Jammu - Himachal Yatra (Part 2)

Day 2 of our yatra was the longest & most eventful of all our yatras till date. So, please be patient & read through the long blog...

The morning started with a decent breakfast at the hotel. All food served in Katra town are vegetarian fare and have no onion & garlic in them. So, the food was satvic and we all enjoyed it. After breakfast, we were ready to ascend the mountain for the darshan. We had made prior arrangements & booked for the evening aarti darshan which was expected to start at 7 p.m. All the yatris in the group were of the age group 54-64. Hence, although some of us were prepared to walk up the 14 kms to have darshan of Devi, we were trying hard to get a helicopter ride for the journey up. 

Almost a month before the start of the yatra, the official site of the Shrine Board showed that no tickets were available due to rush. Then, we had made an attempt at getting helicopter tickets through the google search. This resulted in us getting trapped by a fraudster. We made the payment but soon realised it was fake and luckily managed to file FIR with the cyber crime unit and recover the amount.

Then we connected with our personal contacts and three different sources promised us to get the reservations. As the team size was large, it was proving to be a challenge. Two days before the yatra started, one source expressed inability to arrange reservations. Then we were left with two sources. On the day we landed at Jammu, source 1 managed to get us 7 reservations. The same evening the source 2 came back with 11 reservations. Four names were featuring on both lists.

In Jammu, due to security requirements, prepaid cell phone numbers do not work. Only post paid connections work. The helicopter reservation SMS messages from the Shrine Board reached only two of the yatris as other had prepaid numbers. We misunderstood the message and thought we need to immediately pay online. There was further confusion, due to the website not showing the names of the passengers. So, we ended up paying duplicate online for 4 passengers. On realising this, we stopped further payments and decided to go personally to book the tickets at the helipad.

On day 2, after breakfast, the hotel gave us a free drop to the helipad in their car. Once we reached there, we booked tickets for 14 of us based on the reservations of Source 2. Two from the team then went to the Shrine Board office to get refund of the duplicate payment made earlier. The officials were extremely helpful and responsive there. However, they could not give a refund as their rules do not permit it. Instead, they enabled reservation for the 15th yatri who was missed out earlier. Hence, we got one way ticket for all yatris to go up.

At the helicopter terminal

As we were hungry by this time, we had lunch in a small dhaba just outside the helipad. The food was simple and delicious. After that, we queued up for a short ride to the helipad. The ride from Katra to the mountain top took just 5 minutes. We went up in 4 batches. The last batch was delayed by nearly an hour due to bad weather. after that, it was a 3 kilometer walk (mostly downhill) to reach Bhavan - the building that has the main Shrine and other offices. 

The weather was cool on the mountain and it got cooler as the day came to an end. The air was crisp & clean. The atmosphere was festive with devotees chanting "Jai Mata Di" on their way to & from the shrine. We had a easy walk towards the shrine. On the way, we deposited our footwear, bags, phones etc. at a safe deposit locker. There are many large safe lockers available free for yatris. We are given a lock and key. We found an empty locker to keep our stuff and lock the same. We are allowed only money purse and any puja articles to be carried to the shrine.

We registered ourselves for the evening aarti darshan by producing our reservation print outs. Basis that, we were given entry tickets as well as prasad packets. Devotees having aarti ticket are allowed to keep personal belongings in a separate place near the entrance to the aarti hall. I managed to do my evening prayers in the open place nearby. As we had time, we managed to get a quick darshan through a VIP queue which took us only about 15 minutes. After that, we came back to the place where we had assembled for the aarti.

Enroute to Bhavan from helipad

There were approximately 100 people waiting for this darshan. At 7 p.m. we were taken to a hall and made to sit comfortable. Here we were witness to one of the best pujas one can get to see. The hall where we were seated faces the holy cave which was decorated in an huge entrance of gold. We were handed a booklet printed in Devnagari script which had a compilation of the different prayers that were to be chanted. The puja was led by a main priest who was chanting and another priest who was there to conduct the aarti. We participated in the prayers, the bhajans that followed and the aarti too which was broadcast live across Shraddha Channel, YouTube, Facebook etc. and witnessed remotely by thousands of devotees. The whole function went on for about a 90 minutes. 

After the aarti, we were allowed to have darshan of the Pindis (3 stones) representing the Devis Durga, Mahalakshmi & Saraswati at a nearby holy cave for which we had to walk through a cave which was covered in marble tiles on all sides. After this, we moved out to the main assembly area. On the way, we had some tea, collected our belongings and slowly trugged our way back. There is a custom of visiting Lord Bhairavnath temple after having darshan of Devi. We did not go there as the temple is situated at a height and none of us had the energy to do the climb. There is a winch service going up but that was closed by 7 p.m. even though the temple is open throughout the day.

We were told that there is a electric car service for part of the return journey (7 out of 14 Kms). The last service was at 10.30 p.m. Luckily, we managed to get tickets for all of us (Rs. 210 per person). The electric car service was fast. It took us only 25 minutes to cover the 7 kms. As the vehicle is very silent and there were many yatris going up & down on that road, our driver was frequently honking and creating a noise pollution.

After he dropped us, we had a long (2 hours plus) walk down to reach the plains. Even walking down is painful on the calf muscles, the knee joints, the ankles etc. We took frequent halts for rest. On the way, we had thunder, lightening and a drizzle that added to our woes. When we finally reached the plains, we dead tired & hungry too. Luckily, we got autorickshaws to drop us back to our hotel. When we finally hit the bed (without dinner), it was nearly 3 a.m.

Thus ended the long, eventful, memorable and tiring day 2 of the yatra.