A trip to Gujarat
Chapter 1: Present day
I'm writing this blog while on the return journey from Ahmadabad to Kalyan. The current scene is that I'm in train along with my family that's includes Mummy, Papa, Brother Dikshet, Dada and Dadi. Everyone else is sleeping or on their phones listening to news or Music thus I am literally bored. After the attack of boredom I decide to relive the moments of Gujarat trip thus writing this blog. So let’s go back to the beginning of the journey.
Chapter 2: Beginning of the journey (13th & 14th December 2017)
It was pleasant evening dated 13th December 2017. Everyone was busy in packing we had to leave from Kalyan, my home city at around 6 pm in the evening we had to board train from Mumbai central, again an another part of the city which would take around, 1½ hours from Kalyan. Everyone at home in hustle bustle. Mummy was missing, she was out of home for a haircut and went to a parlor in the afternoon but didn't return yet it was around 4:30pm in the evening. I was worried about her of where was she and why was she late. I and dadi were preparing food for the journey, very busy in it. Later at around 5pm mummy returned back home and I was angry on her for being late and not carrying her phone. After sorting all the mess we packed our bags. We were continuously counting on the number of bags we were
carrying. We were 7 people (Me, mum, dad, bhai, dada, dadi and chacha-chote uncle). So we reached Kalyan station a bit late then we boarded a local train to Mumbai central. We took some more snacks and water for journey. Our train "Saurashtra Mail” was had already arrived by the platform and we were on time.
We board the train and got settled in had our dinner and slept peacefully the next morning on 14th of December we had already entered the Gujarat region. All we could see was just cotton farms, wheat saplings, pulses and large stretch of coconut fields. Apart from long coconut trees few areas covered clear green fields. The view from the train was beautiful and soothing; all filled with farms, tributaries, canals and partially dried river channels. Around 6pm we reached Veraval railway station. We had to go to Somnath that was few km away from Veraval station. In an hour or so we reached hotel room in Somnath just near to the Somnath Railway station. We reached hotel rooms and quickly got fresh. We owned three rooms 2 rooms with 2 beds and 1 room with 3 beds. I stayed with my mum and dadi in the bigger room. Dad was with my grandpa and my brother was with uncle. So everyone got ready and we headed to reach out to the pilgrim called Somnath temple one of 12 "Jyotirling" was situated at this temple. The main aarti was going to take place at around 7pm we reached in time. Now the thing that
happened, I know many of you won't believe but what I'll tell you is absolutely true. As soon as I entered the temple around the main entrance the surrounding was completely filled with fragrance of dhoop and incense sticks of Sandal wood and other Godly fragrances, along with this was melodies of shehnai, drums and chants of Aarti. The pundits were taking a round inside the temple with the dhoop. I was at the entrance of the temple and the music was so soothing. The temple was filled with devotees and it was simply a bit crowded. You won't believe, even I
don't know what made my tears roll down but I started crying like hell my tears were not stopping at all. I kept praying and my tears were rolling down my cheeks. The sound of shehnai kept on running through my ears and head it was feeling so relaxing. After the Aarti was done we all headed towards the door to get outside and into the lawns. Till then I had calmed down and no more tears.
It was around 8:30pm very cold and chilly outside. We all wanted to attend the 3D light and sound show organized at the back side of the temple. My dad already went and got seated for the show, in his excitement but we all six got late and guard stopped us. Guard asked us to show us the tickets that we didn’t have. We enquired with the guard he said we need to buy tickets for the show. Thus uncle rushed towards the ticket counter and bought 7 tickets each worth just Rs. 25. Later we all joined dad. The 3D show was scheduled to begin at 9pm. We all waited for it to begin. As soon as watch ticked 9:00 the show began. The temple itself formed the projector screen; it was completely lit up with vibrant colors. The Show started with the empowering voice of Shri. Amitabh Bacchan explaining the history of Somnath Temple. The show lasts for 25mins.
Then we took a stroll in the premises of the temple. It had statues portraying all the 12 “Jyotirling” situated at different locations in India. Then to conclude the visit we waited near the boundaries of the temple that was covered by the Arabian Sea connected to Gujarat. The feeling was so calming and relaxing. The serene atmosphere made us forget all the pains and tiredness of the journey. Finally we headed towards the hotel in Somnath. We had our dinner and I passed out fast asleep.
Chapter 3: Radha Krishna we are coming to Dwarka. (15th December 2017)
Before I Begin with Dwarka I would brief you about how was the trip planned. We were currently in Somnath City. The trip was like Moving from Somnath to other cities and back to Somnath in our hotel.
We had booked a cab Innova and the journey had to begin at around 6 early in the morning as we had to cover maximum of Dwarka. The cab driver uncle Irfan was so punctual he came on time and as usual my mom late in getting ready. We were 15 mins late not to be considered late in India. We left our hotel, let me tell you the journey from Somnath to Dwarka was around 3Hours drive but due to bad roads it would take 4 hours as explained by our Driver uncle.
We began our ride with all the latest music played on the mp3 of the car. We stopped after half an hour drive for tea and snacks. Hot tea was must as it was chilly outside. Without wasting much time we started again. The funny part was that whenever we got into the car mom would go asleep (laugh). I was just jiggling and grooving slightly to the music all the way long. I was continuously watching outside the window capturing all that I could from my eyes. All I could see was green farms, Coconut farms, sea coast, salt pans, clear sky, large windmills all connected as a power grid as a power supply to Gujarat.
On the way to Dwarka is the city Porbander the birth place of Mahatma Gandhi. Thinking of this I made a poor joke, told it to my dad and the joke was “Dad Gandhi ji didn’t live in Porbander; he lived on our currency Rupee notes”. Lame shame I know. Forgive me for this. Moving on we reached Porbander here we stopped and visited the house were Bapu spend his childhood. The entrance of the house read “The birth place of Mahatma Gandhi”1. The house was completely turned into a museum that had no entry fees. The house was big, spacious, with a big verandah2at the backside of the house. The little rooms were turned into store house that showcased all his utensils, his books written by him, the most important Charkha, many more things around one place. The other little room was turned into a souvenir shop from where we bought the English version of the book “An autobiography of Mahatma Gandhi” at a cost of Rs.50. The walls had paintings of his parents and other stuffs. This was all to see at this place. As we came out of the house dad returned me a Poor joke, he said pointing to the neighboring houses nearby Bapu’s house ”How much these people must be boasting saying we are neighbors of Gandhi ji?”. Lame Shame again this proves I have inherited genes from my dad.
Then after some drinks break we were back into the cab. We left Porbander at around 9:30am and continued our journey. The next stop has its mythological importance. There are three stops all linked together. 1st is Gomati Dwarka (Gomati means the mouth or entrance), 2nd is Bhet Dwarka (Bhet means meeting in Hindi. The place where Lord Krishna and Sudama met) and the 3rd is the Main Dwarkadhish Temple (said to be the Kingdom of Lord Krishna).
Figure 1 Entrance of Mahatma Gandhi House
Figure 2 Verandah
We had to rush to Bhet Dwarka as the temple timing was odd. The temple would close at 12 noon. So we rushed and drove fast so that we could reach there in time. Initially we visited Gomati Dwarka and then moved to Bhet Dwarka. Bhet Dwarka has it way via waterways. We had to take public transport a boat to reach there. The water was so clean3. We reached just in time before the temple closed. We worshipped and headed back to cab. We were all very hungry by that time.
Figure 3 Way to Bhet Dwarka
Dwarka city was filled with temples4and holy places. Next stop was the 2nd of 12 Jyotirling at Nageshwar temple. This place was very beautiful with a beautiful temple, a lake
behind and a big humongous statue of Lord Shiva5. We clicked lots of family picture here. Now it was around 2 in the afternoon and we all really very hungry. We rushed and reached out a small restaurant that served unlimited food in a thali. We relished over Guajarati Thali. That was so sumptuous and home like good food.
Figure 4 Temple nearby
Then around 4pm we reached the main temple Dwarkadhish temple. The temple was about to open at 5pm. Thus we had 1hour to enjoy near the Dwarka beach which was nearby. We went there via a bridge named "Sudama Setu". Dwarka beach was an amazing site to visit. This was our spot to have fun and click lots and lots of pictures. I and Uncle were helping each other in clicking the best pictures at the beach while the sun was setting. As soon as it was going to be 5pm we went back to Dwarka temple6. The place was so divine it was feeling so relaxing that we wished to stop there. The other devotees were so enthusiastic they were dancing and singing all around, singing the songs and remembering Lord Krishna. As the sun set we returned back to the cab. Finally today's long day trip ended happily. So far so good.
On the return journey from Dwarka to Somnath to the hotel everyone slept in the cab except for my Grandpa. Around 11:00 pm we were close to Somnath but not in hotel room. We had to have dinner thus we stopped near a restaurant. As soon as we stepped out of the cab we started shivering. It was so cold and windy night. We all were feeling sleepy but not our stomachs, they craved for food and body craved for sleep. Finished the dinner as fast as we could. Reached the hotel and with no other thoughts we slept around 12:30am.
Figure 6 Dwarka Temple
Chapter 4: Diu is on (16th December 2017)
Last night we all were tired so decided to start the journey around 8am. We were in Somnath and Diu would take 2 hours drive to reach. This time nobody was awake during the ride to Diu except for the Driver that is obvious and my grandpa. As soon as we reached Diu all we could see was clean and tidy roads7, vacant places and less crowded roads. Our Driver uncle warned us “no littering” in this place, if you do so you will be highly fined for doing so. We just glanced everywhere; it was so very appealing to eyes.
Figure 7 Diu
The first spot where we went was a fort all surrounded by sea. There we could see a big concrete structure in mid of the sea. The driver explained us that it was jail at Diu. This was an amazing fact. He also acknowledged us with other few facts of Diu. One of them was that in this area an old Indian movie name Qayamat was shot. So with all this knowledge we moved ahead to visit the Diu Fort8 which is a Portuguese fort. It was very big and was to be self explored. As we moved up the fort we were able to get the complete view of sea and few parts of fort, it was just amazing view. Fort was lacking greenery for obvious reasons. We completely explored the fort and relaxed in the shade of tree. We came down the fort and at the entrance we quenched our thirst with fresh coconut water some chat papdi.
Figure 8 Fort
I was tired don’t know why but I was, my stomach was aching too. So for today I had to skip few places and decided stay back in car as I was unable to walk. My family made me jealous as they went to see the St. Paul church and the Nadia caves. Where I and my mom decided to sit outside under the tree shade and do some snacking and chill. Our driver was continuously requesting me and my mom to visit the Nadia caves. He was persuading us by saying that there are photo shoots done and movies are shot. But how could we get convinced by him as our mind was already convinced to relax under the shade and the windy air. Later other family members returned and showed us the pictures of the caves and I regretted for not going inside the caves. But no issues I was happy relaxing with my mum.
Our final destination in Diu was the Nagao beach9. Before that we had to eat something. All the rats were racing in their F1 formula cars inside the stomach. So we went to nearby hotel. As you all know when you are ill or sick you get all the special treatment by the family. So I took chance ha-ha and for lunch I ordered my favorite Hakka noodles, yeah still a kid and others had simple Guajarati thali. After the rat’s race inside the stomach was over we headed to Nagao beach. We reached beach around 4pm.
Figure 9 Nagao Beach
The beach was filled with humans, literally everyone busy enjoying in their own world. As soon as we entered the beach we could see all kind of Adventure sports from Bungee jumping, Jet Ski, Paragliding, Banana boat ride, Surfing and normal speed boating. Everyone was into the water splashing, jumping and having fun, some were just sitting on the shore and relaxing and playing with sand. My dad, Dadi and dada were one of them. They sat at the shore and just relaxed. Playing with sand and listening to the music made by waves hitting the shore. The beach was very clean and well maintained. I, mom, brother and uncle were into the water having loads of fun. Then my mum saw people riding Jet Ski. She is so sporting she said even I want to do. We convinced dad for it and he agreed. We went to the ticket counter got just one for my mom. She didn’t fear at all. She just put on her life jacket and headed towards the Jet Ski. The guide was along with my mom on the Jet Ski. The Jet Ski went so fast and took a complete round turn and came back in 5 minutes or so. As mom returned and I hugged her asking “I hope
you weren’t scared at all?” and she wasn’t scared of the speed. We returned to dad he asked to mom how it was and Dad being funny said “you definitely might have closed your eyes while on ride”. Mom replied negative and said she enjoyed and wasn’t scared to be on the ride.
So after all this dad brought us some roasted maize. Ah! So amazing timing. Sea side, sunset and hot maize. What a deadly combination it was. As it started getting cold around 6pm before we left the beach we had sip of tea at the stall nearby. With the tea the Diu trip ended. We were in the cab now. It got dark and starry night sky is what I could see. We reached hotel At Somnath around 9pm. We had lot of time to relax and rest. Today was the last day at Somnath. The divine place, a very holy city to live in.
Chapter 4: Ahmadabad City (17th December 2017)
Good Morning in Somnath and good night in Ahmadabad. Confused right! We had to board the train from Somnath at around 9am we would reach Ahmadabad at about 6:30 pm on the same day. Thus good morning in Somnath and Good night in Ahmadabad. The train journey was of 9hrs. Trains journey are sometimes too boring if you don’t find any handsome hunk to stare or glance at, just kidding. In the morning it was fine after breakfast it was getting bored so I went up to the topmost berth and continued reading “Fifty shades of grey” on mobile pdf. I didn’t come to known when did I sleep. Reading sometimes does this to us makes us sleep or maybe I was genuinely not interested In Christian Grey or maybe I really wanted a real Christian Grey around the coach compartment of the train. Leave it I’m kidding but I directly woke up around 5pm. The city was near so I kept staring through the window whatever was passing by.
Finally reached Ahmadabad the first thing we did was went to the hotel and got fresh. Everyone was ready to see the city in the evening. It was similar to Mumbai all the towers were gleaming and shining with lights. We moved towards the Sabarmati River front that was at walkable distance from the hotel room. So we took an evening walk around. Again it was cold enough to remind me of Delhi winters. So we reached the river front were recently in the last week Our PM Modi ji landed his Sea plane for a rally, elections in Gujarat. I googled about the river front and I was shocked to know the facts. The length of the river front is 11.5kms and width varies between 300 to 400m. The total cost in its making is again a breathtaking figure, the cost is about Rs. 1152 crore. Leave those figures and facts the major attraction was the lights falling on the river giving it a wonderful appearance. I cannot explain the feeling of being at that place in words. We were just walking along side of the river all surrounded by dim lights. Snacks stalls at small intervals. There was an uber cycle stall as well. They provided us with Uber cycles to ride, on rent for just Rs. 20 for half an hour. It was worth but we couldn’t ride as timings were until 9pm and it was already 9:10pm. But we all were awestruck by the sight of river front10. The weather was chilly, windy and awesome. There was love in air really because at every small intervals there were couples romancing around, this literally reminded me of marine lines. Sooner it was getting awkward for us as we were with my grandparents. Hence we left soon.
Figure 10 Sabarmati RIver Front
So if you are at Ahmadabad don’t forget to be at Sabarmati River Front mostly at the time of sunrise and sunset. After talking walk around we left the place, insanely eating ice-cream in the winter. I mean who eats ice-cream in winters. I know you thought to yourself “I do eat” (wink). We returned to the hotel room, ate and went into the bed. But guess what I didn’t sleep I continuously kept on reading “Fifty shades of grey” till 3am, mad of me, I know but that was all because I had slept the whole afternoon. So I finally passed out.
Chapter 5: The last day of the trip (18th December 2017)
I woke up the next morning around 7:30am. We had our return train at 1pm. So we had just few hours left to spend in Ahmadabad. We had our light breakfast. Our bad luck was that it was Monday and everything was closed and we couldn’t see anything. Thus dad decided to sit and watch news of Gujarat elections. Everyone was going to do something of their own. If you know me closely then you might know that I have an Instagram page of poems with 4750 followers, one of the followers was at Ahmadabad he saw my Instagram stories and decided to meet me, I said why not. It was a 20mins ride for him still he came all over to meet me. I was so glad. We had a good time chit chatting, we clicked few pictures. His name Is Rudrik Joshi, he suggested few places where we could go. Everyone was lazy not ready to move. Thus only I and my mom went to National Handloom Center in Ahmadabad as suggested by Rudrik.
Mom was very excited to shop. She was scanning all the things at the mall and I was getting bored. Then even I started to search for good stuff that I could buy. Suddenly I noticed it was 11:30am and we had train at 1pm. So I asked my mom to rush. I said rush to the cash counter and that’s enough of shopping. We were done with it. We took a cab and returned back to hotel room. On reaching hotel we got the news from dad that BJP had won the Gujarat Elections thus everyone was happy.
We reached in time, hurried and packed our backs and left for Ahmadabad Railway station. On the railway station our train was announced it was about to arrive. Soon we were in the train that was coming from Bikaner and its last stop was Bangalore. Hence undoubtedly the train was completely packed with luggage, all kinds of people, from Rajasthan, from Maharashtra and South Indians.
The train journey is incomplete without a cranky kid. Yes lots of kids around my compartment. From Ahmadabad to Kalyan my home is 9hours train journey. Yet this time I was lucky to have a handsome hunk in adjacent to my compartment. Until evening I was doing nothing apart from blushing whenever he passed by. He was really handsome like a south Indian movie hero, with trimmed beard and he flaunted a black jacket, which was adding to his killer look. Then I got friendly with all the kids around the coach. Through one of the kid I got to know the black jacket was her jija ji. That meant the black jacket guy was married. My inner mind cried and laughed at the same time (Such a kid I am). In this dream world I didn’t even realized I had reached my destination.
The train stopped at an uncertain location just before Kalyan Railway Station. Guess what the black jacket was standing just behind me, waiting for the station to arrive. Finally the journey ended, I had to say bye to Black Jacket in my mind. As soon as I reached Kalyan Railway Station I took a sigh of relief of being back home. We reached home by 11:30pm at the end we even lost one of our luggage but without any issues we got it back we had left it in the auto rickshaw and lucky he was waiting at Rickshaw stand after dropping us home.
Finally I can conclude that all is well when it ends well. The trip made me learn many things. Gujarat thought me the act of sharing. It is rightly said that you get to learn and experience more from travelling than we learn from books. Gujarat was a calm place not like Mumbai never sleeping at all. But Mumbai is Mumbai my city of dreams. In Gujarat everyone
would sleep before 11pm. No restaurants or stalls open after 11pm. People here are very religious and connected to the culture closely. Yeah this is how I found Gujarat peaceful and slow at pace. Ending the blog with the tagline “Yaha Khushboo hai Gujarat Ki, Kuch Din gujariye Gujarat me!”
Adding few pictures from the trip
Travel Blog by: Deepika Devendra Kumar
Instagram: @dp_writes
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