Holy Trail

Having organized a successful trip to Goa – and then to Kashmir – Shekhawat is now training his sights on what he calls 'Vishnu Devi'. All plans of going to Patayya or Kerala or even Lonavala have thus been put on a slow burner – at least for the moment.
According to the itinerary he has drawn up, the trip is scheduled for the middle of March 2013 and would last eight days. The idea is to fly to Jammu from Bombay and then take the road to Katra, a township in the foothills of the Trikuta Mountain. From there, the Vaishno Devi shrine (pic above) is an uphill climb of 12 km.
Thereafter, returning to Katra and following a night’s rest, the tour bus would head to Manali with brief stoppages en route at Vasuki Nag temple, Chamunda Devi temple, Kangra valley, Baijnath temple and Mandi.
At Manali, the tour would cover the Rohtang Pass, Solang valley, a Buddhist gompa, Manu’s temple and Hadimba’s temple. Following another night’s rest, the bus would head towards Jwalaji temple, 56 km away in Jwalamukhi town.
Up next would be Bhakra Nangal Dam, onward to Naina Devi temple and back to Jwalamukhi for a night stay. Thereafter, the bus would move on its last lap towards Amritsar (224 km) to cover Chintpurni, the Golden Temple, Jallianwala Bagh, Durgiana temple, Ram Tirath, Mata Mandir and finally, Wagah Border.
No doubt, the tour would be physically demanding and logistically, much more complicated than anything Shekhawat has handled so far. But he has taken it up as a personal challenge and is confident of getting 15 members (enough to fill a mini bus) on board – failing which, he says, ‘outsiders’ would have to be roped in. But go he must.
The Club had a surprise visitor this morning – Hari Naraiyani’s son ( bottom pic). The two shared some warm moments on the bench watching us exercise, before Sunil Naraiyani was introduced to us by a proud papa. Since they do not stay together, Shekhawat requested the young man to visit his father more often in the Garden.
Renu Babani:
* Jai Vaishno-devi!
* We unite families too.