I was having a long vacation on the christmas weekend and i guess i was destined to go to Vellore this time. Scene 1: week before christmas
I and my friends are chatting merrily over mails. Shilpa brings out the topic of going out on this long weekend. It was a long time since we all went together. I suggested Golden temple in Vellore. Everyone seemed to agree with the place.
Scene 2: 3 days before chritmas weekend
Scene 2: 3 days before chritmas weekend
I and my family are chatting casually after a heavy dinner. papa brings out the topic of going out on this long weekend. It was a long time since we all went together. amma suggested Golden temple in Vellore. Everyone seemed to agree with the place.
................................................................! This was a little too much. how will a person go with 2 different groups to the same place at the same time??!! so i had to let go one of them I told my friends about it and they were kind enough to understand.
So on 26th afternoon me and family started our journey to vellore. The car was supposed to be there by 11:00. Since we didnt want to get late, we had lunch at 10:45(??!!!! oh god whatever)But then when has things turned out the way we want. Car comes at 12:00. My mother gives one of her typical lectures to the driver with a smiling face. The driver nods his head and says he got stuck in traffic( And the travels was in mahalaxmi layout which is like 4 km from my place). So we started with my mother praying to lord Ganesha and then continuing with her complaints of getting late. On the way we had to pick up my uncle and aunt. We picked them up and proceeded towards hosur. On the way, i admired the way Expressway to electronic city was designed(though its been ages since it started). Since the work was going on, the roads were bad. So when i was done with admiring the expressway, i turned back to see that everyone in the car was almost dancing. Dancing yes! coz the roads were so bad! My uncle was talking about his old times (of course with the dance) and we had some merry time. Then as suddenly as we had started dancing, it stopped as well.I was wondering why when i realised we were in Tamil Nadu. The roads in Tamil Nadu are awesome. Through out our journey till Vellore, road was beautiful, without any potholes. I have travelled most parts of South India but Tamil Nadu scores the best when it comes to Highways! Its a pleasure driving on the road or travelling on those roads.
All along the road to Vellore, We come across several rocky hills. Huge rocks assembled by mother nature in wierd artistic ways. It makes one feel so small. Whatever happens, they stand tall and strong. Humans still dont give up. High up on one of those rocky mountains i could see a fort. The fort was visible from miles away. Makes me wonder how in those days they went all the way up and built a fort there. Deep down i wanted to visit the fort. But well had to keep the idea waiting until next time. Every now and then we would see huge rocky hills. Me and my mother would watch it until it faded away. Beside me my aunt, who is undoubtedly gifted of sleeping well in any place any time, was deep in slumber.
Finally at 5 we reached our destination Vellore. Our initial plan was to find an accomadation, dump all our luggage there and then proceed to "THE GOLDEN TEMPLE". We searched for one whole hour but all accomadations were full. It was 6 and we were still searching for rooms. Wherever we went, they showed us the tariff cards and then said rooms not available. This was highly frustrating. Temple would close at 8 and we were still searching. So we decided not to lose anymore time and continue our quest for rooms after we come back from temple.
When we arrived at the temple it was completely crowded as it was a friday. Friday is supposed to be auspicious to visit the temple. This we learnt after re0aching the temple.As we entered the main gate we saw long queues. The temple has 2 kinds of Dharshan. Dharma Darshan and Seva Dharshan. Dharma Dharshan is free darshan but we will be pushed out even before we have a glimpse of Godess Narayani. This was definitely our choice as we had travelled 225 km to see the temple properly. So we went for Seva dharshan. In Seva Dharshan, we are supposed to pay 250 per head. As we are doing a "seva" by giving 250 bucks per head we will be allowed to sit in front of the garbha gudi for 3 mins.( ridiculous! i definitely dont approve the idea basically because 250 is not a small amount and not every person can afford it!!!) . This irritated me a little but cant help it. But there was one good thing which impressed me. For people who find it difficult to walk till the temple, we could take wheel chairs. This was a very nice arrangement and helped people who had crossed the age of 70 to still have a dharshan. This actually made me feel better. We took the seva dharshan entry ticket. (Oh yeah by the way we are not allowed to take camera or cellphones inside. They have facilities to keep them safe. So we went inside without any kind of technology to disturb us. )
Vellore temple inside is like a different world all together. The temple is a vast area(forgot how many acres) with a star shaped path leading to the temple.In the middle of the path glows the golden temple. Its like a light glowing amidst the vast darkness of the night. Initial way to the Star like path has so many stores inside which sell kancheepuram sarees and pooja saamagris. There is a security check just before we enter the star path. The path to temple is lined with numerous sayings related to peace. There are also numerous vigrahas depicting dashavathara. Its about one and a half km walk to temple but nobody feels stressed cause all our attention is focused on reaching the temple soon and seeing its beauty upclose. My sister Ashu also was very enthusiastic to reach. Infact she had refused to take a wheel chair and walked the whole stretch. Such was the excitement. Finally we reached the golden temple.
All stood mesmerised for a second. it was difficult to take in everything. The entire temple was covered with gold. No one spoke for a while. It was beautiful. Then as we went on, everyone started pointing out what they liked the best. I loved the pillars and the chandeliers which glittered with so much light around and reflection from the gold covering. Finally we were in the abode of goddess Narayani. The idol looked divine and peace prevailed . Finally when we felt we had seen enough to have the memory imprinted for life time we started back. On the way back, they have kept a kind of stone drum. People had put their ears on it and tapping it. Just because everyone was doing it , we also went and tried not knowing what it was all about. We tried it but all we heard was some meek sound. When i asked people what was special about it they said it makes sound. I was like how is that special. Even today i dont k now the significance of it. God knows what it was all about. Worse, my mother couldnt even make out the meek sound. LOL!
But overall, it was an experience of life time. Its worth seeing once cause how many times in our life do we get to see something covered with gold. But i still stand on my point that 250 is way too costly.
We then continued our quest on room and found a reasonable one to sleep. It was 11:30. So ended a beautiful experience.
................................................................! This was a little too much. how will a person go with 2 different groups to the same place at the same time??!! so i had to let go one of them I told my friends about it and they were kind enough to understand.
So on 26th afternoon me and family started our journey to vellore. The car was supposed to be there by 11:00. Since we didnt want to get late, we had lunch at 10:45(??!!!! oh god whatever)But then when has things turned out the way we want. Car comes at 12:00. My mother gives one of her typical lectures to the driver with a smiling face. The driver nods his head and says he got stuck in traffic( And the travels was in mahalaxmi layout which is like 4 km from my place). So we started with my mother praying to lord Ganesha and then continuing with her complaints of getting late. On the way we had to pick up my uncle and aunt. We picked them up and proceeded towards hosur. On the way, i admired the way Expressway to electronic city was designed(though its been ages since it started). Since the work was going on, the roads were bad. So when i was done with admiring the expressway, i turned back to see that everyone in the car was almost dancing. Dancing yes! coz the roads were so bad! My uncle was talking about his old times (of course with the dance) and we had some merry time. Then as suddenly as we had started dancing, it stopped as well.I was wondering why when i realised we were in Tamil Nadu. The roads in Tamil Nadu are awesome. Through out our journey till Vellore, road was beautiful, without any potholes. I have travelled most parts of South India but Tamil Nadu scores the best when it comes to Highways! Its a pleasure driving on the road or travelling on those roads.
All along the road to Vellore, We come across several rocky hills. Huge rocks assembled by mother nature in wierd artistic ways. It makes one feel so small. Whatever happens, they stand tall and strong. Humans still dont give up. High up on one of those rocky mountains i could see a fort. The fort was visible from miles away. Makes me wonder how in those days they went all the way up and built a fort there. Deep down i wanted to visit the fort. But well had to keep the idea waiting until next time. Every now and then we would see huge rocky hills. Me and my mother would watch it until it faded away. Beside me my aunt, who is undoubtedly gifted of sleeping well in any place any time, was deep in slumber.
Finally at 5 we reached our destination Vellore. Our initial plan was to find an accomadation, dump all our luggage there and then proceed to "THE GOLDEN TEMPLE". We searched for one whole hour but all accomadations were full. It was 6 and we were still searching for rooms. Wherever we went, they showed us the tariff cards and then said rooms not available. This was highly frustrating. Temple would close at 8 and we were still searching. So we decided not to lose anymore time and continue our quest for rooms after we come back from temple.
When we arrived at the temple it was completely crowded as it was a friday. Friday is supposed to be auspicious to visit the temple. This we learnt after re0aching the temple.As we entered the main gate we saw long queues. The temple has 2 kinds of Dharshan. Dharma Darshan and Seva Dharshan. Dharma Dharshan is free darshan but we will be pushed out even before we have a glimpse of Godess Narayani. This was definitely our choice as we had travelled 225 km to see the temple properly. So we went for Seva dharshan. In Seva Dharshan, we are supposed to pay 250 per head. As we are doing a "seva" by giving 250 bucks per head we will be allowed to sit in front of the garbha gudi for 3 mins.( ridiculous! i definitely dont approve the idea basically because 250 is not a small amount and not every person can afford it!!!) . This irritated me a little but cant help it. But there was one good thing which impressed me. For people who find it difficult to walk till the temple, we could take wheel chairs. This was a very nice arrangement and helped people who had crossed the age of 70 to still have a dharshan. This actually made me feel better. We took the seva dharshan entry ticket. (Oh yeah by the way we are not allowed to take camera or cellphones inside. They have facilities to keep them safe. So we went inside without any kind of technology to disturb us. )
Vellore temple inside is like a different world all together. The temple is a vast area(forgot how many acres) with a star shaped path leading to the temple.In the middle of the path glows the golden temple. Its like a light glowing amidst the vast darkness of the night. Initial way to the Star like path has so many stores inside which sell kancheepuram sarees and pooja saamagris. There is a security check just before we enter the star path. The path to temple is lined with numerous sayings related to peace. There are also numerous vigrahas depicting dashavathara. Its about one and a half km walk to temple but nobody feels stressed cause all our attention is focused on reaching the temple soon and seeing its beauty upclose. My sister Ashu also was very enthusiastic to reach. Infact she had refused to take a wheel chair and walked the whole stretch. Such was the excitement. Finally we reached the golden temple.
All stood mesmerised for a second. it was difficult to take in everything. The entire temple was covered with gold. No one spoke for a while. It was beautiful. Then as we went on, everyone started pointing out what they liked the best. I loved the pillars and the chandeliers which glittered with so much light around and reflection from the gold covering. Finally we were in the abode of goddess Narayani. The idol looked divine and peace prevailed . Finally when we felt we had seen enough to have the memory imprinted for life time we started back. On the way back, they have kept a kind of stone drum. People had put their ears on it and tapping it. Just because everyone was doing it , we also went and tried not knowing what it was all about. We tried it but all we heard was some meek sound. When i asked people what was special about it they said it makes sound. I was like how is that special. Even today i dont k now the significance of it. God knows what it was all about. Worse, my mother couldnt even make out the meek sound. LOL!
But overall, it was an experience of life time. Its worth seeing once cause how many times in our life do we get to see something covered with gold. But i still stand on my point that 250 is way too costly.
We then continued our quest on room and found a reasonable one to sleep. It was 11:30. So ended a beautiful experience.
