort .
Theres a temple dedicated to him nearby .
We had a chocolate ice cream sandwich,a very invigorating Gobi manchurian,a couple  of strong hot masala tea .
The tea was excellent but in a very small glass .
We ended with icecream and kulfi .
Wish they create some order and bit neatness
Food streets intrest tourists but we need to market them too .
The people in general are busy reasonably honest and helpful .
Though they dont break into boisterous bhangra on every step they never fail to go round in traditional wear in gharbha dance during nine nights of navarathri .

On day one we went to the famous step well amongst many in those parts
Being dry plains one needed deep wells and best way was to walk down to a certain depth  so they built traditional buildings around them .

Statues and memorials are considered as waste of money in a nation, where crores are spent on political rallies , fake religious congregrations,and wasteful expenditure for public servants  .

Abroad museums and memorials are not only money spinners in tourism , they are a pride of the nation   and a retrospective to thier past ,a gratitude to their great ,and an inspiration to their youth .

Sardar Vallabhai Patel has been wronged then and now too .
The man of action  managed the supreme feat of uniting more than 580 princely states ruled by many  eccentric and  some wise kings, before we got our freedom
Each were dealt in different ways with both sticks and sweets but Sardar brought them all under India  to sign instruments of acessions to join union of India

The decision to make a huge statue of the Sardar was naturally met with lot of opposition .
Many wanted to know why a country like India should spend crores for resurrecting a dead hero by erecting a statue out of proportion in size in a God forsaken tribal area  difficult to even reach !
and it sounded true then .

But Modi as CM of Gujarat in 2013 was sure it would be a remarkable step forwards to the benifit of the  nation and today we find he was not wrong .

It would not only correct the wrong done to a great Indian , it would also bring patriotic fervour .

The plan was to make it the biggest statue in the world and it would face the Sardar Ssrovar dam in Narmada river

The Sardar gazing at his dream fulfilled .

The dam too had been delayed for years thanks to the left oriented activists like Medha patkar and Arundathi Roy .

Today the dam has brought benifit to millions in 3 states and many tribals too .

The next decision was to find the sculptor

Ram Sutar  had made a statue of Sardar in Ahmedabad airport .
It was decided to select that statue form for the statue but many fold huge in size .

Ram was 93 years old but with help of his son he took the responsibility .

The huge statue would be built with iron pillars as its skeleton embossed by copper platings and concrete .
Its structure needed great technical attention as it would stand in an earthqauke prone zone .
It needed to withstand huge winds considering its size of a hill .
Its base feet in sandals was smaller than its body and head hence its center of balance had to corrected .
It would rise to 182 meters ie 597 feet .
 while most statues in world were smaller .

The number of seats in Gujarat assembly were 182 which was why it was selected .

An appeal was sent to farmers to donate used iron agricultural equipments to use it for foundation symbolic of getting the iron needed to make iron mans statue from those who toiled the earth from his land .
More than 130 metric tonnes were collected and 103 used to make the foundation
The world wide tender was won by an Indian company Larsen and Toubro to build execute and maintain the statue ,approach bridge ,surroundings for 15 years .
More than 4000 labourers 250 engineers toiled for years .
The copper smelting was done in China shipped in containers and by road to its remote site .
Slowly it grew .
A viewing gallery was planned in around 44 floor approximately in second button from top of sardars coat .
One went up in a high speed lift .
Hgher floors were for maintenance only.
One could go up by escalators or lift to reach Sardars foot .
Everything was disabled friendly
Even the km and half walkway had moving horizontal escalators .
There were many toilets in site something one hardly sees in such places in India .
There were free drinking water booths .
A big AC food court
The base had exhibits ,museums  theater etc threre was a huge souvenuir shop .

Free shuttle took one to the  dam  butterfly park, cactus park ,childrens nutrition park which were surrounding attractions .

Hotels restaurants shopping malls were built .

Artificial illuminated trees on roadside neon lit wide roads transformed the remote place into a fairy land .

In one year more than 2.18 million people visited .
School children were welcomed with discounts so that they learnt our true history
They came in droves.
A laser show at 7pm free for all showed Sardars life and inculcated patriotic fervour .
It has been a huge sucess .

In time the edifice will be surrounded by water for boats to ply around like in statue of liberty .
The whole area is transformed now .
The tallest statue in world is a sucess story indeed .

Gujaratis have settled all over the world and in all parts of the country contributing thier skills charm and creativity .

the magnificient sandstone temple of Akshardham we visted one evening
No cameras or mobile allowed inside after a terrorist attack .

Thus we left Gujarat impressed by the place ,culture,roads,monuments ,temples,and food .
Our next journey was to exotic Rajasthan .

Statue of Unity

 Sardar Vallabhai Patel has been wronged then and now too .
The man of action who managed the supreme feat of uniting more than 580 princely states ruled by many  eccentric and  some wise kings, before we got our freedom .
Many were reluctant to forego thier wealth nd  pleasures and did not wish to join with India .
Many of these kings had no qualms in accepting British soverienity and its residents who controlled them as long as thier luxuries were continued .

There were some sensible and  honest empires like Travancore  but had to content with a powerful and obsessed Diwan ,Sir CP who felt the kingdom should continue ,giving wrong advice to royal family .
Hyderabad nizam  wanted to join pakistan .

Junaigadh and the portugese in Goa were taken using the army .
Hari Singh of Kashmir signed his kingdom to India legally though shortly after Pakistani rangers attempted to attack Srinagar .

Each were dealt in different ways with both sticks and sweets but Sardar brought them all under India  to sign instruments of acessions to join union of India .

He should have been our first Prime Minister considering his experience and popularity amongst legislators , but an ambitious Nehru used his hold on the Mahatma to make him the first deputy PM and Home minister .
He was asked to unite all princely fiefdoms onto a new country .
Sardar held no grudges ,but finished his given task most efficiently .
He was sidelined by the Nehru dynasty when alive and  even his memories were erased from history .
We did read of his contribution but it was not to the extent of his service to the nation .
The nation for decades was mesmerised by the Gandhi dynasty of the Nehru family .

It needed a Narendra singh Modi to unearth the Sardar .
The decision to make a huge statue of the Sardar was naturally met with lot of opposition .
Many wanted to know why a country like India should spend crores for resurrecting a dead hero by erecting a statue out of proportion in size in a God forsaken tribal area  difficult to even reach.
and it sounded true then .

There were many ways memories could be preserved instead of spending such millions .
Could a country with so many needs like ours spend huge money on such edifices .
What it needed was hospitals universities schools houses and food for its downtrodden .

Strangely crores were being cheated from our wealth by being spent on these counts .
Most political parties spent extravagantly or gave freebies using public money .

It was these worthies who were crying from rooftops about this wasteful statue .

But Modi as CM of Gujarat in 2013 was sure it would be a remarkable step forwards to the benifit of the  nation and today we find he was not wrong .

It would not only correct the wrong done to a great Indian , it would also bring patriotic fervour .
How to erect such a mammoth statue
and why  here ?
Again Modiji had the answer .
It would be near the Sardar Sarovam dam a dream for the  Gujarat born Patel .
The plan was to make it the biggest statue in the world and it would face the dam.
The Sardar gazing at his dream fulfilled .

The dam too had been delayed for years thanks to the left oriented activists like Medha patkar and Arundathi Roy .
They obstructed it for many years inciting a few tribals .
Today the dam has brought benifit to millions in 3 states and many tribals too .

The next decision was to find the sculptor

Ram Sutar  had made a statue of Sardar in Ahmedabad airport .
It was decided to select that statue form but many fold huge in size
Ram was 93 years old but with help of  son took responsibility .

The huge statue would be built with iron pillars as its skeleton embossed by copper platings and concrete .
Its structure needed great technical attention as it would stand in an earthqauke prone zone .
It needed to withstand huge winds considering its size of a hill .
Its base feet in sandals was smaller than its body and head hence its center of balance had to corrected .
It would rise to 182 meters ie 597 feet .
 while most statues in world were smaller .

The number of seats in Gujarat assembly were 182 which was why it was selected .

An appeal was sent to farmers to donate used iron agricultural equipments to use it for foundation symbolic of getting the iron needed to make iron mans statue from those who toiled the earth from his land .
More than 130 metric tonnes were collected and 103 used to make the foundation
The world wide tender was won by an Indian company Larsen and Toubro to build execute and maintain the statue ,approach bridge ,surroundings for 15 years .
More than 4000 labourers 250 engineers toiled for years .
The copper smelting was done in China shipped in containers and by road to its remote site .
Slowly it grew .
A viewing gallery was planned in around 44 floor approximately in second button from top of sardars coat .
One went up in a high speed lift .
Hgher floors were for maintenance only.
One could go up by escalators or lift to reach Sardars foot .
Everything was disabled friendly
Even the km and half walkway had moving horizontal escalators .
There were many toilets in site something one hardly sees in such places in India .
There was free drinking water booths .
A big AC food court
The base had exhibits museums theater etc
 Souvenuir shop
Free shuttle took one to dam butterfly park cactus park ,childrens nutrition park which were surrounding attractions .
Hotels restaurants shopping malls were built .
Artificial illuminated trees on roadside neon lit wide roads transformed the remote place into a fairy land .
In one year more than 2.18 million people visited .
School children were welcomed with discounts so that they learnt our true history
They came in droves.
A laser show at 7pm free for all showed Sardars life and inculcated patriotic fervour .
It has been a huge sucess .

In time the edifice will be surrounded by water for boats to ply around like in statue of liberty .
The whole area is transformed now .
The tallest statue in world is a sucess story indeed .

Photo story two

Photo story ...

It was snowing
The chill stole up my windcheater and into my bones gnawing it like with a chain saw .
A RAW agent in New York cannot use cold as an excuse .
Extremes of climate was part of an agents life
Drawing a loaded weapon aiming it and hitting targets cannot point at frozen fingers
Excuses and apologies dont exist in the vocabulary of the profession
The targets dont understand them
They know only one chance the thin thread between life and death
I hardly fit the role which was exactly what was needed
I looked every inch an academic Indian who had come to 53 avenue 24 th street for another dreary meet .
The ubiquitous Indians seen on the Manhattan thoroughfares .
They were there all the time
With families towing grinning at selfies in Times square
Gingerly holding a Manhattan cocktail and wincing at its bitter Bourbon in the crowded bar
Bouncers watched somberly as scantily clad girls moved around hunting for prey
The smoke inside the bar was more than the flakes outside.
As its warmth descended down into my bowels a glow suffused on my homely face
Anything to beat the cold
The wait in the Brooklyn bridge for hours was a torture till i saw the short Japanese walk briskly giving me a camera to shoot his picture like any tourist would !
Only difference after that he just walked away while the camera found its way into my windcheater and now to give it to the lanky huge Russian bartender was my job .

The cocktail was half empty when he sidled up to me with arched eyebrows
Idrastinikov
He grunted wheezily while i extricated the chip in the camera and slid it near my glass
With the deft of a magician he took it and left the scene
I looked around

The crowd was behaving no different
An indistinct Indian nursing a cocktail in a Manhattan bar made no news which is precisely what I wanted
Merging into crowds was our USB drilled into us during our years in training !
One minute we are there and then a crack of a shot and we disappear like Houdini .

The satellite phone I had was tiny the latest
i took it as it trilled
And just said two words
Cocktail good
Thousands of kilometers away sitting in an old Delhi office an obese officer tapped into his laptop an indistinct coded message
Mission accomplished

Photo story one

Photo story

He belonged to Kerala IB ,stood first in IPS came up the ladder and was now Exise Commissioner  .
Hardly do they need to get into action .

They have enough men and some women to be the operatives .

But this was big .

And he wanted to nab the king of the racket himself .

The December chill of Dubai drilled into his bones
He stepped out of the dhow into colourful Deira .
Walking through the spice markets he reached the Gold souk .
He sat on an iron bench .
His eyes were covered in glasses.
The crowd milled around ,
And then he saw an indescript man in a pathan suit .
He was only 5.5 in height and gave no indication of shortness .
The man came out of a shop with a small package .
The inspector walked ahead
The cold end of a berret 200 was pressed into the Dons  flank.

In 2days scene shifts to Borivilis  excise office
The yellowed walls of a cracked balcony is the scene .
The short man was tilted almost on his back
He was left hanging with his fingernails 22 stories high
The Suburban train chugged below the refuse strewn railway line
It wouldnt be a happy death he knew
So he confessed
The commissioner smiled
A job well done
The short man too  sighed of relief

Thuravoor Mahashethram

In our scriptures lord Vishnu has taken ten avatars .
Narasimha is a man lion ..human amphibian combination.
Asura or demon Hiranyakashipu had always hated Vishnu who had destroyed his brother Hiranyakha as a varaha or pig avatar in a previous story .
All these may amuse people why we have such umbelievable stories but most Hindu religious stories arenot just that .
They have several layers of truths meant for several levels of intellectuality and spiritual accomplishments .
At times these demons are in our mind and its our conscious self the divine spark which needs to take these avatars to root them out .
There are not many temples with narasimha avatar as its deity .
One of those is in Thuravoor on road from Aroor to Alleppey ...
Hiranyakashapu has some much powers he gets from Brahma after his long hard penance.
He cannot be killed by man or animal neither during day or night or inside or outside house or building .
Very wise indeed .
But then he forgot who he hated was .
So the Lord took a human animal combo came oit of a pillar in midnight sharp neither day nor night .
Prahalada had told his father Hiranyakashapu Vishnu was everywhere when asked in pillar or in rust .
The temple was supposed to have existed for long .
Records exist from 2 to 4 th century .

The Ollikara mana is the traditional namboothiri family who were the temples custodians for centuries .
We did meet one lady from the family who invited us to her ancestral wooden house close to the temple with small idols inside too ..
Though the Travancore Dewaswom manages the temple these days .
Since it was in border of Cochin kingdom and Travancore and Trivandrum royal family owned it there was an unwritten law that the day Travancore raja visited the temple they would need to return it to Cochin .
So no Travancore kings ever came to the temple .
Sri Chitra Thirunal in 1957 was first king to do so and he too walked on a red carpet to symbolically keep with the promise .

The temple is unique as it has two sanctum sanctorums with two deepastambhams
One for Narasimhamurthy and other for Sudarsanamoorthy
Sudarsanamoorthy existed from first century but Narasimhamoorthy was built by a chera king in 7 th century .
One is sqaure and other round .
Fine carvings decorated thier walls
The Narasimha murthy sanctum has low roof and one needed to bend while walking inside .
Sastha was outside and also naga idol was on one side with a folk singer .
Lamps are built all along the outer wall and a huge pond is seen in the temple ..

There also is a huge elephant pandhal the biggest in Kerala