My first trip to Vaishnodevi was unimpressive. Climbing was hard, and it only served to highlight how badly out of shape I was, while my in-laws managed to cope so much better. Further, I hadn’t quite realized that the cave experience wouldn’t be the same as I had imagined, since the original cave was only opened at certain times a year, and that we only entered a newly created tunnel, one far easier to access, and hence more manageable with the crowds that thronged the mountain shrine. The resulting experience at the shrine, for barely a fraction of a second, hardly compared to what I had expected / imagined / heard about. So, for me, Vaishnodevi was like any other temple, nothing to write home about, something that was reflected (though not explicitly mentioned) in the blog post I wrote then.
A bull which drove away
invaders, three buffaloes said to be demons, a lake once said to have been
filled with ghee and a temple once covered in lime to protect it – we couldn’t
help but smile as we listened to these stories about Achalgarh. We had a day
free at Mount Abu and were in the mood to explore, so we headed out for the
tourist circuit, trusting our driver to take us to some interesting places.
Achalgarh turned out to
be the first on his list, and as we headed along roads with farms interspersed
between the mountains, with scarcely a person to be seen anywhere, I wondered
about the place we were going to. I had heard a bit about Achalgarh before we
started, and knew that it had once been the capital of the area. The name
indicated the presence of a fort, but our driver told me that there was no fort
there. “Bas, mandir hai, Madam” he
said. ”There is only a temple there.” I felt my enthusiasm droop at the idea of
visiting yet another temple, but we had already turned on the road to
Achalgarh, so there was no turning back.
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This article was published on Spice Flair. To read all my articles on the site, click here.
This article was published on Spice Flair. To read all my articles on the site, click here.
interesting.. we had gone to mount abu too but i think i forgot about this temple. i loved mount abu trip
ReplyDeleteGreat find Anu!
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ReplyDeleteYes, it was, Niranjan! surprisingly interesting :D
ReplyDeleteThanks Meena! Its a beautiful place, but isnt well promoted, so easy to forget!
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ReplyDeleteglad to see ur post
ReplyDelete