|| नर्मदे हर ||
Date : 26th January 2011
Start : Shahada
End : Katpor
Distance : 218 km
Route : Shahada - Ankaleshwar - Katpor. The road is new and excellent.
Left Shahada early morning . Now we entered Gujarat state
and we could immediately see Industrialised India.
Heavy truck traffic , various industries all around ,
super road conditions was prominently noted.
Katpor is a very small village which is on sea coast where Narmada meets the sea.
It is here where Parikramawasi catches a boat and travels through the sea to embark on Northen bank of river Narmada. This way the river is not crossed.
Had some trouble finding the Dharmashala run by Gopal Krishna Swami.
Infact when I saw it from some distance
I felt it was some kinnda storage godown .
It is a single floor building built out of nowhere
amidst barren land which resembled a salt pan.
Some 6 bare halls with just one bulb in each hall.
In front of this building a small temporary shed which was made for cooking.
Thats it - no more facilities and it all seemed nothing intresting.
On top when we reached we came to know that the boat had not left since 3 days and had no idea how long we will need to stay here till the boat takes us to other shore.
As per the local rules the boats won't start till they have around 80 passengers to fill the 2 boats. And apart from the Parikrama people (परिक्रमावासी) no other people venture this route.
Strange and over talkative people all over.All Saadhu Santa Babas around.
Shock shock shock to someone impatient like me.
We spread our mats in one of the hall. I was in my thoughts as what would I do till the time of stay here.
Some time passed and when I came out of my thoughts I saw that my mom was already in between the ladies in the so called kitchen making rotis and singing bhajan along wth them. I saw my dad along with other parikramawasi's helping in construction work.
This gave me lots of hope and i decided to come out of my shell and mingle with all these people.
I enthusiastically went to help in the construction work.
Since I was the only one with mobile (and luckily having network range) the other parikramawasi's who wished to talk with there families lined up to me :)
It was a sweet feeling helping them talk to there families and see cute smile on there faces.
We then walked upto the sea(creek) to have a review of situation
We saw the boats anchored in the marshy land.
I kept wondering how these big boats will be finally floating carrying the parikramawasi with it.
Back to our den , the food was ready.
Everyone said prayers of Narmada (नर्मदाष्टक व नर्मदा आरती).
The dinner consisted of liquid Dal cum vegetable , rice , thick rotis and a sweet sheera. Very spicy hot.
Since we were carrying only paper plates , one of the Sadhu sweetly offered us 3 spare thalis.
All together with other parikramawasi we had dinner in open under the dark sky densly packed with stars.
Then came the good news which I was waiting for ; the quota of 80 people was complete and 2 boats were ready to leave the next morning during high tide.
I took up the responsibility of making 2 list of people for the 2 boats.
Then arrived the main Swami Gopal Krishna. All of us lined up and paid the boat fees and our papers stamped for record purpose.
Rs.90/- for Parikramawasi travelling by foot and Rs.120/- for Parikramawasi like us doing it by vehicle.
Once all this completed went to my space of the mat to sleep.
Had to get up at 4.00am as the boats were supposed to leave by 5am.
Tired by hard work in the day it was matter of few minutes before sleep took over :)
