My World

After hearing from the Gyaneshwar Maharaj Wari group at our housing society about Pandharpur and the celebration, we planned our trip to Pandharpur on one of a long week ends in Feb. Pandharpur is around 220km from Pune and 360km from Mumbai. We started Friday morning, took the Pune-Sholapur Highway, the 4 lane road is too good and till around an hour before Pandharpur. You take a deviation from the highway to drive an hour more to reach Pandharpur, this road too is maintained very well. 

As we neared Pandharpur, we were blessed with may waris on the way, and we were happy to have planned our trip the day before Ekadashi. Just few minutes before Pandharpur town is Saint Tukarambaba Ashram, a huge status of Lord Vittal catches your eye, showing its all about Mauli, the mother, the caring mother, Vithoba, Lord Vitthala for the next 2 days of your trip. We reached our hotel, freshened up and left for the visit to Vitthala Rukamai Temple. The temple town is full of devotees, especially if you plan near Ekadashi. The road to the temple has shops selling, idols of Vittal Rukmai, Haldi Kumkum, Brass and copperwears, they really make great souvenirs. We didn't have prior booking for temple darshan, so all we could go for was the Mukh Darshan, were you get the glimpse of the Lord from a distance, charan sparsh darshan takes you to the foot of the idol, were you can touch the idol, but the queue for the charan sparsh darshan takes more than 6 to 7 hours, so we had to settle with Mukh Darshan, which took us half an hour. We were told at the temple information centre there is prior online booking for darshan, which offers you with VIP entry directly. Like in any other temples were Vitthala(Lord Krishna) and Rukumani idols stand next to each other, here there are two separate shrines in the temple complex with the idols of Vitthala and Rukumai

After the visit to the temple, we had our dinner at Durvankar Dining Hall and called for the day. Durvankar is opposite to MTDC near Pandharpur railway station, ambience is no fancy, but they serve very tasty authentic Maharashtrian Thali.

About Pandharpur: Pandharpur is a pilgrime place in Maharashtra. About the place, tales goes back to the loyal son Pundalik, who after realising his mistake of ill treating his parents, serves his parents with great devotion that lord Vitthala come to earth and knocks his doors to give him darshan. Pundalik who was serving his parents throws a stone at the door asking the lord to stand on the brick to avoid the wet muddy rainy floor. He visit the lord after serving his parents, begs for pardon for making him wait and requests him to stay back on earth to bless his devotees. The lord stays back and a temple was built at the place, so is the lord depicted standing on a brick. A temple for Rukumai, Lord Vishu's wife in this incarnation as Krishna was also built next to Vitthala temple.

To read more about Pandharpur, please visit the complete posts here

I lost my Cannon Mirrorless few months back and these were the pics I clicked with my Vivo V5S, I guess my phone too has done a good job, but missed by DSLR for these Macro shots. Its really disheartening to see visitors clicking pics laying on the flowers. Even though there are authority people and locals warning from spoiling the flowers and saplings, people are in their own world. 

Few weeks back, just before the start of monsoon, we had a short weekend trip to Alibag. For it was hubby's colleague's wedding at Alibag and he planned to take me and kiddo along.

Summer Shower tree on the way to Alibag

The wedding was Sunday morning and we booked our hotel Aarhaah with Goibibo with discount coupon. We started off by 9 in the morning on Saturday, picked burgers from Karghar Mc'D and took the old Mumbai - Pune road. On the way, we thought of visiting Karnala bird sanctuary, but it was already 11 by then and the weather was too humid to get along, so we thought of heading straight to Alibag. We checked in at Aarhaah and ordered for lunch, its more of a home stay than a hotel, the home made food comes from manager's house. They got us thali in those big tiffin boxes(similar to dabbawalas). There are few tables spread out in the garden as well in the balconies of the room, we preferred going down to the garden. After lunch, we thought of visiting Kolaba Fort, but we were told it was high tide and the fort was closed. The weather got really worse and we thought of having a nap instead of going out in the hot weather. We woke up by 5, and headed to the Khihim beach. Khihim beach is just 5mins walk from Aarhaah, we joined hubby's colleagues and had some fun time on the beach. After dinner, me and kiddo called off for the day, while hubby joined his colleagues for a night out.

Aarhaah holiday home

Sunset at Khihim beach

Next day was just for the wedding we had been for. It was around 5km drive from our hotel to the wedding venue, after our breakfast of kandhe pohe and chai we drove to the wedding. The wedding was in an open ground just in front of bride's house, the weather just tired all of us so much, that kiddo spent most of the time sitting in the car. We enjoyed the dance along with the baarath and I enjoyed the wedding thoroughly, as I hardly get to be part of any weddings here in Mumbai.

After lunch, we started to Mumbai, the weather by then got better and it started pouring. We were stuck in very bad traffic just few minutes from Alibag, the traffic stood still for more than an hour. We reached back Mumbai by 6PM. It was a much needed getaway from the busy routine and quite a relaxing and refreshing one, as we didn't do much of hopping during the trip.

Travel Info:
Alibag is around 90km from Mumbai by road via old Mumbai - Pune road. Best way to reach Alibag is by ferry, from Gate Way of India to Mandwa and then road transport from Mandva jetty to Alibag. There are both A/C and non A/C ferry services and they don't operate during monsoon. You can check for the ferry timings and tickets here

It was during a visit to one of our cousin's place in Pune that we visited Aga Khan Palace. It was just a day's trip to Pune and during our casual talks, did I check with cousin about the place. All he said was, its just a small building with few photographs of Mahatma Gandhi displayed. I remembered from our visit to Mani Bhavan about the significance of Aga Khan Palace, and didn't want to miss the visit.

The palace was built by Sultan Muhammad Shah Aga Khan III in 1892. It gained significance during the Indian Freedom movement, when it served as prison to Mahatma Gandhi, Kasturba Gandhi, Mahadev Desai and Sarojini Naidu from 1942 to 1944, following the launch of Quit India Movement.
There is ample parking inside the campus and you need to walk through the lawns to reach the palace. The palace is multi storeyed structure and known for its Italian arches on all floors. Its only few of the rooms which are open to public which display photographs and portraits depicting Gandhiji's life. Even though we visited on weekend, it was not that crowded and we could easily get along the palace.

Inside the palace campus are samadhis of Kasturba Gandhi and Mahadev Desai, who lost their lives during their captivity in the palace. There is also samadhi of Gandhji, which is said to have his ashes.

Going on with my posts on Lonavala, here is the post on Narayani Dham. I used to view this place, every time I travelled to Bangalore by bus, and wondered about it. Then only to be told by one of my friends who visited Narayani Dham. Being just next to Mumbai-Pune Expressway, you can easily get a glimpse on this place while travelling. On one of our drives to Pune, we planned a visit to the Dham. We took the first Lonavala exit on the Expressway and that made us to take a tour of whole Lonavala city to reach the place.

Dedicated to goddess Narayani, the temple is a beautiful white marble structure. The entrance is a 4 storeyed structure, there are fountains lined up on the pathway from entrance to temple. I had seen few of the pics on net, with beautiful view of the temple from the entrance, but when we visited the pathway was covered with roof and that hide the complete view of the temple, not sure if that arrangement was permanent.
The main deity of the temple is Ma Narayani and on the either side of the main shrine are shrines dedicated to Ganapathi, Hanuman and other Hindu deities. You can plan your visit during aarti or even a visit at night to get the view of the beautifully lite temple.

The deities are beautifully decorated with glittering jeweleries. There is accommodation and veg food available at the dham. Other attraction for kids here is Goshala, where you can feed the cows.

Travel Info:
Timings: 8:30AM to 6PM
Entry Fee: Rs. 5 for adult

Being summer, there was no good view, I had visited few years back during monsoon and it had beautiful view with all greens. The weather was no better than Mumbai, it was very much hot, humid and foggy as we visited in the afternoon, might be it gets better once the sun sets. Heard from few fellow bloggers, they go for a late night drive from Mumbai to Tiger's point.

Travel Info: 

The best way to reach is drive in your own vehicle, as there are no public transport available till this point, nearest bus stop is INS Shivaji around 1.5km. The other option is hire a taxi at Lonavala to visit all of its touristy places.

By Road: Lonavala is 90km from Mumbai and 75km from Pune. You can take the Mumbai-Pune Expressway, or old Mumbai-Pune road to avoid the heavy toll, but expressway is always better for its road condition.

By Train: There are many trains playing on the Mumbai and Pune route and most of them halt at Lonavala.

By Air: Nearest domestic airport Lohegoan Airport in Pune and nearest International Airport is Chhatrapati Shivaji International airport in  Mumbai.

The Dargah as seen from Lala Lajpatrai Marg

The White marble main gate

Qawwali being performed at Qawwal Khana

Travel Info:
Haji Ali Dargah is on the island off Worli.
Timings: 5:30AM to 10PM, entry restricted during high tide.
Entry Fee: Free
Photographing not allowed inside the Dargah.

I was done with the Aegon Religare event by 2PM and had enough time till hubby would pick me from Mahalaxmi. Got a chance to roam all for myself, I thought of visiting few of the places near by. Very close to the Bombay Bronx is Mahalaxmi temple, though I had traveled near it many times, it was my first visit to the temple.

Saffron flags flaunting, on the way to the temple.

You need to walk through the narrow market lane, with shops selling flowers, pooja samagri, and idols of god and goddess on either side of the lane. The pooja samagri baskets have beautiful lotus, lotus which is said to be auspicious and favorite flower of Mahalaxmi. There is no proper provision to leave your footwear, but most of the shops entertain you to leave in front of their shops, if you shop with them. Finding no other option, I shopped an idol of goddess at one of the stores and left my shoes with them(sigh). It was drizzling and I somehow manged to reach the temple bare foot, then after there is stilt area as you climb up to the temple. The stairs and whole of the temple was very slippery because of rains. Photography is strictly prohibited, you need to deposit your camera at the locker, while you are allowed to carry the mobile phones, with a strict warning of not clicking. The main temple, has the idols of Goddess Mahalaxmi, Mahakali and Mahasaraswati. All the three idols are decorated with gold and pearl jewelries. There are two separate queues for men and women. Usually both the queues are very long, but since I visited in the afternoon, it was quite short. During festivals, especially Navratri and Diwali, the queue reaches as long as few kilometers. If you just want to have a glimpse of the goddess and don't want to get pooja done, there are windows on either side of the main temple, from where the goddess is visible. There are stairs to get down towards the beach at the back of the temple, there are small shrines dedicated to hindu god and goddess and you get a beautiful view of the sea. Unfortunately photographing here too is prohibited.

Image credit Mahalaxmi Temple official page

The history of the temple dates back to 1761AD. As the story goes, the Hindus immersed the three idols of the Goddesses into the sea near Worli creek to avoid destruction of the idols by the Muslim invaders. Subsequently, during British rule, Lord Horneby decided to connect the two islands, Worli-Malbar Hill creek and the work was entrusted to Shri Ramji Shivji Prabhu. They were not in a position to connect two islands by constructing two ways and could not complete the project on account of seawaves. One night Goddess Mahalaxmi instructed him in a dream to take out all the idols which were in creek of Worli and place them on top of the hillock. Accordingly, team took out all the three idols of goddesses from the Worli creek, then only to be able to continue with the construction work. After completion of the work, Engineer obtained ground on the hillock as a gift from the British ruler to construct the temple.
Travel Info:
Mahalaxmi Temple is at Bhulabhai Desai Road, Mahalaxmi, Mumbai. The temple is around 1km from Mahalaxmi railway station.
Timings: 6AM to 10PM