My trip to Shirdi

Howdy folks? Have nt updated my blog in a long time. Though I've read so many books during this time and watched a ton of movies, nothing was worth writing a review here. ( I take that back, I was a bit lazy :) ). So, how have you been doing? Remember my post in March. I went to Shirdi to visit Baba and could neither find an accomodation nor the darshan. Well, I really felt snubbed by the Lord and badly wanted to go again. Last weekend, I went there along with my friend R. R apparently was a frequent visitor to Shirdi as a child and knows the place in and out. He adviced me to read Baba's biography before the trip to enjoy the trip better. (Believe me, it was an advice worth following). He also pulled some connections to get acco and premium darshan.
So, there we were on Ajanta express on Friday evening. We had packed some delicious meal and journey was fun. We got off the train at Nagarsol and took a cab to Shirdi. Nagarsol is a small village. I mean really really small like say Gunjapadugu. Technically, trains do not stop there. But Railway authorities realized that, it is the nearest train stop to Shirdi for folks coming from Hyderabad and created a stop. So, you can imagine the commotion in such a small place the moment a train arrives. In any civilized place, you would imagine, the bus authorities would tie this train arrival time to send some buses to Shirdi. But this is India. No such luck. So, private taxies like qwalis, maruti vans rightfully cash the opportunity. we squeezed into a Maruti van paying 50/- for 40km journey. 2 of us along with the driver squeezed in the front. God knows how many were there in the back. (something like 6 adults and 3 children..whoa). We arrived in Shirdi had breakfast at a place which was 1 on a scale of 10. Then set out to meet the temple PRO and R got us some clean but nothing fancy kind of accomodation for dirt cheap price. Saturday happened to be "Gudi Padwa" in Maharashtra which was a big day for them. You can imagine the crowd. I was wondering if Baba was again getting ready to show his ire on me. PRO told it was one of the busiest days for them and he was not sure if he could provide a previlege darshan we were hoping for. Anyways, general darshan Q was taking 3-4 hrs. So, we decided to visit 'Dwarakamayi' and 'Chawadi'. The two places where Baba used to sleep for his sixty years of stay in Shirdi. R said, that should nt be a popular place and we can spend some quality time in the masjid(dwarakamayi) where Baba used to stay. We were in for a rude shock. R's knowledge was 10 years out of date. There was a 1.5hrs Q to enter the masjid and we had no choice but stand in the line. While standing in the Q, I finished most of the Baba's bio that I got along. In the masjid you can find places like the 'dhuni' where baba started a fire a 100+ years ago and it is burning non-stop since then. (Ashes from the dhuni is what you see on devotees forehead). There is also a pillar to which baba used to lean and stone on which he used to sit while talking to devotees. It was a great feeling to see those places after reading about them in the book. From there we went to Chawadi. Baba used to alternately sleep in these places. After that were a bit exhausted and had a lunch in some AP tourism place, punnami. I did nt like it at all. R gave an OK rating. Then, we tried to see if we could manage a general darshan but realized its gonna be a long wait in the queue and ditched the idea.
In the afternoon, we visited places in the samsthan like the book stall, gurusthan (the neem tree where baba was first spotted)., lendy baag (a garden which was planted by baba) and were idling the in the temple complex). At around 4, we again contacted the PRO to get a pass for the evening aarati darshan. we were asked to meet at the main entrance at around 5:30 for the evening aarati. We were just biding that time near temple. Finally at around 6 we were let in. and at 6:30 the aarati started. It was GREAT. I was standing just 3 feet away from Baba's Idol and samadhi for good 30-40 minutes. thouroughly enjoyed the whole experience. After that, we went back to our room, after evening ablutions, set out for dinner. Since we were standing for most part of the day (roughly 7-8 hours), we were dead tired and really wanted to sleep. (dinner at woodlands was good. I ordered bisibelebath since it was a kannada place, it was good). After a long day, we slept like deadlogs. The plan was to wake up by 5 and stand in the Q for a general darshan by 6pm. That way we can avoid the crowd that gets accumulated for morning aarati. It was a perfect plan. we had darshan within 40 minutes. It was also peaceful. No pushing and shoving. After spending good 10 minutes infront of baba, we spent some time in mukhdarshan hall. R was meditating, I tried but dozed off :). After breakfast, R wanted to do 108 parikramas around guru samsthan. I was nt sure if I was upto the task, but could nt imagine sitting alone waiting for him. So, joined him. Because of the crowd, it took us 90 minutes for such a small distance. Imagine doing that after spending an entire day standing. But, surprisingly it was nt that bad. we had fun. Then we collected some 'oodi' (ashes from dhuni) which are distributed freely. Bought some posters and books, donated some money to samsthan for poor feeding. It was around 10 by then. We again came back to room and tried to eat at the prasadalaya. But the Q was serpentine and I discouraged the whole idea. Then we went to Khandoba temple. sat there for the aarati. After lunch, we happily came to room for a nap. Boy, we desperately needed that :)) lol.
At around 4pm, we went out to shopping. I bought some toy for Vibhu and some printed kurta for myself with lots of Om symbols on it. The kinds you see on sanyasi's.. lol.
Typical tradition in the Shirdi was to see Baba as soon as you arrive and take leave from him before you leave. R wanted to do the same and we stood once more in the Q for dwarakamai. It was raining and pretty chaotic. The trip was so much fun till that point. I somehow lost my patience got into fight with people were cutting lines. urghh.. how could I not .. lol. In the whole process, we realized, we were getting delayed and had to take a call whether to stand in the line and risk missing the train. Baba finally let us in time. When we came back, we realized R lost his 3000/- worth nike sandals right infront of Baba's humble abode. It was a bit shocking. Urgh..first the fight..then this.. I was like hmm...looks like some one is trying to teach us a lesson. We did nt have much time anyway to contemplate. We rushed to the room, checked out, got dinner packed and were againing bargaining with Maruti Van walahs to transport us back to Nagarsol. Return trip was nt eventless journey. Over all, it was except for the tailpiece. Thanks to R for the company and his aunt whose knowledge abt the place, contacts with samsthan made our trip so memorable.
Oh yea forgot to mention, we also visited Baba's famous devotee houses some of which are still preserved. R's aunt translated many books about baba from marathi to telugu and gave the returns on the books to samsthan. So, all her knowledge about the place added much more meaning to our trip. My advice to future travellers, read Sai's bio before you go. That way you can explore and feel the place better.
My laments, I wish the previleged aarati passes were available for a price like in Tirupati for a price. That would have been fair to everyone. I wanted to give feedback to samsthan but totally forgot abt it.

ufff... what a long post. I will take leave.