Dwadash Jyotirlinga: Part Three

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence;
Two roads diverged in a wood, and
I took the one less traversed by,
And that has made all the difference.

Robert Frost

So now that I have decided the points to be visited… what would be my route like…

I will work with two basic parameters… One, my first choice of traveling will be Indian railways- why? As I have always maintained… there is no better way of traveling in India than Indian Railways, it introduces to India and its regions as no other mode of transport will ever be able to introduce. Two, I would like to make a circuit rather than choosing to return to a junction place twice. (However, there might be some variations… as one will see when I discuss the entire plan)

I will of course start from my hometown… and proceed to Varanasi, where I will see the Shrine of Baba Vishwanath… Varanasi is a profound city… it needs more than a week to visit and see… and yet I will be there for just a day or two. This time only to see Baba Vishwanath and may be SankatMochan Temple… However, I have a plan of spending at least a week in Varanasi… discovering its splendor.

I have been told that there is a train connecting Varanasi and Baidyanath Dham… if it is true; I will proceed to the Dham straight away from there… a day over there, and then proceeding to Kolkata, via may be Bhagalpur. Will spend a day in Kolkata before taking a train to Chennai and then a bus to Rameshwaram (I wonder if the broad gauge conversion of Rameshwaram train line is over or not… if it is over then I may take a train to Rameshwaram as well).

I would then come over to Madurai, stay for a day over there…, and then take a train to Guntakal Junction… from where making it to Srisailam, via Kurnool will be an easy task. Then from there I will proceed to Hyderabad. Staying in Hyderabad for a day… and then proceeding to may be Latur… somewhere between the triangle of Latur, Parbhani and Nanded are the shrines of Parli Baidyanath and Aundha Nagnath. Doing them in a two-day period and then proceeding to Aurangabad.

I have been to Aurangabad, once before and visited most of the sites around. This time I will visit Ghrishneshwar and Daulatabad fort. A two-day period is enough for this, I think. And from Aurangabad, I can come over to Nashik via Manmad. In Nashik, I will see the shrine of Trimbakeshwar and so many other sites… in fact I rate Nashik highly on the places to be experienced once in a lifetime.

From Nashik I can come down to the Mumbai Suburban Train system… and reach Karjat… from where I can trek my way to Bhimashankar and then from atop take a bus to Pune. A day in Pune to rest and then proceed to Mumbai… another day of rest over there… and then to Ahemdabad. From Ahemdabad, I can proceed via bus to Somnath. Then take another bus to reach Dwarka to see the town of Dwarka and Dwarka Nagnath. (I did not plan to visit it but coming so close and not seeing it does not make a sense to me). After this, I reach Vadodara, from where I can take a train to Ujjain.

In Ujjain, I can visit the shrine of Mahakaleshwar…, then proceed to Omkareshwar via bus, and visit this shrine… as I am near to Maheshwar… I will go and visit this place as well… because I have seen photographs of this place and its beauty enchanted me. From this place, I would then proceed to Bhopal. Then come down to Delhi.

From Delhi… I can come down to Kashipur by train and then to Almora by Bus. And in between, I can see the shrines of Dakini Bhimashankar and Almora Nagnath. And thereafter I proceed to do a trek towards Kedarnath (whether I will be able to do it or not… will depend on whether it is open or not… it opens somewhere in the last of March or early April, so if I start my tour in Early March then I might be able to do the Kedarnath)

This according to my rough estimates will take about 30-35 days. Would like to compress it even further… lets see, how it works out. In this pursuit I will visit all but Guwahati's Bhimashankar and Baidyanath of Kangra Valley.

And before I close this blog... while researching more about Jyotirlingas... I came up with the information, that there are few other places that are believed to be the real Jyotirlinga

1. Shivalaya,Shiwar/Shiwad/Shivad,Rajasthan... that is believed to be the real Ghrishneshwar
2. Dabhai/Dakhoi/Dabhoi -Gujarat... which is beleived to real Baidyanath
3. Jarmundi,Jharkhand...which is believed to be the real Nagnath
4. ThiruNageswaram,Kumbakonam,Tamil Nadu... which is believed to be real Nagnath.

Egypt beats Cameroon 1-0

Egypt beats Cameroon 1-0 and lifts the Africa Cup… what does it mean to an Indian living in Cairo… and especially when that Indian is I. Does it mean anything… yes it does.

Egyptians are mad about football… same was as we are about Cricket. They are yet to attain any big glory in the game that is dominated by the Europeans and Latinos. Therefore, their sense of accomplishment is hinged more on their achievements at regional pursuits… Pan Arabic Games… African Cup etc. Mind you excelling in even these regional pursuits is not all that easy… these areas have some of the very good sides… Cameroon, Ghana, Ivory Coast… Saudi Arabia, Yemen etc.

So yesterday when the finals between Cameroon and Egypt was due for the Africa Cup… this nation was waiting for it with baited breath… there was an air of excitement all around… people were talking about possibilities and permutation & combinations… about how Abutrika will win them the Africa Cup… and how the rankings don’t just matter. I have been vastly oblivious to the proceedings before this… when Egypt thrashed Cameroon, Sudan, Ghana, Ivory Coast on its way to final… barring a match with Sudan, that was hardly a match.

However, a final is a final… and I just could not sustain my aloofness for even a minute more… I was at one of my friends place to see the match.

Egypt seemed to be a well oiled and supremely confident side… they place very aggressively… and were attacking often… until they just could not get pass beyond the extra-fortified Cameroon defense. Cameroon was just not confident enough… they played too defensively… most of its players confined themselves to their half. Barring Eto’o, there was hardly anyone from Cameroonian side that could pose any challenge to the Egyptian Defense. I thought that they are trying an age-old tactics of suddenly upping the pace of the game during the dying minutes… Argentina, South Korea are its biggest proponents. However, it was not to be… they kept on being dominated.

Then when all of a sudden Abutrika got the ball all by himself… and a goal that was being protected by a goal keeper and a defender… he made no mistakes in dodging them both to score a simple goal. He was the man of the moment… who did not have a particularly satisfying tournament, but performed when it was most required. And what can be more satisfying that that.

However, even though Cameroon lost I have special words of praise for their player Eto’o… who almost single handedly challenged the might of Egypt… he was to Cameroon, what Zidane has been to France a few years ago… only that he could not get his team the match.

And as soon as Egypt won… Cairo erupted…with joy and with excitement. When I was walking towards my house… I saw a pack of almost 100 people dancing on the road, stopping the traffic, using small LPG canisters to create fire… humming victory tune… I was watching them, and wondering what it would have been like being in India when it won the 20-20 World Cup a few months ago.

The Doorman of my building told me that if I want to see the real fun… I must head towards the Downtown. He cautioned, however, that all the roads will be blocked and there wouldn’t be any place to drive… so I better walk down the place.

I walked through the roads of Cairo… for almost three hours from 10 pm until about 1 am… and the celebration did not seem to stop even for a second. The route that I took was this… Zamalek- 26th July Bridge- Bulaq- Downtown- Talaat Harb- Midan Tehrir- Qasr El Aini Bridge- Gezira- Zamalek. And all along the route, the celebrations just got bigger and bigger and even bigger

Zamalek was erupting and so was Bulaq… the contrast however was the socio-economic class that was enjoying… Zamalek is the wealthy neighbourhood, whereas Bulaq is the lower middle class… the ecstasy was the same and yet the modes of expressing them was different… if cars were honking in Zamalek… motorcycles were roaring in Bulaq. It made me wonder… how sports often works as a gelling factor in disparate societies… take for instance… where people forget caste and economic difference for a while to celebrate the victory of India over Pakistan (and now Australia, Pakistan is a passé- we have made a habit of defeating Pakistan for quite some time now)

Then I arrived at the downtown that is the melting point of celebrators of different places… a place to gather and enjoy communally. The pack got bigger and bigger… the excitement got wilder and wilder. Families joined in, girls joined in… I was left wondering if that could have happened in India… where women are excluded and alienated from our biggest passion cricket. I was loving the secularity of the game… how it is able to unite communal differences in Egypt… how it was gelling boys and girls, how it is gelling the rich and poor, how it is gelling Christians and Muslims.

A bit further, in Talaat Harb, there was an even bigger crowd… and then in Midan Tehrir… there was a sea of humanity that was celebrating. I was seeing the power of the masses and the power of the youth at display

Suddenly I thought… what if this power gets unleashed uncontrollably… Youth in Egypt is facing tremendous hardships- no jobs, no marriage, no support from the government… what if!!!!!

Dwadash Jyotirlinga Part Two

So lets say if I were to visit all the Jyotirlingas in one go… wouldn’t it be a journey of lifetime… crisscrossing the entire length and breadth of India. From Dwarka to Guwahati and from Kangra to Rameshwaram.

In the past, I have visited quite a few of them… the first one was in Almora… when I hardly knew about the concept of 12 sacred places. I was mesmerized by the enchanting beauty of the place… driving from Almora to a place called Aratola… and then walking along the river Banganga and reaching this place… and then after seeing this place walking uphill to a village of Jhakarsem, where I saw a sacrifice ceremony in a Devi Temple. It was one of those experience… one wouldn’t ever forget, come whatever. The visit to this sacred place was, however, accidental.

I had briefly visited the temple at Kashipur too… again without any intent of making it to a Jyotirlinga. I did not find the place particularly spiritual. I doubt if it is the actual Bhimashankar. Any Jyotirlinga, I believe, will give me a spiritual experience that will be surreal and ethereal. Kashipur didn’t give me those vibes.

And then Somnath happened… tucked away in a remote corner of Gujarat has been one of the most powerful experiences I have ever had. So much so… that it turned me from uncaring atheist to a caring theist. No wonder that, Somnath is often referred as the most important Jyotirlinga of all.

And soon after the Somnath experience, I made it a point to visit another Jyotirlinga nearby… one that of Dwarka Nagnath. I would not rate the experience of Dwarka anywhere close to that of Somnath… yet Dwarka, being one of the most holy places in Hinduism, holds a charm of its own. It is a package kind of experience… where you not only see a Jyotirlinga but also a one of the four important Muths of Hinduism and a lot of other temples, too.

It was only after these experiences that I started trying to see the Jyotirlinga and started making efforts. I went to Nashik to see the shrine of Trimbakeshwar. Nashik is one of the most magical places in India. I visited it is midst of monsoon that multiplies the beauty of the place manifolds… the entire place is scattered with temples… beautiful sights… reminding of the God that created us. Walking along the misty roads… seeing faith and humanity in a wonderful interplay. It was a beautiful experience… An year ago, I saw a movie called Strings… starring Kabir Bedi’s son and Sandhya Mridul… the movie is passable, but the camera work is good… it has captured the beauty of the place, wonderfully well. Go see it, albeit for the good camera work and boisterous and confident Sandhya, who does a good acting in this film.

The next was Bhimashankar… it was another monsoon-y day in Pune, where I was staying with a friend of mine, his wife had visited Bhimashankar as a part of trek group from Karjat… and suddenly I decided to make it to Bhimashankar… I took a bus to the place… and reached there in the evening… I stayed in one of the shittiest hotel in my life and early morning at 4 am took a bath with coldest possible water and went to the temple. The temple is good, yet no spiritual experience… I wondered if this is the place… after a while I decided to do the trek to Karjat… while going down, I saw some strange looking caves just below a hill top… after a difficult trek, I reached there and then reached the summit called Nagphani Point… it was raining badly… the trek was slippery and some stretches wasn’t even there… and yet I braved it all. From Nagphani Point one can see one of the most beautiful panoramas of the surrounding… I hadn’t seen a better view that that, view from Harishchandragad also in Western Ghats comes close. While coming down, I forgot the way down and where ever I went I met dead ends… “So here comes the last breaths of my life”- I thought… and lo from behind the bushes came out a hermit saying Om Namah Shivay… and then he guided me to a trail that went downwards… and then when I wanted to thank him… he was gone, just vanished… was it divine!!!

The next was Grishneshwar in Aurangabad… beside the beautiful temples of Ellora. Aurangabad is one of the most beautiful and serene places I have seen till date. The experience was, however, not very over-powering.

And then came the last… Rameshwaram… my father tells me that I have been to Rameshwaram once before… I, though, have very fleeting memories of the place… one thing I remember was the calm sea that Rameshwaram had. I walked for more than 200 metres, just wading… and yet the sea was only chest deep for a 12 year old kid. As if sea is playing the role of a doting father for me. When I came to Rameshwaram this time… I just loved the place. The temple is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen… and tucked somewhere inside the temple is a small temple of Jyotirlinga. I just stood there watching the Linga. It was a dream come true.

6 Shrine covered… Almora and Dwarka represent one Shrine, similarly, Kashipur and Bhimashankar represent one. This makes 6 more to be covered.

First let’s make some simplifications so as to make my life easier… let’s assume that even if I visit one shrine among the debated ones… I actually visit the shrine. Thus if I visit one of the Nagnath, say in Dwarka… then I visit all the Nagnath… after all what is faith but a metaphysical communion between me and my Lord. So let us choose only 12 places to be visited…

Among the debated shrines I choose… Baidyanath Dham in Jharkhand, Aundha Nagnath (Parli Baidyanath is very close by… so will visit it, nevertheless) and Bhimashankar as my expression of faith.

And now I can start working on the travel plans of visiting these places in one go…

However more than visiting the places… I am excited about the plethora of experiences I will have while I try to travel all these places in one go. The people I will meet… the difference socio-cultural settings I will see… in a matter of say only 20 odd days. Isn’t it amazing.

Aimless wanderings in the Egyptian heartland. Part Four- Reaching El Arish

We reached Alexandria at midnight… I have been to Alexandria for five or six times during my stay and yet till I had not been able to gauge the expanse of the city. But today the city lights told me a different story

It is a huge city… and on the western parts of the city there is a huge Industrial complex that stretches for more than 10-12 kilometers. However… the urban squalor that is so very much evident in Cairo is missing in Alexandria. Alexandria is one of my favourite places in Egypt.

This time around… however we did not intend to stay in Alexandria… we wanted to move to Port Said… remember how it was supposed to be a wandering in those that I haven’t visited as yet. The only hitch however was that the bus service for the city had stopped for the day… we had to find some alternative mode to Port Said. And on a little questioning here and there, we did… a Microbus to Port Said.

We were feeling hungry and before the microbus moved… we needed to have something for our famished stomach. Juno pointed out towards a road side joint… equivalent of an Indian Dhaba… we rushed there… and had soul-full of Kushri… we were on our feet again… and raring to go.

In the microbus in which we were traveling… there sat two kids, unaccompanied… earlier there guardians in Alexandria spoke with the driver of the Microbus to leave them at a particular destination in Part Said. The Driver nodded… this act underlined something very beautiful about the Egyptian society. This society still reserves a lot of moral consciousness and sense of brotherhood… sometimes I argue that this may be due to Islam… which prescribes a strict set of moral dos and don'ts for its followers, unlike other religions that are a bit fuzzy when it comes to dos and don'ts. But then it has also something to do with the simplicity of life in this country… especially outside Cairo… similar moral uprightness can be seen in Uttaranchal in India… I was amazed at the simplicity of the people over there… and the sense of brotherhood and faith in each other.

We reached Port Said at 2 am… our first job was to search a place to sleep. We reached a place called Hotel Milano… a decent hotel… though my complain was about the small sized bathrooms in the hotel. Exhausted, we went to sleep.

Port Said is located at the northern end of Suez Canal… it is a Customs Free Zone and therefore a lot of people frequent the city to buy cheap electronics items and wares. It is a fairly large city…

However there is not much to be seen in this city. There is a small Military Museum displaying the Arab-Israel war that Egypt had a lot of success in. And then the Suez Canal itself… on the other side of the Suez Canal is Port Fouad… Suez's twin city… one can cross over from one side to another by free ferry service. And while crossing over one would be able to appreciate the beauty of it all… with birds flying all around… jumping at every morsel thrown by fellow mates… and their relentless noise.

When Juno started the journey… he was unsure whether he will be able to accompany me right till the end of it or not. There were certain pressing concerns that he was supposed to address and that were to decide his continuance with me on this journey. In Port Said, he decided to go back to Cairo and attend those pressing concerns. I felt a bit lost. In last few days I had developed a special relationship with Juno. It was fun traveling with him for last three days.

My next destination was supposed to be El Arish… a small Mediterranean town in the North Sinai… this town is otherwise famous for being close to Rafah… a border town with Gaza Strip… and whenever there is any problems in Gaza Strip… its reverberations are heard in Rafah and El Arish. I had always wanted to visit El Arish and see the place for myself… if possible visit Rafah and talk to some Palestinian refugees. However, somehow or the other… El Arish remained a distant dream.

There seems to be a road connecting Port Fouad and El Arish… I enquired and realized that there is a direct route between the two places… going through a place called Zerenike National Park… but that road is out of bounds for foreigners and there is absolutely no public transport on the road. Thus to reach El Arish I need to go to either Qantara or Ismailiya and then take a bus to El Arish. Qantara being closer, I chose it.

It was time to say goodbye… Juno left back to Cairo… we started the journey as acquaintance… and departed as friends… traveling has this unique ability to bring out the best or the worst of the relationship between fellow travelers.

The road to Qantara is picturesque… it meanders along a narrow canal and on the other side of the canal one can see vast expanse of green fields and small idyllic village. This area is an economic hub… for trade, for fishing and for agriculture… I was told by some people that the towns of Port Said, Ismailiya and Suez… are actually more metropolitan and in tune with times that even Cairo. The more I traveled in the region the more I realized… why is it so.

El Arish is poorly connected… there are not many bus services to it from either Qantara or Ismailiya… the deficit, however, is made up by a stream of microbuses connecting the two places… I was lucky to get one such microbus, as soon as I arrived at Qantara… therefore I did not get much time to see the place and form an opinion about the place.

And then when the bus started… I started dozing… till I saw the Mubarak Peace Bridge… connecting either side of the Suez Canal… it is a sight to watch… an engineering marvel. A cantilever Bridge that is given sufficient height to let the ships cross from underneath it… and thus is raised on pillars… it has a special architecture… and therefore would be a delight for any Civil Engineer to study. And when you reach atop you can see a panoramic view of entire canal and can see ships passing through it…. One of the most beautiful sights, I had ever seen.

I dozed off again… till the bus reached El Arish.

Rejoinder to the last part of Reminiscence from the Levant

After reading the last part of my blog on Levant… a friend commented that though the last part is high on emotion… it low on content… and not much can be made out from the blog by a person planning to go there.

I differed… if one just wants to go to Jerusalem… he will do himself a great service by picking up a guide book. He said… that is always a possibility… but then my blog can be a starting point of developing an urge to visit Jerusalem. And therefore I should give a detail of the places that I visited during the stay.

So here I go… writing a rejoinder to the last part of my blog on Levant… indicating the usual and off beat places I went and what I felt. This is beyond Al Aqsa Complex and Holy Sepulcher… as much has been written about them

* Tower of David Museum: A wonderful museum inside the old city…it is set inside the Jerusalem citadel. And a must visit… while reading the history of the Middle East I always wondered who were Byzantine, Ottomans, Ummayads, Mamluks… and then I arrived to this museum on a sunny morning… and things ceased to remain the same. The Museum captures the entire history of Jerusalem… explains it is vivid details… and clears a lots of doubts in one's mind. After visiting a lot of unscientific museums in the area… this museum comes as a whiff of fresh air.
* Garden Tomb… there have been a lot of debates around the exact location of the place where Jesus was actually crucified, buried and the resurrected. One school believes that the church of Holy Sepulcher is the place… another school however thinks that Garden Tomb is the place… set in a idyllic setting… this small yet beautiful place is managed by the Garden Tomb Association of England… the staff is very helpful and willing to show things around. The place is located just outside the Old City near the Bus Stand of the Damascus Gate. The place is closed on Sunday and after 5:30 pm on weekdays… I arrived here on Saturday evening at 5 pm…
* Old Yishuv Court Museum… a part of displaying the Jewish heritage of the city, this museum displays the life and time of the Jewish quarters in the 19th and early 20th century. A lot of artifacts depicting the day to day life of people at that point of time… the museum however doesn’t stop here. It goes on to display the life of Jews under the Jordanian occupation and then its liberation. Politically loaded, nevertheless can be visited once if one has time.
* Basilica of Saint Stephen Protomartyr… is one of the more beautiful churches that I visited during my aimless wandering on the roads of Jerusalem. One sight of it… I found it special and entered it. The Church is maintained by some French nationals and houses the relics of Saint Stephen who was one of the first martyrs in Christianity and therefore has a lot of history attached to it. Located outside the Old City on the Nablus Road, this place is worth a visit if one has time.
* Cathedral Church of Saint George the martyr… again located outside the Old City… it is a beautiful church belonging to the Palestinian Anglican order… I was lucky to arrive there when marriage ceremony was taking place…
* The Holocaust Museum… is a must visit, beautiful done… it tries to relive the horror of the ugly event in the history of mankind. It actually makes you hang your head in shame that some such thing ever happened. The place is numbing… though small
* Armenian Museum… the museum gives to a snapshot of the entire history of Armenians… but that is just a small part of the museum… much of the museum, however, is devoted to Armenian genocide… thus the museum has a strong political motive behind it. Visit it if you have time
* The Temple Institute… no one will tell you to visit the place… it is one of the best kept secret of this city… the entire institute is dedicated to tell us the history of the Holy Temple… and in the process answers a lot of questions on Jerusalem, Judaism, Crusades and early history of the region… it is a spiritual place… and a place worth visiting to absorb the history of the place.
* City of David…absolutely marvelous…you haven’t visited Jerusalem if you haven’t visited Holy Sepulcher, Al Aqsa and City of David… it is a treasure house of history… I however did not take a guided tour of the place… try and take a guided tour of the place… and it will broaden your horizons beyond imagination. And those who haven’t been there… visit their site http://www.cityofdavid.org.il
* Greek Orthodox Museum… ever since my visit to Saint Katherine monastery in Sinai… I have been fascinated by the order of Greek Orthodoxy… this museum was a great opportunity to learn everything about them… however, if not interested in their history… this place is passable.
* Rockefeller Museum… again a must visit, this place is located in the new city… and if one has to point out just one place worth a visit in the newer Jerusalem, this is it. These are not my words but words from a bunch of Canadian students I bumped into… and joined them to see the place. I was amazed by the kind of research these students had done before coming to this place… whereas I had landed in Jerusalem without any idea of the place or its history. The museum, however, changed it all.
* Last but not the least… the Solomon Quarries. Walking down the road hugging the walls of Old city… I saw a board announcing the location of Solomon's Quarries. It is said that the stones from this underground cave system were used to build the Solomonic Jerusalem. Later it became the focal point of Freemasonry… I went inside and was mortally afraid of the solitude and weird setting, I was in… I was retracing my steps back when I saw a bunch of Canadian people coming along… I tagged with them. We together saw the Freemason Prayer Hall… and a girl wondered- why Freemasons had such grim and dark places for praying and meeting. We went further down the Quarry… this place goes down and down… however after a certain point the passages are blocked by landslides. The group I was with, however, had come here earlier… they had during their last visit found a small pit leading us further down into the caves… with a warning that its dangerous and illegal to go inside. They however wanted to visit it… and this time they came prepared with torches and ropes…. Without much choice I joined them… albeit for giving them an air of wisdom and caution. We went inside… it was pitch dark… and the places consisted of mazes all around… some old stone structures… it was all man made… we must have traveled about 250 meters till we came to a dead end. One of the person was carrying a compass suggested that the direction we have traveled suggests that we are close to the Temple Mount!!!!!

These are few places that I visited during the trip… hope it build upon the urge to visit the place.

Dwadash Jyotirlinga Part One

A Jyotirlinga is a shrine where Lord Shiva is worshipped in the form of a Jyotirlingam or "Lingam of light." There are twelve traditional Jyotirlinga shrines in India.

The names and the locations of the 12 Jyotirlingas are mentioned in the Shiva Purana (Śatarudra Saṁhitā, Ch.42/2-4). These shrines are:

• Somnath is the foremost of the twelve Jyotirlinga Shrines of Shiva. It is held in reverence throughout India and is rich in legend, tradition, and history. It is located at Prabhas Patan in Saurashtra in Gujarat.
• Mallikārjuna, also called Śrīśaila, is the name of the pillar located on a mountain on the river Krishna. Srisailam, near Kurnool in Andhra Pradesh enshrines Mallikarjuna in an ancient temple that is architecturally and sculpturally rich.
• Mahakal, Ujjain (or Avanti) in Madhya Pradesh is home to the Mahakaleshwar Jyotirlinga temple. The Lingam at Mahakal is believed to be Swayambhu, the only one of the 12 Jyotirlingams to be so. It is also the only one facing south.
• Omkareshwar in Madhya Pradesh on an island in the Narmada River is home to a Jyotirlinga shrine and the Amareshwar temple.
• Kedarnath in Uttarakhand is the northernmost of the Jyotirlingas. Kedarnath, nestled in the snow-clad Himalayas, is an ancient shrine, rich in legend and tradition. It is accessible only by foot, and only for six months a year.
• Bhimashankar, in the Sahyadri range of Maharashtra, contains a Jyotirlinga shrine associated with Shiva destroying the demon Tripurasura.
• Varanasi (Benares) in Uttar Pradesh is home to the Vishwanath Jyotirling temple.
• Trimbakeshwar, near Nasik in Maharashtra, has a Jyotirlinga shrine associated with the origin of the Godavari River.
• Baidyanathdham in Deoghar, Jharkhand Vaidyanath Temple, also called Vaijnath Temple and Baidyanth Temple is located at Deogarh in the Santal Parganas region of Jharkhand in the south west of Keeul Station.
• Nageshwar Temple, Dwarka in Gujarat is home to the Nageshwar Jyotirlinga temple.
• Rameswaram in Tamilnadu is home to the vast Ramalingeswarar Jyotirlinga temple and is revered as the southernmost of the twelve Jyotirlinga shrines of India. It enshrines the Rameśvara ("Lord of Rama") pillar.
• Grishneshwar Jyotirlinga shrine, in Aurangabad Maharashtra, is located near the rock-cut temples of Ellora.

There are, however, some debates and disputes regarding the exact location of at least three of the above Jyotirlinga.

In case of Baidyanathdham… some people contend that the actual Baidyanathdham is in Parli, Maharashtra. Some others contend that it is in the Kangra Valley of Himachal Pradesh. Majority however contends that it is either in Maharashtra or Jharkhand.

In case of Nagnath… some people contend that actual Nagnath is near Almora in Uttaranchal. Some others however contend that it is actually in Oundha, Maharashtra. And in the case of Nagnath, there is not much coincidence of opinion.

Then in the case of Bhimashankar… some people consider that it is actually in Kashipur, Uttaranchal… some other say it is near Guwahati, Assam.

Much of these debates arise due to selfless pursuit of a woman called Rani Ahilya Bai. A brief history of this woman is as follows

Ahilyabai Holkar (1725-1795) was a great ruler and the Queen of the Kingdom of Malwa. Popularly known as Rajmata Ahilyadevi Holkar and she was born in 1725 in the village of Chondi in Maharashtra, India. She was the daughter of Mankoji Shinde who belonged to the Dhangar community, serving as patil of the village. Her father educated her himself and she grew up living a humble pious life, when one day, her destiny changed forever to eventually see her become the ruler of Malwa in the 18th century.

Young Ahilyadevi's character and simplicity impressed Malhar Rao Holkar, who then served under Peshwa Bajirao's army as a commander. So great was his liking for the girl, that she was married to his son, Khande Rao, thus becoming a bride in the esteemed Maratha community of the Holkars. After her husband's death in the battle of Kumbher in 1754, Ahilyabai was introduced to the administrative and military affairs of the state by her father-in-law, which saw her perform brilliantly under his guidance.

After Malhar Rao's death, she requested the Peshwa to grant her the power to lead the administration of the region. His approval saw Rani Ahilyadevi take hold of the reins of the state in 1766, to become ruler of Malwa, with Tukoji Holkar appointed as her new military head. Receiving the full support of her loyal army, Ahilyadevi led them into several wars, whilst, she being a brave warrior and skilled archer herself, fought with valor atop elephant-back, even protecting her kingdom from the plundering Bhils and Gonds.

Rani Ahilyabai moved her capital to Maheshwar, constructing the splendid 18th century Maratha-architecture based, Ahilya Fort, on the banks of the sacred Narmada River. Besides her capital being an industrial enterprise for textile, it was also a thriving destination for literary, sculpture, music and arts, which saw Moropant, the famous Marathi poet, the Shahir Anantaphandi and Sanskrit scholar, Khushali Ram, being patronized during her era.

A wise, just and enlightened ruler who cared for her people, she was available to the aid of everyone holding a daily public audience in her court. During her glorious reign (1767-1795), Rani Ahilyadevi's innumerable contributions made her a beloved and respected queen amongst her people in a prospering kingdom. She wisely spent the governmental money building several forts, rest houses, wells and roads, celebrating festivals and donations to Hindu temples.

Her feminine side saw her aid widows in retaining their husband's wealth and in adoption of a son. Besides her transformation of Indore from an erstwhile village into a prosperous and enchanting city, she is also accredited with renovating temples. Her most memorable activities include the construction of numerous temples and pilgrimage centers across an area extending from the Himalayas to South India, at sacred sites like Kashi, Gaya, Somnath, Ayodhya, Mathura, Hardwar, Dwarka, Badrinarayan, Rameshwar and Jaganathpuri.

Ahilyabai Holkar's magnificent and glorious rule ended when she passed away in 1795.

During her reign… She did something great for Hindu Religion… she not only renovated a lot of temples across the length and breadth of the country but also found out the exact locations of many of them… that were lost or forgotten due to hundreds of year of Muslim rule in India. The Jyotirlingas in Bhimashankar, Aurangabad, Parli and Oundha are results of these searches.

So if somebody wants to visit all the twelve Jyotirlingas… then to be on the safer side he must visit 19 different places.

Travels within oneself

I met JRM Pawar some four and a half years ago… and the meeting was very brief. And yet I remember him very distinctly.

During those days he used to head the regional Head Office of Directorate of Field Publicity in Pune, popularly known in the government circles as DFP. The office was located in some non-descript corner of the city and was nothing great to write about… however, it housed an organization that I would rate highly in concept and potential, yet low in implementation.

Actually it has been a case with all the DFP units I have seen… and I have seen quite a few of them- in Chandigarh, in Allahabad, in Aurangabad, and in Pune. They all have a very high potential and yet the implementation of vision behind them is lackadaisical.

DFP was a vision of our first Prime Minister Pundit Jawahar Lal Nehru…the dream was to create autonomous teams in every district of India… well averse with multimedia and modern mass communication technique… and utilizing them to educate masses on issues of communal importance. It was a masterpiece of an idea, like so many other ideas of this great man- that ultimately failed due to poor implementation.

The reason as to why I remembered DFP was because today I was talking to my friends… about administrative set up in district level and was reminded that a lot of potentially fruitful ideas have become a burden to exchequer… posts like Locust Control Officer, Malaria Control Officer, and Agriculture Extension Officer… and the Office of Directorate of Field Publicity. The reasons for the failure of these offices are not far to seek… however I would not go into these reasons, lest I may digress from the issue at hand.

It has been more than four years… so I have practically forgotten how he looked like… but his eyes were powerful and his gaze was deep. One look at him and I knew that I am meeting someone special. Somebody who has an ability to look deep into your being and yet choosing not to do so… for the ephemerality of it all.

While talking to him, he asked me as to what are my interests… I told... given a choice I would like to travel and travel… see new places, new cultures, new way of living and thinking and document it all. He smiled… somewhere in me, perhaps, he saw his past. His smile was full of meaning… and I found myself- helpless, unable to decipher it. I smiled back, albeit sheepishly.

He smiled back… yet again, reclined back on his seat and took a deep breath.

"So what are the places you have visited in this life time of yours"… this was a profound question… not because it was… but because it was coming from a person, who rendered an altogether different meaning to it…. I looked deep inside myself… trying to relive those moments of wanderings… of Western Ghats, of Gujarat, of Uttaranchal, of West Bengal, of Himachal Pradesh, of Uttar Pradesh. And when I looked deep inside me, it humbled me… for I had not in a third of my existence visited a third of India.

"And have you visited inside yourself"… this was another profound question… though I couldn’t understand its profoundness. That however raised a storm of question inside me… why do I travel, what is in it for me? What do I get out of it?

Traveling has been a natural urge for me, for quite some time… though I hardly ever sat back and tried to understand why it is so. I lived a large part of my life… traveling aimlessly and sporadically, meaninglessly. And yet I had my most intense experience while traveling in Gujarat… when under a tremendous emotional duress, I packed my bag and headed towards Diu… I went to Junagadh, then upon some urge to Somnath (I had two buses in front of me… one going to Diu and another going to Somnath… and despite the fact that I wanted to go to Diu… I knowingly took the bus to Somnath)… and what happened was something mystic and divine.

Ever since, traveling became a spiritual exercise for me. Undertaken once every five six months… in soliloquy… to emancipate myself… to rejuvenate myself… and to start loving myself all over again. It has had a tremendous therapeutic effect on me… and therefore I suggest it to everybody, as a spiritual exercise.

In a way… whenever I visit the outer world, I visit inside me… while walking long distance in the woods… in a busy thoroughfare… in a marketplace… and on a virgin beach… I start speaking to myself… I start pointing out my mistakes, start accepting my mistakes and start seeking apologies for it all… I never do them, otherwise… Ego is it.

But never did I visit inside me… figuratively, perhaps.

"The world inside you is wondrous… it will startle you, amaze you, entice you and mesmerize you. The world outside is nothing when compared… its transient and meaningless. When I used to be of your age… I used to be a hippy… wandering in the hills of Himachal, taking grass and what not… and then everything changed when I started looking within myself."

I had a question on my face… how does one look into oneself. He read that… he smiled and said

"You need a Guru… and when you will require him the most… he will automatically come to you"… these words were imprinted on my mind. I have been living with these words, ever since.

A lot of changes have happened in me in last two years… I am able to define myself in a better way…. Something tells me that the time has come… I am waiting for him.

Aimless wanderings in the Egyptian heartland. Part Three- The road to Baharaiyya.

When I first landed in Cairo… and from that point onwards, I have been hearing about Siwa Baharaiyya Road and how it is the last frontier to be conquered in Egypt. Well. May be the second last… for I consider the Great Sand Sea to be the last. And from that point onwards, I wanted to conquer it.

Siwa and Baharaiyya are very close to each other… and yet there is no direct road connecting these places… and though I have been hearing that the government will soon be building a road from Siwa to Baharaiyya… none has cropped in the last two years.

However, there is an old road connecting the two places. It is badly worn out and at points… it is non-existent. Some desert buffs take their four wheels and try doing that road. Some go from Siwa to Baharaiyya and some other way round… but when I was in Farafra Oasis last time around, I was told that it is much safer and easier to do it from Siwa to Baharaiyya… and the reason is that Siwa is at an altitude compared to Baharaiyya… this makes it easier for the vehicle to negotiate its way around.

When I started my Great Egyptian Circuit… I had a firm resolve to this route… howsoever expensive it turns out to be… I was told that it might not be very difficult to get a vehicle from Siwa for this trip and that everyday one vehicle or the other tends to go there. The trip seemed possible and plausible.

As soon as we arrived in Siwa, we enquired about this possibility… we realized that one needs to find at least 4 people for the trip otherwise the price of going to Baharaiyya is quite steep. Most of the people who take this circuit come with a ready-made group and therefore gate-crashing into them is not an option. One, it was a mistake that I did not come to Siwa with a ready made group.

Having said that, there is still a possibility of finding some similar wandering souls who would like to do this circuit… but it is not that easy… Siwa has a lot of hotels and contacting some similar people is hell of a task. Therefore it is best left to the Tour Operators… they collect the names of individuals planning to go to Baharaiyya from different hotels… patch up a group and organize the trip. This generally works fine, but in our case… it didn’t. We contact almost all operators in the town, but no one had any person willing to go to Baharaiyya. Two, Luck just didn’t favour us… a day ago there were two groups who went to Baharaiyya… today there wasn’t even one.

Even if one finds a tour operator… and some like minded people, there a few other hitches. Remember all the groups leave only in morning so that they reach Baharaiyya well before the sunset… this is for the safety of the travelers… and not only that any party that goes for the trip must register itself in advance with the tourist police (it’s a simple procedure, but a bottleneck nevertheless). And the Tourist Police office is closed on a Friday. So even if we have had found a group… we couldn’t have register ourselves in a tourist office and therefore would had to wait for one more day to start our journey. Three, never arrive in Siwa on a Friday for a trip to Baharaiyya… in fact, I gathered that Thursday is the best day to find tours going to Baharaiyya… so the best day to arrive in Siwa is Wednesday.

Therefore we waited the Friday to get over… on the first day we merely toured around in Siwa with Suleiman… after seeing the Gebel Maut, Temple of Oracle and Temple of Amun… and thereafter we went to the Cleopatra Spring.

Cleopatra Spring is a nice place… a natural spring with lukewarm and clean water… it is a wonderful place to take a dip and though I do not know how to swim, properly… I just took out my life jacket and took a dip in the spring. It was a wonderful experience. Juno, who is mortally afraid of water… just waited for me, outside. He started talking to two French women who were also visiting the spring… we gave them lift in our Donkey Carts till the city square.

In the night we went to the Old Shali… Old Siwis used to live in fortified beehive like villages to protect themselves from desert dacoits. With time, however, this custom changed and the old bee-hive like townships gave way to brick and mortar. Today the old dwellings of Siwa lie unattended and unpopulated… visiting them gives you an insight into the life and times of Old Siwis. But the best time to visit them is the hours of dusk… when the old dilapidated dwellings create a magic… of fear, hope and timelessness. It is a must to experience, I remember even the last time when I went to Siwa… I roamed in the solitude of Old Shali all by myself.

The next day, we straight away went to the Tourist Police office… the idea was to get hold of any group that is coming for registration and gate-crash into them… however luck just deserted us. No group came for registration. We lost all hopes of doing this trip and decided to re-trace our steps back to Marsa Matrouh. From there, we decided that we will either go to Alexandria and try making it to Port Said or take a bus to Sollum and spend a night over there. And that would be decided by the very first connecting bus that we get in Marsa Matrouh.

In the process of trying to find our way to Baharaiyya, we definitely became wiser. And now I can suggest a few pointers for individuals who are trying to do this circuit.

One, try to find a group beforehand. Two, if that is difficult… arrive in Siwa on a Tuesday or a Wednesday… it is easier to find a group on these days. Three, sound out all the possible tour operators that you want to go to Baharaiyya… that helps. Four, go and meet people at the Tourist Police Office… and tell them that you desperately want to go to Baharaiyya… they may help, offer them a pack of cigarette assuring them that they will have a nice Baksheesh if they are able to arrange the trip for you.

With a very heavy heart we left Siwa… I bid adieu to my plans of doing a Great Egyptian Circuit… but as I had said- Circuit is just a state of mind, a construct. More important is the experience… in the process of trying our way to Baharaiyya, we met a lot of people… we interacted a lot… it was definitely a highlight of the trip, as important as the Siwa-Baharaiyya desert trip, which was not to be.

Reminiscence from the Levant: Part Twenty Six and the Last– The last few steps

Any attempt, mind you any attempt to conjure up the magic of Jerusalem- by written words… is not only futile but also audacious. It is belittling oneself and the place itself.

I have not seen the entire world… nor do I hope to. One lifetime is too small to see the grandeur of our civilizations… the nature's gift to mankind. All, therefore, a weary traveler can dream of… is seeing the totem of human pursuits… and if there is one, it has to be Jerusalem… only Jerusalem.

Many years ago… I had heard the story of Jesus and the centrality of Holy Sepulcher Church in his story… I had never imagined as to what it would be like to be in the precincts of it all. And when I was… I was simply overwhelmed, by its vastness… it profoundness… its timelessness and its holiness. Once upon a time… I had been hearing the about the Wailing Wall… and how every Jew, anywhere on the planet earth faces it while praying. And for the last few years… I have been hearing about Al Aqsa Mosque… and the struggle of Palestinians which it represents… and how Prophet Mohammed rose to the heaven from there… and how it is the third holiest site for Islam and its followers. Jerusalem is Vatican, Mecca all rolled in one and much more… it is humanity's heritage.

For last few days… for last five months to be precise, I have been writing about my reminiscences in Levant… the journey that started in Aleppo couldn’t have had a more worthy ending… in Jerusalem. This is the last part of what I set out to document. I have already documented what all experiences I had… what remains is Jerusalem… an experience that no amount of words can describe. And if there is one small pearl of wisdom one can take from the last few months of writing… then it is to somehow visit Jerusalem in his lifetime. History, Faith, Civilization and Consciousness doesn’t get bigger that it.

What should I write and what can I write. What do I write about Holy Sepulcher… and more importantly, can I ever grasp the beauty of that place… or what do I write about touching the Wailing Wall… and being amidst a humanity of the Chosen People… or what do I write about the beautiful sight of Al Aqsa… and the angst of Palestinians. Their mere references demean and belittle the written words. Knowing about them, reading about them… takes a precious little effort of typing them in a Google search engine… vital thing is to experience them… realizing what all they mean, they stand for and the message they hold for us.

Yes I saw them all… I also saw the winding lanes of the Old City… I saw the old Armenian Churches… the Arabic Souqs… a solitary Rabbi in the Jewish Quarter… the commotion of Islamic Quarters… the great Greek Monastery… the house of Mother Mary… and after seeing them all, I could just thank myself for undertaking this beautiful journey.

Jerusalem is a reality… go experience it.

The New Jerusalem is another experience waiting to happen…. I took a city bus tour… far away one sees the Golden Dome… further away the Russian Church… and then one closes the eye to ensure that yes he is not dreaming.

Jerusalem is an experience at every step… going inside the Central Bus Stand and getting intimidated by the Security apparatus… or even hearing a loud thud… some where… and getting dazed by the response of Israeli security who cordoned the entire area within 5 minutes… did their investigation in another 10… and eased the cordon in sum total of 15 minutes.

Or being greeted by a sweet Shalom by people and comparing Shalom with Salaam. So much of similarity and yet so much hatred! Mired by an acute political crisis, Jerusalem is definitely out of bounds for a large section of humanity… but I sincerely wish that one day the stand off will end… when an Arab will pray in Al Aqsa, a Copt will pray in Holy Sepulcher… when a Jew will travel freely in entire Arab world… see the grandeur of Pyramids and Umayyad Mosque in Damascus. I know that 100 years is too small a time in the history of humanity… and sincerely wish that I am right.

The two days spent in Jerusalem were one of the most beautiful days of my life… I will cherish their memories forever in my life. The images of Jerusalem will fade and away… gradually… but the fact that I was there in this life time of mine… will always bring smile to my face. For it was in Jerusalem that I realized the similarity of Salaam Alaikum and Shalom Aleychem.

If I would have tried… I would have written three four more ongoing chapters on Jerusalem without being exhausted for words and expression… but I know they are meaningless… much has been written on the place… and much will be written on the place… but no one who will write about it, will be honest enough to tell about his inability to write about it. I am just being honest… I am leaving my experiences of Jerusalem as it is. With a wish that every wandering soul sees the place… where the three great religions of the world emanated.

After Jerusalem… I came back to Amman… met Noor again. Was there in Amman for a few hours… and took a flight back to Cairo…

Cairo awaited me. My two year old son awaited me… I hope one day he will grow up and visit Jerusalem. And relive the magic of the place… and then we will talk about our experiences.

This journey was a defining moment in my life… it taught me that I am a global citizen… and I own the entire world… and that the entire world is my oyster.

Aleppo-Hamah-Palmyra-Damascus-Amman-Petra-Jerusalem… I will never forget them.