It was an experience of a life time. We boarded the train at
12:20am. After a little chit chat and pet puja one uncle asked us where we are
going. We told him that we are going to Nasik. This was a moment of extreme
happiness for him and the very next moment he said with a firm voice “hum bhi jaa rahe hai Nasik, ab main so raha
hoon utha dena mujhe”..well this can happen only in India. When we went to our
berths to take a nap we got irritated when he made sure that we have set an
alarm to wake us (specifically him) up!!
Within a few hours we reached Nashik Road station. It was
4:00am and it still looked as mid night.We got down the train with our eyes
loaded with a LOT of sleep. We had to go to a bus depot from where we can get a
bus to Trembakeshwar. The best part starts here. We decided to take an Auto to
the bus depot. It was a shared Auto. We three girls occupied the main seat of
the Auto. The Autowala waited for another passenger. We thought he will take
one more..but bhai ye to incredible India hai..he took 4 more passengers
!! So at the back with us one Uncle sat near Shruti ,who tried to sit on
quarter of his bum so that he do not make any physical contact with her
(RESPECT !!).
With the Autowala there were three more people sitting near
him out of which one wanted to occupy the seat near us but could not and he was
constantly trying to check us out..I mean who can think of all this at 4-4:30
in the morning (SICK!!)
Autowala was excited to start his first ride of the day and
he played GOOD music…we could not control our laughter and we still remember
the lyrics of the song..”rulane to sab ayenge hasane kaun ayega..la la laa laa” Autowala took it personally and he thought “
I am also a dude, and these girls making fun of my music..now time for some new
released song.!” And here comes the song “Ye hai Zila Gaziabaad..ye hai zila
gaziabaad.” We were no more in sleepy mode,
all thanks to this paisa wasool auto ride.
The Auto halted at a place, it was still dark and there was
no one else apart from three of us. We just missed the first bus to
Trembakeshwar. Within another 5 minutes another bus came. The conductor was
shouting Trembakeshwar and we three got into that bus. The bus looked very old
and shabby as if it was running since the time of British rule. The bus waited
for a while and collected enough passengers to start the journey to the holy Trembakeshwar
Temple.
The bus was too old, too old to run but it was somehow
holding all its parts together and as the driver makes an attempt to speed up,
it would move every piece it has. The ride was too shaky and no matter how many
times we tried closing our eyes to take a nap, it was futile. At times we felt that the bus would collapse
and we will fall off!!
We reach Trembakeshwar , it was cold and dark. Before taking
the Auto to Pandit Ji’s house we sipped in some tea quickly. Pandit Ji greeted us
with a smile and gave Instructions about
how we have to take bath in that pious Kund
before starting the Puja. We left our bags at his place and walked bare
footed to the pious Kund. While on our way, we were gathering courage to take a
dip in that Kund of ice-cold water at 6 in the morning. As we reached the Kund,
it seemed that we were late and there were already umpteen numbers of people
taking bath. We grasped each other’s hands
and on the count of three we did the first “Dubki ”, the feeling was beyond our
measures and then we did another “Dubki”. One striking thing about Indian
Culture is that we are firm believer of Religion and God and go beyond our
shells to practice it. I say this because, every devotee was so much in their
own divine space that they had no space for any ineptness of baring themselves
for the bath, be it men, women or children.
We returned to Pandit Ji’s house after the holy bath and
then he clubbed us with few other devotees and took us to the Temple. The
temple was beautiful, ancient and it had a mystic presence of the divine. It is a temple where Lord Shiva is
worshipped. This temple has one of the
12 jyotirlingas. The extraordinary feature of the Jyotirlinga located here is
its three faces embodying Lord Brahma, Lord Vishnu and Lord Rudra. Due to
excessive use of water, the linga has started to erode. It is said that this
erosion symbolizes the eroding nature of human society.
We offered our prayers to the Lord and returned for the main
Puja at Pandit Ji’s place. Pandit Ji was very
knowledgeable and he told us different stories of how the Temple was built and
what is the significance of the place. He told many good things
about God, spirituality, humans and human nature.
After the Puja we went out for food hunt in the scorching
heat of Nashik. After lunch we were too tired and sleepy and we had only two hours
in Trembakeshwar before we leave the place to reach Nashik Railway Station. We
went to a beautiful resort created by Birlas, but to be on the economical side
we decided not to book a room and we decided to sit in their lawn. We went
inside the premises of the resort and we saw many middle aged women sitting and
chit chatting in the lawn. We sat near them and we were so drowsy that we
finally lied down in the lawn. This was one of the firsts in our lives which we
never did before our first “sleeping in an open lawn under the sun without
giving a damn about the world”…haha..yeah we were that sleepy.
We woke up on time and left for the bus stop from where we
can get a rick or bus to the railway station. We reached the bus stop and took
an auto to go to station. The Autowala said he will take another passenger
apart from us. We agreed on the condition that he should accommodate the
passenger in the front seat with him. After a while he stopped the auto near a
lady who was 2 and a half times my weight. She forcefully adjusted herself at the
back seat with us. She said that we all are of same weight; we glanced at each other
and exchanged a “are you kidding me” look. When we asked the Auto about the
condition which we had posed he said the lady will get down in 2 minutes. We
did not say anything at that time but we soon realized that it was around 10-15
minutes and she did not get down anywhere. We were not able to sit comfortably
and at one point we asked the Auto to halt and protested his unfair bias for
the lady. The Autowala showed a lane
which was like 10 steps from the place where the auto stood and said that she
will get down there. We asked her to walk down but she (b***h) did not agree.
The situation was getting on my nerves. I quickly sat at the front with the Autowala
so that rest of them can sit comfortably at least till that lane where the lady
promised to get down and commanded him to start the auto fast. My friends were
impressed by my heroic move which they told me later. The lady got down within
a minute, after that we realized that actually the lady had an affair with the
Autowala.
After all this we reached station. We had to wait for an
hour as the train was running late (typical Indian railway story). The journey
was crazy and awesome. We chatted and laughed a lot, recollecting every incident
starting from the first auto ride to the last one. I would say no matter what
the place is and how the circumstances are, if you have company of great
friends, it will always end well.
