It was about 5 p.m. in the evening when my phone started
ringing , which said Niraj calling,
Which acknowledged me that i was about to reach iskon and my
journey to junagadh had begined,
We managed to meet on time at 5:30 but as usual before we
reach at his place, we were already having
a parcel to be delivered to his friend,
The Charm of meeting your besty is always something else
specially when it is after a long time ,
Which made us lost in all the talks of here and there ,
looking at riverfront, remembering the old times, it was all going in the flow
until the bajaj discover started coughing , never thought we would be out of
petrol somewhere in the mid of the way, but who cares when you are with your
brother from another mother, managing to the petrol pump we were somehow on the
track again, but it seemed like parikrama of ahmedabad was in our destiny that
day, neither we could find the address of the guy we have to give the parcel
nor we can go away to the place without giving it to him,
With the laughter dose and traffic in ahmedabad (which we
don’t care at all) we were moving on our way , the thing which happened will
never happen in anyone’s life , ya believe me because we were again out of
petrol, the evening started becoming tiresome rather than having fun,
It seemed like we found pond of water in the desert when we
saw the petrol pump, and as soon as we finished the work it , i found my phone
ringing and it was sunil , our friend who had arrived very punctually as per
our decided plan, it was about 8:30 when we rang the bell at niraj’s place,
thinking if this is the beginning of the journey how the journey would be
like??
But rather than focusing on the thoughts , we concentrated
on delicious dinner made by niraj’s mom
And the strange part was we still haven’t got our tickets
booked, which reminded us the scene of local bus moving at the low speed and we
3 standing in between the seats, so without wasting a moment we straight found
out the neelkanth travels from our own google.com and luckily got our tickets
booked, with a sigh of relief and excitement of journey ,we started helping
niraj in packing his bag, which made us forget that our bus was at 10:30 not at
12:30,
It was 10:15 and still half the way, wandering where is the
pickup point for neelkanth travels,
Struck in the traffic with a silly innocent tension faces ,
we decided to get out of the car and run to the office instead of sitting and
waiting for traffic to clear, and finally we reached the moment was
satisfactory because in spite of all the glitches we managed to get to the
pickup point of the bus 5 min early,
And that’s how the journey started, 3 friends ,3 bags ,lots
of excitement and surprises on the way
5:30 a.m in the morning we hired a shared auto rickshaw straight to the beginning of parikrama , Niraj and sunil with the excitement like a
small child buying a ballon bought the torch to enlighten our way at night..
Brushing our teeth on road and after having a national kathayiawadi nasta
chai and khari , we began the journey full of fun and surprises..
we walked
continuously for 20 min taking about 30-40 pictures and decided let’s have a
rest of 10 minutes but our sleepy king niraj almost slept which added other 10
minutes and 10 more photographs to our collection.. resuming our journey we
continued to walk and talk with the chants of “Jay Girnari” . Our energy level
remained at the same point due to support of thousands of people and humara
apna nariyal pani..
In 10 km we managed to drink 5-6 coconut , walking with a
speed greater than or equal to normal
man’s speed , but then came a tragedy in our journey , we reached a place where
food was being distributed and place sounded like we almost completed our 40 km
parikrama.
And with this confusion we went to ask a person who seemed
quite familiar with the place to ask how much more km to go. “10 km” he said. With
a bucket full of innocence, our expression were like we broke usian bolt’s record. and
this thing lead us to a decision that we should rest a while, have some food
and otherwise we will be complete our journey in 1 hour and we won’t be able to
give the torch effect to the journey, adding about 15-20 photo clicks in our
collection we had the best gujarati food (best not only for its taste but it
was unlimited) and the over confidence of completing the journey in 1 hour made
us rest for more time and then we thought let’s start walk slowly , completing
half an hour more we thought let’s ask someone how much more to go and we were
shocked to hear the answer “10 km” he said and we thought he must be kidding ,
ignoring him we started covering the hills quickly with the chants of “Jay
Girnari” , it started giving us more joy and the fun was unlimited(like the
lunch).
We walked for about 2 hours and to console ourselves we keep
asking the fellow people “how much more km to go” , the answer which we got all
the time was “Bhaiya bas ab 10 km”. Hearing this all the time we started
feeling more irritated and we had almost 3 coconut water back to back..
After walking for some more time , we saw a board 10 km left
.. but this “10 km” thing have made us so exhausted that we didn’t trust that
..
You can’t proceed your without visiting the temple situation
1 km opposite to the 10 km exit..
It took more half an hour to reach back to that 10 km sign
board again which included minor shopping as well as resting our legs for some
time..
Well finally the most awaited part begined , we took out our
torches and started walking the remaining 10 km in the dark.
3 friends , 3 torches , lots of fun and peace like never
seen before.
Finally we saw a board written 3 km , we could not believe
our eyes because all along our way we got the same statement “Bas 10 km “ so we
thought now no 1 would dare to say 10 km
The overnight journey of bus and walking along the forest
had made us so tired that sunil took a nap while niraj and me discussing the
sign board. Just for the sake of fun we decided let’s ask somebody how much
more to go and you won’t believe the answer we got “10 km” , Sunil woke up in
anger “who the hell said 10 km where is he” , That guy was lucky that he went
away otherwise we were scared that he will murder that man..
Covering the last 2 km we felt like we revolved around the
earth..this 2 km included a massage break as well as slow walk race between 3
of us..
It was about 7:45 in the evening when we took the last snap
of the day at the exit of parikrama.
Having a quick bite with not so tasty gujarati thali and
booking a room in dharamshala , it took only a fraction of second to get a good
night sleep.
Which ended the first day of our exciting trip.
And we felt it was the shortest night ever for us because in
a blink of eye we slept around 14 hours. The plan of the day was to climb “The
Girnar” by waking up at 4 in the morning so technically we were 6 hours late.
“Pratik i think we should go “ Niraj said from the washroom
( can’t use the other word here )
“But can u feel your legs ??” i replied from the bathroom
“we will make it by evening “ said niraj sticking we should
go, trust me i can’t deny him when he
asks more then two times..
Meanwhile our dude sunil was ready to take us to have breakfast..checking out from
the not less then a 5 star room we had a quick bite still debating with
ourselves we should start climbing it or not but as i told i can’t tell no to
niraj ..
We put forward our steps on step no. 1 with a line “only
9999 more to go” , Sunil’s speed was almost double then two of us which made
him disappear in some time. Mean while we invented a new relation of physics ,
enthusiasm was getting double but with respect to it speed was getting divided
by 2.
We were hoping to see sunil soon but neither sunil was
visible nor the cliff of girnar. We have already consumed 4-5 bottles of water
till than. Hopes was vaporizing like sweat from our body, we started thinking
we can’t reach at the top. But then came a idea flowing in air “ lets record
our journey to top” almost in co ordination. ( this video making or dancing
always makes both of us forget everything )
In this recording session we didn't even realized that we
climbed about 4000 steps and finally we saw what our eyes were such since long i
mean to say our friend sunil waiting for us near holy jain derasar , the thing
was he was more happy to see us then we were ,reason is obvious there is no
point climbing steps when we don’t have your dear ones with you.
Looking at ambaji temple 1000 steps away gave us more
courage that we will definitely reach at the top ,
reaching there in no time we
saw one of the most beautiful picture god has ever portrayed ,no words or
camera can explain the view from there.
With the blessings of goddess amba we
put forward our steps to the cover the remaining 5000 steps which were really
challenging then the one’s we already covered. But blessings were with us so
clicking and recording few memories we surprisingly reached to the last 2500
steps which were as difficult as climbing coconut tree.
The people enthusiasm have made the atmosphere so positive
that it brings all the strength out within you.
We stopped , we moved , we
clicked , we recorded and at last we reached step no. 10000 and got blessings
from lord gurudatta , rang the bell as per the ritual. The smile on our faces were
like we were on the top of world and why it won’t be , we were on the top of
the most holy and mysterious mountain.
Though we came down by night collecting and recording few
memories but the part of us left there to worship goddess amba and lord
gurudatta.
The journey didnt ended here because it just got started.
