Amitabh Bachchan apparently had to take a tour of the Gir Lion Sanctuary four times to finally spot a lion or two. This is what the guide sitting in the front seat of our Maruti Gypsy told us on the chilly winter morning of December 10, 2011 as the vehicle moved ahead on a bumpy track through the forest. We weren’t the brand ambassadors of Gujarat nor did we have the ‘Bachhanesque’ luxury of taking the safari again. And so all we could do was to keep peering into the rather dry landscape of the reserve for any sign of a lion and hope for the best. Guess it wasn’t exactly our lucky day since even after more than two hours we were not really any close to getting within a visually close range of the king of the jungle.
But this is like starting a tale with its tail end and doing it on a negative note. So, let’s go back to the beginning. It was time for our annual ‘Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara’ kind of pilgrimage and after almost three months of parrying and chain emails shot back and forth between the group members (Gajanan Radkar, Vipul Shah, Ganesh Shinde, S Vaidyanathan, Dileep Bhandari, Rajesh Bayas, Harsha Rao and me), we were finally ready to set off on the evening of December 7 from Pune in a 3 Tier AC compartment of the Ahimsa Express that would take us to Vadodara. Harsha was to fly in from Singapore and Rajesh was to pick him up from the airport and board the train at Vasai Road. Sounds so smooth, doesn’t it?
The train took off at its stipulated hour. But there was this uneasy feeling about whether Harsha’s flight would be on time and whether they would make it to the station. They did but not before Vipul’s blood pressure shot up due to the many calls between him and Rajesh about whether the duo were going to board the right train. At one point, Rajesh said that they were already on a train even though the Ahimsa Express was yet to reach Vasai Road. Anyway, this was after the six of us had a feast of chapati, potata bhaji, shrikhand, puri, lemon rice, curd rice and pickles. The ladies who took the extra effort of ensuring that we did not go hungry deserve a salute.
Early morning the next day we were in Vadodara and with the Winger having already been booked to take us on our trip through the following three days, we started off on a quest of finding a couple of hotel rooms to have a bath and a quick breakfast. No luck! Thanks to Vipul, we finally found rooms in a Jain dharamshala and after the preliminaries struck the highway to take us to Palitana. But not before meeting up with some of Heema’s cousins who treated us to a great lunch of bhendi masala, dhokli curry, rotis and butter milk at a plush resort. When we finally arrived at the guest house in Palitana, there wasn’t much time to take a break and shed off the fatigue caused by sitting in a mini bus for too long.
The legs needed to be stretched and in a different way. We started climbing our way to the Palitana temple at around 3.40 pm and returned to the base by 6.45, which wasn’t too bad considering that there are about 3,800 steps each way. The Palitana temples are considered the most sacred pilgrimage place (tirtha) by the Jain community, and it is the world’s largest temple complex. There are more than 3,000 temples located on the Shatrunjaya hills, exquisitely carved in marble. The main temple on top of the hill is dedicated to the first tirthankar lord Adinath (Rishabdeva). On the top is a cluster of Jain temples, built by generations of Jains over a period of 900 years, from the 11th century onwards. The temples are managed by the Anandji Kalyanji Trust of the Kasturbai Lalbhai group.
These shrines are exquisitely carved in marble, veritable prayers in stone. To an observer, these appear to be ivory miniatures when seen from a distance. Created by master craftsmen, the main temple has ornate architectural motifs, though in its overall plan it is simpler than the Choumukh. The other notable temples are those of Kumarpal, Vimalshah and Sampriti Raja. Kumarpal Solanki, a great Jain patron, probably built the earliest temple. The temple has a fabulous collection of jewels, and these can be seen with special permission. The temples date from 11th to the 20th century.
With our legs becoming stiffer than dead logs of wood, we went out for an early dinner at the Sankalp Restaurant after downing some sugarcane and lime juice helped along by Jain bhel available at the shops at the base of the Palitana temple complex. “So where do we head the next year?” was the question bandied around as we waited for our meal. Pondicherry, Pasupatinath Bhubaneshwar, Goa, Dharmashala…the options started popping out faster than loose caps from a fizzy drink bottle. Nothing was finalised. The good food saw to that! It was then back to the guest house for an early ‘tuck in’ with the satisfaction of having accomplished the first part of our mission so successfully.
With some of us walking as if we were on stilts thanks to our leg muscles refusing to let go of their stiffness, it was time to hit the road the next morning to reach Somnath. This we did by noon. The holy place of the Aadi Jyotirling, Shree Somnath Mahadev, and the sacred soil from where Bhagvan Shri Krishna took his last journey to his neejdham, the temple stands at the shore of the Arabian Ocean. This pilgrimage is one of the oldest and finds its reference in ancient texts like Skandpuran, Shreemad Bhagavat, Shivpuran, etc. The Moon God is said to have been relieved from the curse of his father-in-law Daksha Prajapati by the blessings of Bhagvan Somnath. In the Shiva Purana and Nandi Upapurana, Shiva said, “I am always present everywhere but specially in 12 forms and places as the jyotirlingas”. Somnath is the first among the 12 holy Shiva jyotirlings.
The shore temple of Somnath is believed to have been built in four phases in gold by Lord Soma, in silver by Ravi, in wood by Krishna and in stone by King Bhimadeva. It has withstood six repeated desecrations by Muslim invaders, though some say that it was pulled to the ground 11 times. The seventh existing temple is built in the Kailas Mahameru Prasad style. The ‘iron man’ of India, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, is the pioneer of the existing temple. The kalash at the top of the shikhar weighs ten tonnes and the dhwajdand is 27 feet tall and 1 foot in circumference. The Abadhit Samudra Marg or the arrow indicates an unobstructed sea route to the South Pole. The nearest land towards the South Pole is about 9,936 kms away. The temple renovated by Maharani Ahalyabai is adjacent to the main temple complex.
With Vaidayanthan doing the puja and surprising the temple’s resident priests with his flawless rendition of the prayers, it was now time to close our spiritual quest and move on to the entertaining part of our trip. With the taste of the dal-tadka and the mixed vegetables still on our tongues, we got back into the Winger to reach Sasan Gir at the earliest. And it was good that we hurried since it helped us to catch the mini safari outside the actual reserve area where we could see two lions and a lioness in full regalia along with deer and a variety of birds. The government’s guest house at Gir is in the colonial style and there rooms are wonderfully spacious and comfortable. It was time to party and this we did with the conversation veering into the territory of how it’s so difficult a task for parents to keep track of their children’s activities, especially those of girls passing through a phase of adolescence.
We of course wanted to stretch the discussion but the dinner wasn’t going to wait for us and at the early hour of 9 pm we trooped into the dining hall to bring the day to a close. We were going to return to Vadodara the next day but not before taking the early morning safari into the protected lion reserve. The air had a cold bite to it and the Gypsy jeeps weren’t exactly in the line of luxury. And so began the two-hour drive during which we, as said earlier, spotted many deer but no lions. Ganesh had not joined us since he was down with a bad throat. Was that the reason for the lions to stay away? Ganesh thought so! But shedding off this disappointment, we gorged on a quick breakfast of poha and butter-jam sandwiches to begin our long drive of almost ten hours to reach Vadodara in time for the 9.53 pm Jaipur Pune Express back to Pune.
The train was delayed by half an hour, there was a bit of commotion because two of our berths had been occupied by ladies who did not want to give up their unofficial moorings and the exhaustion was beginning to tell on us. However, it was a comfortable journey back home. To add a bit, there can be no trip without Gajanan’s Santa Banta jokes and it’s amazing how he manages to come up with a fresh lot each year. Vipul and Vaidya had of course handled all the bookings with such perfection that there was no room for complaints. Rajesh learned an important lesson on this trip – that it is not good to re-bottle champagne. Dileep, as is his habit, remains quiet most of the time but can be counted on to pitch in with a devastating spin attack when he thinks the moment deserves it. Harsha, we all agreed, would have had a great career in the CBI with his fondness for questioning just about everything. As for Ganesh, well, he was looking at Vadodara with more than just passing curiosity since he had to be back in the city after a few days due to his new job with L&T.
So, as my wife asked me, what was the trip all about? That’s hard to define in totality but it certainly was about camaraderie, long-lasting friendship, a physical test of our stamina, the fulfilling of curiosity about new places, a chance to get away from the daily grind, learning a bit more about life and ensuring that the passage of the following 11 months would once again bring the next trip closer. It was also about remembering our days at school. Of a teacher who said ‘phinite’ for ‘finite’, of a classmate whom we all are anxious to track, of some lady teachers who kindled our early stirrings of lust, of competing for the first and second ranks, and so on. And at the end of it we remembered that Harsha had a pet name – ‘Peru’.
Huned Contractor
PS: Though this will not be taken as the truth, I certainly did not rig the quiz session in favour of Harsha. There’s no ‘commission’ to prove that!
