Ascension

The concept of humans directly entering heaven without dying ,called as ascension, is a belief held by multiple religions and traditions.

29th January 2010 .

try to VISUALIZE what you are reading.

A noisy Tata Indica, driven by a Sardar, with a broken bearing laboured towards Katra . The broken bearing part applies to both the car andthe Sardar. Very talkitive Sardar.
Katra.. 50 KM from Jammu , the base camp township in Reasi district... is where the trek for Vaishav Devi begins.

After a fantastic lunch , we reached the the point where the trek begins... a majestic white gate... followed by a checkpost..

The first thing you will notice in Jammu, wherever you are is the presence of Army personnel . Checkposts, guards ready with AK 47,watch towers.. you can feel that the threat of terrorism at that place is very much real . Being one of the most divine shrines in Indiathere have already been numberous attempts to destroy it... whether this is a Myth or reality is not known. People like to brag....

THe first checkpost is like an Airport baggage scan.. a very thorough search of your luggage and urself.... no video cameras allowed..
.......................annnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnd we were through .

You will notice a clear distinction in the air you breathe at a place like Jammu and a city like Pune. You can feel its very very clean.. the first thing that came to my mind is the stench that enters the Delhi Metro coach when the doors open on every station. There is very minimal SPM here.

Ofcourse... once you start the ascent Horse litter wil constantly remind you of the preferred mode of transportation for elderly people and most women .

The Stairway to Heaven :

Appx 5:00 PM

" Pitthu Pitthu Pitthu " , " Ghoda Ghoda Ghoda " is almost like the joker's cry " Women and Children first " you will constantly here on a sinking ship..

Crap this post is sounding negative so far !

We started our ascent , I recalled in office we were counting days to 28th Jan when we would catch the flight to Delhi and night train to Jammu..
Even at the airport , we were constantly waiting for the take off.. looking at our watches.. to finally begin the journey ! song running in my iPOd :

Jump in the cockpit and start up the engines,Remove all the wheelblocks there's no time to waste.Gathering speed as we head down the runway,Got to get airborne before it's too late........

Our first laugh came when Nilesh looked up the peak and said.. 'yaar wo wali pahadi ke upar hai kya... bahut upar hai ! ' ...
everyone knows the feeling when reality strikes.. we laughed ofcourse...but all this time we were talking abt Vaishnav Devi being one of thetoughest trek to go on foot.... and we were like.. ' na na.. we'll do it , no worries.. tickets book karo '..

but we were now starting to realize..tht a 14 KM trek.. walking continuously.. for 4 to 5 hours.. is not as simple as..' haa haa ho jayega '..

perfect weather.. cold.. somewhere around 5-6 degrees, little bit of moisture in the air due to rain and snowfall the previous day ..it was beautiful..

In the begining you'll see a lot of tea stalls and shops around... you have to constantly mind the people coming down on horses.. a few times you'll narrowly escape ramming into a Horse or being run over by it...

be observant... especially while posing for photographs :)

last thing you want is a pic of you being kissed by a Horse.......... unknowingly

As you go up the number of shops reduce.. the journey becomes peaceful.....
We saw a staircase then.. around 350 of em..... and we took it.. man what a mistake.....I dnt remember the last time I broke so much sweat !!
highly not recommended.. your thighs will refuse to go ahead at one stage... dnt tk the staircase... u'll miss a couple of vistas and get urself tired !

Then came the sunset... view better then any Sunset point I've been to .. cool breeze .. and the sun setting besides you as you move forward..

as we went up we saw the top of a hill ..just visible.. covered with snow !!! we had to stop there and admire the view.. ofcourse out came the cameras and the poses... !

It was starting to get dark... we had put our woolen scarfs and caps to cover our ears....when we came across a moutain..in front of us..with white light glowing in the background..

it took us a few moments to realize wht we were looking at was actually the Moon's glow...

People have seen Sunrise and Sunset.. but we .. for the first time.. were looking at what we could call as Moonrise !! ..really cant put in wordsthe beauty of the moon slowly rising from behind a hill.. donning its glow and aura

If we were 10-15 mins late in reaching tht point.. we would have missed this experience.. this was plain lucky !!

We reached Ardhkuwari ,also known as Garbh Joon , where the goddess is supposed to have stayed till 9 months .and is believed tht whoever passes through this little narrow cave will be spared Re-Birth !

if that is true..... I pretty much got an assurance tht m not gonna born again on my 26th birthday ! I hv no idea why is that supposed to be a good thing..

We did get thru the narrow cave... enjoyed looking at the relief of a very fat guy who managed to scrape through after a long time.. and screamed Jai Mata Di , Jai Mata di ... man he seemed relieved... pure elation on his face !!

but what I remember more.. is what happened ealrier ... we need to go barefoot into the cave..so we decided to remove our shoes , wash our feet..and get ready to join the line.. we saw a bunch of people sitting on benches waiting for the cave to open...
when we put our feet down on the marble floor.. we realized immediately why people were sitting with their feet up .. no one standing.. not a single soul..

it was IMPOSSIBLE to stand barefoot...never in my life have I experienced flooring so cold.. 5 seconds and ur feet would start hurting... we ran..gathered courage to wash our feet ...

this is where the fun starts.. our feet went numb... we were desperate to sit..there was no space on any bench... we were literally trying to stand on our toe nails.. we were running around in circles trying to occupy any..any vacant space.. one more minute and I can promise I would have tried to convincesome girl to make me sit in her lap !

we found an under construction temple ,went and stood on the broken bricks.. dint help.. same temperature.. went and stood on iron rods .. nope.. cold.

to our good fortune.. behind those rods..we found a kind of hidden bench..dashed towards it and sat with our feet up..cant stop laughing when I think abt it.. that 1 minute was the most desparate moment in my life... wish I had a pic...

So Ardhkuwari marks the halfway point of ur trek towards Vaishnav Devi....

We passed thru a lil tunnel while sipping a much needed cup of coffee and came out to a beautiful deserted , cold path which showcased an amazing view of Katra....

This is when a splash sound with a thud sounded out quite loud.. startled.. we turned around and saw Gaurav staring blankly at his digicam lying on the floorwith coffee all over it.. half filled cup of coffee in his hand..............tilted..

M pretty sure the cam is still not fixed... tht was its last click..

We Marched forward.. pretty fast now....... passing through some amazing naturally erorded hills on our right .. high cliff with forests.. dimly lit..with clear warning signs suggesting u can get hit by a stone falling anytime from up above the hill......touched snow for the first time in my life
3 KM left and we saw the Bhavan.. our destination.. where Amit had already booked a room for us...

By this time we were going very fast..... we were being driven by the fact tht our destination was within reachh...

We took a break.... had some disgusting tea...and biscuits...

more on Tea.. by the time we completed our Jammu trip and were about to catch a train back toDelhi.. we had pretty much come to a conclusion that people in Jammu dont know hw to make tea... we really struggled to get some good tea ..at each shop.. railway station..hotell.... we ordered tea with hopes of finding a good cup but it was simply horrible.. just couldnt finish it..

10:10 PM - We reached Bhavan after buying prasad.. got the keys to our room and literally crashed on the bed.... took out the heater and placed our feet in front of it..awwwI'll never forget tht feeling.. after removing my heavy Woodlands... 5 hours walk.. the relaxation ..the heat radiating from the rod..it was better then any massage possible....

Around 11..after spilling a lot of hot water... all of us were ready to go for our Darshan.. we left the room heater on..

We went out of the room barefoot.... fortunately the flooring was not marble so it was bearable..walked towards the cave..to out disbelief..there was no queue..no one following us.....

kept going and stopped straight at the cave...

There is was.. the ' Pindis ' ... Vaishno Devi, Saraswati and Kali mata.. usually security guards would just push you over..but we stood there fora full 15-20 seconds... my friend later on coudlnt stop emphasizing how lucky we were ..

11:58 we were out.... all done !! happy... relieved... no feeling in our numb feet.. smiles on our faces.. in disbelief tht all this time, formonths we were just talking abt this trip... and we did make it.. far way from home.. from work... people spoke abt it.. we actually made it..

We absoulutely devoured the Rajma Chawal and Kadhi chawal at the cafeteria.. another round of Rajma chawal.. at this moment we were very relieved..no hurry, it was like our mission was complete and we had all the time in the world.. no hush hush.. no lets go on.. no getting late...

3 blankets each...is what we covered ourselves with........and slept...

7:30 AM ... Out of ours room after my 45 min effort to wake everyone up and get them ready was successful..

Had some butter toasts, dosa.. half cup of tea and a gr8 gulabjamun.. the temperature could not have been more than 0 degrees.. snow clad mountains in front of us added to the effect !

Got down while listening to the Helicopter's sound reverbarating around the mountains..VIP darshan..2000 RS per head..

Enjoyed the warmth of Sunrays hitting our face for the first time on our trip... off came the jackets and out came the Sunglasses !

10:30... End of the descent. Vaishno Devi.. the trek complete, the perfect exercise.. the most beautiful trip of my life...

Not because of it being a Divine and one of the holiest shrines.. that doesnt really matter for a Atheist like me...but best because of the experience.. never experienced cold and fatigue like this...

feeling how 10 grams can feel like 10 Kgs when u r tired.. feeling the snow.. the Sunset.. Moonrise.. unforgettable scenes...

Irrespective of religion people visit this place... and rightly so.. this experience is not one to be missed.. really guys.. go for it..

Seems like everyt time I am writing a new post it getting longer and longer........

Will try to keep it short if this one was boring...

As my friend rightly said.. when I think about our trek and what we've seen... it would be like a dream...it is.. just revisiting the place in mythoughts is just so exciting and pleasing.... I am up for another round if anyone is interested !

More to come !

Bhavin