Trip to India - Darshan of Vaishnov Devi

Jai Mata Di

This post is a bit big , i have written small details of the trip

Evening on 15th June  while packing my bags I called up Rikshit (friend coming with me to Vaishnov devi) to check what time he is leaving from home. after a bit of confusion as to who is going to drop me to Railway Station I finally decided to give trouble to my dad, though 2 of my friends were ready to drop me but my dad wanted me to drop so I said No to them. Now I called up Riki he said he is on his way to Old delhi on Auto Rikshaw. I told him bhaiya stop by somewhere We will pick you up from somewhere near south Ex then changed the plan and picked Rikshit from Lajpat Nagar Bus Stand (near Moolchand hospital) . We kept him waiting for 15-20 mins it was pretty hot.. he was all sweating ..and we enjoying the AC … anyways he got in .. and we were on our way to OLD delhi Railway station to catch Pooja Express to Jammu ..Now I said something or I did something wrong so in car Riki’s mood was off.. anyways.. we reached Rlwy Stn and I said bye to dad and then I looked at the railway station from outside.. so many ppl.. as if whole India was travellin that day.. maine jaldi se apna vaulet apni front pocket mein rakha ki kahin jeb na kat jaye .. and then we were on our way to platform.. Chaaron taraf log hi log.. sote hue..jaagte hue.. rote hue .hanste hue .. khade hue .. bethe hue.. seedhe saadhe .. chalu.. pareshan.. sab tarah ke log dikh gaye 2 hi min mein .. maje aa gaye dekh ke.. ab pahunche platform par … we reached a bit early Train was not ther yet.. chaaron taraf paan ki peek .. kachra dustbin ke alawa har jagah par.. beggars more than travellers .. vendors and coolies moving all over.. it was good to see that..

Anyways train came in 15 mins ..we were looking for our coach and find out that it was not there in the train funny naa.. then talked to one coolie he said “abhi lagega woh coach”.. then finally that coach came and we boarded the train..we had the 2 wali seats. on our left were a family from Rajasthan who too were goin to vaishnov devi .. now while talking to Riki I looked across and found a beautiful girl she was also goin to vaishnov devi with her family very big family .. and then I recolected that she was in my school ..though we never talked in school but I recognised her .. anyways… after some talk we slept and in morning at 9 -9.30 we reached Jammu rlwy station, A guy named Rakesh(he is driver of one of my friend, though my friend was not in Jammu) was supposed to pick us up and give us the Army passes for Darshan.. so we went with him and he gave us the passes and arranged a taxi for us.. we reached Katra at around 11 and took a hotel had a quick bath and started off for our journey to Temple at around 12 in noon .. It was very hot but as we had our train next day we thought we would come back the very same night so we started..and we decided to walk the whole way.

Baand Ganga - It is the starting point of the walk to Mandir . From Baand Ganga I insisted Riki to take steps.. they were some 350+ steps and Riki was totally exhausted in that.. I thought I did a mistake as goin up you shouldnt take steps.. it is very tiring..Rik was very tired so was I so we decided to cover the rest path by the road and not by steps..we took breaks in between.. Main to pehle 4-5 baar jaa chuka tha but Riki was going 2nd time that too after 10 yrs.. it was very tough for him to keep pace with me .. but I appreciate that he did kept a good pace.. saare raaste mein everybody was rhyming “Jai Mata Di Jai Mata Di” and just by rhyming her name the divine power takes all the pain off you. On the way was Cafe Coffee Day .. I dint saw that last year .. anyways ppl are getting the facilities on the way to Vaishno Devi. We reached Ardhkuwari in 3 hours from the BandGanga

Ardhkuwari - This is the midway to Darbar. It was very crowded in there and it was a 2 day waiting to get into the Ardhkuwari gufa. We decided not to stop there and move forward to Darbar, There is a new way to Darbar which is not as steep as the old one.We moved forward to Darbar with small stops in between , due to excessive heat it was very difficult and Riki was not felling well too but we managed to reach the Darbar in 6 hours with stops in between.

Darbar - We took bath and then joined the queue to Darbar. Ppl say that you cant reach Darbar until and unless u get a call from Mata , I was so lucky that this year too I was able to make to the Darbar. We waited in queue for sometime. The queue was not too long as lot of people like to travel in nite and we decided to travel in day so the crowd was not that much . Darbar is on the Trikuta mountain where in a cave Mata resides in rock form(pindi) and We reached Darbar and saw the three pindis of mata MAA KALI , MAA LAXMI , MAA SARASWATI as I looked at the pindis my eyes filled with tears.

Jai Mata di

Bhairov Mandir - From Darbar we started walking to Bhairov Temple it is said that if you go to Vaishnov devi and dont go to Bhairov temple your Yatra is not complete. So we went to bhairov , I was very tired of walking by road so I took the Stairs, Riki came walking. We did darshan at the Mandir by 9 and started our journey back to Katra.

Way back - We took the road all the way , I am not used to taking road on way back as I always take stairs but was giving Riki company , By Road u have to walk a lot , though by stairs you get more tired but have to move less and cover a lot of distance in very less time .so walking on the road i soon I got very tired and was getting irritated .. dont know why.., I was yelling at Riki on very small things , I was loosing patience , so near Charan Paduka i told Riki that I will take the stairs as I cannot walk so you by road. I took that and on way through stairs I was feeling so sorry that why I behaved like that but pata nahi tab mere ko kya hua tha , tired hone ki wajah se I lost my temper . I reached Band ganga par and sat there and was cursing myself for my bad behaviour but I thought I will say sorry to Riki in the morning.
When I was waiting for Riki on the stairs I saw every Pitthu or Khacchar wala or anybody who is local there whenever he passes the stairs he bows to the stairs as that is the First Stair to Mata. Hindu , Muslim or Sikh whosoever it is was bowing to the Mata, Itne mein Riki came and we moved back to hotel , I told him I am very tired and will talk to him in the morning, The next morning I apologized to Riki and we were on our way back to Jammu.

Jammu - Called up Rakesh again but he dint picked up the phone , so we went to RaghuNath temple , fir we had some lunch and then called Rakesh again and then we went home and rested there for 3 hours and then Rakesh dropped us back to Rlwy Station and on Saturday morning I was back to delhi.

On this trip to Jammu I travelled through almost all the modes of Public transport available in mere Bharat
1. Train
2. Auto
3. Taxi
4. Cycle Rickshaw
5. Bus

Jai Mata Di