We started up to Hemkund Saheb early next morning on mules. The climb was steep and it was not really fun on the mules. It was rather cold and we had some heavy duty cold warm clothes. The air gets thinner and the breathing gets labored.
We reached the Gurudwara just before the ‘ardas’ which is some sort of aarti and we got delicious hot halva as Prasad. There is a TV channel that broadcasts the proceedings live – Chandrikla TV I think.
The Hemkund Saheb is a lovely little gurudwara nestling amongst the hills there. There is a big pond where people were taking dips in that biting cold! The beauty, peace and serenity of the place needs to be experienced. Most of us felt the vibration of a holy place. It seems this place is one of the 4 holiest shrines for the Sikhs. We made it in time for the ardas, which was again lucky for us.
Next to the Gurudwara was a Laxman temple. It struck us that it is very rare to see a Laxman temple. I don’t remember ever being to one.
The hills next to the Gurudwara were covered with flowers – much more in quantity and variety than we encountered in the Valley of Flowers. There was white flower called the Brahmakamal which is in bloom only during this time of the year. The hillside was full of these flowers. I climbed up the hillside to take a closer look and to photograph them and to my dismay, found the hillside full of plastic bottles. I must have seen over 500 of them in the short time I was there. I thought of collecting a few of them, but then the terrain was rough, not conducive to movement and also, I realized that I did not see rubbish bins nearby. I wrote to the Uttarakhand Tourism Board about this and didn’t get any reply. I’m sure nothing will happen.
We had good Dal Khichdi as langar along with tea and did some ‘Seva’ – washed utensils and decided to head back.
Sitting on a mule climbing up is a good experience, but when it is going downwards – now that was a different experience altogether, especially for me. Since one is leaning forward, the family jewels keep getting hit by the constant jerks of the mule trotting. Not a good experience!
We reached our camp and retired for the night.
Niranjan Bangera
36 Properties Pvt Ltd
09870215520
- Real Estate Investors
- Real Estate Brokers
- Mutual Fund Distributors
If you feel this has been helpful, please forward this newsletter to your friends.
To subscribe, please click on http://eepurl.com/bhFGwf
0 Comments