A NOMAD in Himalayas—1
Apni marji se kahan ,Safar ke hum hai,
Rukh hawaon ka jaha ka hai,Udhar ke hum hai||
Left for the himalayas ,may be in search of babaji ,or may be in serach of somebody like me ,or may be …well I really don’t know .
The beautiful Kangra valley ,surrounded by the mountains were reminding me of the ruthless punches of the great Myke Tyson in his youthful days ,the river Chenab and Raavi were reminding me of Mohammad Kaif’s fielding and the great saves he has made for the country with so much of energy and the agility.
With me there were a few books written by Veerji,which I still have not finished reading.It was a great experience to learn about the independence struggle and learn to hate the peace and ahimsa in this beautiful environment ,in the himalayas,where you cannot see the boundry of the rivers ,disintegration of animal values,the Yak,buffalos,bulls -they really don’t know what is Pakistan ,who were the pourtagese ,where is Goa –in the place that is full of natural beauty ,no doubt the heaven on the earth.
Friends ask me to post the images I might have taken during the travel ,but dear I believe in and prefer the text mode over GUI.The writing is ,something that gives you joy ,because it is not complicated ,it is art and more importantly it is not technology,well the blog ,htmls ,xmls ,java ,servers have made my rustic life a bit easier ( which I don’t like),but I can manage this much –the limited ,the better.
Pathankot to Jammu through Kangra valley (Himanchal Pradesh) in the Jammu and Kashmir transport bus -the seat number 17 and that window.
Jammu was as vibrant as I could remember some 14 years ago,when I did go to everywhere but not Laddakh and Vaishno devi temple.I had been to Pahalgam,Gulmarg,Dul lake,patnitop,shimala,Kullu,Manali,Dharmshal,Ranikhet,Masoorie,Doon valley,Dalhousie,Kousasani,Nanitaal ,Almora and innumerable places.
So I decided to explore ,which was left then .The target was Vaishno devi Temple.
Somebody was playing the asamese song sung and music directed by Bhupen Hazarika -Aami oye jarjabo(Main awara hoon),which I used to listen endlessly during my school days.The great source of inspiration for a traveller like me .
The journey from Katra to the hill(Bhawan) was in the night ,without sitting or taking a break for a single moment ,commitment for which I have made earlier.The ponnies were very affctionate and I did give some thought on starting some business w.r.t animals– may be poultry would be the simplest form for me to take ,or may fisheries ,well how about producing the horses:} for the races .May be I can take a clue from the great extravaganza that takes place in Pushkar(the mela),where sale-purchase of camles takes place.Anyways currently I am not very far away from the place.
After having darshan ,got down fast with double the energy for travelling more and exploring more of the himalaya ,with the books ,some new compositions which I could prepare (soon to publish) ,3 pair of clothes and a pair of shoes.
In the land of Prithwiraj Chouhan
What an adventure it would have been ,when one goes in the hottest part of the world in the summers ,that too temperature is not at all looking back.Moreover when one has just returned from one of the coldest part on the earth.Yes ,we did it and that too in style.
This time I was accompanied by Sudeep for the journey and we left for Jaipur and then to Ajmer.For long I desired to go there but somehow couldn’t.The land of Swami Dayanand Saraswati ,who wrote Satyartha Prakash, the la nd of Rajput king Prithviraj Chouhan and also the great sufi Saint Moinuddin Chisti.
Did see the house of Chand Bardai the poet friend of the king ,who wrote the great “Prithviraj Raso “.Had a jaljira and some kulfis ,the quality of which was much much better than ,what we were used to, in other parts of the nation..Worth having a taste.
Entered the Dargah Sharif,but my dear friend made a mistake by getting confused with the Masjid and Dargah Sharif,and he started doing the 5PM namaj,after having a woojoo.May be it was his first experience with going inside some masjid.The namaj went on for almost half an hour and suddenly we started feeling rejuvenated .We had a darshan of dargah sharif and soon left for the Pushkar ji(the only temple of Brahma).
The beautiful place ,the gigantic ghats and innumerable ashramas for staying and doing some mediatation.May be I’ll have to come back there for some prolonged period ,it was calling me for a longer stay.
“Char bans, chaubis gaj, angul ashta praman, Ete pai Sultan hai (Taa Upar hai Sultan). Ab mat chuko Chauhan.”