(22/03/2014)
My climbing up seven floors daily at my office building has become so
noticeable that people started asking me as to why don’t I use the elevator? Or am I a sportswoman, which of course I am
not, and blah blah. My answer to them all would be,” I love walking.” And ever since my office people came to know about
this, they wouldn’t stop suggesting me about the places to visit in and around,
where I can walk and trek. And one of the places they recommended me recently
was ‘Jivdani Temple’ located at the
hilltop of Virar, which has more than 1400 steps to climb up to.
So, this weekend though I had no plans at all, for the days being busy
and tiring at office, I felt like resting., but in the morning when I was
sitting with my Laptop, Rishika, one of my roommates came and asked, “so, what’s the plan for the day?” , I
instinctively said,”Ghumne chalna toh bol?”
She said,” Really, let’s go, but
where?”
“Let’s go to Jivdani temple.”
I said, and all of a sudden the plan for the day was
made. Lovely, another roommate of ours from Kerala, also agreed to join.
We browsed through the net for getting information about the best time
to visit, and came to know that we should go either in the morning to view
serene environment amidst of rising sun or visit in the evening to view the
beautiful sunset. As our morning was already over, we decided to go in the evening.
We left home at 3:00 pm, and boarded a Virar train from Borivali. And gosh!
For the first time I realized as to why my friends, who had been to Mumbai before
me, always warned me against boarding a Virar train. I always wondered, and
then that day I got the answer after the real experience I had. We didn’t get seats at that hour of the day
even, when it’s not even the peak hour, i.e. morning or evening when all the
population would be commuting to and fro for their work places.
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| "The never ending Nightmare at Virar station" |
With great difficulty, we managed to tuck into the train and stand in
between the huge crowd. The very next moment the train stopped at another station
named Dahisar, where few people got out of the train, and many of them got into
it, dragging hard their bodies, at the same time using their hard tongues,
rebuking, shouting and yelling at others and making their way by pushing
everybody. Lovely pulled herself in a corner. Rishika and I were still in the
middle, when a giant or huge lady of 45-50 yrs old, weighing around 200 kgs. (I
shapath I am not exaggerating) came between us pushing us badly, and soon we
two were at two different corners, with expressions of wonder on our faces. The wonder didn’t stop here, as after reaching
Virar Station after 45-50 minutes, we kept standing there speechless, the
moment we saw the crowd. Hell, where did they come from? Mumbai’s population
and crowd was nothing if we compare it with Virar’s. Oh God, the moment we
walked near the staircase, leading to the bridge, to cross the platforms to go
to Virar (E), we were stuck in a long queue, which seemed to be not moving. It took us another 20 minutes to cross the
bridge, which normally would take less than 2 minutes to do so. We were
breathless, and when we got out of it alive, we couldn’t resist seeing and
observing the never ending crowd for a while before proceeding towards the
temple. And then I realized the root cause of the hardened and frustrated faces
of people around, lacking peace of minds. How can someone be at peace, when he
has to wake up early in the morning to travel two hours to his workplace,
struggling and fighting to get seat or even a place to stand in the train, then
work like a machine at office due to heavy loads of work, and in the evening
has to go through same struggle for train? By the time he reaches home, he is
exhausted; mentally as well as physically. How can someone be at peace when he
doesn’t have the time at his disposal to talk to himself, not to speak of his
family? Sigh…God do something, I pray!
 |
| "The happy faces, while climbing the stairs" |
Then to resume our yatra, we hired a shared auto, which charged us Rs.
10 per person, and reached the base of the temple in 15 minutes. And there it
was, as my office people described, a beautifully made, white temple, dedicated
to one of the Hindu Goddess, namely Jivdani, meaning Goddess of life on the
hill top, the mere sight of which wiped away our prior apprehension of Virar
Local train and station. And to reach at the temple, we had to climb more than
1400 steps, which were wide and well maintained with shades and resting places
at every point. Though there was a Ropeway too, but we preferred to walk, and
as per Lovely’s wish to use the Ropeway while coming down later. As we climbed
higher and higher, we came closer to the beautiful view below. We rested almost
at every 100 or 150th step, posing for camera and taking pictures of
the surrounding views. And, It was all fun. :-)
 |
| "And, the beautiful temple at the hilltop" |
And once we reached at the top, we went “WOW”! The view from the topmost point looked just
‘Awesome’. We could see the entire Virar city as well as the nearby places.
Everything looked awesome; the roads, the houses which looked like small
cardboards or a town plan map, the lakes, the Arabian sea etc. etc. and the
best was the Sun-set, for which we had to wait a little more. But when the sun
was at its verge to set, turning everything into orange, it was beautiful and
soulfully touching.
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| "The beautiful view from the top, and the beautiful feelings within" |
We paid our obeisance to the Goddess, spent more than an hour at the
top, and then booked tickets for the Ropeway for getting down, which also was a
beautiful experience.
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| "The soul-touching view of sun-set" |
We spent few times at the Lake, just near the Virar Railway station,
as per Rishika’s wish, which looked quite beautiful as the reflection of the
lights around as well as of the skywalk above, made it shine and sparkle
nicely. And then we returned home happily and fully satisfied.
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| "Destination last, the beautiful Lake" |
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