Amarnath Yatra

When the thought of the Amarnath Yatra got indulged in our soul by Shiv Ji's (a respectful way to address someone in Hindi is to add “Ji” after his/her name) blessings, I asked my Daddy, who had done this yatra in 1979 to join us, we will be benefited of his experience. Initially he denied because of his old age and health condition. But on our repeated request he got agreed for this grand Yatra. So our next step was to decide a mutual acceptable date and to book train tickets on proper time accordingly, otherwise going to Jammu would be very tough for us because there is only one train from Mumbai to Jammu tawi, “Swaraj express” and during the yatra we all were well aware about the crowd. So we collectively decided a date of 9th July (from Mumbai and from Bokaro). Initially we were only 7 members from Mumbai who got agreed for this yatra. So we booked only 7 tickets from Mumbai to Jammu tawi. Sharp on 10th April, 90 days before (As per railway reservation rule), I asked Mangesh t

9th July- 2010: It was raining very heavily on 9th July early morning since 8th night. I had to leave my house by 5.00 am because it takes almost 2-2.30 hrs to reach Bandra terminus from my place. We were 3 people (Me, Sushil & Ajit) from my place. We waited till 5.15 am then without caring for rain we departed for Bandra. Mangesh, Kunal, Shiva, Ganesh and Dr. Ashok Lal joined us at Kurla Station. When we reached at Bandra terminus then we got very frustrated when we knew that our train will depart after 10.00 am and that meant we had to wait there 3.30 hrs. If we had aware about this train delay then we could have left home late. Finally we boarded into Swaraj Exp. at 10.30 am and departed from Bandra. When we boarded the train we found 80% passengers were going for “Amarnath Yatra”. Still our tickets status was showing us in RAC when checked final prepared chart. We were total 8 people and we had been allotted only 6 berths which were also not in same coach, so we divided into

11th July - 2010: Sharp at 5.00 O’clock my Daddy told everybody "Hurry up, please get up". He was trying to wake up everyone without delay; otherwise we will get delayed to reach Pahalgam. All of us were very tired since last 2 sleepless nights. But no one moved a bit. He kept trying to ping us. By 5.45 am when I got up then gradually one by one everybody opened their eyes and we got fresh within 20 min Sharp by 6.20 we left that Dharmshala for our further journey. At that very moment it started to rain very heavily. After few min we got into a matador for bus stand. And we reached at Bus stand fly over where our vehicle (to Pahalgam) was waiting for us. We interchanged our vehicle there and boarded into 12 seater vehicle. It was a Force-traveller. Driver's name was Vijay. Vijay asked us to pay the entire fare in Jammu itself. But we gave him only Rs.3000/- telling him that we will pay the remaining Rs.1500/- on reaching Pahalgam. He got the fuel tank of his vehicle fill

12th-july-2010: We got up very early the next morning. It was still dark. Quickly we came to that part of the pilgrim camp where covered rectangular shaped bathrooms and toilets (almost telephone booth sized), all made of plastic walls and roofs, were present in large numbers. Hot water was available at Rs. 20 per bucket. There we saw many pilgrims were already present. They all seemed to be in haste to get ready quickly to start the yatra at the earliest. People were standing in queues in front of each toilet and bathroom for their turn. We too stood in one of the queue. We too went to toilet, brushed and got ready. We returned to our tent, said good bye to the tent owner and came out with our bags near the exit gate of the camp. The time was around 7.30 am and already there were approximately 5-6 thousand of pilgrims were standing - waiting for the exit gate to open. Exit gate was strangely not opened by the security personnel. It was most irritating period for us. Initially we tho

13th-july-2010: Next day after a fitful night's sleep, I woke up before dawn by 5 am and quickly came out of tent to get fresh. When I moved towards campsite gate I asked for toilet to a security person and he indicated his finger towards river side and I went to river side and got freshened up. After 20 min I was able to see the beauty of Sheshnag and watched the sun rise over the spectacular snow-capped mountains. When I saw Sheshnag lake view my all tiredness vanished. It was Perfect blue water with surroundings of mountains and glaciers. That view made it worth the hard trek up the mountain and the cold and uncomfortable night. The Sheshnag Lake was aquamarine and very still and looked pristine. I was speechless at that time when I saw the mountain was covered with beautiful buttercups and its reflection into the lake. As I heard the shrieks of the marmot animals which cannot be seen as they run into the holes as soon as they hear the footsteps of a human being. It is believed

14th-july-2010: Next Day, we got up very early in the morning. Temperature at Panchtarni was very low at that time. In the month of July, weather of Delhi or Mumbai a generally very hot. But here at Panchtarni the weather was too cool. But we had no time to enjoy the coolness and stillness of Panchtarni. We had to start for the holy cave. So immediately after getting up, we went to the toilet, after which we brushed teeth quickly without bath keeping in mind that we will get bath at AmarGanga River near cave. But Ganesh and Doctor Ashok lal took a quick bath there just out of our tent. Hot water was being sold there by local Kashmiri people at ` 20 per bucket. They were heating water in big drums by burning logs of wood in an earthen chulha near our tent towards the bathroom area of the pilgrim camp. And within 45 minutes of getting up we were ready to go. Still I was furious for Ranjan and being boiled to shout on him when he meets me. By keeping all essential items for puja (like B