In one of his previous yatras, Rao fell sick on the train and Vikas
(Pawar) from Parli area and his friend Amar Pawar, both helped
him a lot. We communicated with them before this yatra. Actually they used to call us in USA to check to see how his health was!!! They introduced
another young man Sanjeev Kumar of Lucknow whom they met on a train also during one of
their travels to Tirupati and became friends. It is all Bhagawan's
leela. That Sanjeev Kumar was really God sent for us in our Allahabad
trip. I will go into the details later.
We left Tirupati Feb 2nd morning and met Umamaheswaran at the Central station. We all packed dinner from our respective origins and ate on the train. I don't know who is responsible for the maintenance of the train - it was very unclean. We were told that the Chennai Railways are not incharge of that train. Anyway, I don't understand the Indian railways of this Era. When I was in India, even in the 60s, I commuted mostly between Nellore and Tirupati and only by bus.
We reached Varanasi almost on time, took a Taxi to the known Choultry near Hanuman Ghat where the Priest cum owner of the choultry had two rooms ready for us.
About this choultry - I must have written in my older posts. If you tell the Auto rickshaw fellows that you need to go to Krishnamurthy Ghanapatigal's place, they know. But the rate varies and if you want, you can negotiate with them. It is usually much higher than the actual going rate. It all depends on your skill and patience in India.:):):)
We rested, visited the local Temples, had meals which were freshly prepared, simple and healthy. By afternoon, Sanjeev Kumar called from the train he was on and arrived at our choultry with a happy face. He showed me the Police permit he brought with him to post in on the windshield of our Taxi for the local police to see when we reached the Triveni Ghat. This was on Feb 6th, 2013. It was supposed to be a busy, crowded day also. But we missed all that. I was sooooo happy to be there that day. As it was my daughter's birthday, I had special prayers for her. Of course I prayed for my son, his family, my s-i-l and all my nieces, nephews (all the nieces and nephews I acquired in the USA also) and anyone that touched my life.
After a lot of discussion, we left for the Triveni area quite early in the morning. Took towels, change of clothes etc. The Taxi driver (oops! I forgot his name) and Sanjeev became close friends instantly. The drive was very comfortable. All the warnings we received about the traffic jam on the way to Allahabad from Varanasi did not come true. Personally, I wanted to experience the Kumbhmela crowd, which I did not and that was disappointing. The other three were happy about the smooth travel. But I wanted to see all the yogis, sages, Babas of all kinds. Most of all, I strongly believed that the great Babaji mentioned by Sri Paramahamsa Yogananda would appear to me in some form. May be he did, but, I don't recall any.
We left Tirupati Feb 2nd morning and met Umamaheswaran at the Central station. We all packed dinner from our respective origins and ate on the train. I don't know who is responsible for the maintenance of the train - it was very unclean. We were told that the Chennai Railways are not incharge of that train. Anyway, I don't understand the Indian railways of this Era. When I was in India, even in the 60s, I commuted mostly between Nellore and Tirupati and only by bus.
We reached Varanasi almost on time, took a Taxi to the known Choultry near Hanuman Ghat where the Priest cum owner of the choultry had two rooms ready for us.
About this choultry - I must have written in my older posts. If you tell the Auto rickshaw fellows that you need to go to Krishnamurthy Ghanapatigal's place, they know. But the rate varies and if you want, you can negotiate with them. It is usually much higher than the actual going rate. It all depends on your skill and patience in India.:):):)
We rested, visited the local Temples, had meals which were freshly prepared, simple and healthy. By afternoon, Sanjeev Kumar called from the train he was on and arrived at our choultry with a happy face. He showed me the Police permit he brought with him to post in on the windshield of our Taxi for the local police to see when we reached the Triveni Ghat. This was on Feb 6th, 2013. It was supposed to be a busy, crowded day also. But we missed all that. I was sooooo happy to be there that day. As it was my daughter's birthday, I had special prayers for her. Of course I prayed for my son, his family, my s-i-l and all my nieces, nephews (all the nieces and nephews I acquired in the USA also) and anyone that touched my life.
After a lot of discussion, we left for the Triveni area quite early in the morning. Took towels, change of clothes etc. The Taxi driver (oops! I forgot his name) and Sanjeev became close friends instantly. The drive was very comfortable. All the warnings we received about the traffic jam on the way to Allahabad from Varanasi did not come true. Personally, I wanted to experience the Kumbhmela crowd, which I did not and that was disappointing. The other three were happy about the smooth travel. But I wanted to see all the yogis, sages, Babas of all kinds. Most of all, I strongly believed that the great Babaji mentioned by Sri Paramahamsa Yogananda would appear to me in some form. May be he did, but, I don't recall any.
