Chokri ki khoj mein naukrishuda Udham Singh

A famous adage says, “History has a bad habit of repeating itself”, but its repetition was good for me. After getting placement offers from Capital One, US and Inductis, Gurgaon, India (which is the ultimate aim of any IIT’an or for that matter, any student), obviously I needed some time and my space to enjoy. I didn’t have much time to go home, so, I planned to visit Ajanta-Ellora caves and Ghrishneshwar Jyotirling. There are enough reasons for this thinking of mine.
1. There are 5 jyotirling in maharashtra out of 12 in India. I had visited all of them during my tenure at IIT. Now, I didn’t remember what all things I demanded, may be job is one of them. And thing in return is as simple as a polite Thank You. Now that I am placed, I wanted to thank them. Ideally, I should have gone to all of them, but when constraints are there, a human mind is intelligent enough to convince all opposite thoughts. This is called Self Defense Mechanism according to psychologists. This is how I convinced myself, “Essentially all jyotirling are equal, so I’ll go to one place and tell the God to convey my warm regards to all.”
2. During my last trip, I couldn’t go to Ajanta and Nathsagar dam gallery.
3. Plan was easily executable with my wing-mate Prashant Gawai’s home in Aurangabad, which acts as a hub to all these places.

After making up my mind fully; went to nearest station Bhandup for getting Railway ticket, but the length of queue in front of ticket counter was very similar to the one in front of ration shops in any Indian village. We had no other option left than to book a bus seat. And the king got seat in Samrat Travels. It was last seat and one can’t imagine how peaceful the journey was, if one hasn’t traveled for 10 hours in a bus, that too at night. We both could feel the smoothness…… of road; started counting holes in road till the point after which we didn’t know the counting.

December 12, 2006 Bus started at 10:30 pm from IIT main gate, and with 2-3 stops in between for people to attend natural calls, it left us at Aurangabad bus-stand at 9:30 am. A natural cheer was there on Gawai’s face, and I was realizing the truth of famous proverb, “Apni gali mein kutta bhi sher hota hai.” We switched two autos from there and reached BhavsinghPura, a small town on the outskirts of Aurangabad encompassing many colonies. Prashant’s home and my stay was in Pethe Nagar and this name is due to original owner of the land Mr. Pethe. Now, public opinion is increasing to change it to Saket Nagar. Nobody is there from Pethe’s family to oppose the move.

Anyways, we reached the destination at 10:00 am. I found the whole Gawai family waiting for their son like the kingdom was waiting for their prince to come back after the war victory. After gulping a cup of tea and pohe, our body was demanding a small nap of around 10 hours, but we as any other normal human being were racing against time. After taking bath, at 12:15 pm. we started our journey to the lord’s feet, Ghrishneshwar jyotirling on Rampyari, Gawai’s bike. She is 19 years old, and has been there since his nappy-days. People say God is everywhere but we could find him only after going 30 km and that too in a particular direction. Though after reaching there, I found all my efforts paying off; the sight was very pleasant. Lord Shiva sitting in his abode silently with one pundit sitting besides him, many a people offering him water, fruits, flowers and what not! I always wonder, doesn’t he suffer from cold taking bath all the time?? Also, when he doesn’t want to eat, why does everyone keep on pushing every eatable thing on his head? And when he doesn’t need any money, we offer him and never ever give even a penny to the needy. (Beggars needn’t come under my definition of needy.) Shiva has always been very close to my heart, and I can feel his presence anytime, so being in one of his 12 guest houses was the prime honor that I received from him. People die with the wish of visiting this place and here, I was called twice. What a luck!

I thanked him for whatever I have got in life, and with a promise to myself that I’ll bring my family to this place, we both left the place at 1:30 pm. Just around 500 m from the temple, we saw an accident of bike slipping, though not a big one. We pushed bike to one side of road and asked if we could take the driver to the nearest hospital but he denied; may be because of the yuga in which we are living. Today, one is forced not to believe his own son, leave alone a stranger. He thanked us a lot and we started our journey back. If all the stories of God testing people in different ways are true, then we are going to pass in this test of accident.

Reached Aurangabad at 2 pm, and measured all dimensions of road network; visited almost everything: Gul-mandi, Ganesh Murti, Jamia Milia Ul Uloom, Holy Cross church, Little Flower school, Milind College of Arts, Shivaji chowk, Ambedkar university, Buddha vihar. Gul-mandi is main market of the city. And I simply loved the name of the college Jamia Milia Ul-Uloom. We visited Ambedkar university that is the result of efforts solely by Ambedkar, one of the eminent personalities produced by indian soil. Inside the university, we visited Buddha-vihar, where I saw the famous 22 principles of Sh. B.R.Ambedkar. Ambedkar was the pioneer for conversion of Hindu Dalit masses to Buddhism. I can’t comment whether it was a right decision or wrong but I find some of those 22 principles faulty and they seem to me as a mere result of frustration of a person who was neglected by his own religion. As per me, he misused Buddhism to strengthen his Dalit movement, and till today the misconception is going on, thus carving out unnecessary differences in two religions. Now even a person with intelligence much lower than average IQ level can also understand that Aurangabad is probably the most diverse city in terms of religion, with the whole population comprising of almost all big religions, Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, Jainism. Main language is marathi only. Road network is good. City is said to be developed by Mughal emperor Aurangzeb. He is said to have lived here for most of his life and the sole purpose of his leaving Delhi was to capture Maratha King Shivaji which he never could do in all his lifetime. There are 52 gates in the city, and in earlier times, there used to be a wall outside the city. There is a district stadium which now is used by all political parties for their rallies, by public for other functions; infact for all the things except sports. This is the condition of not only this stadium, but for almost all public property across whole nation.

The journey to these places was only of one hour but the thoughts were enormous in number as well as in content and thus, food was the need of hour. We reached Thaat-baat, supposed to be the best place in Aurangabad to eat; ate to the extent possible. Waited for around 2 hours in queue for getting a train ticket for the next day, finally all in vain; then booked a bus ticket, though more than 200 bones were aching still from the last night journey. Rampyari drove us back at around 6 pm. Switched few channels on TV. Next day trip was planned for whole Gawai family and me; a car was booked. After checking mails, a bed was waiting for me and I was waiting for that; slept at 11 pm. This is how came the end of the first day of my mission.

December 13, 2006 I don’t know what happened for next 9 hours (not only me, no one ever have known what happens when one is asleep.) Free from normal routine and then after eating Sheera/Halwa as breakfast, started our journey of around 100 km (99 to be very precise), in Indica at 10:15 am. In the midway, one small child of around 6-7 years of age threw a stone on the car in one village and when we stopped the car, he fled away, Though I realize now what harm it could have done but I remember when I was in 2nd or 3rd class, I also did the same in Bhiwani, so I was actually amused over the whole 5 min drama. Reached a place named Ajanta View Point at 12’O noon which is 20 km away from the caves. Caves were first noticed by a British person from this place when he came for a tiger hunt. There is a small grass-garden named King’s Circle, took few snaps there, then bought few stones from there worth Rs. 150/- after a lot of negotiation. These stones will only serve as show pieces, or gifts. Structurally speaking, they are different types of sedimentary rocks, and for all geography students, they are modified versions of Stalagmites and Stalactites. There are two paths from Ajanta View point to caves, either 6 km trekking downside or 20 km by road. Second path was preferred since we didn’t have much time and this wasn’t a college trip, rather a family business.

Reached the international cultural heritage site at 1 pm; had our lunch there and during lunch discussions, came out some old memories of Prashants liking towards red balloons, kites etc. and as his father was telling me, I don’t know which part of the story was making he feel ashamed. Then, I discussed the legalities of stone business with one shop-owner, and believe me, the discussion wasn’t furious. No personal vehicle is allowed to go near caves; parking is around 3 km away from the site and then one has to go there by pollution free vehicle specially designed for this purpose. Bus took us very near to the caves, and moving around 150-200 m higher, we found ourselves at the gate of first cave, one of the most desired places in India by any tourist. There are total 32 caves, predominantly close to Buddhism. Ajanta caves have paintings, while Ellora have carvings. I liked Ellora more because most of the ajanta’s paintings are on their death-bed. They only show things which guides want to show to normal people after charging Rs. 400. We didn’t give away the money, since we visited jyotirling a day back, Thank God. But we had the experience of listening them for few bucks, and finally am happy not having listened to their famous fattes (for example, Buddha’s mother saw a white elephant circling her in dream and when she asks about it from some astrologer, its explanation turned out to be that she is going to give birth to a great human being :D) Want to hear more, ok take it (Buddha after attaining liberation goes back to his palace and can be seen getting served by his servants) These are the guide’s statements on the basis of pictures which only show some white elephant somewhere and some king getting served by his maids. Then, Hindu literature says Buddha was an incarnation of Lord Vishnu and there is an image of a lord with Sheshnaag over his head which can only represent Lord Vishnu of Hindu mythology. But I was surprised, rather angry over the guide’s explanations. He told that this is one Snake-God, and when I asked where did this snake-God come from in Buddhism, there wasn’t any answer? I have seen these things happen many a times, not only with this guide but many spiritual leaders.

Ajanta mainly has paintings but there are carvings as well, the biggest statue is around 20 feet while the smallest is of 1.5 inches. Most of the caves were carved out using sunlight reflected by water stalled on the base of caves. The thing can’t exactly be explained by words, that’s why people go there to see them; otherwise there have been so many great writers in history. While brain was digesting these highly complex thoughts, we all thought to have something for stomach as well, had some snacks, saw remaining caves and came back at 5:30 pm. Same bus was waiting for its respected passengers. Started back journey at 6 pm after gulping a cup of tea. No one asked when we took out the car from parking, no one enquired about the slip which was given in the start when we came back and I doubt what was the meaning of having such diligent security staff. Driver probably used to participate in racing competitions earlier. Average speed he drove with was 80 Km/Hr. Reached Sillot (a town under Aurangabad distt., 30 km away from Aurangabad) at 6:50 pm. Some classmates of Mr. Ganesh Gawai (Prashant’s father) had settled at this place and he was keen to meet them and so we all went to their place. It was a nice talk in Hindi and marathi mix. Went to their home, had a cup of tea with some biscuits; left the place at 7:30 pm. In the back journey to Aurangabad, plan got changed when Uncle suggested next day trip to Nathsagar dam gallery which I missed in my last trip. And greed of seeing the gallery came along. First thing we did after coming to the city was to meet travels agent about canceling the ticket. And then dined at Thaat Baat again; having more than 120% of capacity in our bellies, went to Pethe nagar; came back for giving ticket to the travels person; went back at 10:45 pm, and with TV on, Uncle made some plans for the next day and by 11:30 pm, I was asleep.

December 14, 2006 Woke up at 8 am; was ready to move acc. to third day plan by 9 but Prashant didn’t wake up. Obviously he was tired. Then, I thought of killing time by visiting the colony. I roamed around and found that all houses have open spaces either in 3 sides or 4 sides. After confirmation, I found out that this is the rule from authorities to have minimum 3 side open spaces of some 3-feet or so. When I came back at 9:45 am, he was asleep till now. Though I understood he must have been tired, but at that moment I thought it was the most foolish decision of mine to extend the trip to third day. There should be a limit to intruding into others independence and way of enjoying vacations, and fixing 3 days out of 9 days trip is not expected. He got up at 10:30 am, and finally, we left at 12:15 pm. First and foremost aim was to get a return ticket, and we checked if there were any left in the railways. Got a strict no from there. Then, roadways was the only option. Left Aurangabad at around 1 pm, again on Rampyari. Road was made by some economist and it was made with proper allocation of resources. Somewhere it was of concrete, somewhere it was of stones, somewhere it wasn’t there; money was fully optimized, Intelligent Indians!! Prashant’s father had chalked out the entire plan by calling Head, Nathsagar dam and he was ready to take us along to the dam.

Nath Sagar dam, the largest earthen dam in India, is made on the river Godavari (also called The Ganges of south). It is situated in Paithan, Maharashtra. Paithan is also famous as place of Saint Eknath. (Don’t ask me, who he was?) We reached their office, had one more cup of tea down our throats; went to dam along with him and one senior engineer. These people were quite smart but the people in front of them were smarter, they had to revise all their concepts before explaining anything to us. We probed into each and every minute detail about construction of the dam, its measurements, security, life, etc.; went to Gallery in the dam. For those who don’t know what a gallery is? It is a small place across the whole dam which is kept open for water to move across the dam. There is a path of soft rocks leading to the gallery for seepage of water, so as to release pressure on dam. It was 3 feet below the river bed. Saw a crab (around 0.5 feet by 0.5 feet, the biggest I ever saw) in the gallery, and when the engineer told us that we can expect snakes also (light also wasn’t there), Please try to believe me when I say we weren’t frightened. We were there till 4 pm. It is considered a sin to go to Paithan and not going to Saint Eknath’s temple.. No, not that it is some rule, just kidding :D started back journey and came back at 6 pm. Went to famous juice center of the city which is famous for college students romance. Many of the Prashant’s memories were attached to it. Moving around in the city, came back to Pethe nagar at 7 pm.

Then, saw some news.. gave some fundaes to his uncle’s children. One is in IX and other one is in X, had a nice home-made dinner; moved from there at 10 pm. Started back journey at 10:30 pm. I don’t know where all bus stopped, which station came when, I woke up when conductor was shouting Panvel, which is on outskirts of the mumbai city. Reached Sion at 6:30 am. Got into local train from there, reached Kanjurmarg at 7 am, then an auto led me into the most beautiful place on earth. IIT Bombay Hostel 6. It was 7:15 in the morning when I was entering in my home in bombay :)