Travelling from Ahmedabad to Mt abu for 4 Hours was not exactly tiring. Terrains change evolutes and blended at regular intervals. Arid lands , dusty winds accompanied along with us while various towns , fields , industries grew and died from our sights.We crossed the states as our networks jammed we realised hola. Travelling in a Qualis with friends lesser and better known the trip commenced with the nights being smoothened by the chill. We reached the Nakki lake at 5 AM in the morning wondering what to do next. Travelling while a student readies you for economical Travel! We roamed around the lake awake fresh with anticipation and awaiting surprise. Now Now expecting they say is like a wife. When arranged for it seems less appealing. When in sudden a queen! We were wondering “ Ok”.Abdullah our driver , a self proclaimed “ Mister I know all “ smoothened our drive to the sunrise Point. We yawned made faces and whimpered still half from our sleeps wondering where to pee. Abdullah asked us to move our arses and climb around 200 Steps up. And we abused him silently. Yet again that’s what we came for. While our bodies warmed during the climb upstairs to a Mata Temple we passed through caves and shacks empty and cold. A spiral set of stairs lead us to the Top where we waited below a lovely Bell for the Sun to rise.
Open valleys on the Back and lovely landscapes in the front greeted us amidst the night wind.Slowly orange hues appeared above a terrain of clouds enlightening the night in a few shades brighter. Out of nowhere we saw orange mix with red as the rays emerged like gleams of shining rubies behind the clouds on a open horizon. We enjoyed watching the melange of lights play in action. Slowly while we gonged the temple bells the sun rose amidst all grandeur slowly steadily it grew into a big ball of fire while we stood over the hills watching the new found terrain lighted by our very own vain sun. After taking pictures and videos and posing like New Greek gods bathing in the sun we climbed down back to our car again wondering where to pee after this wonderful moment of sun lit bliss! We got loaded into our Qualis while we went over to Sulabh Shouchalay. Quite Neat i Must say Near Nakki Lake.
Nakki Lake is a lake of a Km Diameter housing some old boats. Surrounded by a Garden hat has the typical points , props and seats we had fun clicking pictures here and there. As per a legend the fingernails of a sage, Balam Rasia, drew the Nakki Lake. The Nails or the nakk explain the name of the Lake as Nakki. The sage fell in love for the daughter of the then King of Abu. The stepmother of the princess turned the love story into a tragedy. Today there is a temple of the Kunwari Kanya, dedicated to the princess and a statue of her lover alongside. The lake had a Market along side housing various rajasthani textiles , silver jewlery and Mojirees. Authentic to the Place the jewellery was a good bet. Rest were price hiked for the Tourists. We then had a scrumptious Breakfast at a place with aloo parathas , sandwiches , Poha Chai and Juice. Vey filling and Tasty. The various restraints were wooing us to get in with various tactics. Like a kawali competition going on! On the way to The jain Tempels of Dilwara we stopped midway for the Shiva Temple- Brahmakhadd temple.There are statues of Goddess parvati and Nandi outside the temple. In the temple you may worship the sacred pit that is believed to have been created, by the Lord Shiva's foot. It was said that all wishes come true to those who come there. Various Deities , idols carried on from many years found us there in the temple. Post Breakfast we drove down to Jain temples of Dilwara. The temple has been built for the Jain Tirthankaras .Around an Hour of Travel took us there while the sun beat down on us. The same sun we saw grow now beamed powerfully while we undid our sweatshirts. At Dilwara temple we had a long line and wait before we could get in. It was necessary to leave all our camers Phones and any other digital device with them for a rupee. A glaring sign of “ Ladies in their cycles may not enter and if they do they might suffer” shone out on us while we grappled at this open declaration which used to be a belief. Well so for progression. While beleiefs are still vital for each religion we respected them. The Dilwara Jain temples have often been compared to the Taj Mahal for their sheer elegance and beauty in marble. The temples date back to the 11th and the 13th century. Comprising of 5 temples namely, Vimal Vasahi, Lun Vasahi, Shri Risha Lhdeo, Shri Parshvanath and Shri Mahavir Swami temple.The architectural beauty of the temples lies in the fact that the marble was carried all the way from Makrana. The marble from Makrana is renowned for being of an exceptionally good quality. The Craftsmen were exceptional workmen with sheer dedication and diligence. They manually transformed this Marble into sculptures depicting varius idols in various dancing positions. They worked on insightful designes in the various 12 Masts that were enthroned above. While the lot of 60 looked up to look at this sheer beauty our guide explained to us how these were carried out with great passion all those years ago. Explanations and stories were given for each Temple Mast. The guides exchanged places explaining us the “Main” God and the “Main Shrine” as they put ip. We were then shown an 800 kg Gold made idol of their first Guru.
The guides also told us the story of how the Craftsmen made the fifth temple off their own free time and hardwork as a dedication to the Gods they worshipped. We left the Temple in around 45 Minutes Back to the Lake. Here we did Horse Riding and some random trekking around. We went this place called HoneyMoon point. We found Monkeys instead of Couples! But again in the scorching 3 o Clock Sun it was fun sitting on the top of the cliffs while we could see the city spread down across for us. Neatly Built and made with spiral stairs and titbits being sold we sauntered their for a while . Now completing around 10 Hors in Mount Abu we decided to head for Lunch on our way Back. We lunched Punjabi food before we head back for our long journey Back to Campus at Ahmedaabd. Overall a small 10 Hour trip would suffice to cover Mt Abu until of course youd like to do a thesis on every temple in Mt abu! Temples , Lake , aquarium , Markets and a few points would cover the story in all. An amazing journey. Short Sweet Packed!
Vishala Katta
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