To the West, On the Bank of Sea - Gujarat

 The western part of mother India is Gujarat. Gujarat attracts different types of people for its own diversity. For religious people, Gujarat is the Land of Lord Krishna. For the nature lover, there is a vast sea beach of Somnath, Diu, Jalandhar. For animal lovers, There is  Gir forest, which is famous for its biodiversity.

  10th October, at 1 am at night. Howrah Ahmedabad Express arrived at Mechada. getting into our compartment, we just laid down on our berths. Next day, when I woke up, the train was just entering into Rourkela Jn. After crossing Vilai, our train arrived at Durg Jn & remained to stop there for 5 hours! It is the tradition of our Indian Railway System. Next day at 5 pm, we reached our destination, Ahemadabad Jn. All of our co-travellers were weak after this long train journey. Riding on auto, we reached Avkar hotel. That day was a rest day. So, we remained in the hotel.

  The following day at 9 am. in the morning. Standing on Ahmedabad Central place, I was just feeling the new refreshment morning of the city. Like other cities, the daily routine of the city just had started. There, we met a Gujarati person named, Dhiru Bhai Purani. Surnames of Gujaratians are mostly according to their jobs ie. the person who makes wearable clothes has surname 'Dorji', the man who owns Jewellery shop has surname 'Soni', Who makes shoes, has surname 'Mochi' & priests have surname 'Purani'. Most of the men have the middle name 'Bhai' & women have the middle name 'Ben'. Richest persons have the surname 'Patel'. Marriage ceremony occurs between one community families. Inter-community marriages are rare.

  It was noon. leaving the hotel, we get into a tourist bus. All headings in the two sides of the road were printed on Gujarati. English & Hindi Poster headings were very few. After crossing the Sabarmati river, our bus was stopped near a big tree. It was Sabarmati Ashram. This ashram was built by Mahatma Gandhi. Entering through the welcoming gate, we started walking in the shade of big trees. This place is very quiet & clean. Anyone will feel good after coming to this place. Next tourist spot was, Swami Narayan Temple. The built quality & the design especially, the design on wood pieces are attractive. The garden inside the temple area is beautifully oriented with different types of plants. It was evening. We entered the bus again. We completed our dinner in a roadside Dhaba. After running for the whole night, on the next day at 11 am we entered Dwarka, The Childhood place of Lord Krishna. Though it was October, that noon was too hot. In the afternoon, we went to Shree Dwarkadhish temple. This temple is situated on the bank of Gomati river. Dwarkadhish Krishna made of black stone is worshipped here. The Sangam of the Gomati river to the Arabian sea is near to this place. It became the evening while we were leaving the temple.

 On the 14th of October in the morning, we reached Rukmini temple. Here Krishna lover, Devi Rukmini is worshipped. The white stone statue of Devi Rukmini is looking nice. Gomati river in near the temple was waterless. Next place was Okha Port. This is the western point of India. in sweet Sunshine, the water of the sea was looking beautiful. After walking a little bit, we reached the Feri ghat. We hired a boat there. The boat started going through the deep blue water. We saw one type of swans playing in the blue sea. They were just drowning in & out. This scene in the blue sea was looking very nice. We reached Bet Dwarka island. Here, in the temple, we saw the same Lord Krishna statue, that we had seen in Dwarkadhish temple. The only difference is that, in the hands of Lord Krishna, there are sword & dhal (shield). After visiting the temple we came back to Okha. From there, we took the bus to visit the next place. I saw some small hut type houses on one side of the road. In front of each house, there is a wooden hanger, from where dry fishes were hanging.

  We reached Nageswar temple. There is a big Shiva statue on the gate of the temple. Leading musician, Gulshan Kumar financially helped to build this temple. This temple is unique because there are no shops to buy or sell worship-goods. So, this place is totally calm & quiet. In the main temple, there is a statue of Nageswar. After visiting the temple, we came back to our hotel.

  In the afternoon, I came out of the hotel with a camera for a short hangout. On foot by walking, I came to the sea beach. The most uncommon thing, that I found was that the sand particles are big unlike the beach sands of the Bay of Bengal. Best to say, these are small rock particles. The worst thing was that the beach was out of maintenance & was totally dirty. the horizon line, where sea & sky meets was looking majestic. In the evening, it turned out to be red, which was blue at first. In the middle of the sea, the waves turned into golden colour. After sunset, all the scenery turned to black. Street lights opposite to the Sea on Marine Drive road started to glow. That day was a Full-Moon day. The island in the estuary of the Gomati river was clearly visible in the Moonlit night.

  Next day, our destination was Porbandar. We saw many small temples on two sides of the road. All of those are the temples of Lord Krishna. After covering 100 km, when we reached Porbandar, it was  1 pm at noon. Porbandar is one of the business cum port city of Gujarat. It is also known as the birthplace of Mahatma Gandhi. At first, we visited there. In his house on his birthplace, there is a Swastik. On each day it is worshipped. Beside his main house, there is a Gandhi Museum. All of his family documents, important pictures, utensils he used are well conserved here. After this place, we went to the birthplace of a beloved friend of Lord Krishna, Sudama. It is basically a temple. There are many old Neem trees in rows inside the boundary of the temple.  To prevent air pollution, there are many Neem trees around Gujarat. Next, we went to 'Harsh'. In Koel hills after stepping up 268 steps, we reached the Harsh Mata Temple. It is one of the oldest temples. Lord Krishna himself founded this temple & he used to worship Jagdamba Mata here. From here, the beach of Arabian Sea looks very nice. After this place, we went to the real Dwarkadhish temple. Then, we followed the road towards Somnath. After covering 230 km from Dwarka, we reached the destination. The clock was stuck to 7 in the evening. With charming light decoration, the temple was looking fabulous. Lord Someswar statue is formed of Suryadev & Mahisasurmurdini. The right side of the body is Suryadav & left side is Mahisasurmurdini. As it was evening, Sandhyarati began. Lord Someswar was being worshipped by '3 step panch Pradeep'. After the 'Sandhyarati', we went to the backside of the temple. The backside is covered with a big contrite wall, where waves of tar Arabian Sea are continuously dashing. By walking, we came to the left side of the temple. There is a big high tower to the left side on which in a big banner following lines were printed -

" South Pole indicator. This light path stretching without obstruction up to the South Pole over the end of the ocean."

  The distance between Somnath & Due is 90 km. Next day, in the morning, we started our journey & it took 5 hours to cover the distance. The condition of the road was the worst. Somewhere, the pitch of the road got off. Due is a nicely planned city with vast green trees. Once upon a time, it was a colony of the Portugees. The most attractive tree among those was the branched Palm tree. We went to the Due fort at first. After visiting the fort, we went to the jetty. There is a ship-shaped fort in the sea near the land. Diwali was not far. In the evening Due was looking very beautiful with different types of colourful lights. By walking we went to Nagaya Beach. This beach is half-moon shaped. We came back to the hotel Prince for night stay. A group of college students was staying in the same hotel. I spent that night joyfully with them.

  17th October in the morning. The destination was Junagarh. We left the hotel early in the morning. Some of the roads were covered with deep forest. It was the first time, we were going through a forest in the car. So, my experience was something special. We heard the sweet tweets of unknown birds. We stopped at Sasan. There is a crocodile conservation project at Sasan. After that, we entered Gir National Park. There were 6 seater jeeps with open roof for jungle safari. We took a jeep.

  Jungle safari was amazing. We saw many peacocks & peahens in the soil-jungle roads. The saw many herds. One time, some deer started barking in high pitch. Ae Ae Ae Ae A A A ...  something like this. Guide told us that, they got frightened by thinking about the presence of a Cheetah. After some time, we saw a lion family - a lion with lioness & 3 cubs. They were just about 25 to 30 feet from us. After 2.5 hrs of safari, we came back to the hotel in Junagarh. At night, from the roof of the hotel, I saw a lighted way in the sky. Later, we came to know that, it is the way to Damodar temple (1250 m.) on the peak of Girinath hill. Next day in the morning, we went to Junagarh Fort. There are many very old Neem trees inside the fort. We saw the black 'Liam Top Cannon'. Beside the flower garden, there is a broken palace till now. We saw many beautiful peacocks there. At 1.30 pm we left the city to go Ahemadabad. From there, we boarded our homecoming train.

Hope you loved it.