The Divine Yumanotri Experience/ In the Voidness

So often I have wondered - who am I? The one I am or the one I want to be. The one I am is materialistic and the one I want to be is a self-less. And there is a gap like exists everywhere. Sometimes big and at times looking small and you feel just close to becoming what you want to be. Self-less and self-contained – so what if at least for a while. And I started to plan a refuge out of this void-ness. I prefer calling it void-ness for my own reasons. Void because it is not contentment, void because it is temporary and void because it is unnatural. And that is how my quest led me to Yumanotri.

My plan is ready. Friday is Deepawali, a Saturday off and then Sunday will give me 3 days to visit Yumnotri. Arun will wait for me at Dehradun railway station on Friday early morning. I asked Saurabh for his take about the trip. I was not sure he’ll be able to come since its deepawali and being only son of his parents he might have to be stay back. My parents never have objected to my going to hills at any point of time. I can recall in 2006 I was in Gangotri on Deepawali which was quite an experience – to see the snow flakes showering over the devotees during the Arti in the temple. This time too I am hoping an experience that would last for a lifetime.

Saurabh surprised me when he said he’ll be coming along with me, and we left straight from our office on Thursday evening, taking metro service to ISBT, to catch bus to Dehrdun. We both have idea about the rush a day before Deepawali but seeing long queues and very few buses, we anticipated that it is going to be tough. I asked the conductor of the bus full packed inside, for a place for two to which he clearly rejected, looking at few other people who were quite much looking for the same opportunity. And the bus roared and moved a little – as if leaving.

With the bus, we too moved and Saurabh pleaded – “we are going to Yumanotri for Deepawali” and need to reach Dehradun before 5 a.m. Both conductor–driver looked at our sacks on our backs, and after a brief silence, conductor said – I have just one seat left.

Next moment, we both were inside the bus – me sitting over the bonnet of the bus while Saurabh on that one seat. The bus moved and my conversations with the duo started in no time. Both were pahari and since we said we are going to Yumnotri, they accommodated us in the bus – maybe thinking that we have a long way to go or fearing that they must not interfere with our pilgrimage. Conductor boasted about his honesty and how helpful he has been to different people at various times citing examples. But soon after he picked up three more people from Ghaziabad border, and there was hardly any space left now inside the diver’s cabin. I knew he is en-cashing on the opportunity that Deepawali rush has brought in. But why this hypocrisy, that I could not understand.

Dehradun at 3:30 a.m was colder than I thought and we both had brought our sweaters out.

I quickly called Arun to know where he is. He was sleeping inside the ‘Barkot’ bus that we have to take. The bus will leave at 5:30 a.m. and looking at the time we have to spare we decided to take tea and buns at the road-side vendor just opposite to the old bus station. Then we strayed ourselves here and there. And at sharp 5:30 bus started for Barkot. We both have been on this route before till Naugaon from where Badkot goes uphill and to Purola goes straight.

Janakichatti

We reached Badkot around 10:40 and started to lookout for bus or jeep to Jaankichatti. Saurabh purchased some candles, and crackers to celebrate Deepawali at the temple in our own style. My worry was rather about reaching Jaankichatti. No bus. Jeep was already full, and I started again to ask the jeep owner. Finally, we managed to get one seat inside. While Arun and Saurabh adjusted themselves on the roof-top with fellow passengers, I scrambled myself inside.

Later from Hanumanchatti, I also joined my companions over the rooftop of the jeep. Thrilled.

After reaching Jaankichatti me and Saurabh filled our bellies quickly, while Arun was fasting. We then started to move slowly towards the temple, chit-chatting. It was bright sunny day of noon. The 5 km cemented path leading to Yumnotri temple is an easy climb and walk is more pleasant then we thought. Looking at the flowing Yamuna, I suggested taking a dip. Chilled, the water was, and we hurriedly took our 3 dips in the name of whatever Gods our mind could think of.

Saurabh & Arun Enjoying Dip in Yamuna

Indeed it was refreshing but it made us lazy. The feeling was like – my body wants to sleep and my mind instructing it to move on. I can feel my eyes closing every now and then. After all we have not slept last night and have been traveling for last 16 hours.

We reached the temple around 5:40 p.m – chatting, walking, clicking photographs but did not take any break to rest. I was astonished to see the kund – an average sized pool of hot water.

Actually the sulphur water, out from the, ground. We submerged ourselves into it and for half an hour we were relaxing in the name of hot water bath. Saurabh, started to complain of fainting feeling. I was feeling that too. But looking at Saurabh I got nervous. He put on his clothes back and spread himself over the steps of the kund. And then a miracle. Just when the temple bell started to ring, he got up and said, Sir! Let’s go. And the chanting of Arti started on the mic, in mild soothing tone.

Bhairav Temple Enroute

We were some 10 people sitting with our folded hands in the temple premise offering our homage to the Goddess Yamuna. I was more than delighted to have made it to the temple especially for the Deepawali. And then I found myself lost in the chants and prayers.

The Goddess Yamuna’s 3 idols – in black stone to the left; silver, in the middle; and the marble made, on the right appeared to have same aggressive looks as if denoting her relation to the God of Death - Yamaraj.

Here is the version of story narrated by one of the temple priests. Jai Muni, the sage, worshipped mother Yamuna like King Bhagirath did at Gangotri. However Bhagirath did it for penance of his ancestors, sage Jai Muni did it for penance of common people. Said Jai Muni, “those you come to your darshana and worship you O’Yamuna, may they their soul go to heaven, and not sent to hell by Yamaraj, narrated the priest with chanting of sloka.

Yamuna, requested to brother Yamaraj, to fulfill the sage’s will, to which Yama agreed. Since then it is believed those who pay homage to mother Yamuna, they become free from the fear of going to hell, and their soul goes to heaven.

Well, I wonder if I fear hell or is just hungry for heaven – because you never know where you go, once you are gone. Death embraces all. The philosophy whatever is behind the mythologies like these, the heaven is where everybody wants to go.

The superior heaven outshines the evil hell in our minds and that’s what belief is. These rituals have made us special, a proud Hindu or have labeled as superstitious society. The answer is as much debatable as the question itself.

By the now the Puja is over and we started to light the candles we brought with us and placed it all over the temple compound – near the Surya kund, as well. Surya kund is where the hot water spring is worshipped and potatoes, rice are cooked to be offered as Prasad.

The next day we came down after dip in the holy kund again and reached the village Kharsali, near Jaankichatti, to visit an ancient Shani temple. The temple architecture is very old. The priest’s son took us inside the 3 storey temple made of stones, craved through the big rock-sized stones. Later priest told us that even he doesn’t know when the temple dates back to. He also tried giving his association with Yamnotri temple priests who are ‘Uniyal’ – a garhwali Brahmin caste. We sipped upon hot piping tea at his place and then set off to come down back to the modern civilization.

While coming back, I requested one young fellow passenger in Jeep to send me the song he was plying loud on his mobile. That one song made easy for me to come down back to Delhi and in my mind thinking about the time spent in the voidness. I realised the voidness is golden. I hate Delhi like it is now.

Itinerary: Delhi-Yumanotri (Total Distance: 462 Kms.)

November 4th, 2010 THU: Bus from ISBT Kashmere Gate to Dehradun @ 7 P.M, Rs. 280 per seat from Uttarakhand Roadways – Hi-tech Bus Service.

5th, FRI: Reach Dehradun @ 3:30 A.M – Tea Break – Bus to Barkot @ 5:30 A.M. Reached Barkot around 11:30 A.M (via Damta, Naugaon, approx. 130 kilometers – Rs. 165 per seat from Uttarakhand Roadways). Boarded 12:10 p.m shared Jeep service from Barkot to Jaankichatti (approx. 65 km, Rs. 60 per seat). Jaankichatti at 3:00 p.m around. After a hearty meal and dip in icy cold water of holy Yumana at Jaankichatti reached Yumanotri around 5:20 p.m covering 5kms distance on-foot. Dip in the Holy Kund. Celebrated Deepawali in the temple premise.

6th, SAT: Got up early, took a long dip in holy kund (hot water), offered our Pooja and clicked pics. Back to Jaankichatti at 11 A.M around. Visited ancient Shani temple at Kharsali. Tea at priest’s house. Started to comeback by 1 P.M. Shared jeep to Barkot. Then bus to Naugaon. Halt.

7th, SUN: Took 6:00 A.M GMOU bus to Vikasnagar. Reached around 11:30 A.M. Bus to Dehradun ISBT. Reached around 1 P.M. Finally, bus to Delhi. Reached Delhi around midnight.

© Himanshu Dutt, 2010

Into the Unknown/Kedarkantha

Kedarkantha is located in the district of Uttarkashi, however the city is some 190kms from place called Sankri (saan-kari) from where the popular trek to Har-Ki-Dun also starts (jeep goes till Taluka, then on foot trail starts Seema/Osla and Har-ki-Dun). Sankri can be reached from Dehradun via Naugaon-Purola-Mori enroute which is some 170 kms. Till Naugaon, the road moves along with Yamuna and at Mori it crosses the river Mori to move up towards Netwar and then Sankri.

The Top Visible Is KedarKantha

Sankri happens to be the last transport point officially. However hired jeeps go till Taluka which is some 11km from Sankri. Kedarkantha (3810 mtrs) is right above the village Sankri some 9kms steep trek upwards (seemed more than 11kms to me). As one moves up through the dense pine jungle amidst the plateau great Himalayan ranges especially Swargarohini (Badrinath) on the right side becomes visible alongwith Black mountain and the view of Bandarpoonch (Yumanotri) as guide was describing. Sankri

To the front one could see Himachal ranges and guide pointed his finger to the front citing some place called Chang Sheel pass which of course was not getting visible to me. All I could see a 360 degree snow view around me as I stand on a long plateau of farmland to give rest to my aching shoulders from the burden of rucksack. It was for last two times I have been canceling my trips to hills (apology to Manu, Hukum, Saurabh and Kiran for not making it to Gaumukh) due to official purposes that somehow always seem to come just before I intend to take break.
Raju (Our Guide)

And thinking about those 22 leaves I still had in my bag (this is December) and that in March they would lapse, I felt agitated and helpless once again.

Kiran called up on early Wednesday afternoon just before x’mas with his plan, but I still was not sure weather I would be able to make it with him to his dreamland. Thinking about hills was driving me mad and I decided to play a ‘serious performer’ and started toying with ideas that suits best for 2 days leave. Kiran Bhai

And, two days after (on 24th) I fell ‘serious’ ill (the plot worked fine!).

Wednesday 24th night we two met at ISBT Delhi exploring the options we have and Kiran’s idea seem perfect as imagined about a rural cold landscape. Kiran came late so I thought to gather some information from the bus driver who was cleaning the front mirror of this bus to Ponta Shahib. The driver had this flair for singing, speed and chatting which he later admitted and as I experienced (dude was driving between thick fog at 60+ speed) was contrary to other drivers with whom I have been going places.

Har-Ki-Dun Valley

We reached Vikasnagar at 5am in freezing cold. We took tea after getting down. The tea shop owner pointed that we will have to take another bus that would drop us at the place (a famous sweets shop which was some 4kms) from where the bus to Sankri would go. 6 am the bus leaves. We reached some 20 minutes before but the bus left only at 7am with handful of people. I tried to remain awake but soon dozed off. Kiran was already under the spell of sleep (he slept all the way to Dehradun). I didn’t slept much, sun was getting warm and I needed a tea. Me!

The route seemed beautiful with no big towns, no herd of people, and elevated roads with frequent hiccups. We stopped at Naugaon and enjoyed a bottle of Limca each, then another halt at Purola. This halt was for about 1 hour and people rushed into the bus. I guess not many buses go beyond Purola. At 1pm the bus started again and we reached Mori and then Netwar.

Purola

The route after Purola to Mori (50 kms/2hrs) and Netwar (25kms/1hr) was under the forest land and suddenly the civilization started to vanish away. Around 4:40 pm we reached Sankri (18kms from Netwar) and located GMVN. We got the room for 400 bucks with no electricity or hot water facility. It was freezing cold when around 7pm we came down again to market to eat where we inquired for places to visit. Its then only I came to know that Sankri is the place from where the trek to Har-Ki-Doon starts. But we didn’t had time for Har-ki-Doon and the option we were given was Kedarkantha.

Next morning we got up early. While Kiran wanted to walk down and see and picture people around, I was thinking about Kedarkantha. Finally Kiran also agreed for a 2 day trek, and we arranged for guide from the guy we spoke to last night who happens to own the Sankri Himalayan Samiti. Massif of Swargarohini

Our guide Raju was lean and thin man in his 30ties but experienced quite well. He told us about the places he has been to and foreign girlfriends that he had especially the one from Britain who always plan trip with him only. I was rather interested in something else, and said, “Can we please have some tea”! He took us to a hut nearby where we were offered black tea. The guy worked there in fields and lives all alone since he lost his way some 26 years back from Nepal and now works as care taker of fields. Polite and humble with no expressions of regret or thinking of his family (when I asked him about).
Taal along the Way!

We started again and reached a plateau – a big terrace with nothing on it. In front clearly visible were Himachal ranges. I enjoyed what I saw – snow covered and closely arranged mountains with sharp tips. And we continued walking.

Walking about some 5kms we reached a lake that was completely surrounded by thick forest. Guide lighted some fire and served us hot paranthas and tea but we were filled with too much of water and after 1 and half more we rejected to eat. Tea I have always enjoyed.

Break for the Day

We resumed walking upside slowly and after covering about 2kms we stated to see the snow flakes lying all over the field. We decided to halt and camp near to water source. The temperature was dipping and it was indeed freezing cold. We did a couple of shoots and returned back to camp on the call of Raju and begin to blow the fire to fight the cold and warm our night. Later sometimes we were served Maggi and the tea again. Despite out very best efforts we could not light the fire on the log that we had thought would keep us warm until midnight. Himachal Side of Hills

So we retire to our sleeping bags in the camp. Me and Kiran could not sleep well. It was very cold and the tent had 2 holes through which wind was blowing and hitting us hard. Raju was out by 5:30 and he fired the light to make us some tea. Soon we were also up and started to pack the tent cursing the guy who supplied us the gear.

The morning was fresh but walking on snow was getting hard. It was all up-hill way and the fresh snow was making us slip into small pits every now and then. Campfire

We also had no choice since we did not bring any gear to equip us for this undecided excursion.

Soon after Kiran said ‘No’! We were just 1km away from hill top which was clearly visible with four (actually five) stones on the top. Now that the sun was up too and wind was blowing cool, I was enjoying the feel though tired. Kiran shouted again, “I will be here only, you guys go!”

Walking in the Snow

It was getting hard for me too but certainly I didn’t want to leave it here and I followed Raju, our guide. After some 250 mtrs I gave up to. The peak was near and clearly visible were 5 pillars on it of almost equal height. It was an amazing sight which certainly could not be put into words. And I rested for a while uncomfortably though. The snow was making it hard and then the wind piercing my ears. And we both decided to come back. Morning View of Swargarohini

I recalled that it was not the first time I could not touch the point even being so near to it and suddenly I remembered that during my Gaumukh trip also we faced something similar.

Me and Manu, and the cold October end. After reaching near to Bhojbasa (some 3 kms) we decided to come back to Gangotri due to discomfort. We were without any snacks or food, not even the water bottle and the worst was wind blowing that almost had got us down.

Kedarkantha Visible

We hardly could breath properly forget walking. That day we covered some 22kms of to and fro. Indeed an unforgettable moment. A little different but same we duo experinced in Narkanda during our Hatu temple walk between the think ice.

Hard Walk

So we started to comeback from Kedarkantha but not towards Sankri. Instead we opted to climb down towards Netwar. After walking down for some 6kms we decided to take lunch. The maggi again, which I ofcourse disliked. We resumed again after tea.

We continue to walk till the sun went down. However in between we again took a brief break at a village well known to Raju. He wanted us to end the day there itself. Kiran was also keen to stay. But his purpose was to capture people and village life in his lens, while I had the forest rest-house in my mind which I had seen at Netwar along the road over a small ridge.

Along The Great Indian Himalaya

Unfortunately neither we stayed in the village (I insisted to reach Netwar) and nor went to Forest rest-house at Netwar (we thought what if we don’t find any place there to sleep). We just had quick sip of warm soothing tea. Raju took us to a nearby village just a km before Netwar market. It was his relative’s. We spent the night in comfort except the snoring of Kiran which often annoyed me but then I was too tired to notice properly.

Me & Raju, Doing Our Best

Next morning at 8 around we took the private bus to Purola and then from there Uttarakhand Roadways to Dehradun via Mussorie. At 7pm we reached Dehradun and filled our stomachs quickly. Then we took the night bus at 9pm from the Roadways bus stand. I remember I met the same guy who came with us till Vikas Nagar from Delhi. We chatted for an hour or so and then I dozed off.

Raju, Basking in the Sun in the Village

I might have fallen to sleep but in my mind was with all those people whom I met during this trip and after a while I reminded myself two words –

‘Born Again’.

© Himanshu

For pics please see www.flickr.com/myth_drinker