Visiting Vaishno Devi Shrine; Meeting people from different parts of country
I take the path leading to Vaishno Devi via Himkoti Marg which is not steep and mostly plain. As i leave Ardhkuwari there is battery operated vehicle board followed by frisking that is half hearted. Battery operated vehicles are meant for those who have difficulty in walking or not well. There is a check post. There are no screening of baggages. Baggages are searched by hand and that too with little effort. As one moves ahead one can cherish the hymns in praise of Vaishno Devi Ma in Hindi, Sanskrit and perhaps in Dongri or Punjabi. The tea and coffee at different outlets have more than the desired level of sugar. The coffee that i had from a Bru Gold outlet is too sweet. As i keep walking i come across different set of people coming from different parts of country; some are ascending and some are descending. There is Mr Kanti from Varanasi, there is a family from Amritsar which started at 4pm and reached shrine at 2am. There is Rinku a disabled guy. There is Mr G Venkat Gowda from R R Nagar, Bangalore in Karnataka, there is Mr Ram Singh from Gonda in UP, there is a family from Shahdara in Delhi, there is a family from Allahabad and there is a woman from Orissa.
From Satya Bhojanalaya the shrine is 3.25 kms
There are boards warning about shooting stones areas one need to watch out for plus boards saying a word or two on landslide zone and one needs to walk carefully. There is an outlet of Noga The Taste of Purity. There is Maharashtra Vikas Mahamandal Maryadit outlet. From Satya Bhojanalaya which i reach at 4.35 the shrine is 3.25 kms. Here i come across a man from Gujarat settled in Bhopal and has come with his family. Coming to know that i have visited different places in Gujarat like Somnath, Dwarkadish, Nageshwar, Surendranagar, Bhavnagar, Rajkot, Morbi and Ahmedabad he moves on only to take a break after every 20 minutes. About 1 km from Satya Bhojanalaya i get Shahnawaz a pithoo (man carrying luggage) as my luggage is heavy and we reach Vaishno Devi Shrine by 5.45pm. On my return journey from Vaishno Devi Shrine to Katra which takes place on a Monday night i get the services of a Pithoo Ghulam Qadir who is very down to earth and simple. Both Mr Shahnawaz and Mr Ghulam Qadir probably hail from Rajouri district in J&K. After reaching Vaishno Devi i head for cloak room.
I don't take the cloak room which is the first one opposite Parvati Bhawan. About 20 metres before second cloak room there is screening of baggage facility. I settle for cloak room which goes by the name locker room 2 and 3. There is a long queue out there. I am told no leather items would be allowed inside the shrine. There are two boys from Patiala who too are in the queue and tell me about the items which are banned from being taken inside the shrine. There is a board as well as announcements frequently made informing the devotees about the items that are banned from being taken inside the shrine. Near locker room i get into a different outfit. It takes more than hour before lockers begin to get allocated. Perhaps the shrine board could find some place near JKM Bhojanalya for another locker room for which the people may not have to descent and ascent. With a prayer diary in my hand i head to room number 8 from where the yatra slip issued at Katra is shown to get the entry paper.
Ma Bhagwati has revealed herself in the form of pindies
There is an important information displayed on a board which goes like this: Ma Bhagwati has revealed herself in the form of pindies inside the holy cave. Focus your attention on the natural pindies when going to sanctum sanctorum. I join the queue a little after seven after gaining entry from Gate no 5. For the next two darshans on different days i join the queue from the gate from where all devotees enter. Well the Gate closes for Aarti at 5.30 pm and opens after eight pm (aarti is from 6.15 pm to 8 pm in the evening and 6.15 am to 8 am in the morning). I am in sanctum sanctorum a little after 9.30. Each devotee gets turn to sight the pindies and get tilak on his forehead from the priest. After getting darshan i come out of shrine. I go to locker room to change my outfit and deposit the prayer diary in the bag. Later i head towards Manokamna Bhawan to seek a bed in dormitory. I am given a bed on the third floor with an assurance that i can stay there till 10 am the next day. The dormitory is fairly clean. I head to the dining hall of Manokamna Bhawan. What is on offer are tea, milk, coffee, rice, kadhi rice, rajma rice, chana rice, butter slice, cold drinks, bread pakora, mineral water among others.
I take rajma rice slip from the cash counter which has Mr Mulk Raj attending to customers. Mr Mulk Raj hails from Bharkh. Mr Mulk Raj informs me that he has made it a point to take a walk every morning. In Manokamna dining hall i come across Mr Manmona the head cook and Mr Kuldeep Sharma. After taking dinner i head to STD ISD PCO run by Air Tel. Perhaps Jio another mobile company could also be given a chance to run STD ISD PCO booth in Vaishno Devi Shrine complex.
Pooja Halwai Shop for black tea
The sleep i secure on a Saturday night is comprehensive. This is due to physical exertion of walking the entire day. Sunday morning i try different food courts for black tea. The general store next to JKM Bhojanalya is the only general store here and it can get you a range of products. Perhaps the people in the general store attending to customers could handle affairs in a more forthright manner. A pair of toothpaste, toothbrush and soap collected i head for black tea from Pooja Halwai Shop. Here in Pooja Halwai Shop there is Mr Sanjeev Kumar, Mr Mukesh Kumar and Mr Ravi Kumar. They are able to provide two sets of black tea. After taking the tea i return to Manokamna Bhawan.
Getting ready in Manokamna Bhawan isn't tiresome and soon after i vacate the bed and head to a place where there is enquiry counter and donation counter. I take a seat on a bench where i come across different set of people. There is a Jaipur family doing business in hardware which has one of his acquaintances walking barefoot from Jaipur to Vaishno Devi Shrine every year completing the entire journey in two months. There is a man from Lajpat Nagar in New Delhi who has retired from Delhi Judicial Services and has a son who has started a start up on air purifier bags. There is a group from Hazaribagh in Jharkhand which is on a 18-day pilgrimage to different sites in the country. There are some women from Mysuru; there is a family from Mysuru with whom i discuss the famous Mysuru Dussehra. There is a family from Aligarh whose head of the family is not well. There is a woman from Jharkhand whose son is a judge. There is Mr Ram Chandra Mehta from Gaya. There is a family from Nepal which has one of the acquaintances working in the armed forces. There is a man from Jammu who in the past 28 years has visited Vaishno Devi temple 12 times. There is Mr Gagandeep from Chandigarh. There is a man who has two daughters aged one and six from Amritsar who has come with his distant brother. Since waiting time for lockers is long he prefers to to keep luggage with himself and wait for his brother to return from temple. There is a man from Gujarat staying in Mumbai.
Meeting three boys from Tamil Nadu
I meet three boys from the state of Tamil Nadu. They go by the name Mr Ram from Chennai taking coaching for civil services in New Delhi, Mr Rabuth Kumar and Mr Elanchelian from Coimbatore. I tell them i have travelled extensively in Tamil Nadu in places like Chennai, Kanchipuram, Madurai, Rameswaram , Nagercoil, Kanniyakumari, Coimbatore, Mettupalayam and Udhagamandalam. I watch TV Channels like Makkal, Mega, Mega 24, Mega Music, Raj, Raj Plus, Zee Tamil, DD Podhigai among others. Mr Ram who is staying in Karol Bagh and taking coaching for civil services agreed with me that hospitality was low in Delhi and national capital should show a big heart. I meet a man from Behala Kolkata. I tell him i have been to Behala and we discuss about cricketer Sourav Ganguly staying in Behala. I come across some men from Navgaon in Assam. I tell them about Brahmaputra Mail train going from Delhi to Tinsukia and here they correct me by saying that Navgaon comes much before Tinsukia which is quite far.
Meeting Pradeep from Madhya Pradesh; Visiting Vaishno Devi Shrine Again
I meet Pradeep from Chhatarpur in Madhya Pradesh who accompanies me to Bhairon Mandir. I tell him there is a Katyayani Temple in area called Chhatarpur as well in New Delhi. There is Mr Vijay Kumar tea maker near Bhairon Mandir where again the tea is too sweet. I start for Bhairon Mandir from Vaishno Devi a little after 2.20 pm and i am there in 40 minutes. When i return to Vaishno Devi i take meals from Manokamna Bhawan. Later i get into the temple queue a little before six pm from the gate from where all devotees enter and have darshan some time after 8.30 in the night.
I head to Parvati Bhawan where in the morning i was told by Mr Gopal Sharma to come in the evening to make enquiry about bed in dormitory. There are vacant beds and i gain one. The sleep i secure is ok but not as good as the one secured in Manokamna Bhawan. There is an added advantage of staying in Parvati Bhawan; it has cloak room as well. Monday morning i head to room number 8 near Jammu & Kashmir Bank ATM and after introducing myself as a blogger from Delhi secure a yatra slip with no difficulty. Here the staff at SDM Office is quite cooperative and i give them pictures of Lord Venkateswara. One of the members of the office is even prepared to show me the way to the Shrine but i tell him i haven't taken bath. Later i head to the general store and this is followed by a visit to Pooja Halwai Shop where personnel are kind enough to dish out black tea.
The best part about Vaishno Devi Shrine apart from temple is that it has no pollution given the absence of vehicles. Only battery operated vehicles ply and that too for devotees.
I take the path leading to Vaishno Devi via Himkoti Marg which is not steep and mostly plain. As i leave Ardhkuwari there is battery operated vehicle board followed by frisking that is half hearted. Battery operated vehicles are meant for those who have difficulty in walking or not well. There is a check post. There are no screening of baggages. Baggages are searched by hand and that too with little effort. As one moves ahead one can cherish the hymns in praise of Vaishno Devi Ma in Hindi, Sanskrit and perhaps in Dongri or Punjabi. The tea and coffee at different outlets have more than the desired level of sugar. The coffee that i had from a Bru Gold outlet is too sweet. As i keep walking i come across different set of people coming from different parts of country; some are ascending and some are descending. There is Mr Kanti from Varanasi, there is a family from Amritsar which started at 4pm and reached shrine at 2am. There is Rinku a disabled guy. There is Mr G Venkat Gowda from R R Nagar, Bangalore in Karnataka, there is Mr Ram Singh from Gonda in UP, there is a family from Shahdara in Delhi, there is a family from Allahabad and there is a woman from Orissa.
From Satya Bhojanalaya the shrine is 3.25 kms
There are boards warning about shooting stones areas one need to watch out for plus boards saying a word or two on landslide zone and one needs to walk carefully. There is an outlet of Noga The Taste of Purity. There is Maharashtra Vikas Mahamandal Maryadit outlet. From Satya Bhojanalaya which i reach at 4.35 the shrine is 3.25 kms. Here i come across a man from Gujarat settled in Bhopal and has come with his family. Coming to know that i have visited different places in Gujarat like Somnath, Dwarkadish, Nageshwar, Surendranagar, Bhavnagar, Rajkot, Morbi and Ahmedabad he moves on only to take a break after every 20 minutes. About 1 km from Satya Bhojanalaya i get Shahnawaz a pithoo (man carrying luggage) as my luggage is heavy and we reach Vaishno Devi Shrine by 5.45pm. On my return journey from Vaishno Devi Shrine to Katra which takes place on a Monday night i get the services of a Pithoo Ghulam Qadir who is very down to earth and simple. Both Mr Shahnawaz and Mr Ghulam Qadir probably hail from Rajouri district in J&K. After reaching Vaishno Devi i head for cloak room.
I don't take the cloak room which is the first one opposite Parvati Bhawan. About 20 metres before second cloak room there is screening of baggage facility. I settle for cloak room which goes by the name locker room 2 and 3. There is a long queue out there. I am told no leather items would be allowed inside the shrine. There are two boys from Patiala who too are in the queue and tell me about the items which are banned from being taken inside the shrine. There is a board as well as announcements frequently made informing the devotees about the items that are banned from being taken inside the shrine. Near locker room i get into a different outfit. It takes more than hour before lockers begin to get allocated. Perhaps the shrine board could find some place near JKM Bhojanalya for another locker room for which the people may not have to descent and ascent. With a prayer diary in my hand i head to room number 8 from where the yatra slip issued at Katra is shown to get the entry paper.
Ma Bhagwati has revealed herself in the form of pindies
There is an important information displayed on a board which goes like this: Ma Bhagwati has revealed herself in the form of pindies inside the holy cave. Focus your attention on the natural pindies when going to sanctum sanctorum. I join the queue a little after seven after gaining entry from Gate no 5. For the next two darshans on different days i join the queue from the gate from where all devotees enter. Well the Gate closes for Aarti at 5.30 pm and opens after eight pm (aarti is from 6.15 pm to 8 pm in the evening and 6.15 am to 8 am in the morning). I am in sanctum sanctorum a little after 9.30. Each devotee gets turn to sight the pindies and get tilak on his forehead from the priest. After getting darshan i come out of shrine. I go to locker room to change my outfit and deposit the prayer diary in the bag. Later i head towards Manokamna Bhawan to seek a bed in dormitory. I am given a bed on the third floor with an assurance that i can stay there till 10 am the next day. The dormitory is fairly clean. I head to the dining hall of Manokamna Bhawan. What is on offer are tea, milk, coffee, rice, kadhi rice, rajma rice, chana rice, butter slice, cold drinks, bread pakora, mineral water among others.
I take rajma rice slip from the cash counter which has Mr Mulk Raj attending to customers. Mr Mulk Raj hails from Bharkh. Mr Mulk Raj informs me that he has made it a point to take a walk every morning. In Manokamna dining hall i come across Mr Manmona the head cook and Mr Kuldeep Sharma. After taking dinner i head to STD ISD PCO run by Air Tel. Perhaps Jio another mobile company could also be given a chance to run STD ISD PCO booth in Vaishno Devi Shrine complex.
Pooja Halwai Shop for black tea
The sleep i secure on a Saturday night is comprehensive. This is due to physical exertion of walking the entire day. Sunday morning i try different food courts for black tea. The general store next to JKM Bhojanalya is the only general store here and it can get you a range of products. Perhaps the people in the general store attending to customers could handle affairs in a more forthright manner. A pair of toothpaste, toothbrush and soap collected i head for black tea from Pooja Halwai Shop. Here in Pooja Halwai Shop there is Mr Sanjeev Kumar, Mr Mukesh Kumar and Mr Ravi Kumar. They are able to provide two sets of black tea. After taking the tea i return to Manokamna Bhawan.
Getting ready in Manokamna Bhawan isn't tiresome and soon after i vacate the bed and head to a place where there is enquiry counter and donation counter. I take a seat on a bench where i come across different set of people. There is a Jaipur family doing business in hardware which has one of his acquaintances walking barefoot from Jaipur to Vaishno Devi Shrine every year completing the entire journey in two months. There is a man from Lajpat Nagar in New Delhi who has retired from Delhi Judicial Services and has a son who has started a start up on air purifier bags. There is a group from Hazaribagh in Jharkhand which is on a 18-day pilgrimage to different sites in the country. There are some women from Mysuru; there is a family from Mysuru with whom i discuss the famous Mysuru Dussehra. There is a family from Aligarh whose head of the family is not well. There is a woman from Jharkhand whose son is a judge. There is Mr Ram Chandra Mehta from Gaya. There is a family from Nepal which has one of the acquaintances working in the armed forces. There is a man from Jammu who in the past 28 years has visited Vaishno Devi temple 12 times. There is Mr Gagandeep from Chandigarh. There is a man who has two daughters aged one and six from Amritsar who has come with his distant brother. Since waiting time for lockers is long he prefers to to keep luggage with himself and wait for his brother to return from temple. There is a man from Gujarat staying in Mumbai.
Meeting three boys from Tamil Nadu
I meet three boys from the state of Tamil Nadu. They go by the name Mr Ram from Chennai taking coaching for civil services in New Delhi, Mr Rabuth Kumar and Mr Elanchelian from Coimbatore. I tell them i have travelled extensively in Tamil Nadu in places like Chennai, Kanchipuram, Madurai, Rameswaram , Nagercoil, Kanniyakumari, Coimbatore, Mettupalayam and Udhagamandalam. I watch TV Channels like Makkal, Mega, Mega 24, Mega Music, Raj, Raj Plus, Zee Tamil, DD Podhigai among others. Mr Ram who is staying in Karol Bagh and taking coaching for civil services agreed with me that hospitality was low in Delhi and national capital should show a big heart. I meet a man from Behala Kolkata. I tell him i have been to Behala and we discuss about cricketer Sourav Ganguly staying in Behala. I come across some men from Navgaon in Assam. I tell them about Brahmaputra Mail train going from Delhi to Tinsukia and here they correct me by saying that Navgaon comes much before Tinsukia which is quite far.
Meeting Pradeep from Madhya Pradesh; Visiting Vaishno Devi Shrine Again
I meet Pradeep from Chhatarpur in Madhya Pradesh who accompanies me to Bhairon Mandir. I tell him there is a Katyayani Temple in area called Chhatarpur as well in New Delhi. There is Mr Vijay Kumar tea maker near Bhairon Mandir where again the tea is too sweet. I start for Bhairon Mandir from Vaishno Devi a little after 2.20 pm and i am there in 40 minutes. When i return to Vaishno Devi i take meals from Manokamna Bhawan. Later i get into the temple queue a little before six pm from the gate from where all devotees enter and have darshan some time after 8.30 in the night.
I head to Parvati Bhawan where in the morning i was told by Mr Gopal Sharma to come in the evening to make enquiry about bed in dormitory. There are vacant beds and i gain one. The sleep i secure is ok but not as good as the one secured in Manokamna Bhawan. There is an added advantage of staying in Parvati Bhawan; it has cloak room as well. Monday morning i head to room number 8 near Jammu & Kashmir Bank ATM and after introducing myself as a blogger from Delhi secure a yatra slip with no difficulty. Here the staff at SDM Office is quite cooperative and i give them pictures of Lord Venkateswara. One of the members of the office is even prepared to show me the way to the Shrine but i tell him i haven't taken bath. Later i head to the general store and this is followed by a visit to Pooja Halwai Shop where personnel are kind enough to dish out black tea.
The best part about Vaishno Devi Shrine apart from temple is that it has no pollution given the absence of vehicles. Only battery operated vehicles ply and that too for devotees.
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