Kailash Manasarovar Darshan (yatra)-6

SECOND DAY OF STAY AT DELHI

On the second day of our stay at Delhi we all of us got up early for the medical examination and went to Batra Hospital on empty stomach , where the medical examination was done but to our dismay many were disqualified in the medical examination only 32 were selected and our group became small but there was a benefit in that also that the whole group traveled together during the whole yatra. Otherwise normally the group is divided into two groups as in the Chinese side maximum of 30 persons can only be accommodated comfortably. One group will undertake Kailash parikrama first meanwhile the other group will undertake Manasarovar parikrama after 4 days then they interchange. Here I should mention about Mrs Seema Pandit from Jaipur, she is 62 years old and she could not do the TMT properly so the doctors disqualified her, but there was a doctor from Nasik Dr. Bokre in our group who suggested her to go for echocardiogram which she underwent by paying extra payment from her side. First ITBP doctors were not ready to accept her but she was firm and she was allowed to undertake the yatra. Why I narrated this incident is to show that the devotees unmindful of their health status wish to undertake the yatra, but government is not willing to allow those who are not physically fit to undertake this difficult pilgrimage. On earlier years a medical certificate was enough since some yatris misused that also then the system of conducting the medical examination at Delhi itself started. Always there will be conflict between faith and reality only we have to reconcile to the will of the Lord and take things as it comes. So that only the author undertook the yatra in middle age itself rather than waiting for old age. Most of the aspirants were disqualified on account of blood pressure only the important one being systolic pressure. So it would be better for the aspirants to first have a medical check at their native place itself before leaving to Delhi to avoid disappointment as the government is sending only the fit persons to the yatra because of the difficulties involved when someone gets sick especially on the Chinese side. We have to carry the results as well as the X-rays and tread mill results upto Gunji where the second medical test will be held for verification by ITBP doctors.

14th Batch 2005

By the grace of the Lord Shiva also called as Maheshwara,( The great Eswara) Chandra Sekara,( moon bejeweled) Pannaka Pushana ( snake ornamented), Jatadhara ( one with matted locks) the author and his roommate were selected after the medical examination , those who were disqualified tried to reason with the ITBP doctors that its their lives and they are ready to undertake the yatra, but the doctors didn’t budge and they all returned with heavy heart at around 7PM . Those who were selected then went to Canara Bank at Ashoka Hotel for foreign exchange conversion. Our L.O informed us about the serial nos of dollars which Chinese are not accepting we avoided those and converted the rupees into American dollars.

Felicitation of the yatris by Delhi Government

Before we start our journey a small introduction about the members of 14th batch of 2005 as you will be encountering them through the course of the yatra as you read this book. The oldest member was 66 year old Smt Seema Pandit from Jaipur, about whom we saw during medical examination. The next eldest was Shri Appa Rao from Omargoan , Maharashtra , 65 years old . He was siddha medicine practitioner and gave medicines for cold and diarrhea during the yatra. Apart from Mrs .Seema pandit there were four other lady yatris three came as couples they are Smt & Shri Bokre from Nasisk , Adroja couple and Kimji couple from Gujarat. Smt Sharmistha Dutta came from West Bengal. The other members were my room mate Shri Tapaswi from Nasik, he had a bhel tree in his house and used to worship Lord Shiva with Bhel leaves daily. He was really my guardian during the whole yatra , rather every body called him my elder brother, he took good care of me, normally he used reach the camps earlier and used to reserve the bed next to him for me, our relationship which started in the room no 108 of Gujarat sadan Delhi is continuing today also. An IIT professor from Kharagpur Shri Kanchan Choudahry from Wesr Bengal, Shri Joshi, Shri Goswami, Shri Jairam Donda, Shri Biharilal Purohit, Shri Dinesh Patel, Shri Sushil Kumar Modi and Shri Prjapathi all came from Gujarat. Since Gujarat government offers subsidy to Kailash yatra , in almost all the groups we can find yatris from Gujarat to be a major portion. Shri Joshi is such a sterling devotee of Lord that he walked bare foot without even chapels during the whole yatra in the cold climate and rocky terrain and carried oil for Kalapani temple all by himself , he was undertaking the yatra for the second time. Shri Goswami was well versed in Sanskrit. Modi and Prajapati were also great devotees of the Lord. Shri Mudgal from Delhi was another sterling devotee, he was also undertaking the yatra for the second time, for his credit he has worshipped the Lord at 12 Jyothir Linga temples and has also undertaken the chardham circuit ( Badrinath in the North, Puri in the east, Dwaraka in the west and Rameswaram in the south many times). Another yatri from Delhi was shri Dhanuskodi, a native of Tamilnadu serving at Delhi . Shri Indresh Purohit from Indore was also undertaking the yatra for the second time , he is the driver of Sataphti express train. Shri Sanjeev Mittal from Jaipur was also undertaking the yatra for the second time with us. Another member was Shri Manish Kumar Verma from Ferozabad. The youngest was Shri Amandeep Singh from Ganga Nagar 25 year lad a sikh. Many from our group had visited kailsh during subsequent years also really the author was lucky to have undertaken the yatra which such blessed ones. Thus our group was mix of experienced and the inexperienced, old and young a garland of different flowers.

Yatra will continue..........