JOURNEY TO GUJARAT
Journey to Gujarat
Journey to Gujarat was
planned together by me, my wife , my
sister’s son in law Shri S. Narasimhan, a Retd. AGM from State Bank of India, his
wife and his sister in law during the first week of February 2019. It was then decided that we could go on the
trip from 9th March to 14th March 2019. Tickets were then
booked through flight. Self and wife were to travel to Ahmedabad from Chennai
while Shri Narasimhan with his wife and sister in law would go there from
Hyderabad. The onus of planning and coordination was left to Shri Narasimhan
who had wide range of contacts through his banking tribe.
Shri Narasimhan made arrangements for our stay at Ahmedabad in
one of State Bank of India Association’s guest house for the period of stay
from 9th March to 14th March 2019. Further on reference from one of his bank colleagues
contacted Shri Rajeev Sharma a travel agent at Ahmedabad and made the following
schedule ready.
On day one sight seeing
at Ahmedabad
On day two Visit to
Dwaraka
On day three Visits to
Porbandar and Somnath
On day four Visit to
Gir Forest and Junagadh fort
On day five Visit to
Nishkalank Mahadev temple at Bhavnagar
On day six return to
our respective places by flight.
Our stay at Dwaraka and
Somnath were to be taken care of by the travel agent.
An Innova car was to be
kept at our disposal from the day we land at Ahmedabad till we emplane to our
respective destinations on return.. .
With everything taken
care of we were eagerly waiting for the D-day.
Come 9th
March 2019 Both my wife and I emplaned to Ahmedabad from Chennai at 7 a.m..
Shri Narasimhan and family emplaned from Hyderabad at 8.30 a.m.. Both the
families met at the Ahmedabad airport at about 10.30 a.m. The driver, Gajendra
Singh, was ready to pick us up. From thereon we went to the SBI Association
Guest House at Paldi. It is housed in an old building. Two rooms were allotted
to our two families. After freshening up we started for the sight seeing of
Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar Cities.
The city of Ahmedabad
is situated on the banks of Sabarmati River. The city itself is old with no new
buildings. No big malls. The city buses are few and far between. The roads are good. Litter is absent. Bus
stations are found instead of bus stops a welcome feature. Autorickshaws have
no meters. Cattle roam freely on the city roads. Signals are few. Traffic discipline is at a discount.
Name boards on the shops, bus
routes, street/road names etc are
all in Gujarati which makes a non
Gujarati Indian a foreigner. May be
three language formula or two language formula which is applicable in other
parts of India is not applicable here.
We then had a taste of Gujarati food at a restaurant on our way to
Hutheesing Jain temple. It was about 2 p.m. The temple it is said is 172 years
old. It has a Kirti Stambh. The temple is dedicated to Lord Dharmanatha. It has
also a museum where teachings of the Jain saints are displayed.
Then we wanted to go to
Swami Narayan temple but unfortunately it was closed. As we had not much time at our disposal we
moved on to see the Adalaj stepwell.
There a well is found deep some five
storeys down. We have to descend
nearly 100 steps to reach the well. The
well itself is closed with a mesh. Deep
down it is very cool. One can see number of youngsters taking selfies and
posing for photos. It was really a
pleasant experience.
Then we went to the
Sabarmati Ashram in Gandhi Nagar. It is located on the banks of river
Sabarmati. It was from here Gandhiji led the Dandi march. A big statue of
Mahatma Gandhi in a sitting posture has been placed in front of the Ashram.. There
is an exhibition where hand written letters of Gandhiji, Charka, and his life
history is depicted. On the whole the atmosphere is serene.
From there we went to
Kankaria lake. It is the second largest lake in Gujarat. It has many
attractions especially for children. It has zoo, toy train, boat rides,
eateries. We went on a speed boat ride
across the lake. The boat went at terrifying speed. It was enjoyable. We then relaxed at the banks of the lake. It was
very nice.
From there we went to
Akshardham temple. Cameras and Mobile phones are not allowed inside. We have to
walk a lot to reach the temple. The temple has been built on a sprawling
complex with the reigning deity as Swami Narayan. There is abhishek mandir,
beautiful gardens with elephant like shapes made of grass all around. As we
went during night time we could see the light show. The water show which is held regularly has
been suspended temporarily when we had been there. There is an exhibition depicting the various
facets of the Swamiji.
On our way we had
dinner at a restaurant and were back to our Guest house at about 9 p.m.
On 10th
March we started at 8.00 a.m. for our
journey to Dwaraka. The distance from Ahmedabad to Dwaraka is about 450
kms. On our way we went to Jamnagar.
There we went to Bala Hanuman temple which is located on the banks of Lakota
lake. We could hear the chanting of rama
nama. It is said that the Ram Dhun
recitation is going on for 55 years continuously from 1964.
We reached Dwaraka, the
place where Lord Krishna’s temple(Dwarkadeesh
temple) is located at about 6 p.m..
Faith pervades the entire temple complex. Shouts of Jai Bolenath by devotees rent the air. Some devotees were seen
circumlocating the temple premises with shouts of “Goda Haathi Paalki Jai
Kaniaah lal ke” While we waited for the Aaarthi which was to take place at 7.45
p.m. we saw the temple flag being hoisted on the mast on the temple dome. Some devotees distributed Ghee Prasad. When
aarthi was shown to the Lord at 7.45 p.m. there was spirituality all around.
The Lord Krishna’s idol is small and beautiful. It was a satisfying darshan of
the Lord.
Thereafter we retired
for the day at a nearby hotel after having dinner.
On 11th
March we started at 8.00 am for our journey to Beth Dwaraka. It is about 30 kms. From Dwaraka .And the
journey takes one hour. On our way we went to the Rukmini temple which is 2
kms. From Dwaraka., Radha Krishna temple is situated in the mid sea.We have to
take a ferry to go to the temple. The ferry journey takes about 20 minutes up
and 20 minutes down. During the boat journey sea gulls hover over us. It was a
pleasant site to watch. On the other
side of the shore is the temple of Radha
and Krishna. We had a good darshan of the deities.
After having our lunch
we went from there to Porbandar which is about 138 kms. It took us three hours
to reach there. At Porbandar we went to Kirti Mandir the place where Gandhiji
was born. The place is neatly kept. We saw the house where Gandhiji was born.
It is a big house kept as it is in a dilapidated state. Took photos of us as a
kind of remembrance. From there we
started our journey to Somnath.
The journey from
Porbandar to Somnath is about 3 hours and the distance is about 150 kms. We
reached Somnath at about 8 p.m. The
Jyothirling is small and is kept inside the reconstructed temple. The
premises is neatly maintained. We saw the Aarthi to the deity. We could see the
photographs of temple in its original
shape consistently marauded by different Muslim invaders from Mohammed
of Ghori to Alladin Khilji to
Aurangazeb. The temple was
reconstructed in the year 2012 and hence its present shape. It was a satisfying
darshan of Lord Shiva.
We retired for the day
in the nearby hotel at Somnath.
On 12th
March we started at about 7 a.m. to Gir Forest. The distance from Somnath is
about 65 Kms. It took about one hour. We reached the Gir forest at about 8 a.m.
We had already booked for our entry through on line which cost around Rs.4500
ie Rs.900 each. After inspecting our identity cards and Aadhaar cards we were
allowed in. There we hired an open jeep costing Rs.1700 and a guide at Rs.400.
Our journey into the forest started at 8.30.am. we waded thorugh the dense
forests we could only see different types of deer. At one point some forest
ranger informed that he had spotted a Lion. Our jeep driver took us to that
point. There we saw the lion lying down on a nap. The huzzle buzzle of the
jeeps and the trees around could not make him stand up and give darshan to us.
As he was lying between trees we could
not get a perfect darshan. We also saw wild boars. The entire trip inside the
forest took us three hours and we came back to the starting point at 11.30
a.m. We had Chappathis at a nearby
hotel .
We started our journey
back to Ahmedabad from Gir forest. The distance is about 350 kms. And it took
us nearly 9 hours to back to our Guest House. After dinner we retired for the
day thoroughly exhausted.
On 13th at
about 8.30 a.m. we started to visit the Nishkalank Mahadev lingaas at Bhavnagar.
The distance from Ahmedabad to Bhavnagar is about 170 Kms. It took us three and
half hours. The speciality of the temple is that it is situated in the mid sea.
The sea recedes to a particular distance at any period of the day. Once the sea
recedes we can see the flag mast below the mast are 5 lingaas. The legend would
have it that the Pandavas were sore that they had killed their
own brethren in the war and wanted to atone their sins. They were
told to follow a crow and instal the lingaas and worship them at a
place when the crow they followed turned white. It was precisely at this place
in Bhavnagar the crow turned white. The Pandavas installed the lingaas five in
numbers and worshipped them.
We reached the place at
12 noon. By the time the sea had receded.
We were told that it would take six hours for the sea to come to its
original position. The place where the lingaas were installed is about 2 kms
from the shore. We had to wade through
water and slush very carefully to reach there. It takes about 30 minutes to
cover the distance. If we walk slowly it takes about 45 minutes. It was a very
exhilarating experience. We had good darshan of the lingaas performed pujas on
them, took photographs of the vast expanse of sea, the lingaas and us. We were
back to the shore at about 2.30 p.m. All of us were very tired.
After some refreshments
we boarded our car on our way back to Ahmedabad. We came back at about 8.30 p.m. had dinner at
Hotel Sankalp and then retired for the
day at the Guest house.
On 14th we
had to depart to our respective destinations viz Chennai and Hyderabad Our flights were at 14.10 hrs and 15.50 hrs
respectively. As we had lot of time at our disposal we decided to do some
shopping at Lal bazaar at Ahmedabad. The
entire bazaar is flooded with textiles. We made some purchases like shifts,
sarees etc. All the transactions in the bazaar only made in cash. When the Govt
of India is insisting on cash less transactions this bazaar merrily transacts
only in cash.
We reached the air port
well ahead of our departure. After having some snacks at the airport we parted
to reach our respective gates to emplane.
My wife and I reached
our home at 6 p.m. and my cousins at 7.30 p.m.
All of us were though exhausted enjoyed it thoroughly. Even today ie 25th of March we
ruminate our pleasant experience at Gujarat.
I should thank
Narasimha Bava for the excellent arrangement he had made to make our entire
journey to Gujarat pleasant, pleasurable and meaningful..
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