A RARE TRIP TO SHRI MATA VAISHNO DEVI JI

It was 17th Jan.2014, I was in my office going through my mails and just got an instant urge to go through my facebook account . After scanning for sometime my eyes got strucked at a status updated by one of my friends who runs a travel agency that natural cave of Shri Mata Vaishno Devi ji is open. I shared this with my wife and she reciprocated back with a question Chalna Hai? I dont know what made me to say Yes instantly. I called my immediate subordinate and told her to off my classes for the next day.(As I am running a coaching institute.) So we made a porogramme and next day 18th Jan, at about 8 a.m. we left for Katra, the base camp of Shri Mata Vaishno Devi ji. I decided that I will eat something only after the darshan and after a journey of about one hour through beautiful four lane road which is completed at some stretches and through some dusty roads as well because of construction work going on, we reach katra at 9am. I was excited. The moment we get off from our car we were welcomed by cool breeze as the temperature was about 70c. We already had covered ourselves enough so we were actually enjoying the cold weather. We went straight to yatra slip counter and got really happy to see the arrangement of giving new slip which was having a barcode pasted on it carrying the important details of respected yatru. We were free within minutes by the efficient system of shrine board. We came out and suddenly my wife started feeling hungry and all of sudden she wanted to have some breakfast I was in bit hurry and dont want to waste my time. So I drove my car towards the parking where I usually parked my car in my previous journeys but not to forget keeping an eye on some eating point but seriously I could not find a good eating place in this town which is visited by about 10 million people every year. So my eyes caught a restaurant which was offering multicuisine and their mission is to provide food to pilgrims at very reasonable rates having their branches in other pilgrimages all over India. We went in and there was no light, somehow we asked for the menu and the person on the counter offered just two options i.e. a 20 Rs. thali and a 40 Rs. thali since I did not have to had any food so we opted for Rs 20 thali which was supposed to have 4 pooris, Aloo ki sabji and some raita The pooris were exactly of the size of radius 3 cm as if it is actually measured precisely before frying it and aloo ki sabiji was just beyond comparison. My wife told me that she has never tasted a sabji of such a bad taste in her entire life. So my question is if you cant provide good food at such a cost then why you promise and make Aam Admi feel cheated but this was just the beginning. Then we parked our car at the desire d place and reached at the Darshani Dwar. The moment we crossed Darshani Dwar we were thronged by pithus and pony walas in numbers. Since we were not carrying any luggage so we refused to take their services but I come to know from the discussion from some ponywalas and other pilgrims that pony rate to Adhkunwari is Rs. 380 settled by the SMVDSB. This was for the first time during my all visit to the shrine I was without any luggage. So we started moving freely. Our first step was Charan Paduka and my wife literally had to drag herself to that point and it was her problem since the time she remembers. She told me this fact later, so moment we came out of charan paduka ji mandir. She declared that she could not walk any more so she wanted to have a horse ride at least up to Adhkunwari. As we were in the middle of the way I suggested her to walk further and the moment we find a horse, I would get it done for her and to our luck we just moved for about half a kilometer we found a pony wala. We were good two and half a kilometer ahead of Banganga. Almost we had covered 40percent of the distance till Adhkunwari we asked him if he would take us to Adhkunwari, he agreed and asked for Rs 350, I wanted to bargain and I got the reply that rate is Rs.380 fixed by the govt. (SMVDSB) but I was in dilemma that how these people are being checked by the authorities whether they are cheating or not? on the way up to Adhkunwari I had seen many other people doing bargain with pony walas and they were getting the same reply initially but after sometime they themselves offered some lower rate that was bit confusing for me just in between we came across CCD (cafe coffee day) a national coffee house chain, we went in and ordered for a cup of coffee (cappuccino) for which we spent Rs. 40, ambience was poor because some renovation was going on, taste was pathetic again quality for which we stopped here was missing. I am also going to wr ite about this to CCD people as well. Somehow reached Adhkunwari from where we decided to go through the new route via Himkoti. As we were disappointed with the coffee so we decided to take a cup of coffee again but this time from Nescaf e Another International Brand paid Rs. 26 at Rs 13 a cup. But no sooner did we have a sip of coffee the same moment we vomit it out. Another Brand and we felt cheated, so we again started our journey towards Bhawan and then We came across Bhojanalaya maintained by SMVDSB, we stopped there for a moment and without my notice my wife brought a cup of tea which she actually cherished, she told me that she spent just Rs. 6 for it and it was better than all the stuff she had till then at any of the places.

For me again (SMVDSB) doing good job. So after another two hours of walk we reached the shrine Our Destination. The first thing we did was that we took group no. for darshan and keep our belonging at a friends room who is posted at Bhawan. But I noticed that clock room which is to facilitate pilgrims is 2-3 floors downstairs. Now after walking through a long stretch of 12 kms, it is really difficult for a person to climb down 2 floors down stairs to go to clock room. In my opinion it should be on the ground level, so that pilgrims do not feel difficulty. I heard it from some pilgrims from outer state that they had to wait for two hrs to get a space in the locker. Anyway after keeping our belongings, we were ready to go for Darshan. We did not take bath as we already had taken when we started from ourhome. So we joined the line of pilgrims going for darshan. Line was moving very slowly as people were going through old natural cave that is for what we planned our yatra. So it took one and a half hours for us to reach the main platform in front of natural cave. But here I felt bit sorry that there was no heating arrangement even when we were standing there was no mat underneath which disaapointed me a bit on the part of SMVDSB. As I had already mentioned that the darshan was performing through natural cave so it took us almost half an hour more to perform darshan. When we came out it was 4 o clock. As I had not had anything since morning so I wanted to put something in my belly. So after venturing for some minutes we came across Sagar Ratna, a National Brand having its franchisee all over India. We entered inside it and it was full. It took us sometime to scan some vacant place for ourselves. Somehow we were lucky enough to get the seat within a minute. The ambience was better than other local dhabhas, we felt happy. As it was a prominent South Indian Restaurant but it was also having some Northern Indian Dishes. I ordered an Aloo Parantha (as it is always my weakness) and my wife ordered Chana Bhatura her favourite. Rates were exorbitant, Aloo Parantha was Rs. 45/piece which was served with some pickle, and Chana Bhatura was for Rs. 65/ plate with two bhatura and some channa. Even after spending Rs. 120 including some taxes also, we didnt get the food worth eating. The taste and quality was again pathetic but I think it is only the monopoly of such sick people running these food points without caring the health of their customers or should I say Aam Aadmi. But apart from this one thing which annoyed and bothered me more was hygiene factor. When I was standing in the queue to take my order, what I saw was unbelievable. There they placed a big tawa which is used for making Dosas and Utpam, a boy was cleaning it with a broom (jhadoo) symbol of Aam Aadmi Party. I was shocked to see that I talked with those people and they ignored and gave their justification that it is used only to clean this tawa but for me it was something to be noted. We left our meal without finishing it and made sure to put the left over in the bin before leaving the place. We started our journey towards Katra. After walking for about 1km we stopped at a SMVDSB Bhojanalaya near Paanchi, I took one sweet bandh worth Rs 7 and a cup of tea worth Rs.6 totaling Rs. 13. I had it with utmost satisfaction and it was better than all the stuff we had at all the places so far. We move ahead and after about 3 hrs. we reached Katra at about 8 p.m. Overall we enjoyed our trip minus the qualities of our food at different food joints but I must congratulate SMVDSB for the excellent work they are doing providing quality services even to Aam Aadmi but on the other hand these private players whether they are dhabha walas or some snacks provider or some National brands they were really not up to the mark It is really funny and also ironical that we paid Rs. 20 for a stick to be used for yatra and Rs. 10 for just 1 carrot. Authorities must come ahead to regulate the rates and quality provided by these private players. After all, the pilgrims from other states and countries would take back the bad impression of our state, our people and above all our culture. JAI HIND !!!