Finally back home!!!

It was a very long journey from Amritsar to Kurukshetra. We reached Kurukshetra around 3 pm. Before getting out of the bus, the guide gave us a strict instruction that everyone were to return by 4:30pm. The reason he cited was that our flight was at 2am and so we had to reach Delhi in time. All of us went dispersed and moved in different groups. Jenny and I were together.

I felt insecure in Kurukshetra. We had to walk through a long hall (or was it a waiting shed???) where there were both men and female sanyasis. They were a filthy lot. (I am sorry if I hurt any one’s sentiments.) I felt Captain Jack Sparrow in ‘The Pirates of the Caribbean’ was far cleaner than the sanyasis here. We could find hundreds of Purohits and Pandas sleeping on the floor. There were many women priests too. Many were awake and some sort of fright seized me. I did not go around much. There was a bronze statue of Krishna and Arjuna on a chariot where Krishna is giving upadeshas (advices) to Arjuna.

The Brahma Sarover is the biggest tank in India. It is 1.2 kms long and 640 meters in breadth. The tank looked very clean and I wonder why these sanaysis did not even bother to wash themselves there.

There is an island in the Brahmo Sarover where there is a temple of Sarveshwar Mahadev

The photograph shows the mandir at Kurukshetra. I went there, clicked a few photographs and left the place. We came out and had tea from an eatery. We bought some souvenirs from Kurukshetra. I wanted to buy rudraksham but the Brahmins in our group discouraged that saying they were not original ones. We came back to or bus around 4pm. None of the others had come back after the darshan.

It was very hot. The driver switched on the air conditioner for us. Our driver did not know any other language other than Hindi. Even after 5pm nobody had come. The driver told us that we were the only two people who were always punctual. The guide was getting irritated while I was getting tensed. Around 5:15 everyone arrived and the bus set off to Delhi.

We reached Delhi around 9:30pm. They dropped Jenny and me at their hotel in Delhi. As our flight was delayed, we decided to leave the hotel at 2 am. They gave us a room in the ground floor. After a short nap, we left for the airport. Our flight was delayed again. We had to wait for another two hours before we could check in.

I was still wearing the kara. My luggage showed excess weight of 9 kilos. The man at the counter was a Sikh. He looked and gave me a sweet smile. He did not charge me of any excess luggage. Jenny was teasing me saying that he must have mistaken me for a Sikh. From Delhi Jenny and I were taking different flights. I took the Cochin flight. I boarded the flight and went off to sleep. When the flight touched the runway at Nedumbassery I woke up. I was happy to get back to Kerala after the adventurous trip to Kashmir. Even today, people raise their eyebrows when they hear that we went alone to Kashmir.