Streets of Badwah ( a village on the way)
Omkareshwar is 60 miles from Indore and took us about two and a half hours to get there on excellent road. The definition of "excellent" road is very different in India. It was a two lane highway with NO POTHOLES but speed bumps at random places. With every moving thing crossing in every direction and going through the GHAT( mountain pass) is a feat that only Indian drivers can achieve. I very quickly figured out that if you question ( even for a second) the driver's judgement , you are asking for a stress related illness in no time. So, just sit back , relax and enjoy the ride.
We saw monkeys on the road side and passed through villages and then there was a temple just before the entering the pass. This is a typical Indian thing to have a temple before entering the pass, so that you can pray for your safety everytime you enter or leave the mountain area. ( i guess yo uare risking your life everytime with all the trucks and vehicles crossing every which way)
Omkareshwar is situated on an island in the river Narmada. It has the temple of Shiva and it is said to have one of the twelve Shiv Lingams in the country. Shiva is one of the trinity that run the universe , others being Vishnu and Brahma. A little lesson on Hinduism: The trinity Shiva , Vishnu and Brahma have a division of labour in running the universe. Brahma creates the place , Vishnu runs it and Shiva destroys it ( if things get really bad) and the cycle goes not for ever. Vishnu , since he has to maintain the place, takes various incarnations to try to teach us humans how to live properly ( Rama , Krishna , Buddha and others all being his incarnations) , but when things get out of control , Shiva has to interfere and destroy everything. So, you see it is very important to keep Shiva happy.
The place is beautiful and colorful. We wanted to see the Shiva Lingam and offer the prayers. As soon as we parked the car we were surrounded by the "pandas" ( God's facilitators) to help us navigate through the place and offer our prayers to the God Shiva. Shekhar and Binu negotiated the price and it turned out that the normal line to get to the temple will be at least two hours wait but we could get the VIP line for 100 Rs each ( 2 dollars). We decided to do that and were whisked through the maze in 15 minutes. Still inside is not for the weak of heart. It was dark and cramped and very very small, but it was worth seeing the Shiv and his followers. People come from all over ( this is an important place but not the big four) . If you are curious about Shiva Lingam , take a look at the wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lingam ....
It was a wonderful outing with my family and once again we really enjoyed each others company as well as the place. Bina is scared to boating ( seems like 10 years ago , we did the same thing and she thinks we almost drowned...I beg to disagree completely , it was just a little fast current..) so we had to trick her into boating and in the end she did have fun.
This a all i have to say about today.....नमस्ते सरोज
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteall you have to say about today is "hi saroj"? UPDATE: nevermind, i figured it out: Namaste :)
ReplyDeletei guess that was lost in translation when i used google translate.