Day 1 :
We reached jammu Tawi station at 10 am on Saturday (18th April), immediately we went to katra, the scenic beauty of route enthralled me. We reached katra at 12:30, we had registered in the registration counter of Vaishno Devi.
We booked a hotel and left for the journey at 3:30pm after having our lunch.
The walk on the dramp of Vaishno Devi had caught my imagination, i was amazed at the number of devotees and the number of shops on the way. These days the Religious places are morfe like a market where you can spend a good time. I saw many youngsters like us on our way.
The walk to the mandir 14 km long,a t first i thought how am i going to cover this distance??? But the enthusiasm of the crowd and my friend avnish's enthu kept me going. We were chanting "jai mata di " all tyhe way. Avnish is a naughty fellow, whenever he sees a PYT he starts chanting "jai mata di " in a altogether new tone!!!. Anyway we enjoyed the walk, with avnish leading us, to our surprise the youngest fellow of the group was walking at the slowest pace as the walk had taken the better of him.... We decided to take the staircase route in the middle, this was 500+ steps long and we were tired at the middle. We were taking breaks in between.
( Banganga gate)
We reached the middle point Ardhkwari( 6 kms from ground0 at around 6pm, We wanted to visit the famous ardhkwari caves, but we had a long waiting list, so we decided to go along and move towards the mataji mandir. We reached the mataji mandir ( 6.5 kms from ardhkwari) at 8 pm with me and avnish leading the group my at least a km J i was happy with myself that at this age(???), i was having the energy of a youngster.
We did our rituals at the ghat and went ahead for the darshan, we saw the cave and i was feeling heavenly.
We went to the bhairon temple which is at 1.5 kms away and above the mataji caves. To our surprise we met 3 of our NPTI seniors, we could spot them as one of them was wearing the NPTI winter T shirt. We prayed at the temple at 2 pm. After this temple we started our journey downwards ( 14km) . I was feeling a bit tired by this time, i thought my age had got the better off me. This time we took each and every stairs downwards and the pace of my descend caused injury to me and i was not able to keep pace with the enthu avnish, this time avnish and Kundale were leading the race and were descending very fast by the stairs. We met at the ardhkwari, my tiredness had compelled me to cancel the ardhkwari visit. We decided to go towards our hotel the clock was showing 4 am now.
( with our seniors at Bhairon Temple)
We moved downwards and reached the bottom ( banganga) at 5:30 am. To my surprise the masakkali we saw at the old delhi station was also with us and i was very delighted to see her in our tour J
Day 2:
We reached hotel at 6 am and all of us were sleeping after getting tired. We woke up at 11:30 am and Kundale our finance manager issued orders to check out of hotel and go to Amritsar – this destination was our next point, we had booked our return tickets to delhi from Amritsar.
We boarded a bus to Jammu from katra where we reached at 4 pm. We immediately boarded a bus to Amritsar. We reached Amritsar – the city of golden temple at 11 pm. We went to a hotel near the railway station. We were very very hungry by this time only food we had was 2 gobi paranthas each at Katra in the afternoon !!!. To our surprise the food served at the hotel was mouthwatering. We filled our stomachs to the heart's content.
Day 3:
We got ready for the Amritsar tour after a good sleep last night. We had talked to the autorickshaw wala we came by last night to take us around the city. We fixed Rs550/- for taking us for city sight seeing.
First we went to the Durgiana Temple, this temple was made in a similar pattern to the golden temple. We had Pooris there, they were tasty !!!!!
( Tasty pooris )
Then we went to the famous Golden temple the autowalla dropped us a few meters away from the temple as the zone was a no entry zone.
The sight of Golden temple enthralled me once again, it a different feeling. The gurdwara is coated of gold and the shine of gold in the midst of the holy pool is an amazing sight.
We moved towards jalianwala bagh which is at vicinity of the golden temple, this place is known for the brutal killing of 2000 indians by Sir Dwyer during british regime. We saw the bullet marks on the walls of jalianwala bagh, its hard to realise the pains our forefathers who fought for our independence, which we are easily abusing now .
Our next stop was vaishno Temple, which was made on the lines of Vaishno devi temple.
Wagah Border was our next place we started to move towards wagah border after havi9ng a fulfilling glass of Lassi. We reached wagah border at 4 pm, we were told that the famous parade of the border will start at 5:45 pm, we took our seats. We looked towards the border which separated India and Pakistan. On the other side, people have gathered too. The feeling at the border was inexplicable, with patriotic songs being played on each side of the border.
The crowds on the Indian side of the border were cheering the BSF men. I could see the crowd of Pakistan through the camera, they were less in number. We were more vocal and more energetic.
The saddest part of the tour starts now, our train to delhi leaves at 7:40 pm and it was already 5:50pm and no sign of parade. We decided to leave the venue thanks to the urgent nature call of one of our teammates.
We began our journey back after quickly checking out from the hotel.
The memories will linger forever. I am looking forward to such tours ahead.
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