To Dwaraka.

Left Ahmadabad at 8 in the morning by tourist cab skimming over gleaming roads ,hoping to cover 470 kms by evening.Yes the roads in the city are not potholed and are as smooth as the National highways .It is true of the state highways as well.
The density of buses at the time we travelled was quite thin, in the suburbs .Share autos bulging with commuters rule the roads.

For several kms nearly 50 kms or so industrial houses and factories crowd road sides.There after for nearly 300 kms it is cotton plants with white pods ,waving in the wind ,that dominate the entire breadth of land visible from the car window

Phatphati's or motorbikes fixed with a small wagon at the rear is the most favoured mode of transport by the rustics, who pack themselves in and also hang out at the back!It also doubles as cargo carriers.Bullock carts like in Tamilnadu have also gone missing . Phatphati's have replaced them .

When we broke journey for a late breakfast on a road side inn i was disappointed by the fare--idli dosa .Did i come all the way from Tnadu ,the land of geniune idli dosas to eat the same in Gujarat?I was looking forward to breakfasting on Dhoklas .No hope. Didn't get it any where.[i finally did in Dwaraka]

The same goes for authentic Gujarathi food .It was simply not available .Be it at Ahmedabad or at Jamnagar in the restaurants we stopped .All we got was paneer masala, chapathi's and fried rice!
Have the original cuisine distinctive of each region in India have given way to a standardisation of food across its length and breadth?Idli dosas the ready mix variety are served for breakfast, lunches and dinner are invariably Punjabi dishes in local flavour and desserts are almost always gulab jamuns.This is the same case down south at Trichi or Thirunellveli or up north in Gujarat.There is no denying that the cuisine of Punjab and Tamilnadu are tasty and acceptable ..yet..

Those who are trying to find strands of unity running through current India can add this latest standardisation of food across Bharat as a important find!

From Jamnagar the land is full of thorny bushes that was reminiscent of the landscape near Madurai.And became more and more arid as we travelled on .

The flower beds in the medians of the NH were all withered with want of care .Barring one small stretch bordered by Reliance industries ,which was in full blaze of colours.How ever tolls are collected promptly at an interval of 40 kms!

As we neared Dwaraka around 4 pm ,huge wind turbines with rotating blades greeted us on a land that was dry, thorny and arid.

Photo: The wind turbines near Dwaraka.

Inhuman rights.

Several years back i saw a Hollywood film about the travails of a unwed teenaged [17 yrs] white mother ,in the u.s.A real life story that shocked me ,bringing down the scales so to say,the regard and admiration i had for the highly affluent western society's charitable and humanitarian nature and their highly democratic governments that flaunted their credentials as impeccable in protecting and respecting individual liberties and freedoms as against the state .

The young mother was struggling to take care of her baby ,on her own and somehow managed to do just about but not in step with prevailing standards of living.
Then came a stern and dried up woman, a social worker,who came to her house inspecting and decided that she was not competent to take care of her baby and forcibly takes away that infant with the help of the police turning a deaf ear to piteous pleas and cries of that young mother .
After several years and in better financial circumstances ,she petitions the court and after a long struggle she regains the custody of her child.

What shocked me was the utter callousness and indifference shown to a young womanmother 's emotions , by the State .It is the highest form of cruelty to separate forcibly a mother and her infant.
Why make all this boastful rhetoric's of being the torch bearers of individual liberties to the entire world and give lectures on human rights,etc, etc, to lesser evolved [in their eyes] species like us when a mother can't even keep the child she has carried and painstakingly delivered.It is a cold blooded denial of a basic right of an individual.

Why label Hitler as fascist when he snatched away blue eyed and blond haired babies at birth from their unwilling parents , to be raised as Aryans ,as the future rulers of the world in a sanitised environment run by the State when the same thing is being done in the name of welfare of the child in these Western democracies?.

What is the guarantee that foster parents would not abuse the child so generously handed over to their care?If not overtly in a physical manner it could covertly --emotionally and psychologically.

After seeing that film the great wall of admiration i had built at their humanitarian approaches and staunch belief in individual liberties came crashing down.And was terribly glad and relieved to be born in this country where the State or any religious entity never interferes in the individual right of any person to raise his or her child in the manner that pleases them ,whether one is economically and emotionally fit to do so or not.

We have whole families raised on platforms, way sides ,by beggars, rag pickers, vagabonds ,gypsies or the very poor , freely and merrily.Even if our State had the were withal ,i doubt whether it will ride rough shod over emotions and attachments in the name of societal good.There would be no societal sanction for such acts either.

On this count there is true individual liberty in here.


PS. So far so good.Hope no pseudo human rights activists agitate for such inhuman laws in our country ,in the future.

Integrity.

After reading this piece at the museum at Sabharmathi ashram at Ahmedabad i got the answer to the question that often arose in me as to why none of none of Ghandhiji's children or grand children are in the political scene.

Photos of Sabharmati Ashram at Ahmedabad.

Ghandhiji's statue at the Sabharmathi ashram.
Ghandhiji's house ,facing the Sabharmathi river.The brown window's are of his room's.
The statue of three monkeys at the entrance .
A panoramic view of the ashram.
Charka-the spinning wheel --the symbol of indigenous economy, popularised by Ghandhiji.
The famous Salt satyagraha---a model at the ashram.
Kasturiba's image in the museum at the ashram.
Kasturi ba's room.
The place where prayers are conducted.
Panoramic view of the Sabharmathi river and the ashram on its banks.
Birds feeding at the ashram.

Sabharmati ashram.

The statue of three monkeys meet the eyes as one steps into the ashram.

Ghandhiji twinkles with a positive energy in every nook and corner of the hall that displays his photographs and sayings.It is no wonder that this frail looking man brought the mighty British empire down .Since, even long after his demise ,this place where he once lived leading a Ashramite life is still crackling with his amazing energy and inner strength!

It is also a tranquil place ,with Sabharmathi river flowing quietly ,by.There are thousands of birds ,chirping, singing fluttering ,flying ,circling ,pecking at the seeds placed in bowls,that brings nature right into the middle of the busy city of Ahmadabad!It is more or less like a bird sanctuary!

As i sat under a tree right in front of Ghandhiji's room facing the river , the prayer sung by a group of poor children at 6 pm , the time Ghandhiji is said to have conducted evening prayers ,wafted across ,synchronising with the musical songs of the birds whirling around and i could feel the peace seeped in the environment largely due to his saintly presence wash over me.

What a place! At once patriotic as well as spiritual!

Kudos to those who are maintaining this ambiance so well .

The following lyrics from a film in praise of Gandhji came to my mind

'Dedhi hame aazadhi bina khadeg bina dhal,
'Sabharmathi ke sant tu ne kardiya kamaal
Raghu pathi ragava raja Ram'

And the favourite hymn of Ghandhi ,

'Vaishanva janato tene kahiye ,je peed paraayi jane '....

Meaning.One who is a Vaishnav [devotee of vishnu] knows the pain of others.

Ahmedabad.

Photo :Birds eye view of Ahmedabad city

After living in Delhi for a decade and then in Chennai for several decades, there after i find any other city that i happen to visit ,including Mumbai not up to mark.Delhi definitely takes the cake.

Hence i didnt find any thing to gawk about in Ahmadabad the city i had to touch on our way to Dwaraka from Chennai.The Sabharmathi river that bisects the city is remarkably clear and clean ,so are the road sides .That's about it .It is definitely a few notches above other major cities like Hyderabad or Bangalore.It has a lot of high rises towering over the road sides.A sort of mini Mumbai.There are the miserable shanties of the poor ,but negligible when compared to those at Chennai.They appear to be the temporary shelters of migratory workers.

I found more scooters than motorcycles on the streets and several women driving them .Those that are young wrap themselves with chunni's tightly over their head and face leaving only a slit for the eyes ,and though slight in frame look quite menacing.Was this a local version of the burkha?The cab driver explained that this was the current fashion of all young women ,to protect themselves from heat dust and smoke and didn't add, to stave of unwanted stares and unwelcome advances in a primarily a patriarchal society, which i am deducing.

Sardar Vallabahi Patel's statues greets one at various intersections.

Buses at 'first look' didn't seem as plenty as they are in Chennai ,nor that glamorous looking.And they all look half empty.No over crowding or foot board travels .But the bus drivers follow the traffic rules like signalling to other motorists, that is totally absent in our metro.

A huge tap gushing out water in torrents in a intersection did make my head turn as it appeared to be suspended in mid air as did the famous golden or jade shiv lingam of Somnath suspended in mid air did to devotees and marauders alike, in days gone by.

No, no, Sri Modi was not stalking ,up and down .In fact there wasn't a single poster or a cut out or a hoarding any where in the city ,unlike those of his counterparts in here.The city, from my hotel window

Synchronisation of bhajans and birds on the way to Beyt Dwaraka

On the way to Beyt Dwaraka , an island in the Arabian sea in Gujarat, on a boat to visit the residence of lord Krishna ,32 kms away from Dwaraka, a flock of snow white sea birds flew over us, a boat load of pilgrims,within touching distance, fearlessly ,whilst a group of village women sang bhajans in praise of Krishna\Narayana,all the way through,with touching devotion.

sabharmati ashram-bird songs during the evening prayer.

Photos

Photos by Vidat.

A memorable night at Ranchi.

Since the impending trip to Dwaraka has triggered my memories conversely of that of Ranchi ,let me fill in some more gaps ,which i assure ,is only a honest narration of events that took place on a dark and eerie night at Ranchi and not to stir up any emotions or to politicise.

Advaniji's rath yatra was all set to enter Bihar and there was palpable excitement every where.The colony that we stayed in was full of upper middle class and rich traders and merchants --Gujarati's, marwadis and mainly Sikhs.A stone throw away from our quarters was a bridge over river Subraneka which was more or less like a huge drain ,linking this colony to a huge sprawling tenements of 1 lakh or so poor Muslims as well as tribals.They worked as tailors, washer men , scavengers , maids etc.

On that particular evening rumours were rife in our colony of a impending attack by Muslims on us, incensed by the rath yatra .Sardarji's collected in groups on the streets and in houses whispering to each other.
Whilst feeding my primary school going children their evening meal our next door neighbour ,a middle aged Sikh knocked on our door asking us to vacate the premises immediately and spend the night with them ,further down that road fearing an attack any time, in the night!

I have never come across any sort of communal violence in any of those many cities i had lived so far nor did my husband.And why should any one want to harm us?

Seeing our skeptic expressions one of our neighbours a Gujarati ,whose teeth was chattering in fear said 'it requires very little provocation for these desperate men to to stab one with a knife whilst we hesitate and cower in fear.'
Though we didn't feel any fear ,we decided that it was the prudent thing to pay heed to those who seemed to have lived through such ordeals, hence we locked the house and left it and followed the Sikh with our kids.

As we walked towards that Sikh's house i looked up and was totaly taken aback.Every roof top was lined with young men of the respective families ,with guns aimed at the street leading to the bridge!All of them silhouetted clearly and their guns glinting in the moonlight.
I have seen such scenes only on wild west and daku films and in sholay.But this scene was no reel but real! Wasn't it tough to procure a gun license?Presumably not, in our wild wild East!

I was further shocked to see the state of the mistress of the house .A tall and confident and otherwise a fearsome woman shuddering in fear , visiting the toilet often to relieve her bladder,muttering that they were neither safe from Hindus or from Muslims!All the Sikhs had sold their houses located near their shops in the main market place on being surrounded by a howling crowd of labourers and maids hurling abuses at them on the immediate after math of Smt.Indira ghandhi's death and bought and built houses enmasse in this colony and banded together for safety,since no policeman came to their rescue nor was the army called in,unlike in neighbouring West Bengal.It made me squirm when i first heard this.

There was fear every where that night.Yet neither my husband nor i felt any apprehension Having never been exposed to such a situation in our life before we just couldn't understand or comprehend the panic gripping all those around us.That of a violent death.

We had a dinner of phulkas along with the Sikh who was a gracious host ,who however ate poorly and slept in one of their bedrooms whilst their young sons in their 20's kept vigil all through the night on the roof tops with their mother pacing the house nervously and restlessly.

The night passed without any further incident and the next day curfew was imposed and CRPF men started patrolling the streets ,after 2 tribals were set on fire in the sprawl late that memorable night.The curfew was lifted after few days and things were back to normal.

Let's see.

Since school days Gujarat meant, the birth place of Mahatma Gandhi .Then in my teen years i associated Gujarat with garba dance and later in early 90's with cleanliness,when in our rented quarters at Ranchi ,flanked by Gujarati tenants and landlord ,conversation would often start with ,when we met in the after noons with them [house wife's]saying that they had just finished poncha [ mopping] and then end it ,reminding themselves aloud of the poncha that lay ahead of them [whether by themselves or to get their maid to do it] before the menfolk returned from work in the evening.
I would often hear water being splashed and the sounds of it being vigorously swept ,late at nights.The daily ritual of washing the kitchen after dinner and clearing up of the dirty dishes.

It was a sardarji colony and the sardaran'is would also start the day with the poncha , even in cold winter mornings.

In here [south] we wash the front entrance and steps every morning and draw kolam [rangoli]with rice flour. Poncha is only once or at the most twice a week.Washing of the kitchen at the end of the day's work in here was done by my mother ,as her generation religiously did , till she could and then left it in her later years .

I think women gain control over their dwellings only if they wield a broom and a mop and sweep and wash some part of it daily ,assuring their foot hold and dominance over a property that is actually not theirs. To the lord to whom the house belongs treats it as a inn --a resting place and the lady as its dutiful inn keeper.

From Gujarat i have side tracked into the subject of gender peculiarities.
What i intend to say is that i found Gujarati house wives, the one i happened to move with, obsessed with cleanliness, especially with mopping of their houses. It was so infectious that i too caught it [though my stay was only 3 years] and couldn't shake it off.

For several years there after my days invariably started with a poncha and ended with one in addition to the daily morning ritual of washing the entrance and decorating it with a kolam!

But of late , say for the past decade or so i have increasingly come to view Gujarat as 'Modi land'and Gandhi as well as the Gujarati's pushed to oblivion , thanks mainly due to the inde fatigable demonising ofSri Modi in the media and a diametrically opposite view in the Internet , the lavishing of praises at his governance and pinning of India's future on his shoulders.

Now i have to enter this state in order to visit Dwaraka --a divya deasm , one of the char dhams and one of the 7 mokshapuris. My first ever visit to this state.

Will i find Sri Modi stalking this region ,his rajyam menacingly , up and down whilst its population cowered in fear as media like us to believe or would it be a land of milk and honey , with gleaming roads and happy and prosperous people as the Internet would have me, believe?

Let's see ,what is in store.

PS.There i have gone and put myself in a tricky position. If i write as it is in Gujarat and if it is glowing ,the media and activists will glare angrily and if it is not then it would invite the harshest censure in the Internet world from bloggers and commentators.Only Dwarakadeesh can extricate me from my self imposed predicament.

Lucky escape's.

Photos of a crow on a transformer line in various poses ,with a pigeon thrown in .Both lived, to see the day,through!
Living dangerously.
I unwittingly caught this gory act fit only for animal channels
This is the correct perch, on the branch.

Shanthi mantra from Svetasvatara upanishad.

Ya yakogvarno bhaudha shakthiyoga,
dwarni nakaninhitarth thadathi, vichaothi chanthe vishwamadho sa deva ,
sano bhudcha shubya sayunkathu||

Thadeva ghinsadadi thyasath dvayu sthadhu chandrama ,
thadeva shukran thadu Brahma thadha pasath Prajapathi||

Tvam sthri Tvam pumanasi,
Tvam kumar uthva kumari,
tvam jeerno dhanden vanchasi,
tvam jatho bhavasi vishwatho mukhaha||

Neelha pathango harito lohithaksha|
Sathidhagarbh Ruthva samudra |
Annadhimathvam vibhutven varthse,
yatho jaathani bhuvani Vishwa||


Meaning:
Who, one without hue ,by his own powers created many hues for some hidden purpose which at the end withdraws into himself the entire universe!
May he bless us with good intellect!

That Deva or Supreme being is fire,
that deva is the sun,
that deva is the air,
that deva is also the moon,
that deva is the Brahman,
that deva is the water,
that deva is the Prajapathi!

You are the woman ,
You are the man,
You are the youth and the maiden too,
You are the old man that totters along leaning on a staff,
You are facing all directions appearing in the cosmic form!

You are the dark blue butterfly and the green parrot with red eyes,
You are the thunder cloud , the seasons and the oceans,
You are without a beginning and is all pervading
from You alone all the worlds are born!

The great seer , lord of all endow us with good thoughts!

The temple [Adhi parasakthi amman koil] next door.

Adi parasakthi amman koil flanked by arasamaram and neem trees.

No entry.

Whilst waiting to be picked up and dropped back at home I glanced up to see a young woman staring straight ahead with a bored expression ,seated near the window of a public transport --bus,probably visiting college friends to kill time ,blissfully unaware of what life has in store.Was it me ?No! It was though once upon a time ,yet it seems so fresh in mind,though i can never rush and clamber those steps quickly and balance on a moving bus with such ease ,any more.That part of life has skidded away from me for ever,but it is there for others.

Further down a young mother got out of a car clasping her baby ,at once tightly as well as with a careless confidence ,as she went into the nearby shopping mall with her husband ,who stretched out his arms to hold that trusting little bundle ,whilst she shopped.The much looked forward to 'Sunday outing'.The beginnings of a charmed circle , a world of their own, of togetherness,of dependency and of hopes.The moment so like mine ,yet it isn't mine.

It has also flashed past and has been re cycled and presented in another for me to witness and ponder on that pavement , that if life was only as uncomplicated and as certain as it appeared as a matter of course then for the gradual and normal transitions ,i wouldn't be blogging [and getting into scraps with total strangers] or hobbling ,now.

Though to scores of women ,greying like me to whom life is a gentle breeze to be relished and not a fierce gale to be weathered , the lucky ones', the general lot,[my experiences and observations tell me, is the general norm and not the exception as movies and books would have us believe],walk briskly ,hurriedly busy in their own 'No entry 'for others world.

Photo by Vidat. Gateway of India at Mumbai..

Sri Desikan's Sudarshanaashtakam.

This is a lyrical sloka, 8 in number, by Desikan [13 th cent AD] in praise of the Sudarshana chakra held by Sriman Narayana [Vishnu, Krishna].They are recited to drive away fear and to achieve one's dreams ,how so ever far fetched it may be.

**1. Prathibuta sreni bhisana varaguna stoma bhushana!
Janibhaya sthana tarena jagadvasthana karana!
Nikhila duskarma karsana nigama saddarma darsana!

Jaya jaya sri sudarshana,
Jaya Jaya sri sudarshana!

Meaning.

A terror to hordes of enemies!
Decorated by good and noble qualities!
Destroyer of all fears and the greatest fear of all , of death and re birth!
The cause of the eternal stability of the world!
Incinerator of all kinds of bad karmas!
A mirror like reflection of all the noble thoughts found in the Vedas!

Victory to thee Sri Sudarshana, Victory to thee Sri Sudarshana!

Image.Sri Sudarshana chakra

Pestilence.

My eyes open and i greet the chilly and gloomy dawn with,oh no another day to be passed ,bitten and tormented by mosquitos.

The rains have gone and chillness that had set in is yet to take leave and not that cold enough to keep these pests away.They seem to thrive in this salubrious climate ,their population has increased alarmingly ,in leaps and bounds.

Day and night in my own house it feels like being trapped under one big mosquito net ,with all the mosquito's in it.Whilst they croon in joy we all groan at the constant pricks.
The courier boy was busy fighting the swarm that greeted him instead of delivering the ware, glaring and muttering that he too burnt 4 coils and several mats every day ,that burnt a hole in his pocket as well .
Does any body care?

Whilst i sit to read the newspaper at noon, all those information gathered by reporters and try to make sense of the columns,i have no go but to roll it into two and swat those pests bothering me incessantly.
Printed journal'ism has its use .

Jarawas and Jomsen.

What business is it of those MP's in England to poke their nose into our internal matters by asking the Indian govt to abide by Supreme court's order and close down the highway cutting across the Jarawa territory in the Andamans? Do they think that they are still our colonial masters giving us lectures on preservation of our history and heritage?Were'nt the British the precursors in the immediate as well as gradual decimation of several tribes inhabiting this island like the great Andamanese and others,by building the cellular prison there and tampering with the pristine primitiveness of Andaman, that had always been given a wide berth by ancient and medieval Indian mariners?Or is there a political angle to the whole episode?

The above questions may normally arise in many in here as it also did in me after reading the news of British MPs tabling a motion in their parliament asking the Indian govt to close the ATR in consonance with a SC order...
But I am viewing this in a broader humanitarian perspective .Hence i do not mind their move if it would lead to declaring Jarawa inhabited area as World heritage centre and funds pour forth from UN to build a alternate route ,cordon off all other routes, relocate and rehabilitate all the affected populace , stop all further encroachments and do away with the unnecessary practise of the local administration to befriend these exotic tribes [senthilese inclided] by throwing biscuits etc at them ,to connect and civilise them instead strive to preserve these tribal's unhindered and free movements in these forests to which they have the first and foremost claim.And enable them to lead a life without outside interference and protect them from the prying eyes of locals, tourists,researchers and tribal experts of animal channels with their cameras.

Now why should i rush to the protection of a tribe that would probably put a arrow into me if i were to inadvertently stray into their territory?Their innocence! And their remarkable survival for 50,000 long years, by relying solely on nature coupled with the fact that they are the only known living links of the civilised world to a distant primitive past.!And they are so few ,scarcely 300 or so.

Now why can't our MPs table a motion in Parliament to restore the helicopter service in Nepal from Jamsen airfield to Mukthinath's helipad and alleviate the indignities and hardships that old and infirm devotees from India are being subjected to on account of their faith and spiritual quest in a rugged and inhospitable terrain when there is no doubting the fact that both the countries share a common cultural and religious heritage?

Photo on top.The harsh and rugged trail to Mukthinath from Jamsen town and Pokhra city in Nepal.

The himalayan grinder.

Mukthinath in Nepal is a divya desam .That is ,ancient Tamil vaishnavaite saints like Periya aazhwar and Thirumangai aazhwar in 9 th cent AD have sung verses in praise of the presiding deity Narayana.Sri Ramanujar the foremost acharya belonging to 11 th centAD has also visited the temple of Narayana\Vishnu at Mukthinath.The lore behind this temple is mentioned in detail in Vishnu purana.

This temple is situated at a height of 12,300 feet in the Himalayas.Mukthinath is a sacred place not only to Vaishnavaites but also to Tibetan Buddhists.It is also considered as one of the 51 shakthi peetams.Padma sambhava the founder of Tibetan Buddhism is said to have stopped and meditated at this place on his way to Tibet.
This temple is a svayambu that is, it rose of its own accord and is said to enshrine Narayana in saligram form .Saligrama are naturally rounded pebbles found in abundance in Khali gandaki a river that is downstream.These stones have some unique designs that are similar to the sacred symbols of Vaishnavites.They are greatly revered and are found in each and every house hold and in Vishnu temples .No puja can be offered without first worshipping these sacred religious symbols.

The temple is encircled with 108 spouts of water that is said to represent the sacred waters of all pushkarnis of all the holy temples like Tirupati, Sri Rangam and so on .The belief is that a bath in these waters would cleanse one of all accumulated karma's.

People from here, Tamilnadu normally undertake pilgrimages after retirement.And those who vow to complete the circuit of visiting all 106 divya desams [generally vaishnavaites] have also to visit Mukthinath.

Senior citizens who return from visiting this place are a shaken lot.The helicopter that ferried pilgrims to this temple from Pokhra a nearby town are no longer allowed to ply.Instead every one whether old and infirm, male or female, handicapped and suffering from various ailments as one tends to at this age like ortho, heart and BP problems are forced to make a arduous trip first on a jeep over a rocky bumpy road for several excruciating miles and then switch to pillion ride on monstrous motor bikes ,when the trail narrows further upwards.They are forced to cling on to the young locals driving these mechanical beasts so fast and recklessly that according to my family doc who also made this trip recounted with horror this terrible ride that rattled him to the bone though he admitted of being a dare devil in his younger days ,flying off on the roads of Chennai at high speed on his motor bike.So one can imagine the plight of less adventurous persons.
Women well past 60 ,who have never worn anything but sarees all their life are forced to wear salwar kameez to enable them to sit like gents behind these men manning these macho machines , lest they fall off and hold on to them for dear life all the way to a steep incline leading to the temple and thence forward climb hundreds of steps to reach their destination.

The once pleasant trip on a helicopter to a scenic religious spot has become a torture to all those devotees whether Vaishnavites or Saivaites or Buddhists,wanting to pay their obeisance to the respective deities enshrined in there.

Now why should old people who can afford the helicopter ride be arm twisted to undertake such an ardous journey that is fit only for young and sturdy mountaineers?Why this cruelty towards devotees?Can't the Nepali govt relax these bizarre mode of conveyance and restore the copter service?Or at least provide a choice between the two.

Is it fair that in order to provide employment to locals, to subject the old and infirm to such tortures?Is it a ploy of the govt to dampen religious fervour?

May i suggest to that govt, that since its heart bleeds for poor locals and has there fore done away with the copter service and introduced this mad nerve wracking mountain racing on bikes with devotees perched precariously on the pillions,also create a few thousand more jobs by doing away with helidropping at the base camps of Mt Everest and making it mandatory for all those able bodied dollar rich adventure sports seeking climbers creating a traffic jam of sorts enroute to Mt Everest to ride on jeeps and motorbikes driven by locals ,all the way from Kathmandu to the base camp or to the top of Everest itself?

The tales of the terrifying jeep and motorbike rides has successfully deterred me [as well as many others] from making this pilgrimage.Unless the copter service is resumed there is no way that i'll be visiting this sacred place in this janmam.

'Krishna nee begene' baaro'......is a kannada devotional song meaning,

'O' Krishna come swiftly to the rescue of thy devotees.

The Mukhthinath temple.
The 108 water spouts .
Idol of Padma sambhava at Mukthinath.
The helipad at Mukthinath.The easy ride is a thing of past.Below.Pony ride.Though slow ,prefferable to mountain motor bike racing. Photo on top left.Sri Mukthinath Narayanan.