So this is the background of this ride story. Those who know me, also know that I am not a religious persons. So to say a yes for a ride to Mathura-Vrindavan that too for experiencing the Janmashtmi celebrations was close to impossible. But, I had never ridden on the expressway and ‘Mathura ke pede’ were motivating enough for me to go for this ride.
There
was not much of planning required. Saturday morning I met Aditya at Dhaula Kuan
and the plan was to go via Lajpat Nagar and hit the Yamuna Expressway. We
ensured to fill Nitrogen the tyres of our Dukes as we didn’t want to take a
chance with our tyres expanding rapidly with the high speeds on the expressway.
I forgot to bring my DSLR, and the tyre
pressure gauge so it was a great start already. Weather didn’t support us much
too as it became hot on this particular weekend.
After
hitting the expressway its just butter smooth ride and with a few stops of
breakfast and toll, we reached Vrindavan first at around 10 am and started
looking for hotels. More than hotels you will find temples and more temples
wherever you look around. So here we observed that the hotels are called
‘ashram’. After enquiring around few places, we found that most of the rooms
were booked as it was festive season. Aditya said he will go continue the
search and asked me to wait.
I
was waiting in the shade near the ISKCON ashram which looked quite green and
nice from outside. I saw foreigners dressed completely in Indian attire of
kurta and dhoti and women in a very homely saree-blouse. I saw a women walking
with the ‘pallu’ of her saree on her head and clinching the ‘pallu’ in her
teeth. When she came close I was surprised to see she was not an Indian. It was
good to see a foreigner family dressed completely in Indian attire with kids
wearing colorful kurtas. I heard few pandits (again foreigners) talking to
referring to each other as ‘how are you Prabhu?’ and some even spoke a bit of
Hindi. The streets were so narrow that
one had to come out of the street to take a U turn.
Aditya
comes with good news that he has found a room at a very good rate of Rs.
850/day. So we moved to this ashram called balaji ashram near Iskcon temple and
took some rest in the room from the killing heat. The room was clearn with AC
and TV. Although there was no lock in the room so we had to buy our own! Funny.
Then we had lunch in a restaurant very close to our ‘ashram’. I was already craving to have some local food. After lunch we just took a walk around and came back to our room and took some rest. After sometime in evening we decided to first look around in Vrindavan, then go to Mathura and then come back before night. So on our bikes, we rode around and went to Cheerghat which was not very interesting.
Then we had lunch in a restaurant very close to our ‘ashram’. I was already craving to have some local food. After lunch we just took a walk around and came back to our room and took some rest. After sometime in evening we decided to first look around in Vrindavan, then go to Mathura and then come back before night. So on our bikes, we rode around and went to Cheerghat which was not very interesting.
Riding
in the narrow streets was tough as in the same space there were people walking,
cow staring, rickhshaw moving, dogs running and I am sure if you stick your
hand out you will pick some stuff up from the shop on your left or right. This was quite something! Also had lassi to
cool ourselves.
So now we started riding to Mathura which was almost 11km from
Vrindavan. The festive season could be seen all over the place.
Riding
in UP traffic can be a painful experience and those who have done it know what
I am talking about. You can’t teach a rule or two to anyone here. You will find
people talking on phone on riding in the middle of the road, no lane
discipline; riding on wrong side is completely alright. Amongst all this as we
were riding, occasionally I was blessing the idiots with some verbal flowers.
Me and Aditya were connected on road via this wonderful Bluetooth headset device
and this proved to be very useful for us throughout this ride. I will write a complete
review of it very soon. While I was going all ‘abe gadhe, ch***” on the traffic
idiots, Aditya said he is able to listen to all of it and hoped it was not for
him. I started laughing and I said I am putting this on the blog. Aditya had
trouble reading the signboards in Hindi but was able to read ‘Thandi Beer’
instantly. No we did not buy it.
After
reaching Mathura our first stop was Sri Krishna Janmbhoomi temple (birth place
of Lord Krishna). It was crowded and we came to know that this year the crowd
was less. We parked our bikes and started walking towards the temple. There
were thousands of villagers who had come from near by cities just to visit the
temples during Janmashtmi. The energy of the whole place was worth seeing. As
we moved close to the temple entrance, the queue become longer and it was jam
packed. I was not going to go inside anyways so Aditya said he will go inside
while I waited at a stall with some chairs to sit. The crowd was heavy so it
was another good an hour or two till Aditya came back. I decided to sit and
wait.
As
I waited, I made some observations around. People from all the ages were
walking towards the temple with much excitement and energy, kids, adults,
oldies barely able to walk. Some even did the crawling thing till they reach the
temple. Just next to me was some sort of ‘baba’ sitting selling some glowing
toys. He was also reciting some story of Krishna to one of his friends sitting
reading from a book. The toys were catching the attention of on goers as it was
getting dark and kids were running to him to ask ‘what is this’, ‘how much does
it cost?’. On being told the price, they sadly moved away.
One particular item which was the glowing fibre threads was the special one. One village couple walked to this and the lady lifted this thing in her hands. As soon as she turned the switch on the threads started glowing and she gave a big beautiful smile! I am guessing she had never seen anything like that in her life. Such a simple thing for us and such a simple reason for her to smile. They didn’t buy it as Rs. 60 was too expensive for them. I thought that most of these people are wondering at these small toys and I thought of the daily life they must be living that they are unaware of such things which are common for us.
One particular item which was the glowing fibre threads was the special one. One village couple walked to this and the lady lifted this thing in her hands. As soon as she turned the switch on the threads started glowing and she gave a big beautiful smile! I am guessing she had never seen anything like that in her life. Such a simple thing for us and such a simple reason for her to smile. They didn’t buy it as Rs. 60 was too expensive for them. I thought that most of these people are wondering at these small toys and I thought of the daily life they must be living that they are unaware of such things which are common for us.
To
my right was a stall serving water and fruits to the people as some family was
doing charity work. Soon this turned little chaotic and they had to use a stick
to make them appear in a queue to get the stuff. Indians!
Then
Aditya came and through the crazy crowd and traffic we moved towards the Keerti
Ghat where I wanted to see the aarti. We had to park our bikes little before
the ghat as the streets were too crowded. We walked up to the ghat and it was
7pm so we still had 30 mins until the arti started. We just moved around and
clicked some pics. I wanted to see the aarti from the boat. The boat man
charged us Rs. 50 per head and the view of the aarti from the boat was
beautiful.
It
was not as grand as the aarti in Varanasi or Haridwar but it was still not too small
scale either. As soon as we came off the boat, we knew we had to rush to reach
back to Vrindavan quickly. When we came back to the streets it was already full
with ‘jhankis’ or moving chariots kind of vehicles decorated with lights. On
them were sitting kids dressed as Krishna-Radha.
Raising our one hand with the helmet in air and making our ways in the crowd, we almost ran to our bikes before these huge chariots overtake our bikes and block the way. We were able to reach before them and quickly moved out of the streets. As it had gone dark and no street lights we slowly rode our way amidst crazy traffic and people walking in middle of the road to Vrindavan and stopped for Dinner at Brijwasi. After that back to room for some rest.
Raising our one hand with the helmet in air and making our ways in the crowd, we almost ran to our bikes before these huge chariots overtake our bikes and block the way. We were able to reach before them and quickly moved out of the streets. As it had gone dark and no street lights we slowly rode our way amidst crazy traffic and people walking in middle of the road to Vrindavan and stopped for Dinner at Brijwasi. After that back to room for some rest.
Now
the plan was to see the Iskcon temple and another famous one called Prem
Mandir. Iskcon temple was very close to our ‘ashram’ and at 11pm we reached
this temple in a rickshaw. People prefer shouting ‘Radhey Radhey’ on road
instead of honking. Inside this temple I saw the crowd which seemed to be
present since evening itself, sitting, singing, dancing songs for Lord Krishna.
The crowd was waiting against the curtained idol of Lord Krishna which will
supposedly open at midnight as the birth time. The energy at this place was something
else and I have never seen anything like this before. There were, again,
foreigners completely lost in the moment and dancing while they sang ‘hare,
rama, Krishna, radhey’ in all possible permutation and combinations.
Occasionally the tempo of the music will go high and the crowd became energized
again. I just stood there and observed.
As
it got close to mid night, people stood up and started singing dancing even with
more energy. So at 00:00 hours they unveiled the curtain to reveal the idol of Krishna
and the crowd went mad with ‘Hathi ghoda pali, jai kanhaiya lal ki’. People
raised their hands singing this while I raised my hands holding the cellphone
to click pictures.
This
was good experience for me. After that we came out and walked towards Prem
Mandir. At the entrance we saw people leaving their footwear which had
accumulated to look something like this-
We
didn’t bother and moved inside. First sight of this temple decorated with
colorful lights just left us amazed. Looking at it for some more time I found
the architecture work, the placement of the lights very beautiful and I had
never seen a more beautiful temple in my life (I rarely visit temples, that’s a
different story). The whole premise inside is vast and open and its like a big
garden. As you walked around the temple they had tabloids of different phases
of Krishna’s life. Some pictures below:
There
was a crazy crowd to collect the prashad and we didn’t even bother to join that
crowd. We were extremely tired and made our way back to our room in one of the
e-rickshaws. I wonder how they charge the batteries with so much of electricity
problems. So tired, I was dead as soon as I hit the bed.
Next
day saw us waking up at around 9 and the plan was to get ready, check-out,
breakfast and ride to Govardhan. I was hell bent on having local dishes now and
I managed to convince Aditya as we stopped at this place for breakfast. The
‘poori-sabzi’ seemed to be quite famous here as I saw the guy frying lots of
pooris in this big ‘kadhai’ and as soon as he dropped them in the tray they
vanished almost in seconds. For 40rs. a plate I got to eat absolutely tasty
poori-sabzi and I still remember the taste!
I
bought some ‘pedas’ which is an absolutely must buy while you are in
Mathura-Vrindavan.
From
here Aditya wanted to visit this place called ‘Nidhi Van’. He started telling
me the story that Krishna ji used to spend time with Radha in this garden sort
of place. We started riding asking our way to this place and again we had to
move across the narrow streets. It was already getting hot and we managed to
reach this place after asking people. This was a secluded kind of place full of
dry bushes with trails inside to walk. There was , yet again, a temple inside
and I saw people singing and dancing there.
This was a quick visit and we clicked some pics and came out of this place. From here we had to go to Govardhan through Mathura.
This was a quick visit and we clicked some pics and came out of this place. From here we had to go to Govardhan through Mathura.
After
we crossed Mathura we stopped at a T point to ask for directions. There we met
Ramdas who was also heading to Govardhan. He sat on Aditya’s bike and we
started riding again. He told us that he is going to Govardhan to do the ‘parikrama’
which is 21km barefoot revolution of the Govardhan mountain. I am sure you all
know the story of this mountain that Krishna lifted this mountain on his finger
to teach a lesson to Indra. Well soon we realized we were heading in wrong
directions and had to come back to a point which was a 20 km nice road to
Govardhan. Ramdas kept telling us a story or two about various water storage
bodies called ‘Radha Kund’ and ‘Krishna Kund’ which we saw enroute.
We stopped to click pics of this good looking ‘Kusum Kund’.
We stopped to click pics of this good looking ‘Kusum Kund’.
We
said ‘Radhey Radhey’ to Ramdas who went ahead for his prayers and then we
realized Govardhan, the so called mountain was just a flat flat plateau and it
was not even visible until we got close to it.
To be honest it was very hot and we couldn’t move ahead without taking a break.
To be honest it was very hot and we couldn’t move ahead without taking a break.
After
a while we started riding back to catch the road towards the Yamuna Expressway
and soon we were on it. I still had petrol in my bike but as soon as I kept on
riding high speeds, Low Fuel warning came quickly enough. Luckily we saw a
petrol pump soon enough and got our bikes fueled up. And just few km from here
we stopped for lunch.
After
that it was a smooth ride back to Delhi and Gurgaon.
So
considering the fact that I am not religious person, I feel good that I agreed
to go for this ride. The experience and observations I had on this trip was
quite unique. The festivity and the colorful celebrations all around. This is
what traveling does to you, makes you aware of the beauty around you.
Thanks
for reading! Have any feedback? Please comment below!
As always good read, very funny.. straight from the heart. Hope Adi was not much of a trouble. U guys are complete opposite with Adi being a complete devotee. Vrindavan can boast about offering the best aloo chaat n lassi in India.
ReplyDeleteThanks Sud and you are right. He is always a pain in the ass lol specially with the oily food. But I figured he is a hypocrite in that hahah.
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