LIFE OF AASH

DAY ONE – Mumbai to Tbilisi: Hum Aapke Hain Cold!

2026-01-16T01:28:00.000-08:00

DAY ONE

Mumbai to Tbilisi: Hum Aapke Hain Cold!

You know that feeling when a trip finally begins? That mix of excitement, mild panic, and the eternal question: passport kahan rakha tha?
Well, that’s exactly how our Day One kicked off.

Prelude: Kahani Airport Wali

I’m usually excited about new journeys, but this time excitement was politely waiting its turn while apprehension was running the entire show. With Indigo cancelling flights like they were clearing old inventory, I genuinely wasn’t sure if this was a vacation or just a very expensive airport visit.

Even on the way to the airport, I carried the confidence of a man who might fly… or might return home with life lessons instead of luggage tags. My wife had already entered “silent judgment mode.” My daughter, however, was busy rehearsing airport poses — because if the trip doesn’t start on Instagram, did it even start?

We checked in our baggage, boarded the flight, and I only relaxed once the wheels left the ground. That sigh wasn’t relief, it was closure.

Thank God. Akhir mein nikal hi gaye.
At that point, I trusted the pilot more than the airline’s app.

Boarding the Flight: Udta Aashish

The flight from Mumbai was pretty uneventful in the best possible way. No last-minute sprints, no gate changes, no frantic announcements.

Just a peaceful boarding, a surprisingly decent seat, and the usual sights:

– people struggling with overhead bins
– someone insisting “yeh mera seat hai”
– and the airplane food politely reminding us that taste is optional at 30,000 ft

I dozed, woke, dozed again, stared at clouds like a philosopher, and before we knew it, the captain announced our descent.

And then…
Tbilisi.

Tbilisi

Touchdown Tbilisi: Swagat Nahi Karoge Hamara?

The aircraft door opened.
Mumbai heat behind us.
And ahead of us… Welcome gift”, 4-degree cold slapping us straight on the face. My wife looked at me as if I personally arranged this weather. My daughter, on the other hand, was already posing for pictures because apparently freezing temperatures are the perfect filter.

One step outside and we knew we were not prepared. Jackets? Ha! Woh toh suitcase mein the… cozy, warm, and zipped — unlike us, who were freezing like leftover ice cubes.

We looked at each other with numb noses and declared:
“Bas. Aaj ka day one yahin khatam. Body ne NOTA choose kar liya.”

From Airport to Hotel: Khoobsurti Ka Kya Karein?

Once outside, we were met by our minivan driver, the strong, silent, no-expression type. No small talk, no dramatic welcomes. Just quiet efficiency. In one swift move, he collected our luggage, loaded it neatly into the van, and before we could even process the cold properly, we were already on our way to the hotel.

But before we could conk off completely, our cab was ready to take off....

And THAT’S when the magic happened.

Gazing at the chilly streets and debating our fate

Verdict: Pending. Because Cold.

Finally, our bodies started shutting down like overworked laptops.

We decided to take a short break.
A very short break.
Which may or may not have turned into a long nap.

We rested a bit and then stepped out to explore the local area, because when we travel, rule number one is to wander without a plan and take pictures at every possible corner.

And oh boy, did we click pictures.

Posing at Telephone booth

At traffic lights, telephone booths, near lamp posts, outside shops, with random statues, with shadows, with reflections… half the time even we didn’t know what we were photographing. My daughter kept saying, “Papa, last one,” and five seconds later we were doing another pose. My wife gave up counting after photo number 73.

Softy ice cream in cold ...Ek alag maza

We grabbed a softy ice cream (yes, in the cold, because we love challenging our own survival instincts), did some window shopping, and wandered into a local church. The atmosphere inside was so mystical, for a moment, I felt like I had walked straight into a Dan Brown novel. I half expected someone to hand me an ancient scroll and whisper, “You are the chosen one.”

Mystical Church

As evening fell, the temperature dropped even more, and our enthusiasm began to shiver along with our hands. So, we decided to call it a day, but not before picking up a nice bottle of Georgian wine to enjoy with dinner. A little warmth for the soul never hurt anyone.

A little warmth for the soul never hurt anyone.

Tomorrow, we’re off for the Tbilisi city tour.

Stay tuned the adventure continues, along with more pictures, more banter, and more moments that’ll probably end up in future family teasing sessions.

Thank You for reading

Rajasthan Diaries | Mira Temple| Chittorgarh

2021-03-18T04:27:00.000-07:00

We wish to inform you that we have upgraded our web site so Click on this link to read the blog on new website.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

Trip to Amritsar - Day1

2019-11-07T00:16:00.002-08:00

I was very excited because I was going on a long vacation of 9-10 days. Actually while planning for this trip I had laid out various options like going to Udaipur-Chittorgardh-Kumbalgadh-Kota or North East covering Arunachal Pradesh and Assam but then ruled out the Rajasthan option due to extreme heat and North East option was ruled out due to rains. Finally I adopted the middle path of going to Amritsar-Chamba-Khajjiar-Dalhousie-Dharamshala-Jot Pass-Kangda-Baijnath-Bir.

Click on this link to read the complete series on our new website

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Kwan Kung Chinese Temple | Hidden Gems of Mumbai

2019-05-14T06:30:00.001-07:00

China Town in Mumbai !

Hey you must be mistaken, China Town Woh toh Kolkatta mai hai ,

Well that was my immediate reaction when one of my friend spoke about this place to me.The Weekend Wanderer soul in me got stirred up and I was all set to check out this place, I was wondering, how could I miss out on something so unique in my home city.

PC: Nikhil Chandarana

Talking about Mumbai city, what I love about my city is its varied cultures, whereby I was able to explore some exquisite churches, beautiful mosques, amazing temples and gurudwaras and now here I was getting an opportunity to visit a Chinese Temple!

Can you believe this !

A little help from Google and friends, I was all set to go. You will be surprised to know that what today is a sidelined suburb i,e, Mazgoan, at one time was home to See Yup Koon community who were actually from Canton in Southern China. Due to work opportunities with East India Company these people moved to India to work and eventually settled here.

Dekha aapne chinese connection kitna purana hai, Tab bhi chinese apne yahan kaam karte the, aur aaj bhi, Even World Tallest statue of Sardar Patel ke liye humko chinese workers and technology lagi. Lagata hai china se humara rista Saas bahu wala hai -- Pyar mahobat aur zarorat lagi hi rahti hai

(Hardliners Chill and don't see red in this statement of mine. 😜😜😜)

The Chinese who had settled in India were traders,merchants,workers and sailors.However when in 1962 the war broke out between India and china, as expected many of these people migrated back to their homeland China, however few of them stayed back here in their existing homes, which we now know as China Town. It seems because they were of See Yup Koon community ,the house near the temple had See yep koon written on them. (I wish someone was around to explain this to me)

Chinese Legacy..Houses bearing the name SEE YUP KOON

Phew! I was so overwhelmed with this historical fact, imagine a small temple or a place can have a legacy, a history.

Harbor Train From Andheri To Dockyard Station

I took Harbor train to CST local from Andheri and got down at Dockyard station. ( This been the nearest station to Mazgoan).

Dockyard Railway Station

We came out from the front end of the station, if you are coming from Andheri, which is connected with the foot over bridge which takes you on the other side of the road.

Getting down from this bridge you need to walk straight

Keep walking straight, till you reach the wall of mazgoan dock, take a left and again first left and on your right side you will see this Chinese temple.

The google map was showing that this place is around 1 kms away from the station. So I started to walk. Now here a very interesting thing happened as we were searching for the way to go to this temple I saw an old Chinese walking towards our direction. For a second I felt that he looks like the owner of the temple but then again doubt got created in my mind Socha sare Chinese ek jaise hi dikte hai, so don't get excited. I went up to this person and asked him whether he is Albert, No reply came from him, Then I asked where is this Chinese temple, he simply looked at me and said its closed. I was very dissapointed to hear this. Per mai umeed chodne walo me se nahi hu, socha yahan tak aaya hu to Mandir dekh kar hi jaunga.

The iron stairs that we took

A small walk over the footover bridge and we saw a iron staircase going down on the left side, we took that stairs and came across a small postbox and took right turn, which brought us to a desolate lane, we kept walking till we came across an old 2 storied building.

Temple you can easily pass by, thinking to be a residence

I could have easily missed this place for any other residence apartment.What caught my attention was the wooden door painted in red, the picture of which I had seen in one of the FB post of my friend. I realised that this is it , that I have come to see. "The 100 year old Chinese temple, The Kwan Kung Temple.

Red Painted entrance door

We entered the Temple through this gate. There was a red door in front of us which was locked, I had read this was a room for one of the lady goddess. we moved on the right and started to climb the green coloured stairs when I came across a mural painted on the wall. This mural was of three gods FUK LUK SAU

Fuk:

The Chinese character Fuk means blessings of good luck, health, and happiness. This is the wise man that is often depicted holding either a scroll or a child. There is a popular belief that Fuk is the personification of planet Jupiter, with all its associated energy of good luck and auspiciousness. The child is there to symbolize the transmission of this good luck to future generations, and the scroll can be perceived as the importance of knowledge/learning.

Three Wise Man FUK, LUK, SAU

Luk

The meaning of Luk character in imperial China was an official's salary. It goes without saying that the energy of it is stability, fame, and success, as well as financial abundance. Luk is often depicted holding either a ru yi (symbol of power and authority) or a golden ingot, a popular wealth symbol.

Sau means longevity. This is the wise old man that is usually depicted with a very high forehead and a warm smile on his face. He is holding a staff, as he is old (thus the symbol of longevity). He is also holding a peach (considered a symbol of immortality).

we reached first floor where the owners of this place stay. The son of the owner handed me the keys to the temple which was one floor above this. We went upstairs and opened the door and entered the Chinese temple. The moment I opened the door I could feel the strong aroma of incense sticks.

Burnt Incense sticks ashes aroma could be felt in the temple

The whole room indeed transports you to china with splash of red everywhere, the room is decorated with all the requisite paraphernalia of a typical Chinese temple, including fortune scrolls, paper money and incense sticks.

Paraphernalia of a typical Chinese temple (PC Nikhil Chandarana)

The temple pays homage to the Chinese God of protection, justice and courage Guan Gong. The colourful decoration and the photograph nestled in that, declared that the God worshipped here is Confucius. The wise man of the Chinese history, who has been a great teacher, politician and a philosopher, is worshipped here as Kuan Kung.

Kwan Kung

Who Was Confucius?
Confucius (551 B.C. to 479 B.C.), also known as Kong Qui or K’ung Fu-tzu, was a Chinese philosopher, teacher and politicalfigure. His teachings, preserved in the Analects, focused on creating ethical models of family and public interaction and setting
educational standards. After his death, Confucius became the official imperial philosophy of China, which was extremely influential during the Han, Tang and Song dynasties.

It was once asked to Albert Tham, The person who founded and owns this place as to why he selected Kwan Kung as his god of worship. His reply was“I like this God as I have chosen him to be the one.I don’t believe in him just because I am forced to do so. I have learned a lot about him. I respect his morals values and teachings that do not emphasis much on any rituals but helps you lead a life of balanced personal and social ethics. He is more like a friend and a guide to me. I frequently spend time with him and discuss the things that bother me.”

Pooja and myself with Mr Albert Tham

There was this one wall which has slips hanging, I couldn't make of it much because everything written on them was in Chinese. They were fluttering under the fan breeze beckoning me to solve the mystery.

As there was no one in the temple to explain to us their unanswered. Few of them were half burnt and then there was ashes in the drum below these paper slips all added to my inquisitiveness but Alas ! no answers for me , if you get to know about these rituals please do comment and let me know.

Paper slips Hanging ,Are they predicting the futures ?

PS: As regards to the paper sheets let me add here. Those sheets are actually a way of reading fortunes.

The Chinese believe that the Gods will guide you for any important decision of your life through the oracles written in Mandarin on the bamboo sheets. They light up the candles and then pick up the wooden sticks kept on the table as a part of offerings to the lord. Then they refer to the sheet containing the suggested number on the stick. The bamboo sheets contain the fortune written in the Chinese Script and are referred by the followers of the faith once in a year.”

Fortune sticks

We spent some time here and then moved on to the ground floor to visit the temple of Kuan Yin, an Empress that embraced spirituality and led a life to relieve the humans of their sufferings she is also known as goddess of Mercy.

Kuan Yin

We returned the keys to Mr Albert Tham.(So the old man I met on the road was actually this gentleman ).

Mumbai meri Jaan !!!

Tu sach me meri jaan hai...

roz kuch naya dikhati hai ....

Thanks for reading my blog, Your comments ,your suggestions are most welcomed , therefore do comment in the comment section below this blog. Please do join my site so that you get regular updates for a new story so posted by me.

Given below is the Link to the video of our entire journey.

Our Team

Solapur in a day | Part 4 | Naldurg Fort

2019-03-30T23:55:00.000-07:00

We were done with Siddeshwar Temple and Solapur Fort aka Bhuikot.( you can click on the links to read about our earlier journey) The next destination on our card was Naldurg Fort, which is situated around 50 kms away from Solapur.

We started to walk from Bhuikot Fort to Solapur Bus stand which is hardly 1-1.5 kms away from the fort.Walking through the local markets we reached the Solapur Bus stand. Finding the bus at Local bus stand is always a challenge however we were lucky we were guided by a local person and we boarded the bus going towards hyderabad. As the bus was starting from here so we had empty bus for ourselves, As usual I jumped to grab the window seat and for our time-pass we bought cucumber which felt so refreshing in this heat.

Kakdi (Cucumber) khane ka apna hi majja hai...

My co-travellers Nikhil and Pooja took a cat nap while I was doing my videography, Boss window seat aise hi toh nahi li thi...The bus journey lasted close to one hour and soon we reached Naldurg bus station.

At Naldurg Bus Stand

One can have glimpse of Naldurg fort from the Bus stand. Hence we started walking toward the fort, We had to walk for 15 minutes on the highway and then thru the village to reach the fort.

Glimpse of the Naldurg Fort from the Highway

Finally we were at the gate of the Famous Naldurg Fort.

I feel it is mandatory that we should have some knowledge about the history of the fort. Toh chalo dosto now chota sa history lesson

History:
There are different version about the construction of Naldurg Fort. One belief is that it was built By Nalraja, Hence the fort and the place got the name Naldurg. Then there is another belief that the Chalukyas of Kalyani built this fort.This fort was also known by the name Yeral, when it was under the Bahamani Sultan from from 1351-1480, Later it was handed over to Mughal Empire. Later the Adilshahi rulers constructed the massive impregnable wall of the fort in the year 1558. In simple words what we see today of Naldurg fort the credit goes to Ibrahim Adilshah II (1556-12 Sept 1627).

Upon reaching the fort entrance we were informed that we had to buy entry tickets. As ASI is maintaining this fort so tickets are issued by them.We bought the tickets, here we also came to know that you are charged for carrying DSLR camera. Mobile phones are allowed for free. Another interesting thing is that there is a luggage room too near the entrance of the fort where by paying a nominal charge you can keep your bags.

The moment you enter the Main Gate of the Fort you can see that the efforts are been made to clean up the fort. The beautiful pots are lined up along the ramp as you pass through two gates viz Hurmukh Darwaza and Hathi Darwaza to enter the fort. We come out of Nagarkhana to see huge view of the fort from inside.

We come from here...The Nagarkhana (Pic source Internet)

Once you reach inside the fort it opens up a huge view of the fort area with fountains.Lots of efforts has been made to beautify this fort.

View from inside the fort

Upon entering what I was surprised by the neatness of the place. Well kept gardens and then there was a structure on the right side after coming out of the Nagarkhana

Structure on the right side after entering the fort

Fort Adoption Scheme:
Few years back this fort was quite neglected however a initiative was undertaken to adopt forts and this fort was one of them. Where adoption of Red Fort by Dalmia group raked up controversy on other hand the initiative by Maharashtra govt to adopt 371 heritage sites proved to be a big flop show with only 2 forts been taken up for adoption. The reason been for the flop show was that there was not much incentives for the corporate in terms of gate money or the icon use and also many of the sites been fort and temples charging entry fees was little difficult.

Anyways as this fort is adopted so let us enjoy the views.

Structure on the left side and
our resting place for having lunch.

Green lawns and few ancient structures are the inviting sights for a traveler like me. It was almost 2 pm when we reached here so we decided to have our lunch sitting under the shade of the tree. We generally carry our lunch so in no time we were done and moved on our exploration.

We started from the right side because I had heard so much about the Nav Buruj. It is said to be a nine petal lotus kind of Bastion. This bastion is unique because it has two floors within it.

View of NavBurj from outside

The view from this bastion was amazing. We explored a bit on the top and as usual stole a moment to click few of our pictures. After all the hard work of climbing up and down photo toh banta hai bhai.

Some playful time

Talking of Bastions you would be surprised to know that there are around 114 bastions on the fort and the fort wall is almost 3 kms long'

After climbing down from the bastion I captured few nearby structures which are scattered outside the fort wall

One of the structure outside the fort wall.

We were given to understand that Naldurg is a huge fort hence one requires lots of time to cover its each nook and corner. Personally I felt that if you are a serious fort lover then you need a full day to cover every square inch of this fort.

Another structure outside the fort wall

We started to walk along the path made and came across ancient structures but due to the paucity of time we gave them a casual looks and moved on from this the point and....

Reached a location from where would see a huge lake!

Lake within the fort

Yes this Fort has a lake and that too is huge, I was left open mouth with OMG written all over my face. I have visited many forts in Maharashtra but never seen something as amazing as this.

Breathtaking view of the lake

One can take boat ride, Banana ride, Water scooter and many more water sports activity. This is perhaps one of those few forts which offers such delightful water sports.

Variety of water sports

A little walk further we came across another interesting structure. This structure is perched as a watch tower kind of thing. In other words this structure is the highest portion of the fort and is called Upali Buruj.

Upali Buruj

There are close to 70-75 steps to climb to the top and Pooja and me raced on these steps with Nikhil shooting us on the camera. These silly antics keeps us going and we find our fun in them.

Pooja and myself racing to the top

70 plus stair of upali buruj and fun time for us

Upon reaching the top we saw two cannons, quite a long one. This bastion was made for keeping watch and to oversee everything, I can vouch for this, because I could see the highway from the fort with the vehicle movement on it.

View from the Upali Buruj of Highway

This bastion is at the centre of the fortification of the fort.Due to which one can have a bird eye view of the entire fort from the Bastion.

View of the fort from the top.

Upli Buruj has two cannons on it-- though historians believe that during the Adil Shahi period, there were three cannons. One of the cannon had a crocodile face kind of mouth, hence is called Magar Toph

Magar Thop or cannon.

For a history lover these cannons are something to be proud of and sacrosanct in a way, but its sad to note that for people who just come to spend an outing here, its a place of fun, and these canons are a resting place, a magical broom kind of thing to sit on. Parents without realising I feel are giving wrong indications to their children when they make them sit on the cannons just to enjoy. Please respect the historical past.

This 21 feet long canon is reduced to a garden bench..sic

We spent some time at the Upli Buruj enjoying the cool breeze and enjoying the mesmerizing 360 view of the fort. Clicking pictures from vantage point is always so delightful.

Talking selfie on the edge can be edgy 😅

From here we moved on the one of the most unique structure on this fort and it is called Pani Mahal.

Actually in 1613 AD, Ibrahim Adilshah II built the weir or dam on the river Bori and constructed Pani Mahal. This dam itself is an engineering marvel of its time. This Dam is 90 feet tall, 275 metres long and approx 31 metres in width.

View of the Dam from the top

Pani Mahal is an interesting structure whereby when you come on the dam section there are stairs going down and you come across a floor kind of thing. Not much is left today to see here though. One can catch the glimpse of the gushing water of the dam from the window of this section. This floor was made in such a manner that though this palace is on the wier yet the water never passes through it. Isn't it an amazing architectural marvels of yesteryear.

Me enjoying the view on the top of the Dam

The sun was coming down and the breeze was getting all the more cooler so we thought to chill out on the top of Pani Mahal. The river water was glittering in the evening sun and the view looked mesmerising.

Good Bye Solapur...and Naldurg

It was now time for us to say goodbye to this lovely Fort and begin our journey back to Solapur Station from where we were to take night train to Mumbai.

How to reach:
From Solapur: Naldurg is situated around 50 kms from Solapur. The fort is situated on the Solapur -Hyderabad highway in Naldurg Village. There are regular State transport buses plying from Solapur to Naldurg.

Click on the link to have video journey of our entire Solapur trip

Weekend wanderer at Solapur Vist

Traveller Tip:
If you are visiting on Sundays park your vehicle somewhere on highway and take a walk to fort. Sunday is market day and its too hard to drive four wheeler in narrow lanes with lots of roadside stalls and crowd.

If you wish to have drone tour of this place click on the link I have shared below.

naldurg fort from drone

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Vipassana Golden Pagoda : Mumbai Darshan Series

2019-01-01T20:00:00.000-08:00

Our Journey:

We often visit temple on 1st Jan being the start of the new year to seek blessings of the almighty. This year however I thought I'll make a slight change and visit the Pagoda instead of a temple at Gorai near Borivali.

I gave a shout out to few friends, if they would like to join and the result was that my friend Pooja and Femina joined us.

My ever ready friends

We had decided to start early in the morning hence we had fixed our meeting time at 7 am at Malad Station. However when I checked about the ferry timings I came to know that the first ferry to Pagoda from Marve Beach leaves at 9:40 so the whole program had to be rescheduled and we decided to meet at 8:30 am.

At Marve Beach

We all met at 8:30 am at Malad West side of the Station and from there a little walk of 100 metres and you come down to the Bus stop of Bus no 126 fortunately for us the bus was at the stand so we all quickly jumped in. Marve Jetty or beach is the last stop so we took tickets for the last stop. a ride of 25 minutes and we were at the Marve Beach. Here again the ferry boat to Pagoda/Esselworld was almost leaving we were the the last passenger to get in.

The happy passengers

The ferry ride through the stinking water of the creek is not what you would like to see but then to seek better views one has to cross such hurdles.

Got to cross the stinking waters,
to reach the beautiful Pagoda

Here again the ride lasted some 25 minutes odd. We were busy shooting the pictures of each other in the boat, Femina met some old office colleague so she was busy chatting with them.My wife was feeling the morning chill stinking water not withstanding , Pooja and myself we were clicking pictures of the approaching Pagoda.

Upon reaching the other end of the creek we see along jetty This long jetty takes you to the land mass and for a second you are confused that by mistake the ferry guy has dropped you at the entrance of Esselworld amusement Park instead of Pagoda. Well don't worry the entrance is common to both however one needs to take left to go to the Pagoda.

Esselworld or Pagoda...Who cares

We started to walk on the road leading to the Pagoda. Our Ferry tickets were checked at the entrance of Pagoda road.A little walk of 5-7 minutes we were at the entrance gate of Pagoda.

There were lots of cars parked outside the Pagoda gate, I was confused how come these cars are here, Well I was informed that there is also a road route which comes from Mira-Bhayander Road. I will give you information of the same at the end, So chill and come and explore this Pagoda.

You will ask me what's so special of this Pagoda...well here I go

Pagoda-Gorai (Pic Source Internet)

The reason why you must see Pagoda :

World's Largest stone dome in Mumbai!

The center of the Global Vipassana Pagoda contains the world's largest stone dome built without any supporting pillars. The height of the dome is approximately 29 metres, while the height of the building is 96.12 meters, which is twice the size of the previously largest hollow stone monument in the world, the Gol Gumbaz (Click on the link if you want to read about our journey here) Dome in Bijapur, India. The external diameter of the largest section of the dome is 97.46m and the shorter sections, is 94.82m. The internal diameter of the dome is 85.15m. The inside of the pagoda is hollow and serves as a very large meditation hall with an area covering more than 6000 sq m (65,000 sq ft). The massive inner dome seats over 8000 people, enabling them to practice the non-sectarian Vipassana meditation as taught by Mr S N Goenka, and now being practiced in over 160 centres in more than 60 countries.

Bird eye view of The Pagoda ( Pic source internet)

Trivia regarding the Pogoda:

1.The shape of the pagoda is a copy of the Shwedagon Pagoda (Golden Pagoda) in Yangon, Myanmar.

2. 8000 people can meditate in the main hall.

3.The spire is covered in real gold

4.The main doors to the pagoda are wooden and hand-carved in Myanmar (Burma).

5.The Buddha bone relics were offered by the government of Sri Lanka and the Maha Bodhi Society in India in 1997,

Now back to our journey :

One look at the Pagoda I felt like I was in china , That huge entrance door which I had seen for the first time in the movie 36 chamber of Shaolin. I was in college in those days and today here I was face to face with something I have never seen before. Visiting this Pagoda is an experience you must not miss.

For me it looked like I am in China

We enter through a huge gate and start to climb broad stairs but this been modern times , so you can't simply jump into the temple. One has to undergo security check.

Huge entry gate with the stairs leading to Pagoda

I was very disappointed when I was told that I had to deposit my camera as it is not allowed inside. My world came crashing down, I had visualised that I'll click from various angle. I argued with the security guard that earlier they were allowing cameras inside. He said from 20, Nov 2018 No Cameras inside the temple,however one can carry mobile. Small mercies !

Trying my best to capture pictures with mobile phone camera

The stairs are divided into two parts one to go up and the other section to come down.As soon as the stairs get over you see Two huge elephants in sitting position and right in front of that the huge Pagoda. the Golden Pagoda.

Two separate section of stairs

The pagoda consists of three sub-domes. The first and largest dome was completed when bone relics of Gautama Buddha were enshrined in the central locking stone of the dome on October 29, 2006, making it the world's largest hollow stone masonry structure containing relics of the Buddha. The relics were originally found in Bhattiprolu, Guntur district, Andhra Pradesh, South India. They have been donated by the Mahabodhi Society of India and the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka to be kept at the Global Vipassana Pagoda. The second and third domes, along with an auxiliary dome adjoining the second dome, sit atop the first dome. Construction of the third dome was structurally completed on November 21, 2008.(Source internet)

One Sub dome next to the Main dome of Pagoda

We spent some time clicking pictures. Then visited the exhibition hall too. As you come down through those stairs you are guided to enter the souvenir shop and from there to the main entrance.

Beautiful Pillars of the Pagoda

There is a restaurant or food plaza also with in the Pagoda complex.

Lots of Meditation courses are conducted here. 10 days Vipassana Meditation being the most popular one. Some people also go to Igatpuri Vipassana Meditation centre.

We again walked back to the entrance where the Ferry had left us in the morning. We soon boarded the return ferry and reached Marve Beach where we had delicious mumbai special Misal Pau for lunch and then boarded the bus back to Malad Station from where we took train to our respective destination.

Back to Marve beach

Visit to Global Pagoda can be done in half day, One can club visit to Gorai beach also.

click here to watch our journey in 3 min video

Information you can use:

Timing:

Monday to Sunday, 9 am - 7 pm.

( Entry timing will be till 6.30 pm only )

Entry inside the dome:

Please note only old Vipassana meditators are allowed to enter the dome and meditate. All other visitors can view the inside dome from visitors' gallery.

Identity Proof for foreigners:

Identity Proof is mandatory for foreign visitors. (Passport/ driving licence/ certificate from respective embassy)

How to reach:

There are 3 ways to reach-

From Borivali:

1.Nearest Railway station Borivali.

2.Take a bus from the Borivali railway station and reach Gorai creek or jetty. (Bus no 247 and 294)

3.Take ferry from Gorai Jetty to Pagoda/Esselworld (Ticket:Rs 50 to and fro).

From Malad:

1.Nearest Railway station Malad.

2.Take a bus no 123 from the Malad railway station and reach Marve Beach or jetty.

3.Take ferry from Marve Jetty to Pagoda/Esselworld (Ticket:Rs 50 to and fro).

From Bhayander:

1.Nearest Railway station Bhayander

2.Take a bus from the Bhayander railway station West side and reach Global Pagoda directly.(Bus no 4)

3. There are Autos also plying to Pagoda . They charge around Rs 200-250 (2018 price).

4. In case if you are coming by car then the route is little longer.

a) If coming from Andheri, Borivali side then you drive on the western express highway and take a left from Mira-Bhayandar crossing, turn Left towards Mira-Bhayandar. The crossing has a statue of Shivaji Maharaj positioned at the centre. From here onwards the signboards will guide you.

b) In case if you are coming from Thane/Virar/Gujarat then you need to take right turn from Mira-Bhayandar crossing, turn Left towards Mira-Bhayandar. The crossing has a statue of Shivaji Maharaj positioned at the centre. From here onwards the signboards will guide you.

Thanks for reading the blog hope you find the information useful. Please do join my site if you like the blog.

Afghan Church | Churches Of Mumbai Series

2018-12-16T23:45:00.000-08:00

Afghan Church, What kind of name is it ?

Never in my wildest dreams I could have associated AFGHAN(Islamic Country) with CHURCH .

Kishe ne sach hi kaha hai ki Bade bade shahero me choti choti baate ho jati hai 😜

I was really intrigued by this weird combination which in turned fired up many more question in my mind.

Could it be possible fusion of Islamic and western culture something like Champaner near Vadodadra Where we saw amazing architectural influence of Islamic and Hindu culture together in form of Mosques and Chatris or Cenotaphs.

Ab jab sawaal man me utha hai tho uska jawaab bhi toh dondna padega na.

I had to find an answer to my question on Afghan Church and in order to do so ek visit toh banta hai boss and hence I did my preliminary research on google and set out for my weekend wanderings of this week

Afghan Church:One look and I realised how wrong I was because there was no Afghan but only church. That too angalic church which had a huge spire. So now the question arise why the name Afghan Church. If you hear the tragic tale behind the name it would bring tears to your eyes.

History: Afghan Church was built by British to commemorate the dead of the first Afghan war and the disastrous 1842 retreat of Kabul also known as Massacre of Elphinstone's army .

This massacre was so brutal that more than 4500 troops of british army was lost along with the 12000 civilians. Despite agreement on the settlement of safe passage to the british troops, this massacre still happened as the Afghan tribals killed most of the retreating soldiers.Many people died because of frostbites and starvation.

The killing was so profound that out of the 16000 people from the coloum commanded by the Elphintone only one European and few Indians sepoys reached Jalalabad. The hardship encountered was such that around 2000 Indians many of known was maimed by the frostbite, survived and returned to Kabul to exist, by begging or were sold to slave trade.

Our Journey:

We had just finished visiting Haji Ali Dargah and walked back to Mumbai Central Station from where we took local train to Churchgate station. Right outside the station there is a bus stop from where we took local BEST bus no 137 and got down at the Afghan Church stop. Just opposite the bus stop you see a tall spire nestled among the trees.

Tall Spire of Afghan church
nestle among the ancient trees

The Tall spire of the church can be seen from long distance. The construction and architecture of this church is pioneer in the sense that it paved the way for the high Victorian building that later became the hallmark of British Colonial architecture.

High Victorian style architecture

I was very excited to explore this church.Imagine staying in Mumbai for more than 50 years and yet I haven't seen this place, well that's the tale of almost many mumbaikar that we are unaware of such hidden treasures within our city.

Yes I am excited to explore Afghan church

I was told that in olden days lots of British Soldiers used to come in this church to attend the Sunday Mass.

We crossed the road and entered the church complex, the lovely Banyan tree on the right of the church welcomed us and we saw few small children enjoying the swing on the hanging branches of the tree. I wanted to click them but they became conscious and ran away.

We then moved on to the main door of the church, which was unfortunately closed. I was very disappointed and after travelling so far I have to go empty handed.

Closed Door ! Will I be going empty handed ?

Kahte hai na... jaha chah hai waha raha hai meaning where there is will there is a way !

Luckily for us, as we were clicking the exterior of the church, A batch of foreigners came at that time to visit this church. The guide along them went to the caretaker of the church, who stays next to the church. The caretaker came and opened up the Church for us with a rider that We must finish out visit in 10 minutes. We were ushered inside the church from the side door.

Side door through which we entered

I quickly entered the church and I was quite impressed with what I saw. The wide Gothic arches and the colourful stained glass windows coupled with the pin drop silence of the church took my breath away.

The Gothic Arches

Sitting at the church for hardly few moments I could feel the British era atmosphere all around me. I could see the Priest at the Lectern in his majestic robes and I could see the smartly dressed soldier with their wives sitting on the benches of the church listening to the Sunday sermon in my mind's eye. This is the magic of visiting such ancient places.

Can you see the priest...Well I saw !

The colourful stained glasses seems to narrate various episodes of bible I assumed. The light filtering in through these glasses seems to have hypnotic effect on me. It was difficult for me to take away my gaze from them.

Colourful Stained Glasses

Then there are commemorative plaques something similiar to the ones we saw at St Thomas Cathedral in this church too that speaks poignantly of the Officers, NCOs and privates and their families who perished due to war and sickness during the troops withdrawal from Kabul through the snow bound passes. The Dead included both British and Indian soldiers.

Daylight filtering through this colourful maze

The tiles of the floor were brought from England. The main corridor or Chancel as they call is 50 feet long and 27 feet wide and the huge spire that we see is 198 feet high.

50 Feet long chancel

I was dazed as I came out the church. I decided to again went to the main door of the church. The beautiful door and the lobby outside it was decorated with colourful red flowers, being christmas time the aura of churches are of different league.

Decorated Church Entrance Door

This church is actually the Church of St John the Evangelist however it is popular known as Afghan Church.Talking about the construction of this church, the imposing edifice were constructed using the locally available buff coloured basalt and limestone.

Buff coloured basalt and limestone.

The church was opened to the public during the year 1858 by the Bishop of Bombay John Harding.

We spent some time exploring the outer side of the Church, took some photographs and bid our goodbye.

Information you can use:

How To Reach

The church is very near to the Colaba Causeway which is between Colaba and Old Woman’s island. One can easily reach here by taking a cab from anywhere in the city.

By Air:

Nearest Airport: Mumbai Airport is the closest airport to the church. Airport is 27 km away from the church.

By Road:

Nearest Bus Stop: You can catch BEST Bus number 123 from Churchgate station to reach the church.
Taxis are available outside the Churchgate and CST station and you can reach in 15-20 minutes

By Rail :

Nearest Railway Station:

Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus on Central Railway is the convenient railway station (6.5 km away) to reach Afghan church Mumbai.
Churchgate station on Western Railway is another option which is 3.5 km away.

Haji Ali | Mumbai Darshan Series

2018-12-15T23:53:00.000-08:00

Its now over 50 years that I have been staying in Mumbai. The financial capital of India but yet within this financial capital there are some real gems of historical delight, architectural elegance and so many other facets that this city hides in its womb. Through this Mumbai Darshan Series, I intend to uncover some famous and some lesser explored places and structures of Mumbai.This is my humble contribution to my city hope you guys like it.

My first place of visit would be Haji Ali Dargah. Millions of mumbaikar pass along this famous Mosque but not many may have actually visited it. In my entire life span of more than 50 years I had visited it once only!

In the hustle and bustle of the Mumbai city the Haji Ali Dargah is a mosque/Dargah located on an islet off the coast of Worli in the southern part of Mumbai. The Dargah contains the tomb of Sayed Peer Haji Ali Shah Bukhari.

The Haji Ali Dargah was constructed in 1431. in memory of a wealthy Muslim merchant, Sayyed Peer Haji Ali Shah Bukhari, who gave up all his worldly possessions before making a pilgrimage to Mecca. Hailing from Bukhara, in present-day Uzbekistan, Bukhari travelled around the world in the early to mid 15th century, and eventually settled in present-day Mumbai.

Story behind this Dargah:

Stories excites me to no end and I was sure that there would legend or tale or Rivayat as they say about this Haji Ali Dargah. It is learnt from "Rivayat" (Legends) that Pir Haji Ali Shah Bukhari (R.A.) was sitting at some lonely place in his hometown and was busy in his prayers when a lady passed-by from there crying and screaming. When the Saint
enquired about her crying, she pointed to an empty vessel
in her hand and said that she had dropped some oil. And if she goes home without the oil her husband would beat her. She was crying in need of help. The Saint asked her to be calm and went with her to the place where the oil had been dropped. He then took the vessel from the wailing lady and pushed the earth with his thumb. The oil came out like a fountain and the vessel was full. The Saint gave her the vessel with oil and she went away happily.

However, after that, the Saint was troubled by dreams of having wounded the earth by striking it in this manner. Full of remorse and grief from that day he became very serious and was not keeping well. Then with the permission of his mother he traveled to India with his brother and finally reached the shores of Mumbai – near Worli or at some

place opposite the present tomb. His brother went back to their native place. Pir Haji Ali Shah Bukhari sent a letter with him to their mother informing her that he was keeping good health and that he had decided to reside at that place permanently for the spread of Islam and that she should forgive him.

Till his death he was praying and giving knowledge about Islam to the people and devotees regularly visiting him. Before his death he has advised his followers that they should not bury Him at any proper place or graveyard and should drop his shroud ('kafan') in the ocean such that it should be buried by the people where it is found.

His wish was obeyed by his followers. That is why the Dargah Sharief is built at the very site where his shroud came to rest in the middle of the sea where it was perched on a small mound of rocks rising above the sea. The Tomb and Dargah Sharief were built in the years to come.( Source : www.hajialidargah.in ).

Pathway to the Dargah

As the mosque is located around 500 metres away from the mainland one has to walk down the narrow pathway from the mahalaxmi side to the mosque. This causeway is around one Few metres long. Hence the accessibility to the mosque is very dependent on the tides because the causeway is not bound with any railings, thus during the high tide time the causeway get submerged in the sea water and the way becomes inaccessible to the devotees.

Walking down this causeway is one of the highlight of visiting this mosque and as you walk you see local made decorative pieces and souvenirs

Vendors selling souvenirs

Let us now enter the mosque and see what hidden delights are in store for us. after walking on the causeway we reach the entrance of the mosque which has this huge entrance gate with marble steps.

As I entered the premises I was stuck with awe with the angelic beauty of the white marble mosque standing in front of me, upon inquiring I was told that this mosque was renovated with the first and second grade of white marble which was transported from from Makrana, Rajasthan. The same place from where the marble for Taj Mahal was brought.

The Dargah Complex consists of :

Main Dargah Building housing the tomb of Pir Haji AliShah Bukhari

On the left side as we enter the complex is a ground plus 2 floor Sanatorium blocks.

Sanatorium blocks.

Then there is a Qawal Khana.

A prayer hall for men and women.

Minaret.

Minaret

Let me take you to the main building which houses the tomb of the saint.

As soon as you enter you feel the spiritual presence with a huge chandelier gleaming in golden light and the glittering silver walls around me. I stood there for few minutes, paying my respect to the saint, with the sounds of prayers from Qawal Khana.

Glittering Golden lights

As you come out from the shrine and move towards your left side you see a large prayer hall or Namaz hall for gents. I was told that on the other side of this hall there is a prayer hall for women folk.

Prayer Hall next to the Tomb

The prayer hall looked so peaceful, the red carpet and the marble arches with beautiful designs embed on the pillars.

Beautiful designs on the marble arches

The windows in this hall looks very beautiful because of zali type carving and they too adds to the ambiance and spiritual atmosphere.

Zali Type windows

Coming out of the prayer hall the strong sea breeze hit you with a pleasure beyond expression. I turn around only to see a beautiful dargah with an equally impressive minaret.

Beautiful Marble Dargah

White marble inviting you to touch it,feel it and yet you are apprehensive and think "kahi mere haat lagane se yeh maila toh hai ho jayega" So serene and pure this white marble appears.

Imposing Minaret

Talking of white marble, As I had mentioned earlier in this blog, I was told that the marble used here is actually Makrana Marble, the same type which was used for constructing Taj Mahal. So in other words you can say Mumbai has its own Taj Mahal. ( I know Taj Mahal is way more beautiful then most of the monuments put together) Lekin Mumbai ki collar tight karne ke liye as they say "Kehne me kya harz hai."

After spending some time admiring the beauty of the Dargah one can spend some time on the black rocks behind the Dargah. The view from there of Mumbai skyline is mesmersing and the lashing waves are music to the ears.

For me Haji Ali hold the place of pride as Mumbai's Taj Mahal, where more than 100000 visitors visit every week.It was now time to bid adieu and look out for another new destination.

You make like this Champaner Series

How to reach:

Rail: Mumbai Central and Mahalaxmi Railway station is the nearest railway station, One needs to get out on the west side of the station and take local taxi or City Bus.The distance from Mumbai central station is approx 3.3kms and from Mahalaxmi station its 2,2 kms.

Road:Many BEST buses ply from different points of the city to Haji Ali daily. you can click on this link to search for the bus information BEST buses route network.

Air: Haji ali is 18,2 kms from the Domestic airport and 18.4kms from International Airport Mumbai.Its almost an hour drive if you are taking a cab.

Temple Trails | Airavateswara Temple | Day 3

2018-10-07T22:00:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we had a great time at Rameshwaram visiting the Rameshwaram Temple, some local temples, then visit to Dr Abdul Kalam memorial and we finished our day by visiting the fabulously beautiful Pamban bridge.

You can click here to read about our journey from the beginning.

View of the train entering the Pamban Bridge

Sunday,7th Oct 2018

Today we had to catch the train to Thanjavur. So we left our hotel by 8:00 am, took an auto to the Rameshwaram railway station. Our train was to depart at 8.40.

All excited me ,at Rameshwaram Railway Station

We were all excited because today we will be actually plying over the Pamban bridge. All three of us ie. my wife, my daughter and myself we were ready with our cameras to capture the moment on our mobile phones.bola tha na, pagalpan Puri tarah se humme hai. (other passengers in the train thinking) puri family ka screw dhila hai but apna toh yeah thought WHO CARES !

Yesterday we captured the exterior of the bridge from the road bridge and today we were going to capture our journey by travelling on it.

This shot from the train itself by my daughter.

The anchored boats were the testimony to the alert call of cyclone and here I was traveling on this railway bridge despite the cyclone warning alert.

Chakka Jam or Boat Jam....
Yeah nazaara Cyclone Alert ke kaaran

Anyway there was no cyclone, so no adventure to write about, but the sights were amazing. Luckily for us, today the whole train was almost empty. Apne baap ki train hai wali feeling as rahi thi.. actually we were very tired because last night we had spent long time lazing at the Agni theerthaam and after coming to our room the blasting thunderstorm didn't allow us to sleep peacefully.

My favourite window seat and beauty of the nature
Wah kya Jodi Hamaari !

My wife and my daughter immediately went to sleep and I took guard at my favourite window seat clicking pictures and after sometime with the gentle breeze hitting me I too went into a deep slumber.

It was the jerk which opened my eyes and I saw our train leaving some platform behind, I checked out to see which station and was flabbergast to see that we were moving out of Thanjavur station.

"Zindagi me kabhi train ki chain khichi nahi aur aaj bhi himmat nahi Hui."

Yeah scene dimag me aate hi chain pulling the idea out !

I jerked my daughter and wife too from their sleep and explained the situation. Saala first time meri life me mera station nikal gaya.

"Logo ki train miss hoti hai

aur idhar mera station miss ho gaya 😜😜😜"

"Logo ki train miss hoti hai aur idhar,
mera station miss ho gaya"

My mind started to work rapidly, my first priority was to check the next station which incidentally was Kumbakonam and the time of the train to Thanjavur. It was hugely disappointing to note that the return train was late in the evening.Next I googled if there are any place which I can visit at Kumbakonam.

Toofani toh har koi karta hai,

Kyo na aaj kuch alag kiya jaye...

Ghummakad hu, pani me dakaa doge.

toh machali pakad kar bahar aajaunga 😜😜😜

After one hour the next station came ie. Kumbakonam (shayad isliye kumbakaram ki tarah hum sab soye rahe)

Coming out of the station we saw an auto guy and we hired him to take us to Airavateswara Temple .

Airavateswara Temple

Why you must visit Airavateshwara Temple,

when in Kumbakonnam

1.The biggest reason to visit Airavateswara temple is, that it is a UNESCO world heritage site,so naturally I was excited all the more. I felt I was destined to visit this temple perhaps that's the reason I must have overslept.

Architectural Delight

2.The Cholas built hundreds of Hindu temples across their empire. Of these four were vast complexes with all stone vimanas. The Airavatesvara temple is one of these four. The other three are the temples found in Thanjavur built by Rajaraja I, in Gangaikonda Cholapuram built by Rajendra I, and in Tribuvanam by the later era Chola king Kulottunga II. Hence Airavateshwara Temple is one of the living Chola Temple.

Intricate carvings

3.The intricate carvings and statues in this temple are class apart.

4.The peaceful ambiance, the musical stairs are something unique to be seen in this temple.

Peaceful ambiance

5.To a photographer Airavateswara Temple offers some magnificent shots and angles.

Good Photo angles

6. 100 pillars hall with intricate carving on each of them.

Pillars with Yali sculptures

7. There are many unique sculptures in the temple and one of that include a 73 panel of sculptures depicting the life history of 63 Nayanmars.

"Nowhere one can see in such details the life history of Nayanmars.

8. Last but not the least its one of the Great living Chola Temple.

History:

The temple was built by king Rajaraja Chola II who ruled the Chola Empire between 1146 and 1172 CE. The Airavatesvara temple was much larger than what we see today. According to the inscriptions. It had sapta veedhis (seven streets) and seven courts, similar to the Srirangam temple. However nothing remains today, except the one court with the main temple which survived.There are ruins of gopuram and some structures at some distance from the current visitor premises confirming that the site was badly damaged at some point like the other major Chola era temples and various Chola cities including the capital Gangaikonda Cholapuram.

Legends:

This temple is dedicated to Lord Shiva. As per mythology, Lord Shiva was worshiped here by Airavata, Lord Indra's elephant who had seven trunks and four tusks. After being cursed by sage Durvasa for not respecting him, the spotless Airavata turned into a discoloured elephant.Inorder to be free from this curse the elephant took a dip in the sacred waters of this temple.

There there is another legend according to which it was believed that Yama, the King of Death, also worshiped Lord Shiva here. Yama, who was cursed by a sage which caused a burning sensation all over his body, took a dip in the sacred tank of the temple and got cured. This temple tank is thus named Yamateertham.

Tales of Pandavas Rage or Delhi Sultanates Plundering

The reasons for the destructions of Chola temples are unclear. According to Vasanthi, the Pandavas who defeated the Cholas during the later part of 13th century "may have raged the Gangaikonda Cholapuram to ground" to avenge their previous defeats. However, it is unclear why other temples were destroyed and this temple was spared, as well as why there are around 20 inscriptions from later Cholas, Pandyas and Vijayanagar Empire indicating various gifts and grants to this temple.

An alternate theory links the destruction to the raids, plunder and wars, particularly with the invasion of the capital city and the territories that were earlier a part by the Chola Empire along with Madurai by the armies of Delhi Sultanate led by the Muslim commander Malik Kafur in 1311, followed by Khusrau Khan in 1314 and Muhammad bin Tughlaq in 1327. The period that followed saw wars between the Hindu kings and the Muslim Sultans who seceded the Delhi Sultanate and carved out new polity such as the nearby Madurai Sultanate (1335–1378). The Vijayanagara Empire defeated the Madurai Sultanate in 1378 and this temple along with other Chola era temples thereafter came under Hindu kings again who repaired and restored many of them.

Our journey :

In 15 -20 minutes we reached the Airavateswara temple, What took us by surprise was the well maintained garden outside the temple complex. Crossing the garden we come across the main gate of the temple but not before noticing the Nandi in front of the gate. A huge Black stone Nandi. We were told that this Nandi mandapa is aligned with the main temple's east west axis.

Huge Black stone Nandi outside the main entrance.

After clicking few pictures of the huge black stone Nandi we entered the main complex of the temple. Just like the other temples of the South India this too was enclosed within huge walls.

The first hall that you see as you enter the complex has 100 pillars and each pillar has stone carving depicting scenes of olden days. I couldn't find any guide so I was unable to comprehend much.

100 Pillars Hall

The most unique feature of the temple was the horses at the entrance steps. The front Mandapa known as Rajagambhiran Tirumandapam is unique as it was conceptualized as chariots with wheels.

Elephants, Horses and Chariots

Next we come across a strange sculpture of fusion of Elephant, horse or was is something else ?

Is it an elephant or a horse ?

moving on to the back side of the temple there is this beautiful Shiva Sculpture in black stone.

Shiva Sculpture at the back of the temple

Considering that I am no historian nor I am deeply in architecture, Its quite possible that I may fall short of providing all the information on this temple. In case if you are willing to dig deep I found this website quite useful you can click here to read more.

We spent quite sometime here and were simply overwhelmed by the beauty of this temple. The sun was on the verge of setting so we were rushing back to catch out bus to Thanjavur, where the Big Temple alias Brihadeeshwara Temple awaits us.

How to reach:

Air: Nearest Airport is Trichy Airport, One can take a cab,bus or train to reach here.

Rail: Darusuram is the nearest railway station.However only passenger trains stop here. If you take express train then one needs to get down at Kumbakunam railway station.

Bus: There are regular buses from Trichy,Madurai,Thanjavur .

I was told that there are regular mini buses from Kumbakunam Railway station every 15 minutes plying to the temple.

Thanks for reading the blog and in case if you are interested in reading the story from the beginning please click here on the link here.

Pamban Bridge | One of the most dangerous bridge

2018-10-06T23:00:00.000-07:00

In my last blogs we visited Meenakshi Temple, Rameshwaram temple and Dr Abdul Kalam Memorial we were now rushing in our auto to catch the setting sun view of Pamban Bridge.

To Read about our journey from the beginning click here

People called me crazy when I told them that visiting Pamban bridge is one of the most awaited moment in my life. You must be wondering Why Pamban Bridge?

Arre yaar Maine bahut saal pehle kahi pad liya tha... Pamban bridge one of the most dangerous bridge, Bas Dil ke memory chip me record ho gaya and I knew that someday I have to be there.

Its a view to die for

World over you have some fantastic bridges then be it be in San Francisco, London or Sydney but for me my home grown Pamban bridge was right at the top. Ab yeh Dil ki baat hai Dil hi Jane.

There were two ways for me to experience the Pamban bridge , one I could watch it from outside and other by travelling on it.

Hum hum hai
Isliye gum kuch kam hai .

Yes I managed to do it in both the ways.

My dream fulfilled- Ek photo kuch aisa

Annai Indira Gandhi road bridge which is parallel to the Pamban bridge was inaugurated by former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi on 2 Oct ,1988 is also an engineering marvel.

Annai Indira Gandhi road bridge in the background

It offers fantastic view of the Pamban Railway Bridge. Lots of tourist stopover here to click pictures especially of the train passing over the railway bridge.

Tourist clicking the pictures of the train from the road bridge

Pagalpan toh itna hai ki Mumbai se trains ke time note kar ke gaya tha , as to when the trains shall be departing Rameshwaram station, so that I am there at the road bridge to capture the view on my camera.

Scene soaked in the evening golden tranquility

We were little late to catch the glimpses of the passing train because I got carried away at Dr Kalam memorial that I overspent my time there. Still huffing and puffing our auto reached the flyover bridge and there I could see the beauty of the train with some lovely overcast golden sky. The whole atmosphere was soaked in the golden tranquility.

Is it a rusty and rickety bridge or an engineering marvel

The bridge stood there shining bright. Boss yeh dekne wale ki nazar ka Kamaal Hota hai warna to a commoner the bridge may look a rusty and rickety object. Kahte hai na...the beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder. Sorry yaaro Mai toh emotional ho Gaya.

Sach me yeah most dangerous bridge lagta hai... kabhi bi gaya

Ek Kahani ( One Tale )

Emotional se yaad aaya, there is this story narrated to us by our auto guy. That there was an operator who worked on this bridge, his job was to lift the bridge section so as to allow the ships to pass and then to bring the bridge down, just like draw bridge of olden times to let the train pass over it. However on one fateful day as he was bringing the bridge down, the train was arriving very close to the bridge, and if he was not able to level the bridge there could be a great accident, unfortunately at that particular time his 5 year old small son arrived with the lunch for him. Seeing his father in trouble the small child rushed towards his father and started to rotate the pulley.

Pulley section of the bridge

However in this commotion the child's hands got sucked into the gears and crushed it and the young chap was crying out in pain and died. For a second I was sad and almost hated the bridge. My daughter too was almost in tears, her eyes were red , I held her and said these things happen but then at the same time I felt operating the gear of this bridge cannot be done alone , keeping in mind the size of the bridge. Jaise meri aadat hai, I immediately googled to check out the facts and thankfully realised that it's fake story . One needs at least 12 people to operate the bridge. Being an avid traveller I have heard so many stories from the local people or guide and over the period of time I have realised that we got to take these tales with a pinch of salt, Kyo ki aap ko man mukt karne ke liye yeh kahaniya aadhi haqeeqat to aadha fasana hoti hi.

Thank God my love for the bridge didn't get diminished.

Some amazing views on the road bridge

Now see a picture taken from the train, Bola tha na jo sochte hai woh karte zaroor hai ..hazoor

This was from the train.

Now some facts about this bridge.

1.Pamban bridge was India's first sea bridge, and was the longest sea bridge in India until the opening of the Bandra-Worli Sea Link in 2010.

2.This bridge was built on 24 Feb 1914 which means this bridge is more than 100 year old !

3.This is one of the most dangerous bridge, imagine now more than 100 years old and over that this bridge is located in the world's second most corrosive environment after Florida, making its maintenance a challenging job. The location is also a cyclone-prone high wind velocity zone.

4. The railway bridge is located 12.5 metres (41 ft) above sea level and is 6,776 ft (2,065 m) long.

5. The bridge consists of 143 piers and has a double-leaf badcule section with a Scherzer rolling type lift span that can be raised to let ships pass. Each half of the lifting span weighs 415 tonnes.

Bridge in opening position (Pic source internet)

In this technical world this bridge still uses manual means using levers to lift the two leaves of the bridge .

click here to see the opening up of the bridge

I had read in a newspaper reporting that Indian Railways is trying to bring the bridge in the UNESCO world heritage list. So till then fingers crossed.

We bid goodbye to the Pamban bridge and returned back to our hotel.

How to reach:

Air: Nearest airport is Madurai Airport.
Rail: Rameshwaram Station is the nearest station and it is well connected with most rail routes across India.
Road : Regular buses ply from Madurai to Rameshwaram, enroute to Rameshwaram you can get down on the Pamban road bridge. Autos and private vehicles are easily available from Rameshwaram to reach here

Tomorrow morning we shall be catching the train from Rameshwaram station to Thanjavur, which has some glorious temples to boast about.

Keep reading and be there with me tomorrow too, to experience the new adventure awaiting us.

please click here to read our journey from the beginning.

Temple Trails : Dr Abdul Kalam Memorial

2018-10-06T17:30:00.000-07:00

After enjoying the spiritual bliss of morning at Rameshwaram temple and spending the first half exploring some other temples in and around Rameshwaram (you can click here to read about our journey from the beginning) it was time to give a break to temple Trails and move on to something different. Bhai jab Safar per nikle hai toh Sab ki pasand dekni padti hai....this was for me and my daughter. Both of us are great fan of Dr Abdul Kalam so it was but natural that visiting the Kalam memorial was just on my to do list. As instructed my auto guy was at my hotel by 3:30 pm and we were on our way to Abdul Kalam memorial.

Front of Dr APJ Abdul Kalam National Memorial

Dr Abdul Kalam needs no introduction but yet I would like to dedicate few lines for him. Dr Abdul Kalam was the 11th President of India but before that he associated with DRDO for almost 4 decades as Scientist and Science Administrator with ISRO. He was fondly known as Missile Man of India for is work in Space programs.

on 15th July 2015, while delivering a lecture in Shillong he collapsed and died due to cardiac arrest.

In case if you want know in depth about the life of Dr Abdul Kalam click here

The Memorial is built on a 2.11 acre land infact its also supposed to be the grave site of Dr Abdul Kalam and the bronze life size statue of Abdul Kalam, which was inaugurated in 2016, has been shifted and installed behind the memorial. Inside the memorial there are four halls which depict the life and time of Dr Abdul Kalam.

Chettinad Door at the memorial.

The entrance of the memorial depicts the India Gate and has a Chettinad door integrated into the structure, while the main dome of the building is a replica of the Rashtrapati Bhavan. However we didn't enter through this as the authorities have kept it closed and instead they use the side entrance.

The Defence Research and Development organisation (DRDO) with which Dr Abdul Kalam was associated for many years, came up with an initiative to construct this memorial. An investment of Rs 120 crores were spent for its construction and it was completed in record time of 9 months.

The memorial of Abdul Kalam is very beautiful and it showcases the entire events during the lifetime of Dr Abdul Kalam. His statue and his office transport you to Kalam world. As photography is not allowed inside the memorial building hence I am unable to share the pictures however I can share my experience.

There was this room where they had displayed the things Dr Kalam was carrying on the day when he died. His clothes, his slippers, his glasses , his comb brush .....looking at these things, I got goosebumps, I could feel Kalam Ji in my soul. Seriously speaking it was a spiritual experience that I was feeling which was passing through me. I don't know what would have happened to me if I could have simply touched those things that were on display. Then there a room where different awards that he received Dr Kalam received were displayed viz, Padma bhushan, Padma Vibhushan , Bharat Ratan etc.

I was actually perturbed for not been able to take photos of such lovely memories, I found this very strange because world over people are allowed to take pictures in such kind of memorials. I researched as to why photos were not allowed when I came across an article which gave the Reason for this no photos rule. (Click on the link to know)

Dazed I came out of the museum, an experience that will always remain with me, because today I brushed with the legend whom I had the good fortune of seeing once when he was alive, only then I was not knowing how great his personality was.

Outside the museum one is allowed to click pictures so I took the opportunity to make hay where it is allowed 😂

Everyone knows that Dr Kalam loved children, perhaps that must be the reason of putting up copper statues of children playing and many others can be seen on the outside of the memorial.

There is also replica model of rocket in the lawn behind the memorial. I was told that there is an auditorium, planetarium and a library, however I was not able to visit the same.

After visiting the memorial we moved on to Pambam bridge, You must be wondering what's so great about this bridge, because a bridge is a bridge. Ab yeh bridge ki baat hi kuch nirali hai

Well friends stay tuned for my next blog on Pambam bridge.

Click here to read from the beginning about our journey on temple trails.

Thank you from our team.

Temple Trails : Rameshwaram from Morning to Afternoon

2018-10-06T14:30:00.000-07:00

Click on the links to read earlier parts:

Day 1- Madurai Temple
Day 2 (Morning) - Rameshwaram Temple

What a whirlwind trip it is proving to be. Meenakshi temple done and dusted yesterday and Rameshwaram temple visit today early morning, and here now I am standing at the auto stand thinking next what. Time was only 9.30 am in the morning which means I have a whole day to spend in Rameshwaram and the big question now was What to do ji ?

What to do ji ?

At this point of time I see the glum face of my daughter and then came the query from her which actually I was dreading would come 😜😜 "Dad yeh temple chase ka kuch zyaada nahi ho gaya". I smiled and said betaji yeh toh suruvat hai, aage aage dekh hota hai Kya.

As a traveler we have to balance the likes and dislikes of our co traveler too, hence I told my daughter today we will check out Danushkodi, Kalam house and Pambam bridge. But it seems that luck was not on our side.

Oh Danushkodi !I much I shall be missing you

You will ask, Why Luck! Yes sadly we were informed by the local auto driver that the Danushkodi is closed for the visit due to red alert for cyclone. Believe me I was so disappointed I cannot tell you.

Actually of all the things to visit, Danushkodi was on the top most priority. I remember speaking to one of my friend few years back(2013) when he posted those lovely pictures of the beach with beautiful skyline and some amazing clouds.

Danushkodi Beach

Then this abandoned church, the destroyed railway station.All had a mythical aura attached to it that I was zapped by the crude beauty of the place.My heart was set on visiting it and today this disappointment,Seriously I wanted to cry, but then as a traveler I have learned to take things in my strides.(The pictures of Danushkodi that I have posted are the ones which my friend Prathamesh had posted on fb in 2013 and was gracious enough to allow me to share them with you on my blog when he came to know that I couldn't go to Danushkodi)

Abandoned Church at Danushkodi Beach.

Abandoned Railway Station at Danushkodi

We reworked our plan and decided to go on the local sight seeing of places which are near the Rameshwaram Temple.( The auto guys here have a standard local sightseeing package for RS 300(year 2018.)

10.00 am

We started our trip from Ramar Padham monument atop Gandamadana Parvattham. Ramar Padham is as the name suggest means Rama's feet. One of the local told me that during the war on Ravana, Lord Rama stood atop this mountain to have first look of Lanka.

Ramar Padham Temple

Mere ko koi Lanka Nazar nahi aayi, bus door khada TV tower zaroor nazar agaya.(its a big lie so ignore) Instead of Lanka you do get good view of Rameshwaram. The premise is not well maintained.

One of the view from the Temple

We spent few minutes soaking the scenes and the lovely blue sky around us and moved on but not before enjoying the coconut water.

Rameshwaram me aake Nariyal Pani zaroor hona ji

Then our Auto driver took us to a small temple. Where Hanuman told Lord Rama that he has seen Sita. The temple is so simple that you would easily miss out.

Hanuman Temple

Next we visited Panchamukha Anjaneyar Temple or the 5 headed Hanuman idol. ( For a moment I thought to myself, Kya Hanumanji Ravan see inspired ho gaye the kya .( One is ten headed and one 5 headed)

Panchamukhi Hanuman

Jokes apart, there is a legend behind this Five Headed Hanuman. According to the legend, when Ahiravana a great demon and brother of Ravan, took unconscious Lord Rama and his brother Laxman to Patallok and hid them. Hanuman went in search of them and came to know that demon Ahiravana can only be killed if lamps which were put in five different directions are extinguished simultaneously.

Five face Hanuman

So Hanuman became the 5 gods in different directions, named 1-Hanuman 2- Hayagreeva 3-Narsimha 4-Garuda 5-Varahswami and extinguished all the five lamps simultaneously and thus Ahiravan was killed and Lord Rama and Laxman were saved from his clutches. This five faced statue signifies the face of those five Gods in one God Hanuman.

Floating Stones

Next to this idol, in the same temple complex there was this temple where the floating stones are displayed. Floating stones are believed to be those stones which were used for the construction of Ram Setu or Adam Bridge to reach Lanka.

Next we visited Laxman Theertham. What I like was the bright colours of this temple.

Colourful Laxman Theertham

Its basically a small temple with the usual pond attached to it and then there is a small temple within the pond. Most of the Theertham here are exact replica of this style of construction.

Pond with the temple perched inside the pond.

Last but the least we visited Rama Theerthaam.
There too just like the above picture one pond was there with the temple inside, however Laxman Theertham was better maintained I felt. Next to the Pond separated by wall there was a hall built by the Gujarati trust.

Prayer hall by Gujarathi Trust

Next to this temple there was another old temple.

Ancient Temple next to Rama Theertham

Interestingly this temple have hundreds of idols of snakes, something which I have never seen anywhere before.

Hundreds of snake Idols .

It was getting hot and we were done at least for first half of the day and were now looking forward for some delicious sambhar rice for lunch.

I therefore instructed the auto driver to drop us at over hotel and later to pick us at 3 pm so that we can visit Kalam house and pambam bridge in the evening. I wanted to see sunset at Pambam bridge because I was told that the sight is absolutely amazing.

Please wait for the next part where we shall be visiting Dr Abdul Kalam Memorial till then happy reading.

To read about our journey from the beginning click here.

Temple Trails: Ramanathaswamy Temple-Rameshwaram | Day 2

2018-10-06T10:00:00.000-07:00

Click here to read about Day-1

Day 2: 06th Oct 2018

The alarm on my mobile was ringing out loudly, jolting me out of my deep slumber.I wriggled out of my soft bed feeling the coldness of the AC, slowly I moved towards the table where my mobile was kept and checked the time on my mobile. I was 4:30 am. Normally I don't wake up so early in Mumbai but then I was not in Mumbai I was in the holy town of Rameshwaram and here the life starts full on at such unearthly hours.

Early Morning at Rameshwaram

It was 5:30 am when we left our hotel to go to Rameshwaram Temple, Our hotel was at a walkable distance to the temple,so we started walking through the narrow sandy lanes, with small houses on each side and in few minutes we reached at Agni Theerthaam.

You must be wondering what is this Agni Theertham, well let me give you some info on this.

Agni theerthaam is nothing but a small part of the sea just near the temple where the devotees take a dip in the ocean before proceeding to the Rameshwaram Temple.

Agni Theerthaam

Agni theerthaam is one of the 64 sacred baths in Rameshwaram, it is one of the most important theertham and receives a large number of tourists each day. Located on the beach side of Sri Ramanathaswamy temple, Agnitheertham is the only theertham situated outside the temple complex.

People perform religious ceremonies on the beach
at Agni Theertham

Holy rituals such as prohithams, yangnya(yaham), tharpanam(ritual for the ancestors who were dead) are performed on the shores of Agni Theertham. Amavasya or No moon day and Poornima or Full Moon day is considered to be the most auspicious day for taking the holy Dip.

Gate at Agni Theertham

Legend and Agni Theertham:

Indian Pilgrim places are never short of myths or tales so naturally how can Agni Theertham escape from it. You see Sea and then you hear the word Agni which means Fire, Baat kuch hazam nai hui bahut confusion tha dimag me, hence I enquired with one of the local guys, so he started to narrate the tale as to how Agni Theertham got it's name, It so happened that after winning the war over Ravana and saving Sita from the clutches of Ravana, one day Ram overheard a washerman shouting at his wife that he is no Ram that he will accept her just like Sita , who was with Ravana during her captivity. Who knows whether she is pure or not !! Hearing this Rama asked Sita to prove her purity as to whether she was touched by Ravana or not, Sita was hurt and furious but she didnt say anything. She requested Laksham the younger brother of Ram to set up a Funeral Pyre and once it was done She simply entered the flame of fire to prove her purity.

Sita's Agni Pareeksha (Pic source internet)

She prayed to Fire God to protect her if she is pure and Sinless.Because Sita was pure, the fire didn't burn her and Fire god appeared before Lord Rama and said to Lord Rama "Your Sita is pure Please take her to Ayodhya with you". It is believed that because Fire or Agni god touched a pure and sinless woman like Sita, thereby committed a sin,The fire god therefore, then prays to Lord Shiva to cleanse him of his sin and takes bath in this ocean waters, Thus the name Agni Theertham.

Offering prayers at Agni Theertham

We too took the holy dip, hoping to cleanse our sins and soaked in all the energy of the morning sunrise and moved on to go to the temple.

Hired a local priest from outside the temple

As we were going to the temple we were approached by a local priest who ensured us of proper darshans and holy bathing at the 22 Wells of the temple. We paid him Rs.1500 for his service. We could have done this on our own too but just how you take a guide to understand a particular monument I felt, Let the priest be my guide today.

View of Rameshwaram Temple from my Hotel terrace

Rameshwaram Temple :

Rameshwaram Temple is also known as Ramanathaswamy Temple.

Just like Meenakshi temple here to you are not allowed to carry camera, or mobile phones inside the temple.

Legend:

This temple is dedicated to Lord Shiva and there is a legend behind the construction of this Temple, accordingly to which Lord Rama while returning from Lanka prayed to Lord Shiva to absolve him from the sin of killing a Brahmin ( read Ravan here) Lord Rama wanted large lingam to pray so he instructed Humuman to get lingam from the Himalayas. However he was late in bringing the lingam so Sita quickly made a small lingam out of the sand available on the nearby seashore.

Some interesting facts:

1.It's one of the 12 jyotilingam in India.

2. It is also one of the dham out of the Chardhams, other three being Bhadrinath, Puri and Dwarka. Incidentally with the visit of Rameshwaram Im done with my Chardhams pilgrimage.

Char Dham of India (Picture source internet)

3.There are two lingams inside the sanctum - one built by Sita, from sand, residing as the main deity, Ramalingam and the one brought by Hanuman from Kailash called Vishwalingam. Lord Rama instructed that the Vishwalingam should be worshiped first since it was brought by Hanuman - the tradition continues even today.

4.There are 22 wells or Theertham inside the temple.beginning from Mahalakshmi, followed by Gayatri, Savitri, Saraswathi, Gavya, Gavyaksha, Nala, Neela, Sethumadhava, Gandhamadhava, Brahmahatya Vimochana, Shanku, Surya, Chandra, Chakra, Shiva, Sarva, Satyamrita, Gaya, Ganga, Yamuna and finally Kodi which is supposedly equivalent to a dip in the Ganges River,

5. Like most of the temples in South India this temple too has a tall boundary or compound wall admeasuring about 865 feet from east to west and 657 feet from north to south.

Colourful Corridors of the temple (Picture source internet)

6. The outer set of corridors is reputed to be the longest in the world, measuring about 6.9 m in height, 400 feet each in the east and west and about 640 feet in the north and the south.

I think I have given you enough information, but if you still want to dig in more click here to read.

Our Journey:

Now let us move on to our journey. We deposited our shoes at the shoe stand near the temple. We then proceeded to buy tickets for taking bath of 22 Wells. Luckily for us, as we had hired this local priest he bought the tickets and we were on course moving from one well to another and the priest pouring well water on us. Even though we were all wet, It was indeed amazing experience for us.

All wet after bathing in 22 wells
at Rameshwaram Temple

Once we were done with this we changed into the dry clothes that we were carrying with us. (They allow you to carry your clothes) mind you the changing room is just a kind of enclosure with no roof, I wish at least for ladies section they should build a decent changing room.( It's sad that this temples get so many people from all over the places and yet they cannot provide for basic necessities) I changed into the lungi..oops sorry my South Indian friends corrected me,said it was not lungi but veshti.

When in South, be a south Indian !!

We had darshan of Lord Shiva and moved out of the temple.

As photography is not allowed within the temple premises so sorry I cannot share many photos of the temple itself from inside.

We now decided to explore the local places in Rameshwaram, so please wait for my next blog on our local sightseeing of the Rameshwaram town. Till then have a great time.

PS. If you wish to read about my journey from the beginning please click here

How to Reach Rameshwaram:

By Air: Rameshwaram do not have an airport.Madurai Airport is the nearest airport(149kms)

By Rail : Rameshwaram Station is well connected with most of the major train routes.

By Bus: Rameshwaram is well connected with State Transport running regular buses, There is a regular bus services from Madurai (almost every 30 minutes)

Temple Trails | Meenakshi Temple-Madurai | Day 1

2018-10-05T23:00:00.000-07:00

My wife wanted to visit all the 12 Maha jyotilingam and in order to fulfill her wish, like a good husband I am constantly chasing Shiva temples across the country. (Ab yeh aur baat hai ki mai apne aap ko nastik bolta hu 😝😝).

Incidentally Rameshwaram would be our 8th Jyotilingam.

All set with bag and baggage at Mumbai Airport.

Day 1. 5th Oct, 2018

We had booked 8:40 am flight from Mumbai and reached Madurai by 1:30 pm. We could have taken train too from Mumbai to Rameshwaram but that would have resulted spending two days in a train which I would have loved all the more but time constraint and office commitment didn't allow me to do so. Warna rail ka Safar Sab se suhana Safar.

Getting down at Airports or Railway stations and finding a vehicle who will not flee you is a big task. At Mudurai airport the taxi guys started with Rs.500 for taking us to the Meenakshi Temple and came down 400. But eventually we took an auto for Rs.250 who dropped us at the Meenakshi temple.

Our First look of Meenakshi Temple

However we were informed that the temple will open at 4 pm for a second I was "Arre yaar! ab kya kare but thankfully Dimag ki Bhatti jaldi jal gayi"

Arre yaar ! The disappointed looks on my face,
when I was told that the temple will open at 4 pm

We immediately decided that we will explore the temple and latter do the darshan, Luckily for us the temple was not crowded at that time of the day. Hence we were done with the Darshan in no time.

#Traveller Tip :
We had to deposit all our luggage, our cameras and even our mobile phones before entering. This means I wasn't able to click single picture inside the temple. However it means that even if you have luggage with you, you need not worry, simply deposit the same in the locker room and visit the Temple.

Meenakshi temple is an ancient temple situated on the southern bank of vaghai river. This temple is dedicated to Meenakshi a form of Parvati and Sundareshwar ,a form of Lord Shiva.

Few of the highlights of this temple.

1. Meenakshi temple had a violent past, during the 14th century it was plundered by the moguls time and time again.

2. Though the temple is ancient, but what we see today was more of the rebuilding works carried out after the 14 century and later the temple was expanded by Nayak ruler , Vishwanatha Nayyakar.

Towering Gopurams of Meenakshi Temple (Pic sourced from internet)

3. Another highlight of this temple is that it has 14 gopurams. Few of them are very tall especially the main four entry gates.

4. South gate or Gopuram is the tallest, ad-measuring 51.9 metres or 170 feet.

5. The pillars adorning the temple are very beautiful. In-fact I haven't seen such tall pillars with intricate carvings on them.

6.Inside the temple there is a shining golden Pole which shines ever so brightly.

Water Pond within the Meenakshi Temple Complex (Pic source Internet)

7. Then there is a water pond within the temple complex, where I was told that the devotees could cleanse themselves,however I didn't see anyone going to the pond. Probably it must have been closed.
8. One more interesting thing that I came to know was that the outer boundary wall of the temple runs 800 feet and were built later so as to protect the temple from plundering.

1000 Pillar hall (Pic Source Internet)

9. Then there is famous 1000 pillar hall. I was told actually it's not 1000 but 985 in mumbers , I did try counting but lost the count. This 1000 pillars hall also has a museum attached to it and you need to pay 5 RS entrance fees.

Colourful Sculptures on the Gopurams

10. The Gopuram have many sculpture depicting various scenes from the holy text. The colour sculpture on the Gopuram are really very beautiful.

Colourful Sculptures on the Gopurams

I can go on and on but the real beauty of the temple can be felt by actually visiting it. How I wish I can bring to you the beauty of this temple, but its my bad luck that till 2nd March 2018 carrying mobile phones were allowed, but then a fire broke out destroying certain portion of the temple which resulted on the ban order for mobiles. Click on the link to read about the ban order.phone-ban-in-force

The mesmersing beauty of the temple wanted me to stay for some more time but the paucity of time was advising me otherwise, as I was in a hurry today, so I had promised myself that I shall be back again and will devote one full day only for this temple.

Friends Hope you are satisfied with my brief description of the temple. If you want detailed info you can click here and read.

In South to get good North Indian food ...Dil Khush ho gaya

We had a quick lunch at Madurai and then took an auto from minakshi temple to MGR bus stand . The auto guy charged us 150 for just 4.5 kms journey! Just as as we were going I suddenly remembered Oh Teri, Jigarthanda toh try karna rahe Gaya , so I requested the auto guy to take us to the Madurai famous drink Jigar thanda shop. He agreed on a condition that we must pay RS 50 more . I didn't have a choice so I said Ok.

Jigar Thanda literally means Heart Cool , Not to be missed

We had this jigarthanda, which I felt tasted more like basundi with Malai and ice cream, but nevertheless it was worth taking the detour to savor the taste of jigar thanda.

It was evening now when we reached MGR bus stand. As soon as we got down at the bus stand, just how the vultures starts crowding their prey, the local touts all closed on us . I was looking out for the state transport but this tout said he will get me the ticket for state transport bus and then he took us to his shop. He showed me the seat chart and made me select the seats and then told me to pay 170 per ticket which I paid. He then told us to wait as the bus is due in next 20 mins. So we sat there and waited. He then asked me why don't we take a Pvt cab and go, he said they charge to and fro, madurai to Rameshwaram Rs.3000 but he will charge me 1500. I said no, He said 1200, I still said NO and made it clear to him that I intend to go by public transportation ONLY. He kept on ranting for next 10 mins and ultimately he realised that I cannot be convinced so he took me to the bus. As soon as I boarded the bus, obviously I moved towards the seats allotted to me and to my utter shock I noticed there were no seat nos, I knew immediately that I was cheated. My next worry was whether the tout has ripped me off my 510 RS , however the bus conducter waved at me so I was assured that I can sit now. I wasn't relieved until I got my tickets in my hand from the bus conducter, which incidentally I got after nearly travelling for 20 mins . .tab tak dimag me tik -tok full-on tension chalu tha.

All set for the bus journey to Rameshwaram

# Traveller tip :

a) There are regular buses plying from Madurai MGR bus stand to Rameshwaram, so don't speak to anyone and straight away reach the bus stand and look out for the bus going to Rameshwaram(.Year 2018- bus ticket cost 135 per person.)

b) There are two bus stand in Madurai, one is Periyar bus stand from where City bus ply, and other is MGR bus stand from where the outstation buses ply.

The setting sun on the horizon

The bus journey was like sitting in a formula 1 car, Driver was driving as if there was no tomorrow and over that high octane Tamil songs were blaring away on the speakers of the bus. But still I was enjoying every moment of this bus journey especially the sun setting on the horizon which was only adding the beauty to this journey. The 4 and half hour bus journey and we were at Rameshwaram.

Thank you for reading my blog and if you like it do comment and join my site, Tomorrow we shall be visiting the Rameshwaram temple so till then wait for the next part on Rameshwaram....

Click here to read Day Two- in Rameshwaram at Ramanathaswamy Temple

Solapur in a day | Part 3 | Bhuikot aka Solapur Fort

2018-09-25T02:50:00.000-07:00

Bhuikot Fort means a fort that is built on flat land and not on a mountain.In Marathi language Bhui means Land and Kot means Killa or Fort. Thus the name Bhuikot. Currently this fort is converted into a garden and is under the ASI departrment, Located very adjacent to Siddeshwar temple pond, this place offers enthralling view. One Gets a good view of this fort in the backdrop from the Siddeshwar temple.

Bhuikot Fort in the backdrop can be seen from
Siddeshwar Temple

The Solapur Fort, also known as the Bhuikot fort is said to have been built during the reign of the Bijapur Sultanate of which Solapur was a part. Emperor Aurangzeb resided on this fort for a year between 1685-86 AD. Between 1795 and 1818 this fort was in the hands of the Maratha rulers. Bajirao Peshwa II lived in the fort.

External wall of the Solapur Fort

There are few very interesting stories about this fort which involves Dowry Theory. It is believed that Burhan Nizam Shah ruled Ahmednagar and Ismail Adilshah was in power in Vijapur , Inorder to strengthen the relationship between two states they decided to marry Adilshah's daughter with Nizam Shah of Burhan. The marriage was performed at this Solapur fort with great pomp.At that point of time(1523) Solapur fort was under the control of Adilshah of Vijapur and he declared that this fort shall be given as a dowry to Nizamshah. But after marriage he refused to give the fort which resulted in a war between the son in law Nizam Shah and his father in law Adilshah. Nizamshah lost the battle and fort remained with Adilshah. ( I am just wondering what happened to the wife of Nizam when her father cheated on her husband)

I think enough of history for the time being, now lets move on to our journey of exploration of this fort.

One of the bastion as seen from outside

Our Journey:

Early morning we finished our visit of Siddeshwar temple and moved out of the temple complex but not before trying our hands on the local sugarcane Juice machine. Travel me aise chote chote majje zaroor lene chaiye. Washing down two glasses of the sugar cane juice and listening to olden melodies blaring from the antique transistor was another highlight.

A small walk of 5 minutes we were at the gates of the Bhuikot. There was this ticket counter of ASI , we paid Rs 25 per person and entered the Fort Complex.

Entrance point with the ASI office

The moment you enter you are welcomed by the neat Garden and 2 Cannons pointing at you.

Cannons pointing toward the entrance door

The Cannons are well polished and you have the year of manufacturing on them, Monogram of the rulers.

Year of manufacturing carved on the cannons

Monogram of the Rulers on the cannon

Over the years I have made it a practice to first explore the fort along the top of the Fort walls, which gives me good birds-eye view of the place and later I explore from within.Hence we moved toward the right side and climbed the stairs to reach the top of wall of the fort.

We climbed these stairs to reach the flag post platform.

Grass has grown at most of the places hence the watchman told us to be careful of the creepy reptiles.We smiled and nodded and went on our way.The outer side of the fort walls had lots of shrubs grown but the inside portion was easily walk-able.

Way towards the Flag post (PC: Dr Neha Mehta)

moving to the left from the stairs we reached the highest point of the fort ie. the Flag post platform. Standing here we could see the Siddeshwar Temple across the lake.

Siddeshwar temple as see from Solapur Fort

We spent some time here enjoying the breeze, absorbing the beauty around us and of course clicking lots of pictures

Today we realised what does the term leaping in joy meant

Until pooja and me drew Nikhil Crazy😆😆and he has to throw his arms high in despair as if saying Kamino ab bas karo aur aage bhi badho. And both of us were like Hum nahi sudharenge, Ek photo aur Please 😛😛

Bola tha na... ki Hum nahi sudherenge 😆😆

Talking about the construction of the fort, there is a moat around the fort thus this creates Two layer of fortification one outer wall then moat and then the main fort wall. This main Fort wall is around 30 metres broad.Due to overgrown grass and bushes it was difficult to circumvent the entire fort. Hence we descended down the same stairs from where we had come and moved toward an other attraction of this fort, 32 Minar ki masjid .

32 Pillar Mosque

This masjid is on left side near the back end of the fort. Its an old masjid with 32 pillars. Basically its in ruins, Not maintained at all.

Low roof supported by the pillars

Moving inside the masjid you realise that the roof is quite low and the pillars standing are all more identical in shape.

Identical Pillars

We spent some time here and moved towards the Shiv Temple which is next to this masjid.

The structure is in complete ruins. Had it not being for the shivling at the lower base, Its difficult to make out that this structure was a temple.

Ruins of shiv temple

The brown grill that you are seeing in the picture above, the shivling is place below that and we could see fresh flowers on it which meant that its used for worshiping.

Shivling with fresh flowers

What I found strange about this temple was that the pillars here too looks quite similar to the one that I saw in the masjid. The question in my mind was did the same ruler made both masjid and temple or this structure was something else and now shown as temple...

Please note the design of pillars

History often leaves so many questions open.I would like to have your views in comment column what is your take on this.

From here on we moved towards the teen Darwaza which the ASI guy at the ticket counter reminded us not to miss. Actually the entrance of the fort in ancient times were from these Darwazas or Gates. But ASI had changed the entrance from the road side.

Main Gate of the Fort

The Entry gate of the fort is quite formidable, two bastion like pillars with a windows along top is something typical of the architectural designs of those times.

This was the last site that we visited at the Bhuikot or Solapur fort. Generally one hours is enough to explore this fort but it took nearly 2 hours for us.( too much time spent on photos and masti) We were now quite hungry hence we planned to sit in the lawn of the fort and munch some biscuits and chips before moving on to our next destination Naldurg Fort.

To read about our journey from the beginning click here

Solapur in a day| Part 2 | Siddeshwar temple

2018-09-20T03:42:00.000-07:00

In our first part of the blog we visited Solapur Municipal Building (click here to read part one) and a little walk of 100 metres and we were at Siddeshwar Temple.

Siddeshwar temple is in Solapur District and is very sacred to hindus and the members of Lingayat faith. This temple is surrounded by a lake which is actually full of algae and overgrown grass.

It is a Gram Daivat which means God of the city.The temple wall at first glance could be easily mistaken as the fort wall. The huge board at the entrance ensures that you don't mistake it so.

Fort or Temple !!

The temple entrance like all the Indian temple is flanked with shops selling prasad, malas and colourful toys.

Festival of colours

In India when you are entering any temple it offers so much colour and gaiety that one gets the feeling of coming to a huge Village fair.

Explosion of Colours

This temple is quite near the Solapur Railway station and Solapur Central Bus stand and can be easily reached by auto or even by walking, if you are ok with walking around 2 kms.

After depositing our shoes at the shoe counter .We started to move towards the temple.The temple wall was running on our right side and the lake on our left side and nestled in the laps of trees we could see glimpses of outer wall of Bhuikot or Solapur Fort.

Bhuikot at the far end can be seen from Temple

Just before the entrance there were two shivlings and opposite to there was this small Ganpati temple where I paid my respect before entering the temple complex

Ek Salaam Ganpatiji ke naam

From here on we entered the main gate

First look of the temple from the main entry gate

As we entered the temple complex we saw hundreds of people with folded hands were chanting Om namo shivay behind the priest perched in the mandap and doing the yagna. The sound of slokas were resounding making the atmosphere all the more spiritual.

The best thing I liked about this temple was the size, which is very large and secondly it is very clean. Though there were so many people chanting and yet not for a moment we felt uncomfortable or hassled, infact we too enjoyed the occasion and the ambiance.

People chanting

Here an interesting thing happened, as these people were chanting I told my friend Nikhil to make the video of the same from my phone as he was handling my mobile and meanwhile I was taking pictures of the temple from my camera.

Temple top

Nikhil said "Aashish people will mind we rather not shoot the video" I said chod de mai video le leta hu" and I started to shoot the video.

(Video Of Chanting shot by me)

Next I moved on to take the pictures of the temple when a local villager tapped me on my shoulder and said something in marathi which I was not able to comprehend but I was worried because Nikhil's words were now echoing in my mind,Hence I politely explained to him that I'm taking pictures so that I can write.

Beautiful Temple top

He asked me Tumhi Photographer aahe ka ?(Are you a photographer), I nodded and then he said "Mahja ek photo kada na" (Take one picture of mine) I was relieved and amused and said "Kaka me mandirachi photo kadto lokanchi nahi"(I take pictures of temples and not people). He smiled and I moved on to the main temple where we have the idol of Shivyogi shiddharameshwar. We paid our respect and came out of the temple. In case if you want to read more on Siddheshwar click here

Shivyogi shiddharameshwar idol

Talking about this temple with one of the locals I was told that January is the best month to visit as lots of ceremony takes place like Kaathiche Lagan which literally means marriage of sticks.then there is a famous Jatra (Religious Fair) happening around this time known as Gadda Yatra for 15 days and also lots of people come here to perform marriages and other important functions.

We moved out of the temple to go to the Bhuikot or Solapur Fort, our next destination.

Next blog me woh Bhi Dekha doonga 😆😆😆

Thank you for reading the blog. Please do comment and join my blog site. In case if you missed the first part of this blog click here and read.

Solapur in a day | Part 1 | Solapur Municipal Building

2018-09-16T07:03:00.001-07:00

We slog through out the week at workplace and then comes the magical friday night. People with sane mind think of chilling out with friends over a glass of wine or beer, enjoy a good Sunday sleep Aur idhar hum Awara Ghumakad friday night yeh sapna dekhte hai ki yeh weekend kon sa saher ya konsa killa fathe karenge. Honestly speaking my whole week passes away like a breeze when I know I am going to explore a new place on the weekend.

This weekend I had planned to visit Siddeshwar temple, Bhuikot Fort aka Solapur Fort and Naldurg Fort.

This time I was lucky that I don't have to go solo because I had a wonderful company of my usual suspect kind of friends 😜 Nikhil and Pooja.

Train ke intezar ka apna hi maja hai

We took Siddeshwar express train from Dadar at 10.57 pm. As soon as we boarded the train a very interesting thing happened, We saw this young boy sitting at the window seat. I think I might have looked at him sternly because he very defensively asked me kya yeh aap ki seat hai. I said nahi meri middle berth hai. He was relieved. After some time he looks at me and asked Mai mera saman seat ke neeche rakhunga toh chori to nahi hoga na, I was simply flabbergasted and my reflex action response was Arre mere ko kya maloom, rakh ke dekh le...subha tak maloom pad jayega. ( Honestly I wanted to say Oye kya hum chor nazar aate hai 😉 Anyways we had a good laugh over this. The young boy was actually very sweet chap, he had come to give interview for Railway job for engineer post. These kind of experience adds spice to your life because travelling in train always allows you to meet different people and you enjoy your journey all the more.

Liked the pole at a traffic circle

It was 7 am when we reached Solapur station. We came out of the station and had our breakfast of Poha from the local Thela Guy and started to walk to our first destination that is Siddeshwar Temple. Normally one can take auto from the railway station and reach the temple but I prefer to walk if the destination is well within 2 kms. My idea of early morning walk is that one can actually have the local feel of the city. As I said that walking allows you to explore something which is not on your destination, well something same happened with us. As we were on our way to Siddeshwar temple we saw this fantastic building whose architecture fascinated me so I took a detour and started to explore the same. The Building was actually Solapur Municipal Office.

Beautiful Solapur Municipal Building

Ab samaj me aaya , mai kyo chal kar explore karne me believe karta hu. Had we been travelling in any auto we could have easily missed out on this pretty building.

The architecture of the building is very artistic. The colourful windows and arches makes it a photographers delight.

Beautifully designed windows

There was a statue of a person in front of the main entrance hence out of curiosity I went ahead and read the name of the person. Well the name embbed on the statue was Rao Bahadur Mallappa Alias Appasaheb Warad. For me it was unknown name so I spoke to one of the person working there and the information that he gave me was amazing.The information so collected from the local and my research put together showed the various aspect of this person.

Rao Bahadur Mallappa Alias Appasaheb Warad

Life of Rao Bahadur Mallappa:

Rao Bahadur Mallappa Alias Appasaheb Warad can be regarded as one of the makers of the Sholapur City. He was born on 18th June,1851 in a Lingayat family at Sholapur. He had no formal education and no knowledge of English,yet his thinking, his vision, his mature understanding of the ways of the world placed him among the then prominent leaders of the city. He was a reformist in agricultural techniques.A special quality of groundnut cultivated by him was popularly known as "Warad Shengdana"

Sculptures on the building

He was thick with eminent personalities of his time like Justice M.G.Telang, Justice M.G.Ranade, Lokmanya Tilak. His discussions with Lokmanya Tilak resulted in a kind of co-operative scheme for the weavers community of Sholapur. But the government did not approve it. He was more an institution than an individual.

Sculptures on the building

He was elected as a delegate in 1893, to present the city in Indian National Congress. He donated generously and without any discrimination to each and every good cause. The estimated amount of donations is not less than six lakh rupees. He donated generously for "Tilak Defence Fund"

Some interesting arches and statues

When Warad died on 19th January 1911,Lokmanya Tilak made a special mention of him in his letter from jail on hearing this sad news.

Ornate Viewing area on terrace

I don't know how far this is truth but the local person told me that Appasaheb Warad had lots of outstanding taxes to be paid, due to which he has to handover this building in lieu of those outstanding taxes. He also said that in earlier days this was the largest and tallest building in Solapur and one could see most of Solapur from the terrace of the building.

Breathtaking view

Kahani Saachi hai ya Jhooti woh ek alag baat hai As far as I am concerned I often feel transported to olden times when someone narrates such kind of tales.

Dil toh bacha hai ji ....Ek kahani sunne ka mara hai ji

After spending some time here we moved on to the Siddeshwar temple which was just 2 minutes away from here.

Rani ki Vav with Weekend Wanderer

2018-08-19T06:35:00.002-07:00

Our visit to Modhera sun temple was simply out of the world experience for us . You can click here to read about Modhera Sun Temple.

It was 12.45 pm and the sun was hitting hard. We came out of the Sun Temple complex and moved toward the road outside. I was told that I could get buses from here to Patan however after waiting for more than one hour when no bus turned up, we thought of asking the locals as to how we go about. The shopkeeper told us to go to the main highway from there we can get buses going to Patan. Luckily an auto was passing by we paid him 20 Rs and he dropped us on the main highway and from there we took the bus going towards Patan.

Modhera Sun Temple

We checked into the hotel at Patan. Our Hotel was very near to the Patan ST stand and char rasta. After getting refreshed and finishing our lunch we set out for Rani ki Vav. It was 3 pm when we took auto from the char rasta or Siddhpur cross road. The Auto guy charged us 80 Rs from here for one way to Rani ki Vav. Passing through this dusty town was another unique experience for us city mongers. In 15 minutes we were at the gate of Rani ki Vav Complex.

Road map to Rani ki vav from Siddhpur Cross Road

I am always fascinated by the mystic and the beauty of the step-wells and I had made it my agenda to visit as many as I can in my life time.

Actually it all started with my visit to Jodhpur last year around this time only, where we visited Toorji ka Jalra. I was so enamoured by the beauty of Toorji ka Jalra and as they say ki dil mange more, so I started to research on step-wells in India and the most prominent name that popped out of this research was Rani-ki-Vav.

Rani ki Vav at Patan is one of the UNESCO World Heritage sites in Gujarat. The other one been Champaner in Pavagadh, which incidentally I was lucky to visit last year.

You would be interested to read this Champaner Visit

I feel privileged to be here

The sun was hitting us hard as we entered the complex of Rani ki vav. Here too we purchased entry ticket for Rs 15 per person and moved in , only to be welcomed by a beautiful garden. Lush greenery and the gentle breeze of the trees within the garden made us forget all about the heat of the sun. we did some photo shoot and moved on towards the Rani ki vav.

Lush Green garden before Rani ki Vav

Rani ki Vav is basically an temple you can say, thus as we moved on towards it we couldn't see any structure until we reached the edge of a large pit and realize wow... Yaar aisa bhi kuch ho sakta hai . I almost froze with awe and for few moments I was transported to the ancient Egyptian World when I saw the broad stone cut stairs leading down and the series of pillared structure standing in front of me.

Wow...For Rani Ki Vav

Rani ki Vav or should I say Queen's Step-well is an intricately carved step-well which is situated on the banks of Saraswati river in Patan. It is believed that these step well was built as a memorial for King Bhima I by his widowed Queen Udyamati. Its hard to believe that these step-well was lost to nature due to flooding of Saraswati river. The entire step-well were submerged in mud but to to the efforts of ASI( Archaeological Survey Of India) these step-well were excavated from the silt in the year 1980.

This Vav is laid out in the east west direction with the actual well in the west portion.

The grandeur of the Vav can be envisaged by the size of it. It ad-measures 64 metres long, 20 metres in width and 27 metres in depth. Then there are well laid out pillared multi storied pavilions.

Rani ki Vav is believed to be one of the largest and the most sumptuous structure of its kind. Its due to this brilliance that it was awarded the status of UNESCO world heritage site in the year 2014.

Multi-storied Pavilions

We started to go down the stairs of Rani ki Vav, we realised that its indeed deep, Mind you its a seven level structure however currently only five could be visited. While descending on the steps we come across the treasures of Architectural brilliance and the artistry of the ancient era. There are panels running around the side of the Rani ki vav which has innumerable idols carved on them.

The major theme is of Lord Vishnu in Dashavatar or 10 incarnation of Lord Vishnu in form of Kalki, Bamana, Narsimha, Matsya, Kurma,Varaha,Parshuram,Rama,Krishna, and Buddha.

Varaha Avatar of lord Vishnu

Bamana Avatar Of Vishnu

Then there are carvings of female figures depicting various poses of Apsaras, Nagkanyas, Yoginis.

Few female Idols

And another female idol

The Pavilions or floors so made are supported by the intricately carved pillars . These pillars looks very beautiful.

Beautiful carved Pillars

Intricately carved Pillars supporting the floors

Standing in the centre portion of Rani ki vav when I look up I feel dwarfed by the plethora of mind blowing sculptures all around me. Be it be thenshola Singhar of Apsaras or different forms of dieties. I was told that there are closely 800 carved idols in Rani ki Vav !! Dimag ki bhatti ab poori gul ho gayi,

Laga kya cheez banayi Rani Udaymati ne. Mera Salaam

Plethora of mind blowing sculptures

Different Deities

Lord Vishnu with Dancing Apsaras

Absorbing the awesomeness of the place we finally reached the lowest level where the actual well with water is lying. Once we reach the end of the we saw the Vishnu carving in a recline pose lying on the serpent.

Lord Vishnu lying in recline pose

Talking to one of the local I was informed that there is also a secret passage at the bottom stairs which is believed to be 30 kms long and often used during escapes.He also told us that as per folklore ,in olden days there was a forest surrounding the rani ki Vav and there were many trees which had ayurvedic medicinal qualities due to which the water in the well too got that medicinal effect and hence anyone who drank the water got cured from diseases. Hearing this Dil me se ek hi awaz aayi... It happens only in India !! 😂😂😂

Did this well had water containing medicinal qualities ?

We spent some time admiring the beauty of this labour of love, presented by a queen for her husband's memory and true to her wish this Vav braving the nature's onslaught has survived and had truly become immortal. Talking of immortality the new 100 Rs note has this Rani ki Vav printed on it. Mera bas chalta toh mai sab se bade note per Rani ki Vav chap deta. Fhilhal toh iski chap, zindagi bhar ke liye mere dil per chap gayi hai.( If I could, I would have printed rani ki vav on the biggest denomination note. Meanwhile the aura of this place is imprinted on my heart)

It was now time for us to return, so with heavy heart we bid adieu to Rani ki Vav but with a promise that I will return back.

How to Reach:

Road: Rani Ki Vav is located in the Patan area of Gujarat. It is a popular 1-day trip from the city of Ahmedabad which is 127 km away. Several buses and rented vehicles ply between Ahmedabad and Patan.

Rail:.The nearest railhead is Mehsana which is at a distance from 55 km from Rani ki Vav. You can take a bus or cab from Mehsana to reach Patan. It takes close to 1 hour 30 minutes.

Air:The nearest airport to Rani ki Vav is Ahmedabad airport at a distance of 123 km. You can take a bus or a cab from the airport to reach Rani ki vav.

Thank you for reading my blog. Please do click on join the site button and join me in my journeys.

Gujarat Diaries | Modhera Sun Temple

2018-08-04T13:30:00.000-07:00

Weekend was around the corner so naturally I have to be ready with another mandatory weekend gateway of mine Ab aise hi toh nahi dosto ne naam Weekend Wanderer rakh diya na. Last Year during my trip to Champaner a UNESCO world heritage site I was zapped by the beauty of the different Mosques at champaner. that I started to research about other UNESCO world heritage site . It was during my research I came across this name of Rani ki Wav in Patan, hence I started to plan my visit to Patan, To know the local details I called my friend Amit who is from Ahmedabad, He said Aashish if you are coming so far why don't you club your visit of Modhera Sun Temple with that of Rani ki Vav.Sucker that I am for new places I said why not. So this is how the trip to this place materialized.

All set for new adventure

August is generally good month to travel with some rains , some overcast condition and lesser wrath of heat. So on 3rd August,2018 I along with my wife and daughter boarded Amrapur Aravali Express to Mahesana Station(19907) at 9.17 pm from Andheri station. Mahesana is the nearest railway station if you are visiting Modhera Sun Temple.

Time to catch the train

I prefer overnight train journey because it helps me in saving my travel time.Talking of the train journey, It was horrendous for me because a group of 12-15 people had boarded from Dahanu Road station at around 11pm and they were making so many noises, calling out to friends in loud voices and till 12.30 am this drama was going around. Atlast I lost my patience and told them clearly Boss Ek Ghate se aap ko seat mila nahi kya. Do you realise that you are disturbing everyone and So please better get your act together. Luckily for me no ugly scene happened and they took their seats.

At 6.48 am our train chugged into the Mahesana Railway station.

Early morning at Mahesana Railway Station

We came out of the railway station and took an auto to Mahesana Bus station which is near the Modhera Circle. From here you get lots of transport options to go to Modhera Sun temple. Auto guys charge 250 Rs, Sharing van charge Rs 20-30 per passenger, but mind you they cram the passengers like cattle. We paid extra for one seat so that 3 of us can sit without any discomfort. There are regular buses also from the Bus station but we were not in a mood to waste any time hence opted to travel by van which was ready to go.

Various Transportation options available at Modhera Circle, MAHESANA

A drive of 25 kms odd in 45 minutes and we were standing at the gates of Modhera Sun Temple. It was 8.35 am when we reached the temple. The entry fee to the temple for Indians is 15 Rs and for others Rs 200.

As you enter the complex you are welcomed by the lush greenery an well maintained garden.

Well Manicured Garden

and walking down the pavement you come across a beautiful temple and a huge Kund (Watertank) which almost took my breath away. Honestly speaking I haven't seen anything so grand and impactful. Pehli Jhalak ne hi kar diya deewaana

First look or say Pehli Jhalak

HISTORY:

Before taking you with me on the exploration tour of this temple let us brush some history.

My heart aches as I stood listening to the guide at Modhera Sun Temple, as to how this beautiful and majestic temple built around 1023-26 CE , during the reign of Bhima 1 of the Chaulukyas Dynasty, was embellished with gold and precious stones but was plundered by Alaudin Khilji , who not only looted away all the gold but also destroyed the temple and the presiding deity. As the Hindus don't offer prayers to Khandit place. Hence today no prayers are offered at this temple.

Majestic and Grand

Architecture of the temple:

As you can see how geometrically the rocks are cut and designed hence its necessary to understand the architectural aspects of the Sun Temple.

The temple is divided into three parts
1.Gudhamandapa
2.Sabhamandapa
3.Kunda or Sacred Reservoir

(Top to bottom ) (source Wikipedia)

Gudhamandapa, Sabhamandapa, Kunda or Sacred Reservoir

Suryakund:

As I said earlier also, this Kund took away my breath ,as I stood astounded by the beauty of the Surya Kunda or Ramkund. This huge rectangular stepped water tank measures around 176 feet X 120 feet . It is believed that in ancient times devotees were required to perform ceremonial ablutions here before going to the sun temple to worship the Sun God.

Majestic view of the Surya Kund

There are 108 shrines,carved in between various niches and corners of this Kund. The prominent ones that I noticed was that of Ganesha, Shitala Mata, Shiva and of Lord Vishu in a reclining pose.

Lord Ganesh Idol

Vishnu God in reclining pose

Shitaladevi Idol

I spent good time running up and down the stairs clicking pictures from different angles.

running up and down the stairs

Clicking pictures at different angles

My daughter and myself we were were so engrossed in photography that my wife has to literally shout at my daughter and me to get going. We could have easily spent all day admiring the beauty of this place.

Shrines dotting the kund

we entered the temple from the Kund passing through two giant pillars standing tall in front of the Sabha mandap. We were told that earlier there was a toran on that pillars which was destroyed by Alaudin Khilji, In those days it was a tradition to break the toran as proclamation of the victory. Today only this pillars are standing.

Tall pillars in front of Sabhamandap

Coming from the kund we passed through these pillars

Sabhamandapa or Rangmandapa is nothing but a assembly hall or a dancing floor. This place is another treasure house of intricate carvings which adorns the 52 pillars of this Sabha Mandap.

Maze of 52 pillars

The guide at the temple told us that these 52 pillars represents 52 weeks of the year . The carvings on these pillars depicts Scenes from Ramayan and Mahabharat, Krishna Leela.

Carving of Sita in Ashok Vatika

Carving of Hamuman moving the Parvat

Then there were some erotic carvings on some pillars

Erotic Carvings

The Sabha mandap opens in four directions. Coming inside the sabha mandap from the side you come across a Toran at the entrance.There are also carvings on the outer side of the Sabha mandap however they are not as intricate as the one inside.

It was now time to move on the the main temple the Gudhamandapa. This temple is not a practicing temple because there is no idol in it. However there is a unique feature of this temple. On Equinox days i.e. 21st March and 21 September the first rays of sunlight falls on the Surya God idol placed in the Gudha mandap. The folklore is that in the olden days as the light fell on the jewel of the sun god , the light was deflected from it to light up the other idols surrounding the Surya idol.

Inverted lotus petals and series of the elephant

This temple is built on inverted Lotus form and the just above that series of elephants are carved. The carvings on the outside of the temple tells the tale of life cycle starting from the birth to the death in forms of carvings around the temple.

Child birth shown in the carvings

Then there are twelve forms of Surya God carved around the temple. One very prominent one was Sun God riding on seven horses.

Sun God riding the seven horses

There is also carvings of 8 Deities representing eight directions in the eight directions of the temple.

I am sharing few more pictures of the carvings on the temple.

I can go on and on because each idol carved on the wall has a tale to narrate, but the curtains have to come down and Traveler cannot afford to fall in love with one place. Jeevan chalne ka naam hai and we knew that this four hours spent in this Temple complex shall always be cherished and if god willing I am definitely going to revisit this place again.

It was 12.45 pm when we left the Modhera Sun Temple complex. Our next stop was Rani ki Vav at Patan.

MANIKGAD TREK

2018-07-31T09:05:00.001-07:00

I was very disappointed when my trek to Garbett had to be cancelled due to my work commitments but luckily God has made Sunday after Saturday aur meri yeh holiday koi nahi cheen sakta mujhse and as incorrigible as I am, I started checking out if any of friends are going for the trek. Well at this point, Pankaj our master blaster trekker informed me that they are planning to go for the trek to Manik Gad. so chalti gadi me mai bhi kud gaya and I joined them.

All set for early morning train ride to Wadala

Generally when the treks are from Panvel side, I have to get up very early. So today I got up at 3.30 a.m and by 4.30 am I left my house and reached at the desolate booking counter with not a soul to be seen around, for a second I panicked and thought to myself Bhai counter chalu bhi hai kya ...my logical reasoning was saying chalu hoga and thankfully the counter was indeed open and a sleepy looking clerk gave me the ticket and I dashed to catch the 4.41am train for churchgate and reached Bandra Station by 5.00 am. From Bandra Station there was this CST local train of 5.13 am, which reached Wadala by 5.25 am. Pankaj my friend who had arranged this trek had told us to catch 5:36am panvel local train from Wadala.( I hope, now you understood why so much jumping around being done by me) warna kis pagal kutte ne mujhe katta tha jo mai trains badal badal ker travel karta. Mera bas chalta toh mai seedha CST local leta.

At Wadala Station I met rest of the gang and we were all boarded on Panvel local. It was 7.00 am when we reached Panvel station. Where we were met by Sanjay sir and Mehul bhai. Both of whom had offered us their car for travelling to the base village. the group was split into two groups and we were now travelling in cars to the base village which is Vadgaon. The route to Vadgaon is around 21 kms from Panvel ST stand ,enroute you cross Indiabulls Park , one gigantic Maruti Idol.

Enroute while driving from Panvel to Vadgoan
you see this gigantic Maruti idol on your left

Just keep driving straight towards Rasayani (17.1kms) where on your left you will see long Reliance Industries Factory and driving further for approx 2.5kms from here you will see a sign board of Manikgad and next to that signboard of Vadgaon. From the signboard you got to take right turn and keep driving straight for around 1.4kms until you reach at a dead end.

Vadgaon signboard on the main road, Take right turn from here

As soon as you reach the base village on your left you will see a general store from where you can buys biscuits, chips, water etc and yes even ice cream. ( I actually enjoy eating ice cream after the trek). Aur Manikgad ka trek katam karne ke liye aap ko icecream toh milni hi chaiye after all you deserve it )

View from the general store , go from the right side

Little ahead of the shop you see the Vadgoan village, you need to take the road from the right side, the one which has Maruti temple. Keep walking till the end of the village, one very distinctive thing you will note is that the initial houses are little bigger and fancy but when you reach the end the houses are more of basic kind. Is the difference due to the stature or are the poorer people tribal. I wish I could have found the reason.

Walking towards the end of Village

We started our trek little late because our friends from Pune were so busy enjoying the waterfall nearby that they forgot that the Mumbai team was waiting for them at the village. Lekin aisi choti choti baate ho jaati hai badde badde trek me.

10:05am : Trek starts

We started our trek at 10.05 am. As we walked till the end of the village the route opens to a big field. The lush greenery and the majestic Manikgad could be seen.

Coming out from the Village the trek opens into large green field

A little walk and we are into the climb. This initial climb is quite stiff through some muddy trial. As you are climbing you get all the more beautiful view of the green fields on your left side , do catch a breath and soak the nature's beauty.

After walking for around 10-15 minutes you will see a diversion one going straight and one moving on the right, Ignore the one going to the right side, keep walking straight as the Mighty Manikgad is on your left side.

Some rock cut stairs on the way as we trek towards the fort.

10.25 am (Reaching First plateau)

After the stiff climb of 20 minutes from the base we reached the first plateau where we rested for 5 minutes. Relaxed a bit and took pictures.

Its Photo time

10:38 am ( Reached the large plateau)

10-15 mins more of a gradual climb we reached a large field. It is like the walk from the forest breaking out in open. A natural green carpet is a sight to behold. we walked through the open field , almost getting our foot stuck in the muddy field. Once you cross this field you will reach the ridge section.

Walking through the open field to reach the ridge

10.54 am. (Reached the Ridge)

The view from the ridge is amazing , one can see the Karnala peak very prominently. we all took opportunity to click few pictures here.

Once you reach the ridge you need to move on your left where you will see a large tree . recently they have also put up a signage on this tree. Once you take left turn at the ridge keep walking straight.

That's the way to go my dear friend

The walk on the ridge very easy, you walk quite a distance on a flat ground with Manikgad looming ahead of you. the breeze is very pleasant. Boss jitna enjoy karna hai yahan enjoy kar lo kyo ki aage kuch aur hi milne wala hai. this flat walk lasted for 30 minutes until we entered the forest portion of this trek.

Easy walk, enjoy it to the maximum

11.20 a.m ( Entry into the forest )

After this walk on the ridge you see more of trees with lesser open field and you realise that you are entering in the forest. The walk in the forest was coming as blessing in disguise for us because the sun was becoming hotter by the moment and humidity was killing us. (Kehne ko hum monsoon trek per nikle the...sab popat ho gaya)

Time to enjoy the forest walk

As you walk this jungle trail lots of small streams comes on your way, at places the trail is little rocky and confusing,but keep walking straight till you reach a point where there is this large tree and a small waterfall kind of setup. one needs to turn right from here. Please be careful especially during the jungle trail as I was told that people often get lost in this jungle and they had to be rescued.

confusing trail routes

11.52 am (Reached the diversion point)

30 minutes walk into the forest and we reach the diversion point from where we take right turn. landmark huge tree in front and a waterfall on your left ( water may and may not be flowing as its a small waterfall).

Trekkers have put markers in forms of stones , placed one above the other

12.12 pm (Hanuman Temple)

From the diversion point we hiked for ten minutes reach the Hanuman temple, the trail go up and down but is an easy walk, We paid our respect to Hanumanji and moved on. Behind the temple there was a board on which some one had written that climb to Manikgad is just 10 minutes away and on the left.

Hanuman temple in the jungle with the board behind

As we had hired a guide so finding this spot to climb on the left side was easy otherwise it can be tricky task. In other words here lies another point from where we can miss the trail. In 8 minutes we were indeed near to our climb point and started the climb. This climb was again stiff till we reached the flat portion of lush greenery and with nature doing its dance of joy.

Sitting and reminiscing the Daffodil poem

I sat there and could actually empathise with the feelings of the famous poet William Wordworths, who in his poem Daffodils says and I quote

"The waves beside them danced; but they

Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:

A poet could not but be gay,

In such a jocund company:

I gazed—and gazed—but little thought

What wealth the show to me had brought:"

The green grass was so inviting that I felt like skipping rest of the trek. As the humidity was also taking its toll on me.(This was bound to happen because I haven't been trekking lately and fitness levels are at abyss).Meanwhile Mehul our friend who was happily clicking my pictures felt pain in his shoulder and gradually dropped his speed. a small suggestion I would like to give, Please don't attempt to do this trek if you are not physically fit. It indeed test your endurance.

Enjoying the green slopes with sanjayji

The next climb from this grassy green land is a rocky trail and steep too, I was almost running out of my breath. Ek point per toh I could actually hear my heart pounding.
Par yeh kis ne kah diya tha ki jannat yu hi naseeb hoti hai,
Arre uske panne ke liye khub mushakkta karni hogi.

I stopped took a sip of a water and rested for a while, Body is getting old, I got to realise this because but my younger friends were hopping away to the top. Honestly speaking I hated this last portion because Har time lagta tha peak aagaya and then the mountain calls "April fool banaya "and you see another climb.

Me: Sanjayji lagta hai top aagaya hai
Sanjay : Pakka na, is baar no april fool !!

1.25 p.m Reached first water tank at the base of the top.

First water tank near the Top

I felt like a dead meat on reaching the top. Seeing the water filled water tank was so refreshing But I was soon given a rude reality check when our younger friends were waving from the top some 100 feets above. I was like Oh Shit abhi aur baki hai.

This is the Oh hell moment standing at the first water tank.
Please look closely at small figures of our friends on top

Body was aching , heels were squealing with pain and seriously I wanted to give up but I somehow pushed myself Aisa laga ki itne paas aakar bhi na upar gaye toh hamesha koste rahenge apne aap ko. Jai bajrangbali bole aur nikal pade. Actually the cool breeze and sudden rain shower only helped me and I was finally at the top at 1.52 pm.

Nothing much is left on the top except for few ruined fortifications wall.

Ruined fortification wall

Then there is a small gate which has a ganesh idol carved on it.

I entered through this door and came across a huge water tank. We were told that this is a potable water and remains available through out the year.(Request to the visitor to this place , please don't throw any waste or put your feet in the water tank as they serve like a life line for a hapless trekker who may come here during the summers)

large water tank at the top

and just little ahead there is a small Mahadev Temple.

We all sat down near the watertank and had continental lunch ranging from cakes,kakaras, idlis,bakewadi parathas,omlets. Clicked few pictures and moved on for descend at 3.00pm.

Extravagant and sumptuous Lunch

The descend was uneventful except for the fact that our friend Mehul who had decided to give up the trek halfway was waiting for us at the ridge and with whom we all reunited and he welcomed us back with yummy cheese slices.It was 6.20 when we finally finished our trek.

Trekker Tips :

1. Start early
2. Better do this trek in monsoon, In any other season it could be very high on endurance.
3. Take a guide( Its a small cost but necessary here)
4. If doing this trek in summer carry lots of water even though the water may be available on top.
5. Stay, Food and Guide can be arranged at the Vadgaon. Our local contact was Rahul Jambhulkar mob no : 9011807551

Trek break up:

1 hr from base to Ridge
30 minutes walk on ridge till you enter the forest.
30 minutes approx walk in the forest and you reach the diversion to right side point.
10 minutes till hanuman temple
10 minutes till the next ascend on the left.
1.20 minutes to reach the first water tank on top
20 minutes to the final top.

Total time for the trek - 7hrs 20 minutes
To climb 4 hrs &
To Descend 3 hrs 20 minutes )

How to Reach:

BUS: S.T buses are available from Panvel ST stand to Vadgoan. (the bus will drop you in the market from where you need to catch auto or walk 1.5 kms to raech the base village of Manikgad)

CAR : Panvel-Rasayani-Vadgoan

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Bijapur Diaries | Gol Gumbaz

2018-05-24T00:40:00.001-07:00

Very often when people visit Karnataka they often end up visiting the often repeated famous and exotic locations like Hampi, Badami, Pattadkal and Aihole to name the few.Let me tell you there is this small gem of a city lying in Karnataka often ignored by the tourist, which offers some fabulous architectural marvels and is a treasure house of historical monuments.

I am talking of Bijapur aka Vijayapur popularly known as Agra of South or also the queen of Deccan. Vijayapur literally means City of Victory.

Top of Gol Gumbaz

Now that it was decided that I shall be visiting this historical town, the next important part was booking of railway tickets.I think India must be the only country where everyone is on a travel plan all the time of the year, because whenever you try to book tickets most often they are not available especially on the weekends.

Travel Tip: Book your Railway tickets well in advance

I got a wait listed ticket which luckily got confirmed on the day of my travel. Earlier, inorder to reach Bijapur earlier one had to take two trains, if travelling from Mumbai. First Mumbai to Solapur and from there connecting train to Bijapur. Luckily for me this New train called Mumbai-Gadag Express got started so henceforth travelling to Bijapur shall be faster and easier.

Waiting for the train at Dadar station

It was 9.33 pm when Gadag express entered Dadar railway station.As it was a night journey so it didn't make any difference whether I got window seat or not ( actually I love to sit on a window seat and watch the stations go by or hear the hum of Chai... Chai call of the vendors) Ab kya kare sab ko kuch na kuch bimari hoti hai hume kuch is tarah ki hai

It must be 5:30 am when I was jolted from my sleep by the commotions in the compartment I asked fellow passenger bhai konsa station aaya, He said Solapur. Hearing Solapur I for a moment felt like getting down and visit the Naldurg fort and Buikhot Fort , which I wanted to do. But then the reality sunk in because today I was not travelling alone I was travelling with my wife so naturally I am not expected to jump of the train at any station I wish to. Ab aisa hai na, ki jab akele hote hai , Hum wahi raha bana lete hai jaha cha hoti hai but today it was a different story and with heavy heart I saw Solapur station fade away in darkness. Nevertheless I was excited too because in few hours I shall be on my destination i.e. Bijapur.

Bijapur aka Vijayapura

Our Journey:

It was 7.30 when my train entered the Vijayapura Station. As soon as you come out of the station You see this Manmoth Structure of Gol Gumbaz from the station itself.However to reach its entrance you need to walk around 900 metres. My wife and myself we started to walk. As it was early morning so the climate was quite cool.We saw a small tea stall at the turn we decided to have a cup of a tea and then start exploring. Actually more than the tea I like to have small talk with the locals because it helps me to visit the places more easily.

View of the Gol Gumbaz as soon as we came out of the station.

In an introduction to “Architecture at Beejapoor” published in 1866, Philip Meadows Taylor, an Anglo-Indian with a voracious appetite for Indian culture wrote: “Palaces, arches, tombs, cisterns, gateways, and minarets ...all carved from the rich basalt rock of the locality, garlanded by creepers, broken and disjointed by peepul trees, each in its turn is a gem of art and the whole a treasury.”

This introduction by Philip M Taylor sums it all as to what lies awaiting at Bijapur for me.

Bijapur is a historic fort city. You will know this only once you visit this city. There is history lying in every nook and corner. Where ever you go within the city you find some mosque, some tomb. I was told that when you stand atop the Gol Gumbaz you can see many domes spread across the city along with the city wall. I always feel that the best way to know the city is to First know about the history of the place. So let me quickly take you through a small history lesson about this place.

If you want to know the summarized History please click this link and read.

Coming back to our journey

We finished our tea and reached the entry gate of Gol Gumbaz.

We purchased the entry ticket at the gate of the Gol Gumbaz for Rs 15. Being early in the morning there was not much of a crowd. As we entered the complex, we saw well laid out garden on both the sides and a Museum building which is right in front of the Gol Gumbaz.

Well laid out garden and Gol Gumbaz behind the Museum

Museum in front of the Gol Gumbaz

There are canons kept outside this Museum. On closer look I found Persian Emblem on the canon along with something written on the cannon. The canons are quite big.

Persian emblem along with some text engraved

Huge Canons

Circumventing the Museum we entered the Gol GumBaz complex and were pleasantly surprised to see again beautiful garden and this Manmoth Gol Gumbaz ahead of us.

Mighty Gol Gumbaz

Gol Gumbaz is the tomb of Mohammed Adil Shah (1627 -56) , the seventh ruler of Adil Shahi dynasty. Gol Gumbaz as the name suggest is round dome monument. I remember when I was in school we had these General Knowledge Test and we read about tallest tower, longest platform or largest dome, It was here when I first came across this name Gol Gumbaz. So naturally you can understand my excitement of reminiscing the past. The Central dome of Gol Gumbaz is the largest in Asia and second largest in the world after the St Peters Basilica of Rome.

This gigantic mausoleum which took 20 years to complete was built at the orders of Adil Shah before his death , It has a floor area of 1700 sq.m., height of 51 m and diameter of 37 m. The walls are 3 m thick. The central dome stands unsupported by any pillars.

We look so small under this Gumbaz

I was mesmerized by the hugeness of the place. we look so small standing in front of the monument.

Next to the GolGumbaz there is a mosque . The entry to which was closed when we visited.

We now moved on to enter the Gol Gumbaz but before entering the Gol Gumbaz one has to remove shoes and go inside.There was a person just oustside the gate with whom you can deposit your shoes and bags before entering the GolGumbaz. Upon entering the Gol Gumbaz we saw a huge platform on which laid the tombs of the Sultan Mohamed Adil Shah, his two wives, his mistress Ramba, his daughter and grandson.

Tombs of Adil Shahi and his Family

When I was talking to the guide in the Gol Gumbaz, I came to know an interesting thing, Actually everywhere on the web I had read that Ramba was the mistress of the Sultan however the guide at the museum begged to differ, He said Ramba was never a mistress of Adil Shahi. She was a dancer who had come along with her son from Ceylon ( Sri Lanka of today) to perform on the occasion of completion of Gol Gumbaz however she fell in love with the sultan and even professed her love and it was her wish that she be buried along with the king here.Next day she jumped from the top of the Gumbaz and died, consequent to which the sultan fulfilling her wish buried her here. Later when her son died he too was buried. This history is so easy to twist God knows what is true or false.But then Hum ko kya .... Hume to kahani suna acha lagta hai...after all we are also a storyteller.

Platform or stage behind the tombs

Just behind the tombs One can see platform which I assumed may be used for performance. I was also told that there is basement below this Gol Gumbaz which is closed. One more interesting thing was the air been realised from the floor through the grilled duct.

Air Ducts on the floors

If you stand below the Dome you will only be in awe of the architectural marvel because you will notice that there are no pillars supporting the done. This huge dome cap appears to have been placed on the criss-crossing arches running from one end to another. "Seeing is believing" I dont know how many times I may repeat this in Bijapur.

The web of arches holding the dome

We now proceeded to climb the Minars which stands on the four corners of the Gol Gumbaz. We were told its a seven storied climb and each floor have a balcony where one catch their breath.Hence we started to climb this spiraling stairs.Standing in one of this balcony one can see the huge bracketed cornice below the parapet, are important feature of this monument.

ornate brackets

Huffing and panting we reached the top, but once reaching the top you will forget all the efforts you took climb the stairs because the city below looks awesome. You can see many domes scattered all over the city. One can also see the citadel boundary wall.

Lording our Bijapur city from Gol Gumbaz Top

Citadel Boundary wall can be seen from Gol Gumbaz Top

For a second I was transported into the past. I imagined myself to be the sultan and lording over the city.

Sochne me tax thoda na lagta hai. Free me Sultan hone ka ahsas le liya.

Ek din ka Sultan 😀

Other than the city one gets good top view of the museum building and the whole complex. We clicked few pictures and then entered the dome top.

View of the front side from Gol Gumbaz Top

Last but not the least it was time to visit the famous "Whispering gallery", Time to witness one of the most fabulous experience of our lives. Whispering gallery was something out of the world experience for us where I was told that the tick of a watch or the rustle of paper can be heard across a distance of 37 m in the Whispering Gallery. The acoustical phenomenon of this dome is such that a sound is echoed eleven times over. You won't believe this, when I narrate to you my experience of Whispering gallery, it so happened when my wife standing at the other end of the dome ( distance must be around 138 feet) She could actually hear what I whispered. I was shell shocked when she replied back. I have never seen such thing in my life.

Travel tip: Try to reach early in the morning to experience this whispering wonder because once the people start flowing in you will only be getting frustrated and irritated by the sound of whistles, claps and shouts.

By the time we finished with our exploration of Gol GumBaz It was already 10:30 am, which meant that we took almost 2 and a half hour for seeing this monument.

Top Balcony or roof of Gol Gumbaz

Trivia

Incidentally Gol Gumbaz((1627) and the Taj Mahal (1632) began construction during the same period by two different sultans governing independent swathes of land. Taj being in the north and the Gol Gumbaz in southern India both the tombs separated by 1500 km, obviously were not aware of each other.

Gol Gumbaz took 29 years to complete, the Taj Mahal took 22 years to finish,Gol Gumbaz is almost double the size of Taj. Yet where more than I pondered whether Taj Mahal has a feminine fetish, while the Gol Gumbaz is geometrically masculine. At any given time more than 7 to 8 million tourists visit the Taj Mahal in a year, whereas the population of Agra is around 1,5 million. Comparatively very few tourists visit Gol Gumbaz just because it is not on the regular tourist trail and also not adequately publicised and promoted by the local Tourism people.

We moved out from the Gol Gumbaz complex but not before visiting the Museum which was not open when we had come in the morning, The Museum itself is a treasure house having a collection of Chinese porcelain, parchments, paintings, armoury, miniatures, stone sculptures and old Bijapur carpets etc.

The museum is open on all days from 10 am to 5 pm, except Fridays. Entrance is free.

Museum done and dusted by me and my wife

I was very thrilled by whatever I saw till now. We were now all the more eager to see what the city of Bijapur holds for us. Stay tuned for the next part of the blog to learn more about lives of sultans.

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Summarized History of Bijapur

2018-05-24T00:32:00.001-07:00

Summarized History of Bijapur

What was formerly known as Bijapur is called Vijayapur today.Bijapur city is well known for its historical monuments and their architectural importance especially the monuments built during the Adil Shahi Dynasty.

Chalukyas of Kalyani established this ancient township in 10th or 11 century later it was passed to Yadavs after the Chalukyas demise.

In the 13th Century the city came under the influence of the khilji Sultanate in Delhi.

In 1347 Bijapur was taken over by the Bahami sultanate of Gulbarga.

In 1518, Bahami Sultanate was divided into 5 states known as Deccan sultanate.One of which was Bijapur.

Adil Shahi Dynasty ruled between 1490-1686.What we see today at Bijapur, I mean mostly can be attributed to Adil Shahi.

In 1686, Aurangzeb conqured Bijapur and thus ended Adil Shahi's reign.

In 1724 Nizam of Hyderabad took over Bijapur.

In 1760 Marathas defeated Nizam of Hyderabad.

In 1818 The Maratha Peshwa was defeated by the british and Bijapur was passed on to Bristish East India Company.

Rukmini Devi Temple | Dwarka | Gujarat Series

2018-05-12T21:34:00.001-07:00

After visiting Bet Dwarka (click here to read) and spending those enchanting moments with the seagulls chasing our boat till we reached Okha port was indeed a memory which shall remain embedded in my mind forever.

Boats leaving the Bet Dwarka

We were given 2 hours time for sightseeing by our auto driver and we were quite late and honestly I was dreading the moment when I have to meet him now. One look and I knew I was in trouble because I could see he was red with rage and he angrily blurted out " Arre kitna time laga aap logo ko, Parking me mere sath aur mere baad wale sab nikal gaye". I somehow pacified him and offered him few more bucks and we were on course.

It was a long and bumpy drive with me sitting on the edge of the front seat again,but the major problem for me now was no only to sit on the edge but also to keep myself awake. I don't know, but I was feeling very tired and sleepy and sitting on the front seat I was sure that I cannot afford to fall asleep "Pata chala Weekend Wanderer, Auto se bahar wandering karne nikal liye" 😁.

Bumpy ride on auto

This drive of approx. 30 kms almost took more than an hour to reach Rukmani Devi Temple. Luckily for us there was not much of a crowd at the temple. I thought this time around we will quickly see the temple and come back. Per yeh ho na saka ! because the Pundit at the temple had some different plans! He told us to wait for 10 minutes. I asked punditji darshan kyo rok diye , He smiled and sarcastically replied " arre mandir me aaye ho kuch der dhyan lagao, 5-10 minute tak bhajan karo, 10 minute aise hi guzar jayenge'. I was wondering why he did this? but soon after some time I got the answer to that. Actually the head Pundit wanted to ensure that there was a sizeable number of people so that he can start his narration about the temple and more importantly he wanted to collect donation for water tanker Yes Water tanker! (They have this system that the devotee can donate money, depending upon the amount one can donate few litres or full tanker , the donation starts from 200 Rs to thousands) I was actually annoyed that he made us wait and waste our time so that he can get audience, just for this money thing.

Rukmani Temple (source Wikimedia)

Before talking about Rukmani temple, Let me give you the backstory as regards to who was Devi Rukmani and why this temple is called Rukmani Devi Temple. As the name suggest this temple is of Rukmani Devi one of the important queen out of 16108 wives! of lord Krishna.

We all know that Goddess Laxmi is eternal companion of Lord Vishnu. So when Lord Vishnu took Krishna Avatar, Goddess Laxmi took the form of Princess Rukmani devi. Princess Rukmani Devi was the only sister of her 5 brothers, She has heard so much about the valour of the Krishna from the visitors who came to their court that she was enamored by the divine beauty of Lord Krishna hence she decided that she will marry only Lord Krishna and no one else. All family members were happy and agreeable to her choice of Krishna except her elder brother who wanted to marry Rukhmani to the powerful king Shishupala.

Cravings on exterior of the temple

When Rukmani came to know about this she was very sad and agitated, she realised that her elder brother wont let her marry Krishna hence she decided to send a message to Lord Krishna professing her love for him and asking him to take her away from here and this forced marriage. She then handed this to her trusted messenger to be delivered to lord Krishna.When Lord Krishna started to read the letter he realised it was a love letter from a anguished soul who was absolutely in love with Lord Krishna. Lord Krishna then eloped with Princess Rukmani and they both came to the village of Madhavpur Ghed and got married at this place. In the memory of this event a temple for Lord Madhavrai was built and every year celebration takes place of this event in a cultural fair. After few days Lord Krishna married Princess Rukmani with great pomp at Dwarka.

Taking about love letter I remember the Head priest saying that there are only two places where one can see this love letter one is at this temple and other in some scripture.

Well this was the backstory of Princess Rukmani. Now the question arises why the temple of Rukmani is here, I mean 2 kms away from the Lord Krishna's Dwarkadhish Temple.

So another story time here again. As per the legend After the marriage of lord Krishna and Rukmani they wanted to invite Sage Durvasa for the feast. , He agreed to come for the feast but on one condition that Lord Krishna should sent for a chariot to pick him up and the said chariot must be not pulled by horses but by Lord Krishna and Rukmani, as sage Durvasa was known for his short temper so both Krishna and Rukmani agreed to this condition. As they were pulling the Chariot due to excessive heat Rukmani felt thirst and requested Krishna for the water. Krishna with his feet toe prodded the earth to drew Ganges for providing water. Rukhmani quickly quenched her thirst with the water however this made sage Durvasa very angry because he felt insulted that Rukhmani didnt ask him first for the drink so in his anger he cursed her she and lord Krishna will live seperately and indeed they lived seperately for 12 years. While Lord Krishna lived in Dwarka and devi Rukmani did tapashcharya in the forset outside Dwarka and Thus we see this temple of Devi Rukmani outside the Dwarka city.

when you hear all these tales I feel one gets transported to another era. Actually these are the reasons that travelling is something I am so fond of. As far as the temple goes one can see intricate carvings on the outer side of the temple.

We paid our respect to Devi Rukmani and moved towards Dwarka to visit Dwarkadhish Temple.

Churches of Mumbai Series | St Thomas Cathedral

2018-04-26T05:32:00.000-07:00

It all started when last month I came across an article in the MIDDAY newspaper. A three hundred years old church was celebrating its tri-centenary. Naturally I was all inquisitive to know where was this church, what was the history behind and as I started my research I was getting more and more immersed into the past of this church. What got unveiled left me dumbfounded!.

Present Churchgate Station

For all these years passed, I never knew why Churchgate Station was called Churchgate and over that we always enjoyed Kishore Kumar crooning in the movie DON, Ee hai bumbai nagariya tu dekh babuwa....jaha churchgate ka church hai lapata.

Well the good news is I found the missing Church.

Jokes apart, St Thomas cathedral is in fact that missing church which gives Churchgate its name and another interesting fact about this church is that it is Point Zero spot where the pin falls in "Bombay"from where distance in the city was measured in milestones.

History:
St Thomas Cathedral stands testimony to the colonial past. The times when there was actually a fortified British settlement of Bombay which we call as Fort area in present times except that today there is no fort, no bastions or fort walls. What we see today is bustling commercial hubs yet being a commercial hub the British era can still be felt,looking around the buildings in these areas which are converted to Govt offices or bank premises.
Till the 19th century the Bombay was fortified settlement with a fort wall and a moat.

The city had three gates

Apollo gate- at Apollo bunder
Bazaar Gate- That is where today chhatrapati Shivaji Bus Terminus
Churchgate- Where the flora fountain stands today
stands.

Old Church gate,where the present day Flora Fountain stands
(Pic source Wikipedia)

All the gates along with the city wall was demolished in the year 1860.

As the city of Bombay was inhabited by the Britisher they needed a place to worship so in the year 1676 the foundation stone was laid by the Governor Gerald Aungier the same year that Emperor Aurangzeb began building Badshahi Masjid or mosque in Lahore. Unfortunately after the death Gerald Aungier the construction of the church was abandoned,however as the construction of the church was underway so the structure stood half way at 5 metres high for half a century. In 1710 Richard Cobbe the Chaplain adopted this unfinished Church and got the construction completed and finally the church was thrown open to the general public on the Christmas day 1718.

The Church was named after St. Thomas, the Apostle, one of the 12 Disciples of Lord Christ who is believed to have come to India.

In the year 1837, the Church was consecrated as a Cathedral and Rev. Thomas Carr was appointed the first Bishop of Bombay. The Church underwent lots of additions and renovation and took its present form in the year 1865.

In the 18th and 19th century the Cathedral was divided on the basis of different classes of society.There were even separate rooms for "Inferior Women" ( Now don't ask me what does that mean, I always felt that all humans are equal in the eyes of God, yet why this discrimination...probably another creativity of humans to divide the humans )

My Journey :

Armed with all the info that I can gather I was very eager to have a first hand experience of seeing the St Thomas Cathedral. So Weekend wanderer that I am, I set out one Sunday afternoon to visit this church. Let me share my experience from here on.

I took local train from Andheri to Churchagate and it was 4 pm when I reached the Churchgate station. Coming out of the station I started to walk towards Hutatma Chowk aka Flora Fountain and from there towards Horniman circle, just before that you see a Clock tower like structure and you can be forgiven if you mistook it for a clock tower. Its not a clock tower but the church, St Thomas Cathedral. I have come to Horniman circle for upteem times I fact I must have savoured the coffee at Starbucks just opposite to it and yet missed this so important monument.

As I was entering the church I noticed a beautiful ornate fountain in front of the main entrance.

In 1864, Sir Cowasji Jehangir Readymoney, a Parsi philanthropist, had gifted this Gothic fountain to this church, because he wished to donate one in the vicinity of his residence, still known as Readymoney Mansion.

ReadyMoney Mansion (It still exists)

This kind of donation was nothing unusual gesture for Sir Cowasji Jehangir Readymoney, because he had donated 40 iron fountains to Mumbai, of which only six can be found now. This ornate fountain actually compliments to the beauty of this Cathedral.

Made for each other

This fountain was brought from London in parts."The local Parsi community were unhappy that such generosity was wasted on 'Unbelievers' and hence they disparagingly nicknamed the fountain the 'Cowasjee Cross'."( Source Times of India Report)

Lobby at the entrance of the church

From here I moved to enter the Church. As we enter the Church we find a small lobby, what is noticeable here is the designed flooring, a designed wrought iron gate and the visitor book lying on the right side of the lobby.

Designed flooring in the lobby

Next we enter the main hall, What I saw was very imposing and grand.The inside of the church is painted in white.There was these beautifully designed huge wrought iron brackets which holds the fans in the church.

Wrought Iron fan brackets in the hall catches your eyes

The next thing that interested me a lot was the many memorials made of marble stone that adorned walls of the church. These memorials tell different stories of the different people and look very ostentatious.

Memorial for 300 Passengers
who perished on steamship Cleopatra

The first Memorial that I saw was for the 300 passengers of the Steamship called Cleopatra, who perished when the ship sank of the coast of Malabar on 15th April 1847. the ship was en-route from Bombay to Singapore.The monument was erected by the officers and the seaman of Indian navy as per the plaque

The next interesting memorial was this huge memorial for Jonathan Duncan.

Memorial of Jonathan Duncan

Jonathan Duncan was the longest serving governor (16 years)The memorial comprises of a Dhoti clad Brahmin and a statue depicting the symbol of justice and this was all set against the backdrop of Banyan Tree with the smiling Chirubs.

In the words of Reverend Avinash Rangayy the Church Priest "Duncan was a visionary who abolished infanticide in India… those cherubs denote this good deed. He was an Indophile — the Brahmin and the banyan tree depict his deep association with India, while the statue portrays his fairness in judgement despite being a colonial ruler."

Memorial for Captain George Nicholas Hardinge

Another interesting and beautifully carved monument of horses with a fairy and waves caught my eye. On closer observation I noted it was a memorial to Captain George Nicholas Hardinge
As per the plaque Captain George commanded the ship called "San Fiorenzo" considered to be terror of Indian seas which had 36 guns and 186 men on it.

He chased and fought for three successive day the enemy frigate "La-Piedmantaise which had 50 guns and 566 men on it. Yet The Captain along with his crew achieved a brilliant conquest but unfortunately fell in the last and critical, part of this heric battle. It is said that he was very much inspired by his hero Lord Nelson. Captain George dies in the year 1808.
last but not the least i liked this peculiar kind of memorial which looked like a coffin with a statue of a priest lying on it. This memorial belonged to the Rev. Thomas Carr The first bishop of Bombay.

Memorial of First Bishop of Bombay

Other than this there are many more exotic memorial some of which are in brass form each telling a different tale. Do visit and read each epitaph probably you may find some new secret unveiled.

After going through all the memorials I came down to the central of the church and started to walk down the nave. Just as I was to about to approach near the chancel,on my right side on the first row of the seating chairs I saw these two iconic chairs . Iconic because these chairs were occupied by King George and the queen on 3rd Nov, 1911.

Copper plate on the seats

Just before that there is this pew on which was used by Mother Theresa on 08.01.1989. I get goosebumps when I find myself so near the history and could actually feel the presence of this blessed soul.

After this I move towards the altar area or rather the chancel, what catches your eyes is the lovely stained glass windows with colour paintings of St Thomas and many others.

Some beautiful designed stained glass windows

The chancel

One of the paintings at the cathedral shows St Thomas with a Bible in his hand and a T square in the other hand perhaps reminding the viewers that at on time he was a builder by profession standing next to him on both his sides are archangels St Gabriel holding a lily symbolising purity and truth. and St Micheal holding a double edged sword, symbolising truth and justice.

No wonder that such beautiful Church is considered as a heritage site and is a recipient of UNESCO Asia-Pacific Heritage Conservation Award.

Stained glass window of St Thomas,St Gabriel and St Michael

I was simply overwhelmed by what I experienced here. I sat for sometime soaking in all the grandeur and the peace the place had to offer. Paid my respect to the lord and came out of the Cathedral as a contented man.

Thank You

Revdanda Fort

2018-04-24T04:50:00.001-07:00

We had just finished our visit of Rameshwar temple at Chaul. (You can click on this link to read about our earlier part of the travel)

At Rameshwar Temple, Chaul

As we were leaving the Rameshwar temple, I asked the local villager to guide us to Revdanda Fort. He said Its around 1kms from the temple so we better take an auto and go to Revdanda Fort. Femina just like me, is a travel freak so she said "Aashish why don't we walk the distance, its just one Kilometre" and I too readily agreed to this because when you walk the village roads you often get to see village life more closely, chances of connecting with the local folk is so refreshing and interesting that you never know you make catch up with some local folklore.

Do Bechare

So, do bechare bina Sahare , Uparse Dhoop se mare, apni manzil ki aur chal pade

Moving little forward on the road outside the temple we saw the road going straight and one village road diverting on the right,Following my intuition we started to walk on it. little ahead of us one villager was also walking so I stuck a conversation with him and asked him to guide us to Revdanda fort. What followed was a little happy chat and an exchange of ten rupee note 😛 and set of directions.

Following the directions given by the villager we were on our path towards the Revdanda fort. Lonely but lovely path had lots of coconut trees providing the necessary shades, the breeze blowing was very cool and we were dying to rush toward the Revdanda Beach. Beach! did I say Revdanda beach and not fort.

Well it was not a typo. Its indeed Revdanda beach. The fact is that Revdanda Fort is on the Revdanda beach only.

Come lets brush up our history of the fort.

History

Revdanda fort was a beach facing fort built in 1558 by a Portuguese captain Soj to watch over their trading interests. It is located in lower Chaul, which one comes across on the Alibaug-Murud road (17kms away from Alibaug). During the Portuguese times it was called Santa Maria de Castelo, but the locals called it Revdanda after Revati the spouse of the Yadava king Balrama.

(PC Nitin Nimbalkar)

The Portuguese defended this fort against many invasions namely in 1570-71 and in 1594. It was captured by the Marathas (by the Angres, during the time of Nanasaheb Peshwe) in 1740 (Note.an earlier attempt in 1683, during the time of Ch.Sambhajiraje had failed). In 1806 it was ceded to the East India company and remained in brief control of the Angres in 1817.

(PC Nitin Nimbalkar)

Revdanda-Chaul (Chenwal in Konkani language) has a history of 2000 years. Chaul (Simul,Champavati were some of its old names) was ruled in the medieval times by kings like Bhoja (12th cen) and Bimbadev (13th cen).Chaul came under Tughluq in the 14th century , the Bahamani sultans in the 15th century, Nizamshahi in 16th century, Portuguese in the 16/17th century (1505 onwards. In 1508, an combined army of Egyptian Mamluks and Gujrat sultanate defeated the Portuguese. The first Portuguese settlements started in 1521 with the permission of Nizamshah), the Marathas in the 18th century and the British in the 19th century. Chaul always remained a major trading port during the rules of all dynasties.

(PC Nitin Nimbalkar)

There were also other forts in Chaul like Agarkot of the Nizamshah (destroyed by the Portuguese) , Rajkot built by Sambhaji (destroyed by the Angres in 1748) and Korlai (known to the Portuguese as Morro de Chaul or Rock of Chaul) which still exists in the vicinity on a nearby cliff. Korlai was captured by the Portuguse till 1739 until it was seized by the Marathas.

Revdanda had a chapel where St Francis Xaviers delivered one of his earliest sermons in the Indian subcontinent. Revdanda was also the first place in India where Afanasy Nikitin, the first Russian traveler landed .

Deserted Revdanda Beach

One look at the Revdanda beach and I was zapped. not a soul to be seen except for few deserted boats where Femina and myself we took turns to click pictures.Its very rare that we mumbaikar get to see such clean and lonely beach.

Making the most of Lonely beach

Standing on the revdanda beach we can see Korlai fort perched on the hill on the opposite side. We enjoyed a short splash in the sea and after coming out of the sea we started to move towards our right along the beach to go to Revdanda Fort. As we were walking We saw a group of people getting down from the jeep and just behind them I caught a glimpse water scooters.

Wow so they have water sports here!

Water scooters at Revdanda Beach

We kept walking for another 5 minutes and we were standing near the Revdanda fort. All the crowd that was missing at the Revdanda beach were actually here 😂.

Missing crowd of Revdanda beach found at last

Though Revdanda Fort may have a great history but what lies today is just a dilapidated fort. The walls of the fort is completed eroded due to the sea water.

Broken walls of the Fort

As a fort it may not look so formidable in its present state but its a photographers delight to capture various moods of the fort and the sea. I think this wss the reason that we saw hordes of photographers doing pre-wedding shoots here).

Maine bhi mauke per chauka mara and chupke se ek pre weddind shot ka long shot le dala 😜😜😜

We spent some time clicking the pictures from outside the fort. There was a small window type opening in the wall so we decided to enter through it so that we can explore the fort from inside.

There is not much to be seen in the fort and as we went inside the fort we found it was completely covered with coconut trees and bushes.

Dense Vegetation inside the Fort

Seeing the dense bushes we started to walk carefully and moved towards the tower like structure which we could see at far thru the trees.

Tower like structure within the Fort

As we were walking through the bushes, towards this tower like structure, we realised our folly that the entrance route was from other side and not from where we were venturing. But then adventurous species that we are, both of us climbed the wall and jumped to the other side.

Pachpan me bachpan yaad aagaya 😜😜😜(of course for me only! because Femina is lot younger and fitter soul.)

Once inside the compound we saw this tall tower. This tall structure is actually a Franciscan Church Tower inside the fort.

Franciscan Church Tower inside the fort
(PC Nitin Nimbalkar)

Just outside this tower we find scattered cannons, another reflection of the past glory.

Scattered Cannons

We explored little bit and moved to Jesuit Monastery

(PC Nitin Nimbalkar)

Ruins of Jesuit Monastery. (PC Nitin Nimbalkar)

which is in ruins and neglected state too. Other than this there was not much to be explored so we moved on from here to go to Kulaba Fort.