Chapter 3
As it
dawned over the valley, we could see more of the mountain on the other side of
the border, dotted with residential buildings and connecting roads with vehicles
plying infrequently. We were in awe as we saw the mountains on both sides and
the valley town that is Tithwal. Apart from a couple of two/three-story
buildings that adorned the side of narrow roads (other than the main road),
the only major structures were of the Army Camp. A short walk from our homestay
took us to the much-talked-about, Sharada Mandir. As alluded, Aijaz had taken an interest in building this temple complex that also housed a Gurudwara. The idol
in this temple was contributed by Sringeri Sharada Peeta and the temple was
inaugurated in June earlier.
The program for
the day was to take a dip in the river Krishna-Ganga and after pooja at the Sharada temple,
to march up to the border post to:
1. Immerse the Ganesha Idol, which was modeled on ISRO's Chandrayan,
2. Impress upon the need for cross-border
tourism
so that we can visit the original Sharada Peeta established by Adi
Shankara, presently in POK.
Post this, there was a prize distribution to the finalists of the cricket match under the aegis of Sharada Peeta, Tithwal. Incidentally, the Tithwal cricket team won the finals defeating a team from New Delhi, much to the cheer of the local crowd. This done, we all headed for lunch, again, at the Army camp. A simple but sumptuous lunch filled both our stomachs and hearts as we started bidding farewell to our newfound friends.
The next stop was the border post where we were promised that we could go up to the middle of the bridge where a white line was painted to signify the border between the two areas (POK and India). We couldn’t do it earlier as the crowd was a bit unruly which prevented the concerned Security team from allowing any person on this bridge.
Other than
crossing the borders of countries by flight, this was my first experience of seeing the physical line drawn on the border in plain sight, with sentried gates
at both ends of the bridge. A few people from the other side were present on the
bridge at their side of the border when we went there and we had to wait till
they all left and the gate at their end closed, for further visitors. Only then, we were
allowed on the cantilever bridge stretching across the river Krishna Ganga. As
we entered the bridge, it began to sway due to our asynchronous steps. We got
the clue of how to balance out and then on, it was a breeze. It was indeed a
sight to behold from the middle of this bridge, overlooking the hills on both
sides and the water flowing briskly, 100 ft below. Took pics to our hearts'
content and returned to our vehicles. It was already 4:00pm as we hit the road
for the return journey.
We reached
Sadhana Pass just about sunset time and had to get out of our vehicles to
be searched. This done, we started to descend and had the opportunity to savour
the masala tea at the same place as we did on our onward journey. As earlier, I
had the opportunity to gulp down another cup of this lovely tea. Then on, we
had only one stop en route, Sharada Ashtapan temple at Gund Gushi. By the time
we reached here, it was pretty dark and the caretaker was nowhere to be seen.
Next door was a huge masjid and the people from neighbourhood came out to see
us. They tried to help trace the caretaker but to no avail. We had no other
option but to push off from here to our base camp, Srinagar.
In all, we could see most of the planned places except a couple. Dog-tired, we reached our base camp around 10:00 in the night, had a quick bite of dinner and off to bed after a long day, just reminding ourselves that the next day would be a relaxed one as it was just Gulmarg and possibly local sightseeing.
More in the next chapter...
.jpeg)
No comments:
Post a Comment