CHAPTER-25 PILGRIMAGE TO AMARNATH AND PASUPATINATH

CHAPTER 25

PILGRIMAGE TO AMARNATH

2002 - 2005

SCHOOLING OF GRAND CHILDREN

My first daughter’s family occupied  the ground floor of the new house  in April 2002 after the exams for the children were over. My wife and I moved to the first floor.  My daughter was in Koramangala and the school was only walking-distance away for her children.  My granddaughter got admission into PUC (Commerce) at Jyoti Nivas college, Koramangala.  All these years she had been walking to the school. Now she had to be dropped two kilometres away on the outer ring road where the college bus would pick her up.  She was the first one to be picked up and the last one to be dropped.  On the return journey from college she had to walk the two kilometre stretch. In the alternative she could  take a bus or  a share-autorikshaw which would drop her half a kilometre from the house which she would cover on foot.   Sometimes her brother or I used to pick her up from the ring road and bring her on a two-wheeler.  She had come from a posh locality with lot of facilities for shopping while in the new place only small grocery shops were there.  Naturally she did not like the change and could not reconcile herself to her new environs.   Her brother joined  a nearby school about 4 kilometres away in class VII.  A three-wheeler was arranged to drop him at school in the morning  and pick him up in the evening. 

In 2003 my grandson (my second son’s son) passed his 8^th class examination from Indian School, Muscat.  My son wanted him to pursue his further studies in Bangalore. He flew in from Muscat and stayed with us.    He was admitted to class IX in the Central School at Hebbal after a test.  My other grandson (my first daughter’s son) also passed the test and got admission to class VIII in the same school.  Since the school bus was not covering our locality we had to arrange an auto for dropping them at school and picking them up in the evening at a cost of Rs. 2000 a month.

My  eldest grandson passed his 10^th class examination conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education in April 2005.  He got admission to PUC 1^st year in a College which was only 5 KM from our house. The college collected the fee of Rs.30000 for one year in advance.   Like other boys in his age group, he spent quite some time browsing the worldwide web, watching  TV, sending SMS to friends, talking on the phone and hearing music.  Nevertheless, he was intelligent and did not neglect his studies. In our days there were no  distractions like computers and TV and we could focus more on our studies.  My eldest son used to keep the radio on while reading. Though his attention was on reading the music from the radio provided sort of unobtrusive background for his study.   That was the only home entertainment available those days. 

UPANAYANAM OF MY GRAND CHILDREN

My first daughter’s family occupied  the ground floor of the new house  in April 2002 after the exams for the children were over. My wife and I moved to the first floor.  My daughter was in Koramangala and the school was only walking-distance away for her children.  My granddaughter got admission into PUC (Commerce) at Jyoti Nivas college, Koramangala.  All these years she had been walking to the school. Now she had to be dropped two kilometres away on the outer ring road where the college bus would pick her up.  She was the first one to be picked up and the last one to be dropped.  On the return journey from college she had to walk the two kilometre stretch. In the alternative she could  take a bus or  a share-autorikshaw which would drop her half a kilometre from the house which she would cover on foot.   Sometimes her brother or I used to pick her up from the ring road and bring her on a two-wheeler.  She had come from a posh locality with lot of facilities for shopping while in the new place only small grocery shops were there.  Naturally she did not like the change and could not reconcile herself to her new environs.   Her brother joined  a nearby school about 4 kilometres away in class VII.  A three-wheeler was arranged to drop him at school in the morning  and pick him up in the evening.   

In June 2002 we performed the upanayanam of my two grandsons.  The day before the Upanayanam was Naandi,  rituals to propitiate the ancestors who had departed from this world.  This was performed in the new house to which we had moved the previous year and only close relatives had been invited.  For the Upanayanam we had hired a hall to accommodate all the guests. For the religious part of the function,  the chief priest made all the arrangements including the material required for the offerings and pundits for the japa and homa. The cost including the dakshina for the pundits was borne by us.   My second son  and my first son-in-law gave the Gayatri mantra to their respective sons.

VISIT TO PASUPATHI NATH  AND OTHER PLACES IN NEPTAL

In September ,   during the Onam holidays in Kerala, my second son-in-law used to plan a pilgrimage to some holy places.  In 1998 it was Kedarnath, Badrinath, Gangotri and Yamunotri.  In 1999 it was  Bhubaneshwar, Puri, Kalighat, Banaras, Ujjain and Omkareshwar.  I did not accompany him when he visited Somnath, Dwaraka, Baidyanath and Kamakhya near Guwahati in Assam with his family.  In 2003 he had planned to visit Pasupatinath temple in Nepal and as usual he wanted my company  during this pilgrimage.  We travelled up to New Jalpaiguri by the Trivandrum – Guwahati Express.  From NJP we travelled by car up to Kakarbhita which is the entry point into Nepal.   The bus journey to Kathmandu was taking more than 12 hours. We had already booked the return ticket on the fourth day counting from the day of arrival at New Jalpaiguri. There was no other alternative except take the flight from Bhadrapur to Khatmandu and Khatmandu to Bhadrapur for the return journey.  So we brought the air tickets and set out to Bhadrapur.  The air tickets up and down cost us more than Rs. 12000 for the two of us.  We had not anticipated this level of expenditure. We had very little cash left with us. Luckily I had my Citibank credit card with me and we could pay the hotel bills by credit card.  We checked into Hotel Tenki which had already been arranged by the travel agent.  It  was already evening.  We showered,  changed into fresh clothes and proceeded  to the Pashupatinath temple.

The Pashupatinath Temple, located on the banks of the Bagmati River in the eastern part of Kathmandu, is one of the largest Hindu temples of Lord Shiva (Pashupati).  The temple as it stands today was built in the nineteenth century, although the image of the bull and the black four headed image of Pashupati are said to be at least 300 years old.  The temple is listed in UNESCO World Heritage Sites. It was full-moon day when we visited the temple.  All the four doors to the sanctum sanctorum of the temple were open.  Four priests were bathing the image  which had four faces facing East, South, West and North.  Srirudram was being chanted while doing the  abhishekam with milk, curd, honey, fruit juice and other material in 108 pots each.  The four priests together performed abhishekam with all this material chanting Vedic mantras. Finally the image was bathed in  water sanctified by Vedic mantras.

As it was a special full-moon day, basketfuls of cooked rice was being brought continuously  and put in a heap at the front of the temple until the huge pile of cooked rice took the shape of a big cone 6 feet high.  Vegetables were stuck in this heap of rice here and there. Later this would be distributed as prasadam to the devotees visiting the temple.    Arati was performed during the evening twilight period (Sandhya) with bells ringing and conches being blown.    After arati we returned to the hotel happy that we could have the darshan of Lord Pasupathi on such a special occasion.

We visited Kumari Ghar which  is a palace in the centre of the Kathmandu city, next to the Durbar square where the current Royal Kumari resides.  She is selected from several Kumaris by a rigorous selection process.  Kumari is the tradition of worshipping  pre-pubescent young girls as manifestations of the divine female energy.  She is believed to be the bodily incarnation of goddess  Durga. Many people had gathered there to have a glimpse of the Kumari.  Finally Kumari appeared,  a girl hardly four years old.  She was still playing with her toys.  Even old men were bowing to her and offering her gifts.  They saw in the child the very embodiment of the Divine Mother.   We also visited Boudhnath, Swayambhunath and Changu Narayan temples. From  Swayambhunath  Hill we could see the picturesque Kathmandu valley below like a bowl.

Bhaktpur and Patan were the other two important towns we visited in the Kathmandu valley.  Bhaktpur was the seat of many temples of Buddhist architecture and a favourite tourist spot.  It was also a UN Heritage Site.   We spent a night at Patan from where we could clearly see the Annapoorna peak of the Himalayas.  We travelled to all these places by bus and there was tight security everywhere.  In many places we had to line up with other passengers for checking by the army and security personnel.  Maoists were raising their voice and fighting  against the monarchy and the royal forces were deployed  everywhere to prevent any violence.  

Indian money was freely accepted everywhere in Nepal.  The Nepalese rupee was the equivalent of Rs. 0.60 in Indian currency.  Therefore for a given amount in Nepalese rupees an equivalent amount in Indian rupees was a bargain for the seller. We had very little cash left with us but I had my Citibank credit card with me and we could pay the hotel bills by credit card.  But I could not draw cash from a Citibank ATM as I hadn’t got the PIN ( Personal Identification Number) for the credit card.  We requested the proprietor of the hotel to bill us Rs. 2000 more,  claim  it from Citibank and pay the amount to us.  He obliged us and did as we requested.  Now we had Rs. 2000 to spend.  We thought it would suffice to reach back home. We took food in wayside hotels where the food was cheap. We had run out of cash  and we got some money from the tour operators by pledging my credit card.  From Khatmandu we flew to Bhadrapur from where we reached NJP Railway station by car.  We checked our reservation status in an internet browsing centre and found that we were numbered 1 and 2 in the waiting list.  As luck would have it, we were allotted two vacant births at NJP and  were back in Trichur on the third day.  I sent the money to the tour operators at Khatmandu but I did not get my credit card back.  I reported  the loss of card to Citibank and was issued a new card.  The old one was blocked by the Citibank.   

Promotion to my second son in Muscat

My second son had been with the Al-Riyami group of companies as Finance Manager for more than 3 years.  His Managing Director was presenting a rosy picture of the operations of the different units of the group by window-dressing and fudging the accounts. My son used to question the financial results presented and the projections made.  He talked to the promoters and convinced them that all was not well with the group.  The Managing Director resigned.  My son took on the responsibility of turning around the company.  The Chief Engineer did not like the Finance Manager taking initiatives in this respect and did not co-operate in the effort to turn around the company.  My son had gained the confidence of the promoters and they knew that whatever he was doing was for the good of the group. The  Chief Engineer was asked to resign. There was  a  business unit in Bangalore dealing in imported wooden flooring used in star hotels and high quality constructions.  It was closed down as it was making losses and there was no supervision from the Head Office.  Superfluous and inefficient staff were sent out.  Incentives were offered for the remaining staff by increments and  bonus based on profits earned.  The turnover and the profits of the company more than doubled in a couple of years. To reflect the new responsibilities given to him my son was designated  Executive Director (Finance & Business Development). The group still faces the problem of repaying the loans taken from the Oman Bank.  They are planning to sell some properties and pay off the loans from the Bank when the real estate market picks up.

LITHOTRIPSY FOR KIDNEY STONES

One day In April 2004 I was having a nagging pain on the left side of the abdomen which refused to subside.   At the hospital, after examination,  I was admitted as an inpatient.  The Urologist recommended Ultrasound scanning of the  abdominal region.  Since the bladder was not full the scanning did not give a clear picture.   I was asked to drink a lot of water and hold it for scanning.  This was the most painful part.  The intense pressure to relieve myself was most unbearable.  Finally, after the scanning, I relieved myself and the doctor got a clear picture after scanning.  I had stones in the kidney. I had a weak stream while passing urine.  In medical jargon the diagnosis was benign prostate hypertrophy, hydronephrosis and renal calculus.  The doctor said that it was better to remove the prostate which must be causing obstruction to the free flow of urine. This would be done  by a procedure called TURP (trans urethral removal of prostate) which was a non-invasive form of surgery.  As regards the stones  in the left kidney I was referred to KIMS hospital for pulverising the stones by the application of electromagnetic shocks (lithotripsy)   The pulverised stones would flow out through the urine.  I had to drink a lot of water.  I had to have more than 6 sessions with two or three days in between.   Finally only a miniscule portion was left in the kidney which, I was told, would flow out with the urine.  I paid Rs. 12000 for the lithotripsy.  The total expenses on the surgery, x-ray, scanning, tests, bed and nursing charges came to Rs. 35000.

Right from the year 1994, I had been covering myself and my wife for Rs. 50000 each through Citibank Group Mediclaim policy specially designed for credit card holders of the Citibank.  The policy period was from 1^st October to 30^th September next.  For ten years my wife or  I had not been hospitalised.   This was the first time I was making a claim under the policy.  The policy was issued by the New India Assurance Company Limited but the claims were processed by TTK Health Care Services Private Limited as Third Party Administrators for New India Assurance Company.  The Policy was renewed automatically unless there was some change or the card holder wanted to discontinue the policy.  This arrangement worked fine.  Only thing we had to do was pay the premium amount to Citibank when the charge appeared in the credit card statement for the month of October.  

PILGRIMAGE TO AMARNATH AND VAISHNO EVI

In August 2004 my second son-in-law and I set out on a pilgrimage to the Amarnath caves.  We reached Jammu from Trichur by the Himsagar Express connecting Kanyakumari  in the southern most tip of India to Jammu in the north-west.  My first son had by this time returned from Algeria and had joined Tata Power Limited in Bombay as their Chief of Procurement.  Tata Power had an office in Jammu and my son had asked the Manager to receive us at the Jammu Railway Station and accommodate us for a couple of days in the Guest House.  Some one had therefore come down to the Jammu Railway station to pick us up and take us to the Guest House.   We visited the famous Raghunath Temple at Jammu where there was tight security.  We also visited a few other temples.  We had to register ourselves with the J &K Tourism office and carry the registration slip with us. In the meantime my son telephoned from Bombay dissuading us from proceeding on the yatra.   The previous year there had been a bomb blast, the handiwork of terrorists,  in which a few people had died and many injured.  My son was fearing for our lives.  He requested, begged and  entreated  but my son-in-law would not budge an inch though I was inclined to listen to my son. But I could not possibly allow my son-in-law to proceed alone to Amarnath.  Therefore if he was bent on going I had to accompany him.  My son tried to dissuade us through others  in the Jammu Office.  One of them  told us that there had been a bomb blast and it was not safe to continue the journey to Amarnath.  But my son-in-law told him on his face that he was telling a lie,  there had not been any bomb blast.   Finally they put us in a car asking the driver to leave us at Baltal and pick us up from there morning of  the following day.  

From Jammu we reached Srinagar by evening.  We checked into a hotel.  From the window of the hotel we could see the Dal Lake with lights reflected in its waters.  We had gone out  for some snacks and tea and there was a commotion outside.  The insurgents had fired at the CRPF camp and the fire had been returned.  We went beck into our room in the hotel.  The people of Srinagar had become accustomed to such incidents and they were taking such incidents coolly.  Only people from outside were scared.  Early next morning we left the hotel by car.  The driver was familiar with those parts.  When security personnel stopped the car he said that it was on Power Grid duty and was allowed to proceed further.   Power Grid was working in those parts putting up power transmission lines to inaccessible areas. On our journey from Srinagar to Baltal we were struck by the beauties of nature - the hills, valleys, rivers,  grasslands, flowering tress, forests  and the deep blue sky. 

At Baltal we hired two ponies and proceeded towards the Amarnath cave.  The Pony left us some distance away from the cave and we had to join the long queue. My son-in-law had wanted the ponlywallah to come and pick us up the next day. But the Ponywallah wanted  the amount for the journey up to the cave to be paid to him.  I paid the amount at his request.  At this my son-in-law got angry and started telling me that I should not have paid the amount now he would not come to pick us up the next day.  I tried to justify my action, how could I say ‘no’ when he had already carried us from Baltal to Amarnath.  But  he was not satisfied and said that he was not coming with me.  He went his way and I went mine.  Both of us were in the queue at different points.  Finally I reached the cave and entered inside.  I was looking for the lingam formed of ice but could not located it.  I was being pushed from  behind and I was straining my eyes to see the lingam but I could not locate it  in the cave.  I was told that the lingam that year was very small because of the temperature.  Probably that was the reason I could not see that.  I was disappointed but I consoled myself saying that it was enough to see the lingam in your heart and the vibrations in the cave were enough to spiritually elevate a person. 

The pilgrims to Amarnath did not have to worry about food or drink.  There were what are called bhandaras  where the pilgrims were offered all sorts of things to eat -  fruits, sweets, pudding, cool drinks, parathas, chappathi with curry, fried rice and a variety of eatables.  I had dinner somewhere and was looking for a place to sleep.  It was cold at a height of 14000 feet.  Finally I got a place in a tent for Rs. 100 for the night.  Early next morning I had breakfast at a Bhandara and started out on the return journey.  For some distance I climbed down and at half way I hired a pony and came down to the place from where we had started to climb the hills.  I was waiting for my son-in-law to come down.  Then suddenly driver of the car in which we had travelled from Srinagar to Baltal spotted me and stopped in front of me.  My son-in-law was inside the car.  He said that he had been searching for me from the morning.  We went back to the hotel. We visited the Sankaracharya Temple which is an imposing structure contributed by several rulers of the different periods and  the Kheer Bhavani Temple consecrated  to another manifestation of Goddess Durga.  Many miracles are attributed to the Goddess here.  The temple was surrounded by water on all sides which looked like milk.  Hence the name Kheer Bhavani.

We went back to Jammu and wanted to visit Vaishno Devi before we boarded the Himsagar in the evening.  The Manager at the Tata Power office had got us passes to go straight to the shrine of Vaishno Devi without waiting in the queue.  We hired two ponies and went straight bypassing Adhkuwari.  We joined at the head of the queue and had darshan of the Goddess in the form of three pindis. It is said that  faith could move mountains and we could see this faith in the pilgrims visiting this shrine braving the obstacles and the physical effort involved. We also went to the top and visited the shrine of  Kalabhairav.  By evening we boarded Himsagar and were back in Trichur on the third day.  Next day I returned to Bangalore. 

ARKAVATHI LAYOUT OF BANGALORE DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY 

In February 2003 the Bangalore Development Authority had  issued a Public Notice proposing acquisition of land in Bangalore North and East Taluk for formation of the scheme called Arkavathi Layout.  Interested parties were asked to file their Objection Statements with the Commissioner, Bangalore Development Authority within 30 days of publication of the notice.   Survey No. 12/4 of Thanisandra Village,  in which Golden Retreat Layout was included, was also to be acquired for the Arkavathy Layout.  Since we had built the house on Site No. 10 of the Golden Retreat Layout, I filed the objection statement on behalf of my second son who had executed a General Power of Attorney in my favour. In the objection statement it was stated that my son was in legal possession of the site, the land had been converted for residential use, the house was built and completed in April 2002 much before the Public Notice, the layout had pucca roads,  drainage, water supply, street lighting, telephone lines and other necessary infrastructure.  For these reasons it was prayed that the site not be listed for acquisition.   There was no response from BDA for the objection statement.   Meetings were arranged between those  whose sites were  proposed to be acquired and the BDA representatives at different places.  The latter  assured that those who had built the houses prior to the notification need not worry.  A group of people from our layout also met the BDA officials concerned but we got only evasive replies with reference to our queries.  Finally an Award Notice dated 26-11-2004  was issued under Section  12(2) of the Land Acquisition Act saying that the land located in Survey No. 12/4 of Thanisandra village had been acquired and an Award under section 11 & 12 of Karnataka Land Acquisition Act 1894  had been pronounced on 10-11-2004 by the Additional Land Acquisition Officer, BDA, Bangalore.    Our layout of about thirty sites was sandwiched between two other larger layouts, Layout of the Ministry of Communications Employees House Building Society on the North and Anam Enclave on the South. These two layouts were dropped from the acquisition proceedings while the award notice was issued for all the site owners in our layout.   In the interim period there was a favourable judgment by a single Judge of the Karnataka High Court who had pointed out that BDA had not followed proper procedures and had arbitrarily issued notices. But this was overturned by another judicial pronouncement by the Karnataka High Court.  Arkavathi is still embroiled in legal tangles and the case reached the portals of the Supreme court  courtesy  some influential persons whose land has been notified for acquisition. Knowing the legal processes  in India the wait for us can only be prolonged.

VISIT TO CALCUTTA, PURI AND KONARK

In  April 2005 my first son sent us return flight tickets from Bangalore to Calcutta and back.  He had purchased a flat which was somewhere near the Science City. His wife and son were staying there. We stayed there for about three weeks.  In between our daughter-in-law arranged for our journey to Puri and back.  She had also booked for us hotel accommodation for two days.   We offered prayers at the Jagannath temple in the morning and the evening.  Next day early morning we went to Konark by taxi.  The once magnificent temple was  almost in a dilapidated condition. We felt sorry that we as a nation are not able to maintain our architectural treasures without being vandalised by tourists and others. Back in Calcutta, we visited the Victoria Memorial, the Maidan, Dakshineshwar and other places. We enjoyed our holiday in Calcutta.     

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