AYODHYA - RAM JANMA BHOOMI

                                             AYODHYA - RAM JANMA BHOOMI

We checked out from Leela palace – New Delhi around 5:30 am after a quick shower. We hardly had 4 hours of sleep after our last night in Delhi. Dad was on call most of the time.

We took Uber to the Anand Vihar Train Station. It is only a 15-minute drive. We booked the Vande-Bharath Train. We were just on time to the train station. We realized we wanted to buy a lot of snacks for the 8 hour trip. Mom and dad did not have cash, and the whole of India works on Digital Pay using mobile phones. They were not accepting credit cards. My dad called one of his office colleagues Siva to pay using mobile pay online. He managed to get some snacks and the train started within a minute - sharp 6:10am. There was no ATM near the platform. 

The train was fantastic. We booked an AC Chair Car. It cost around INR 1,600 per person. Dad, Pooh, and I walked through the whole train. We saw there is an executive class. It is INR 3,000 per person. We felt it was worth spending that much money since it is even more comfortable.

They provided beverages, breakfast, and lunch during the journey. My dad had explained Ayodhya and the story behind this place. I am as of now super excited to see it in reality. We spoke to a few people on the train, and it was a good experience. Since we did not book a hotel in Ayodhya, one of them suggested booking with Janki Vihar Homestay. It was around INR 3,000 per night. We booked with booking.com as per their suggestion.

 

Transport options:

We reached the Ayodhya station and walked to the exit of the station - the place was dusty, but our roller suitcases did not hiccup much.

I would imagine it is normal for such a happening place to be crowded, but this station exit was more chaotic. The road where we waited was approx. 20 feet wide. My dad tried Uber and Ola for no luck. The Auto rickshaws were all battery operated, that is one unique thing I noticed - thumbs up for this.

Dad requested an auto for 4 people to Janki Vihar homestay (this hotel we searched and pre-booked online). It is not very expensive and is about 5 kms from the train station.

We squeezed into the vehicle, but the solid suitcases did not budge, the driver managed two in front, and we had two among us. I would rather say it was not a comfy ride but less-carbon-footprint!

On the way, the driver waited for us to debit money from the ATM.

Initially I thought it was a 20 mins drive... But the driver said it would be 30 mins ... it ended up as neither of both ...

My first look - from the railway station for about 10 mins the roads were manageable... It started to taper to 10 feet eventually. There isn't much traffic like we see in metros, but the roads are full...  

Buildings were mostly not painted - only raw brick structures and sometimes pale white painted ones. In a few, it was either half constructed or constructed ones broken to half (not sure)

We passed through a few bricks making open factories. There were many cows and pigs herded in roads and sides. It was mostly dry, so we were feeling a lot of heat. 

Mom knows 10% - 20% Hindi. Enough to speak to people and get a hotel booked. The people were all so kind. Even before we reached the destination, Pooh suggested not to stay at this place.  The place was not clean and there are no restaurants, common transport here. It was 3pm in the evening and it was very hot, in this May summer. Every one of us were sweating heavily. 

Dad asked the Driver to suggest a few options. Mom started looking at better and more expensive hotels. One of the options was Royal Heritage, but they were fully booked. The auto rickshaw person took us to another place, and we did not like that Homestay. He finally took us to Mansarovar Palace. This is kind of an OK place, but in a very safe location. 

Stay:

So, we finally picked up “Mansarovar Palace” at a bargain price of around INR 3K per night. The room was small, AC was working at a discount, washrooms were average, no Wi-Fi. The rooms are on the 3rd floor, and there are no lifts.

This is a busy place, there is a police booth nearby, few shops/restaurants around, autos-always-available, access to the temple is good. Though not very comfortable, we felt this is the best we could get. There is no plug with a USA pin for charging so we needed to get an adapter ourselves.

As my dad was on a call with his US clients; me, Pooh, and mom started playing games. After dad was done, he suggested taking a look at the temple. So, we all got ready and took an autorickshaw to the temple. It was a quick 15-minute ride. We had a few jewels with us. We had to carry them, since dad was not comfortable leaving valuable things in the hotel without a Safe. Though it was about 7pm in the night, the place was buzzing.

Pooh was tired to core - but still he opted to do the darshan today itself instead of just looking at the mandir from outside. 

 

From the main road, there was a free walk kind of queue for about 750 meters. Once we were near the temple's outer entrance, there are few things we had to do,

 

1. There is a bottleneck checkpoint for electronic bag screening. They do X-ray screening of the bag. Dad initially asked not to screen since we had jewels, but we ended up screening anyway.

2. Then there is a free to walk hall for shoe lockers. We did not leave the shoes since we were not sure if we would be able to go inside the temple. We were very tired.

3. Post the shoe lockers, there are bags and mobile phone lockers (to the right). 

 

We left the bag, shoes and mobile phone with dad and he stayed back. Mom, Pooh, and I decided to get into the temple. It is another 300 meters of queue. We joined a structured queue line (4) and walked for about 100 meters to reach the second bottleneck - this is for manual body check for phones/beverages/sweets etc. People had to split to male and female to make through the points, 4 queues for men and 4 queues for women. 

 

Looks like, sometimes the check is only for namesake and sometimes they are very stringent. Good that we did not carry our cell phones. Post the check, we were back to common queues for about another 300 meters to reach the sanctum sanctorum. This is more squeeze-kind-mode. This is when we get a glimpse of the mandapam/gopuram. 

 

The construction is not completed yet, ongoing near the queue lines we were walking. Workmanship on the pilers was very detailed and depicts the idols as real. It has been only 3 months since the temple was open, and we already saw some of the sculptures on those beautiful stones were broken and few were chipped. It was heartbreaking when my mom saw a Hanuman sculpture with a broken hand. 

 

We are close to Ram Lala now. The chanting gets more on feverish pace as we go near. I saw the Lord - he was mesmerizingly beautiful, moderately decorated, with a clear white background which elevated his image. I expected him to be smaller as he is in his toddler version, nevertheless the gaze at him for 2 seconds is worth everything. The best part of the whole trip!

Walk out from the main temple was very quick. The path is partially carpeted, it was slightly poky due to stones, I saw some glitter on the path - not sure if it is from stones. We received prasad - white sweet candy. We passed through a hall with chairs, a temporary rest place I suppose. Then we came through bag/mobile lockers-pick up queues. Soon we saw dad walking towards us with our shoes. 

Subsequently, a rickshaw journeyed us back to the hotel. As soon as we came to the place me, and my dad went and ordered food while my mom and my brother came back up to change. We ordered the restaurant right underneath our hotel that was good enough to give us all a decent dinner (Sumitra sweets). The idly was bad, dosa was OK, Chloe Batura was good. Although, my mom didn’t have time to eat as much as us.

With the tiredness still in our bodies, sleep came to us quickly. 

The next day...

My dad and my mom went to the temple again to pay my dad’s visit since he was not able to come with us yesterday. They gave me a phone and left. This place was safe, with police outside. Mom and dad came back all sweaty. It seems like this time there were a lot more people and heavy checkups, so this time also no pictures.

My brother woke up at around 10 AM in the morning. 

 

Activities:

As my dad went to sleep after his calls, me, pooh, and mom started playing memory games and hangman. 

There was not much to do other than temples. So, I suggest bringing lots of board games and stuff that will keep you occupied. 

Other than Ram mandir, (which you obviously need to visit) you can go to the temple of Hanuman, Hanuman Garkhi. It is said that it is more effective after visiting the Hanuman temple to visit Ram mandir.

Eatery:     

All of us were getting very hungry so we decided to go and eat somewhere. Dad was on a call, so the 3 of us started first. 

Right next to our hotel there were many roadside eating areas. On our way to an air-conditioned restaurant, we stopped to buy sugarcane juice. My brother kept thinking that it would have crushed houseflies in the juice. But when the guy gave it to us it tasted so refreshing and good. We bought only 2 cups of juice for the 3 of us, so the person gave a small cup of juice for free to my mom. 

After drinking up we walked to the Aura restaurant. Few minutes after we entered, dad came in. This is a great vegetarian restaurant and the food is excellent. We ordered various Chinese and north Indian dishes, and they were excellent. It is a little bit expensive though. 

We happen to eat in the same place a few times after that.

The day to start off to Chennai...

Since we could not book the flight for day 2, we had to wait one more day. On Thursday morning, after a quick shower, we had wonderful Chloe Batura from a roadside shop.

This time: after a 30 minutes wait my dad managed to book an AC cab with Ola/Uber. The drive was only 20 minutes from the hotel to the Maharshi Valmiki International airport.

This is perhaps the smallest airport I have seen. The road to the airport is newly built. The airport has one runway, three gates and one security check. Not many eateries either. But it was a very pleasant experience.

We were early by three hours, and we enjoyed being in the airport waiting for the SpiceJet flight to take us to Chennai, via Hyderabad. Still in the airport, writing this! 😊