Amarnath

There are many tales around this mystical place where every year thousands of pilgrims visit Amarnath in India.

 

Where there are communal disturbance between Hindus and Muslims in most of the parts in India sometimes, this place was itself discovered by a Muslim a shepherd “Mallik”. It is said that a dream prompted him to go and find this place. There are many stories relating to both these communities indirectly bonding to each other with reference to this place.

 

Baba Bhairavnath one of the sadhus who come quite often to Amarnath says once Bholenath came near this place and spoke to Muslim Gods and asked if he could drink water nearby, they said if they could let him drink water, then what could Lord Shiv would give in return. It is said that Bholenath replied anything they would ask for. Muslim Gods let Lord Shiv drink water and asked him to come to Mecca & Madina.

 

So Lord Shiv has reference in Islam too.

There are many Muslims people nearby the campsite where pilgrims visit, these people provide help and food to all the pilgrims. They call Lord Shiv as “Peer Baba” and have there own version of belief.

 

Which is also an another reference, that Islam believes by reference of Quran, that Allah had send many emissaries in the world to spread love and peace and Lord Shiv is one of them.

 

Either of the tales from a Hindu or Muslim, people of different communities refer Amarnath as a Holy, Peaceful and once in a lifetime journey.  Amarnath is completely surrounded by snow capped Mountains. Mountains are peaceful. The complete surrounding is peaceful. The road and the path opens only once every year because it is almost covered in snow and when snow melts away people can visit Amarnath.

 

Moral: God sets many examples to people to stay in peace and love each other. I pray and wish that keeping these tales and stories in mind people of both communities start loving and respecting each other all over again.

Bangalore to OOTY

Mode of Transport: Car

If you ever plan to go to OOTY from Bangalore always leave very early in morning. I left at around 4:30 am, I mentally calculated that I should be there in Ooty at around 10:00 am and spend my entire day moving around int he wonderful city. I also tagged myself with a ROUTE map as

Reached Nanjangud via Mysore Ring Road and took a break for breakfast. After this break left towards Gundalpet which came around 8:30 am. I thought maybe I am running late but with the speed I was driving 110 kmph , it was pretty much ok. Reached Bandipur forest and then the check post, here you are asked your destination and purpose or maybe sometimes some smart bugs which you cannot call it as bribe from Tamil Nadu Check post officials. They are charming people who also let you pass by, without giving anything too.

Then comes a short cut which saves around 40 kms to ooty which you take and I recommend you take it, as the next set of drive/journey would be a good experience which you may never forget. The road which runs through the Madumalai forest is meant for only one vehicle at a time. Whenever you see a opposite vehicle approaching you, kindly slow down or you would get run over by the speeding monsters, so I slowed down and many a times came off the road to get into the mud road. The approaching vehicles are mostly local jeeps which ferry people from one village/town to other via the forest road. The jeeps are generally full and as these drivers are mostly locals, they do not entertain others to use there road. So a kind advice to all, slow down and give way to people.

Well then you come over a start of zig zag pattern route which runs into big mountains. Driving here is very interesting as you always have to run the car on 2^nd or 3^rd gear. I have no clue how an Auto gear car would run in this 40 around hair pin curves. :-)

Reaching on top would get you into OOTY. It took nearly 5 ½ straight hours to get here.

Moment you reach here you tend to forget your tiredness and start making plans to explore this small town which is 2700 mts above sea level. Check in to your booked hotel and start exploring the city. It is a pretty relaxed & setback city where anyone can stretch and pass out there stress and revive themselves.

Make sure you do and visit these places and atleast spend 3-4 hours each.

Biological Gardens: Spend some time in the lawn, best time to visit near evening.

Nilgiris Express: Reservation in advance would be a good option to go to Coonor and back.

Boating: Only if you have energy on the first day.

Dodbetta: Good to visit in morning.

Tea Factory: On the way to Dodbetta Shop for some Quality Tea. Tea is generally good and classy.

Wellington: Relaxed and a good drive

Coonoor: Drive through the estate seems like a dream

Pykara Lake: Is too beautiful to relax.

Food in Ooty maybe a problem if it is not served in your hotel. You need to go to the city and find yourself a good hotel to eat. Food is not expensive. I ate lot of Kerala Parotas and Egg curry. I liked it rather. Coffee was great too. There is also a local delicacy for non vegetarians and veggies.

Non Vegetarians: Pork Curry and Rice

Vegies: Awesome Sambar and Rice.

Rice is something very common in south India and is available mostly in every hotel.

Shopping: Nothing great to shop other than Tea and coffee, yeah but off course chocolates which are home made and are a good buy.

Commercials: Since it is tourist setback city every fancy item is available and for a fancy price ofcourse.

Coming back to Bangalore: Always make your plan such that you reach Bangalore by evening so that you can relax with a good night sleep. So leave ooty around by 11:30 am, coming down by the same way 40 curves road, keep an important thing in mind, always use 2^nd gear to come down, Else your brake drums and brake would give away by the heat they generate. Never rush and speed down the valley. While you are driving you can also smell your brakes getting brunt up, this is ok and natural for any vehicle at this situation. In case of any Brake failure feeling where you cars do not stop immediately on applying brakes, you can always slow down with your hand brake and shut off your engines and relax for atleast 20 mins so that your brakes are cooled down and active again. The driver should never panic in situations like these because if there are much people in the vehicle they would make it very difficult to the driver to handle the drive later :-) .

Timing should be such that you pass the forest area by evening atleast and reach Nanjangud for your evening Tea break.

Overall I am sure the whole journey would be great and you would keep this one in mind for a long long time to come; as with me.

My experience: Awesome and somewhat adventurous

• Drive to ooty was very nice, a non stop one
• Moving around ooty and seeing my family relaxing was a nice feeling
• Had a near fatal experience when my brakes failed while coming down of the cliff 40 hair pins turns. So had to apply hand brakes and gears changes to stop the car
• Attacked by Lemurs in Madumalai forest while filming other animals. So never get down from your vehicle at any cost.

Thanks to Pink Chaddis!!!

Finally, valentine day is over and done.

It was cool though and amazingly there were no violence in Bangalore or any kind of moral policing issues from anyone. Infact, I was expecting something, but nothing never happened. People are laughing on the group who hyped themselves like anything for nothing. They also gave out a verdict saying we want peace and no violence, if that so then why they took violence in there own hands and struck at people.What made then change all of a sudden such that they went hiding in rat holes. 

!!!! The Pink Chaddi campaign. !!!!!. I am not sure who brought up this idea, but who ever did really made lot of sense in a much humor way to the so called group of protectors of culture. Women of many groups and sects came together, they collected lots and lots of undergarments bra and panties (chaddis) and posted the same to the group head house/office. It was the best cheesy or cheeky mock up to bring the whole situation down under control. Good and well done for the group by whose efforts the Valentine day was a another success in the city. 

Freedom is not related to culture. If anyone wants to prevent a culture from degrading or from diluting it, they should follow ways to preach a culture than controlling people . Controlling others is no choice but happily preaching something is very much appreciated. 

If anyone thinks they need to teach something what could be the best way, the only way I think is patience and sensibility of teaching and preaching a subject. Imagine you are a school kid and in school if a teacher shouts or screams at you while on learning a subject, you would never learn it. It was the teachers & the parents patience which brought the sense in us and we learnt things a good way. 

Teach and Preach with sense should be the moral of this story.