CHAPTER-28 PILGRIMAGE TO CHARDHAM (2010)

CHAPTER 28

                                                    PILGRIMAGE TO THE FOUR DHAMS

                                                                        2010 - 2011

Sometime in April 2010 my second son had come to Bangalore on a short visit.  He planned to take us on the Char Dham Yatra in June-July 2010.  We booked for the tour with Panicker Travels, renowned tour operators at Karol Bagh, New Delhi. The cost per head came to Rs. 13000 including travel, accommodation and food.    The tour was spread over nine days and 10 nights.  We reached Delhi around 10 AM on 25^th June 2010 by an Air Indigo flight.  We stayed with a relative of ours at Rajouri Garden.  The Air-conditioned coach in which we were to travel started the same day  from Karol Bagh by about 9.30 PM.  There were eighteen passengers in the coach, all from the South except one Agarwal family of husband and wife who were from Delhi.  By next morning we passed through Haridwar but did not halt there.  We went straight to Rishikesh and was accommodated in a choultry where we could bathe and have our breakfast.  The breakfast was prepared by our catering team consisting of a cook and his help who were coming with us in the coach.  They had the utensils and groceries etc. to prepare food.  We then went around Rishikesh, saw the Lakshman Jhoola, Ram Jhoola, Sivananda Ashram and a few temples.  Returning after sightseeing we had our lunch which was ready by then.  Leaving Rishikesh after lunch,  we passed through Mussorie and reached Barcot around 9.30 PM.  Accommodation had been arranged there in a hotel.  After dinner we retired into our rooms and were told by the guide who was accompanying us to be ready by 4.30 AM next day for our journey to Yamunotri, the source of Yamuna.  We boarded the bus by 5 AM  ready for the journey.  The guide briefed us about the significance of the places we were to visit and the legends associated with them.  He stressed on the importance of following the scheduled timings and requested all of us to co-operate with him in this matter.  We reached a place called Jankichatti by 6 AM and had breakfast there.  My son and I engaged  ponies for ourselves and a doli for my wife for the 7-kilometre climb to Yamunotri.  We left Jankichatti by 8 AM and  reached Yamunotri by 10.30 AM.  We bathed in the hot water springs and changed into fresh clothes.  We offered Puja to Yamunaji  instructed by a priest and prayed at the temple dedicated to Yamunaji.  We tied a few grains  in a piece of cloth and immersed it in the hot spring. The rice got cooked in seconds. We were supposed to take the cooked rice  home as prasadam. We returned to Jankichatti by 1 PM and had lunch which had been prepared and packed at Barcot.   We left Jankichatti by 2 PM and reached Barcot by 5 PM.  We had snacks and tea. My son and I went around Barcot while my wife rested at the hotel.   At 9 PM We had dinner prepared by the catering team and retired to our room for sleep.

Next day (28-06-2010)  we had breakfast by 7 AM  and our luggage was loaded on the top of the bus which proceeded towards Uttarkashi. The guide gave his usual talk about the places we were to visit that day.  This morning address by the guide was a regular feature throughout our tour.  Sometimes this became an interactive session with the passengers raising questions and the guide trying to answer their questions to the best of his ability.  A few times these exchanges used to turn hilarious causing much mirth among the passengers.    En route to Uttarkashi was the cave temple of Prakateshwar Mahadev.  There was a long queue for darshan.   Only four persons could enter the cave at a time.  One had to crawl on one’s knees to get into the cave.  There was water in the cave up to the ankles.   Inside the cave there were natural formation of rocks in different shapes.  One was shaped like a lingam with five faces, another one like a snake and still another like a crocodile.  There were shapes resembling Ganesha,  Hanuman and Devi.  It was dark inside the cave and one had to use a torch to see the rock formations.  Coming out of the cave we continued our journey to Uttarkashi reaching there by 2 PM. We checked into Hotel Mandakini by the side of Bhagirathi, the name by which Ganges was known there.  We rested up to 5 PM and then went out to visit the temples of Kasi Viswanath, Trishul of shakti, Sakshi Gopal, Hanuman and Ganesh.  We also witnessed the Arati to Bhagirathi by 7 PM. Then we  returned to the hotel, had dinner after which we were back in our room for sleep.

Early morning on the  29^th of June 2010 we had a cup of tea, loaded our luggage on top of the bus and proceeded to Gangotri.  On the way,  at Gangnani,  we bathed in the hot water spring,  had light breakfast and reached Gangotri by 10.30 AM.  We had to walk some distance from where we had parked the bus.  There on the banks of the river we performed Puja  to Gangaji guided by a priest.  The water in the river was biting cold.  We could not take a dip in the Ganga.  We sprinkled Ganga water on our heads.  We had already bathed in the hot water springs of Gangnani.  We offered prayers at the temple of Gangaji and other temples around.  On the way back to Uttarkashi we had lunch prepared by our catering team early morning and packed for each one of us separately.  We reached our Hotel at Uttarkasi by 5 PM. We had early dinner and retired to our room for the night. 

Om 30^th June 2010 we had breakfast at 8 AM, loaded our luggage on the bus top and continued our journey .  We passed via the Tehri dam where we halted for some time.  Sitting in a park we had lunch which had been packed at Uttarkasi.  We reached Srinagar (not the one in J&K) and checked into a hotel.  We had dinner and halted there for the night.

On the 1^st of July we set out to Kedarnath by 5 AM.  We reached Gowri Kund by 1 PM.  Legend has it that Parvati did tapas here and her marriage with Shiva also took place at GowriKund.  Ganesha was also born here.  There were hot water springs at GauriKund but we did not have time to bathe. We had to reach Kedarnath before sunset, a distance of fourteen kilometres by trek.  My son and I hired ponies for the ascent.  We  arranged a Doli for my wife,  both for going up and coming down.  The ride on the pony was not easy.  On our left was the rocky mountain and on the other side was the deep valley with the swift-flowing Alakananda with her sparkling waters. The natural beauty of the landscape was breath-taking.  The path was narrow and sometimes the pony used to walk close to the mountain.  Unless we were careful there was the danger of our heads striking against an overhanging rock.  Sometimes the pony walked close to the edge of the path on the other side and one was scared of being thrown into the deep valley unless one was alert.  The doli was also not easy riding.  The long hours sitting in the doli without being able to stretch one’s legs was itself an ordeal for my wife.   On top of all this, there was heavy rain for an hour or so during the ascent and we got drenched in spite of having raincoats.    After an arduous journey we finally reached the abode of Kedarnath at a height of  around 11000 feet at 6 PM.  From here we could see the snow-capped mountains of the Himalayan ranges and it was really awe-inspiring.   We were accommodated in the premises of Maharashtra Mandali.  Afterwards We had evening darshan of Kedarnath when the deity was covered with decorative clothes and ornaments.  We had hot potato parathas and tea for dinner in a nearby hotel. It was difficult for the catering team to transport the utensils and groceries from GowriKund to Kedarnath. The night was very cold. The quilts that had been provided were themselves cold when we got into them and it took sometime  for the warmth to build up.

Early next morning, on the 2^nd of July 2010,  we had hot water bath at the hotel and had darshan of the deity in its natural form of a rock resembling a linga with four or five faces. The devotees did not see the rock;  they saw in it Bhole Nath,  their favourite deity Shiva.  We sat in the proximity of the deity and offered puja guided by a priest.  We had breakfast of parathas and tea at the same hotel as in  the previous evening. We started the descent by 8.30 AM.  My son and I walked the distance of fourteen kilometres enjoying the scenic beauty en route.  It took us  four hours and a half to reach GowriKund.  By the time we reached there at 1 PM our bus was ready for the return journey.  My wife had come there much earlier by doli.  For the four persons carrying the Doli the descent was much easier but the occupant of the doli was tossed about during the rapid descent.  Somehow my wife managed to withstand this ordeal. Around 3 PM we reached Sitapur and checked into a hotel and rested for a couple of hours.  Our guide had arranged four  vans to take us to a place called Triyugee Narayan.  We had to travel for about an hour to reach the place.  Our bus could not go there as the road was rough and narrow.  There were a few ponds with holy water known as Brahma tirtham,  Saraswati thirtham etc. We sprinkled ourselves with the water from those tirthas.   We did Puja to Lord Lakshmi Narayan guided by a priest.  We returned to the hotel by the same vans and after dinner retired to our rooms for sleep.

Early next morning,  on 3^rd July 2010, we were ready to proceed to Badrinath. My son was feeling out of sorts.  He had sugar complaint but the past few days,  while travelling,  he was taking tea and coffee with normal sugar and was also taking sweets prepared by our catering team.  He had also strained himself by walking down 14 kilometres from Kedarnath.  He had been very jovial and talking to every one in the group.  Now he was silent.  There was a mobile van equipped with a couple of doctors and medical equipment.  Tests revealed that his blood sugar had shot up to unacceptable levels. His cardiogram was also taken but it did not show any abnormality.  There were a few other persons in the group who had also similar complaints.  They had the medicines for this condition and after taking those medicines he became normal.  But from that time onwards for the rest of the journey he meticulously followed the prescribed regimen and took the medicines as directed by his doctors.

 Throughout our journey our group had been enthusiastic  joking, singing  bhajans, narrating their life experiences, sharing eatables and helping one another.  My wife, because of her age,  needed help while walking.  There were two young girls from Hyderabad in our group who helped my wife along the way. Others also helped her on occasions. Wherever we had to walk more than a few metres, we hired those who carried pilgrims on cane chairs strapped to their backs.  My wife was asked to sit in the chair which the person carried on his back.  Because the person bent forward while carrying her she could not sit erect in the chair.  She was rather lying with her back on the chair looking at the sky.  This was tough job for the person carrying the load but that was the way they were making a living. 

Our bus had to wait some time at Joshi Mutt for the gates to open.  We reached Badrinath by evening.  We had to walk some distance to Sankar Mutt where our lodgings had been arranged.  We walked the distance.  My wife was carried on the cane chair as described above.  We went to the TaptKund, the hot water spring.  We could not bathe there as the water was too hot for bathing.  We lifted bucketfuls of water from the Kund and poured on ourselves.   Then we had darshan of Badri Narayan.  Here we were not allowed to touch the idol or enter into the sanctum sanctorum.  Only the chief priest could enter there.  The priest came from Kerala from a Namboodiri family.  He was supposed to be well-versed in vedic lore and the system of worship prescribed by the first Sankaracharya.

Early next morning, on the 4^th of July 2010,  we bathed in the lodgings in hot water supplied by the management of Sankar Mutt on payment.  We did Lakshmi Kubera puja on the banks of the Alakananda and gave the pujari a bundle of coins tied in a new piece of cloth.  This was to be kept at the feet of Kubera’s idol in the sanctum sanctorum and given back to us for distribution among our friends and relatives back home.  This coin was to be kept in the puja room.   This was supposed to give wealth by the blessings of Kubera.  We also did pindapradana  (offering of balls of cooked rice) to our forefathers and those of our relatives who had died without anyone to do their annual shraaddha.   After this we had darshan of Badri Narayan once more.  While we were going round the temple a gentleman whose sixtieth birthday fell on 4^th July 2010 came with his wife and prostrated before us and wanted our blessings as the senior most couple in the group.  I was 80 and my wife was 76.  We blessed him with all our heart and prayed to the Lord to give them long life and good health.  He happened to be a senior officer of the Syndicate Bank and his date of retirement coincided with the attainment of his sixtieth birth day.   Another couple in the group had come from Australia.  They were from Kerala but were working in Australia.  That gentleman was also completing his sixtieth birthday on that day.  We returned to our lodgings and,   after breakfast,  set out to Mana by bus, a small village absolutely at the border of our country.  Here we visited the caves of Vyasa and Ganesha.  It was here that Ganesha wrote the Mahabharata  as dictated by Vedavyasa.  Before agreeing to this arrangement Ganesha had put the condition that Vyasa should not stop dictating. Vyasa agreed but told Ganesha that he should first understand the meaning and then only write. Vyasa, to gain time, occasionally composed a few slokas the meaning of which would take Ganesha some time to figure out.  In this interval Vyasa  would compose more slokas.  There is also the source of the Saraswati river in this village.  Pandavas were supposed to have passed through this place during their last journey.  There was a big rock across the river Saraswati which was supposed to have been placed there by Bhima, one of the Pandavas.  This rock was called bhimpul.  Coming back from Mana to Sankar Mutt we packed up our things and loaded all the luggage on top of the bus and proceeded towards PipalKoti.  We reached there about 5 PM and checked into a hotel.   Here the two couples  celebrated their sixtieth birthday and treated all of us to a variety of sweets. They cut the birthday cake and all of us wished them a happy birthday and many more years of happy and peaceful life.  The wife of the gentleman from Australia red out what she had written about the guide who explained to us the importance and significance of every place we visited and went out of his way to show nearby places not actually on the itinerary, about the driver who had put the safety of us all above everything and had negotiated the sharp curves with the utmost care in spite of the long hours at the wheel and about the catering  team who were surprising us with their culinary skills every time by the variety they offered for lunch and dinner.   A copy of this appreciation letter was sent to Panicker Travels by e-mail.  We  had special dinner prepared by our catering team and spent the night at PipalKoti.   Early next morning we set out towards Haridwar.  There was continuous rain.  Because of a road block ahead we were held up on the way for more than four hours.  The road block was caused by a landslide with small and big rocks rolling down the side of the mountain.   Men of the Border Roads Organisation had a tough time clearing the path for vehicles to pass.  Finally we reached Haridwar long after Arati.  We missed Arati and the visit to the other temples in Haridwar because of the landslide.  But we spent some time at the banks of the Ganges and floated paper plates with flowers and  lighted lamps in the river.  We left Haridwar around midnight and reached Delhi by 7 AM the next day.  We took an Autorikshaw to Shalimar Baug where my wife’s aunt’s daughter and her family were residing. The next day on the 7^th of July 2010 we took an Air Indigo flight in the afternoon and reached Bangalore via Pune by 7 PM.  My first daughter was waiting for us at our residence. She had the keys of our house with her and had cooked dinner for us. After dinner my daughter went back to Sena Vihar where she stays. We went to bed early, tired as we were with the arduous journey we had undertaken spread over more than two weeks.

In August 2010 I received letter NO.BDA/LAO/1086/10-11 dated 03/08/2010 addressed to my second son.  The subject of the letter  was “providing alternative sites to those who had revenue sites in Survey No 12/4 of Thanisandra Village.”   The letter asked him to produce the documents related to the house and get certificates from appropriate government authorities confirming that he or his near relatives had not been allotted any other site and he had been residing in Karnataka for the past 15 years. An alternative site would be provided to him on receipt of the above documents. The implication was the present site in Survey No. 12/4 owned by him would be taken over by BDA for the Arkavati project. Letters to the same effect were received by all the other site owners in Golden Retreat Layout where my son had a site and a building had already been built there by September 2001 much before the preliminary notification for acquisition of land for the Arkavati Layout was issued by BDA  in  February 2003.  We had filed objections to the proposed acquisitions and requested BDA to delete Survey No. 12/4 of Thanisandra village from the acquisition proceedings.  But  BDA  did not accede to our request while, at the same time, deleting the adjacent layouts which were much bigger than ours.  Arkavati had got into legal tangles with irregular acquisition proceedings and a few aggrieved parties had approached the Supreme Court.  The learned judges severely castigated BDA for the haphazard manner in which they had gone about acquiring land for the Arkavati layout.  They laid down certain guidelines and asked BDA to review the acquisition based on those guidelines and report back to them within a period of three months.  This was the reason for the BDA issuing  letters to all site holders who had raised objections against the acquisition.  We engaged an experienced advocate to draft a fitting reply to the above mentioned letter and presented ourselves at the BDA office on the appointed date.  We were heard in person and we submitted our replies which had been drafted by the advocate emphasising that  Survey No. 12/4 of Thanisandra village in which our individual sites are situated should be deleted in conformity with the guidelines laid down by the Supreme Court.  As GPA holder from my second son who owned the site I represented him in all this correspondence with the BDA.  Now we are keeping our fingers crossed awaiting the final verdict from the BDA.  If it is not in our favour we may have to take up the matter again with the High Court or the Supreme Court to get justice.  That would be another long haul,  our  legal system being what it is today.

About this time  I had a complete health check up done, the one specially designed for very senior citizens,  at Doctors’ Diagnostics in Bangalore.  I  gathered the results and found that all parameters were within limits but the PSA test showed abnormal results.   I was to meet the doctor in the evening for reviewing the results  and  advising me.  I walked into the doctor’s room with my grandson.  The doctor noted the fact that I was 80 and  glanced through the test results.  She commented that I was walking without any help at this age and remarked that I could live another 20 years.  I mentally thanked the Lord for blessing me with good health.   As regards the PSA  readings, the doctor  asked me to get  a urine test done. It showed infection of the urinary tract.  The doctor advised that  the  PSA  test may be done again after the infection is gone.  However I decided not to go in for the PSA test again because I had already undergone TURP (trans-urethral removal of prostate) and the PSA test itself  is of doubtful value. 

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force had recommended discontinuance of PSA screening based on its review of medical literature that concluded that PSA screening leads to more unnecessary treatment complications than are justified by lives saved because of:

•       the questionable accuracy of the PSA test to detect cancer, 
•       medical complications caused by unnecessary follow-up procedures because the PSA test has                false  positives, and 
•       increasing pressures to slow the rate of increase of medical care