GLOBETROTTING WITH HARI

 Gondavale - Maharashtra

Part 1 - 

After Baby H completed 2 months, we decided to take him to the Gondavale Maharaj Samadhi Mandir in Gondavale. It is approximately 137kms from Mundhar and takes about 5hrs 30 mins by road. We started our day bright and early at 06:00am. Strapped up ready to travel 11 hrs in one day, baby H began his journey by sleeping through the first 2 hrs. He woke up just as we stopped at Suswad Veg restaurant for a typical maharashtrian breakfast of Misal Pav. The food was mediocre and the service quite slow. We carried baby H into the restaurant in his carry cot - thats just his car seat that can be removed to ferry him around securely. Overall the road was quite good sans a stretch where the condition was very bad. 

misal pav at suswad veg restaurant 

We reached the Samadhi mandir at about 12:00pm, just in time for the afternoon aarti. With the sun beating down upon us we sat under the shade of a tree just outside the main temple hall, hoping to beat the crowd present there and take the darshan once the crowd had dispersed. to our surprise a temple sevak started ushering people towards the temple entrance. He didn't say anything to us as we were with a small child. 

After the aarti everyone was made to form a line. With no clear cut instructions we were under the assumption that everyone who had stood outside for the aarti would be let inside for the darshan. We again waited for the line to move ahead so that it would be less crowded when we went. Having just sat there for sometime and when the crowds started dwindling we realised they had closed the main entrance of the mandir after the aarti. Baby H's grandmother went to enquire and we realised that there was a completely different line for the entrance and the long line we were waiting for was actually the line for prasad. 

All cozied up for the long journey in his car seat

We immediately queued up in that line. the sun was beating down on us but thankfully baby H had slept through most of it. The people in the queue were quite taken to the carry cot, maybe they had never seen anything like that before. Someone even asked me if it was easier that way. It definitely was, especially cause baby H loves movement. We could just rock him whilst he snoozed in the carry cot. He was also lighter than what he is now. Given the combined weight it's impossible to carry him in that anymore. 

The people in the line were very kind and accommodating and let us bypass towards the end so that we didn't have to wait in the heat. We had finally reached the Samadhi. We placed our offerings, said our gratitude and prayers and were out of there without incident.  So far it had been a wonderful and smooth journey. More about what happened in the next post.

Until next time... Adios Amigo.