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Raman & Anu - Travel Diaries, Yamnotri (2026)

22/05/2022

4/05/22-13/05/2022
Planning for an ordinary vacation, for sometimes what we most need is decide a destination according to mood and our liking , if we want to do is chill out on a beach with a mystery novel and a gin and tonic or in a beautiful cottage on a hilltop watching a snow cladded mountain peaks in the morning holding a warm tea cup in hand or holding a glass of warm rum in evening to enjoy carry on the mood. This time we went on different trip it was a pilgrimage tour to char dham in Uttarakhand.
Pleasure trips can be set out alone on a deserted trail, or travel in the company of like-minded souls but pilgrimage is both an outer and inner journey with the people who are chosen by the destiny. Ordinary fun trips bring a change in scenic locations, weather and surroundings whereas pilgrimage It is a physical journey with a spiritual destination.
A pilgrimage, is a journey that touches the heart and soul are meant to trigger renewal of faith in ones religion . Always a portion of these destinations may actually be in your heart since long but planning only happens when an invitation has been issued. Possibly you may have had a dream or a person may have been prompted to push you to take this trip. Similarly this amazing trip was planned like we all 7 were supposed to go together on this trail. I think none of us must have thought about this trip together. On one of our ladies trip to Panchgani I share about my wish to go for this yatra. As I was sure Raman will not like to travel with me on such trip and I didn’t wanted to force him too. According to me every one has his or her own religious faith so it should be a freedom to choose. Anita and Nipa showed the interest and the topic was left to rest that yes we will plan together char dham yatra. But never in my dreams I had seen this happening so soon.
So Chavan’s and Pujara’s confirmed and were very eager and determined to complete the yatra this season only.
I was given the charge to inquire about the yatra by chopper as we all couldn’t spare two weeks by road for the yatra. Plus our health issues ,weight ,age barrier,fitness and mostly the comfort of travelling by chopper was decided by all of us. Till the beginning it was only five of us as Raman wasn’t in the list but he couldn’t say no to Anita and Baldev. So he didn’t say yes or no.But I think it was supposed to be as god had planned it this way. So the initial inquiry was made on internet, came to know 3/4 companies are flying into this sector. Lucky or unlucky I asked one of our friends in Dehradun about this and he said he knows someone who’s flying with aviation company on this route. I was introduced to captain Khanna with ref from Col Bakshi. So a brief about the destination and how the company plans a trip memorable was given to me. In the end captain saying before keeping the phone down was that Mrs kapoor we won’t say that we are five star but we are the best among rest. We are expensive from other but we assure the best service.
So the words were taken for granted and I put this discussion into our group. I told them please do some inquiries ask other companies too but the reply was no anu as you have spoken so please let’s go ahead with this. In heart there was a fear but took the responsibility. Trip was decided for the first week of May just a day after all the temples were opened for the devotees.After few days of initial booking advances were paid I remembered that jiten bhai had mentioned few months back that he also wishes to go to Kedarnath, so I asked him that we have planned a trip in month of May would you like to join us and he said of course yes that is how we became lucky 7.
We all were excited that everything is planned so fast but god has his own ways to test us how keen we all are to visit his shrine and he tested all of us differently. We are lucky that whatever test he wanted us to give the results were positive in our favour. We are lucky we all had beautiful darshan at all the temples despite of many delays and hiccups all along lost temper also due to the mismanagement of the travel agency.
We both are very happy to accomplish our yatra with all the care and love from our lovely friends who are part of family now.
Thank you Mahadev 🙏🏻

Kapoor Anu
Raman Kapoor
Anita Chavan
Ravindra Chavan
Nipa Pujara
Baldev Pujara
Jitendra Minawala

20/05/2022

Badrinath temple was the last destination in our holy chardham pilgrimage. We completed the full circle of the blessings from all deities of chota chardham of Uttarakhand.
After the Badrinath temple we went to Mana village which is just 3 kms away and is the last Indian village on indo china border. It’s a tribal village where they knit woollens sweaters muffler caps jackets and rugs and sell it during the tourist season. With many hiking and trekking spots, waterfalls flowing Saraswati river , vayas caves where Maharishi vayas composed the epic Mahabharata with the help of lord Ganesha . In fact there’s a story how Ganesh ji cursed the river Saraswati for the loud noise which was apparently disturbing him while writing the Mahabharata. So after a certain point Saraswati becomes very silent and invisible and limited to this location.
There’s a Bhim pull which was made for Pandav’s to cross over. A temple devoted to Draupadi is also here.
It’s amazingly beautiful village with small house full of graffiti painted walls and all colourspaces. People selling Maggi momos and chow mein pakodas in small kiosks.All in all a different experience we all had at Mana gaon.

19/05/2022

9/05/22
Left sersi helipad at morning 10:00 am for our last stop Shri Badrinath ji.
Reached around 10:35 at the destination.
From helipad the temple is just about 15 minutes. After checking in to the guest house went for the darshan of the Badrinath ji. At 12 the doors of the temple are closed for bhog so the agency manager said let’s do the darshan before it closes. Went inside the temple for a shortcut and were made to sit in a hall till our turn comes. Luckily here we felt that it’s a smooth transition for us. Reached the holy madir from small staircase directly in to the garbh graha . And the minute we stepped in the doors were closed behind us. So the rush and crowd was less and we could do the prarthna in front of the Badri Narayan ji without any hush hush. We all were inside for about 7 minutes then all Panditji started saying they have to clean the room before bhog .
Reluctantly but happily we came out. Did the dhvajarohan of the temple took Prasad and satisfied we said good bye to the lord with a prayer to keep all us and our near and dear ones safe and happy.

According to the skand puran
बहूनि सन्ति तीर्थानि, दिवि भूमौ रसासु च।�बदरी सदृशं तीर्थ, न भूतं न भविष्यति।।

इस धरती पर हर दिशा और हर स्थान में बहुत से तीर्थ हैं लेकिन उत्तराखंड के हिमालय में इस धरा के स्वर्ग कहे जाने वाले वैकुण्ठ श्री बदरीनाथ जैसा तीर्थ न तो पहले कभी था और न भविष्य में कभी होगा.

धरती में मोक्ष का वैकुण्ठ घाम श्री बद्रीनाथधाम🕉
नर और नारायण पर्वत के बीच और नीलकंठ पर्वत के तट पर बसा यह पावन धाम मनुष्य के जीवन को दर्शन मातृ करने से पार लगा देता है।

Hindu mythology
Lord Vishnu sat in meditation in these mountains. During meditation lord was unaware of the harsh weather conditions of the terrain. Goddess Laxmi protected him by taking the form of Badri (berry) tree. Pleased by her devotion Vishnu ji named the place Badrika ashram hence the goddess Lakshmi was called as Badri vishal and Lord Vishnu was called Badri nath. Another legend is Vishnu ji was chastised by sage Narada, who saw Vishnu’s consort Laxmi massaging his feet.Vishnu went to perform austerity,meditating for a long time in padmaasan. The idol in the temple is made of shaligram and placed under a gold canopy under a Badri tree sitting in padmaasan posture. Alaknanda river is flowing in full force in front of the temple.

17/05/2022

8/05/22 Third stop is the most awaited Baba Kedarnath dham. Left Harshil resort at about 7:00 am. Our next stop was Sershi for the onward journey of Kedarnath mandir by the shuttle chopper service which was of 7-10 minutes to temple.When we reached sershi came to know about the long waiting lines at the helipad.We also stood at the helipad for almost 4 hrs in soaring sun for our turn. It was worst then a bus stand as there was no shelter for people to stand or sit. A small shelter was made by the aviation company which was not sufficient for the people standing for their turn. We all were very upset with the aviation company we were travelling this situation added to the misery. Anyhow our turn came at about 2:00 pm.Our group was distributed in 3 different chopper according to the weight and I was in the last ride with Jitendra bhai.10 minutes later upon landing at the Kedarnath temple we could see the small temple town was overcrowded with thousands and thousands of yatris. The lines for darshan were like 600mtr or more.The aura and first glimpse of the baba Kedarnath temple was like
जैसे सूरज की गर्मी से जलते हुए तन को,
मिल जाए तरुवर की छाया,
ऐसा ही सुख मेरे मन को मिला है,
मैं जबसे शरण तेरी आया…मेरे राम ।
Absolutely divine and magical. Vibes of this temple was so positive that we forgot about our burned skin after standing so long at helipad. We just wanted to see our Mahadev as we were so near and standing outside his temple. But truthfully in hearts our fear was will we be able to get the darshan of Baba. We had no hope of VIP darshan as promised from the company. Still we stood in a small line supposedly special line till 2:45pm. And the security personnel started saying please don’t stand here as we will not be able to get inside from this gate. We felt very disheartened as mandir will be closed for two hrs 3-5pm and to go back in the regular line means getting inside temple by 7pm. We requested the security personnel that Raman and me are senior citizens we can’t keep standing for so long and as the doors are about to close at 3:00 pm please let us go in . I don’t know what made that gentleman meltdown and he allowed us to enter just few minutes before the closing of the gates for 2 hrs. Feeling very lucky and thankful to Bholenath that he could make it happen this for us. Had beautiful divine darshan of Baba as the doors behind us were now closed for the enteries. Stood in front of the deity for few minutes trying to absorb all the positivity and energy of sanctum sanctorum.
भटका हुआ मेरा मन था कोई,
मिल न रहा था सहारा,
लहरों से लड़ती हुयी नाव को,
जैसे मिल ना रहा हो किनारा,
मिल न रहा हो किनारा ।
उस लड़खड़ाती हुई नाव को जो,
किसी ने किनारा दिखाया,
ऐसा ही सुख मेरे मन को मिला है,
मैं जबसे शरण तेरी आया…
We 3 ladies went for the parikrama of temple stood near the Bhim Shila a truck size stone which completely saved the temple during the floods and prayed for everyone’s well being. All 7 of us were actually emotionally charged as this could happen,
Kedarnath is one of the 12 main Jyotirlinga in India and jiten bhai completed his 12th Jyotirlinga with Kedarnath darshan so the happiness was double. Reached back to base with the all good thoughts and prayers in heart for all near and dears and mentally preparing for the next and last part of our yatra of Badrinarayan ji .
Har Har Mahadev 🕉
Don’t have many pictures of this day as by the time we reached our batteries were almost dead nevertheless still have few to share.

**Don’t want to write about the company we travelled with and their mismanagement in these posts will write about them in other separate post.

08/05/2022

7/05/22 Maa Gangotri 🕉
Landed Harshil at 10:35 am with a beautiful valley view. Checked in this beautiful small hotel named Himalayan nature resort.Harshil is small valley in Uttarkashi region base for Gangotri dham.
Upon reaching we came to know that it’s too crowded at Gangotri temple so leaving after lunchtime will be ideal for us to go upwards. Behind the hotel is beautiful Bhagirathi river flowing in full force . We had an opportunity to do riverside meditation. It was very different experience all together. So relaxing and soulful that we spend almost one and half on the banks sitting on rocks.This place served us simple home style cooked meals. After lunch we proceeded for Gangotri .
This temple is dedicated to goddess Ganga.
Ganges originates at Gaumukh which is situated at foot of Gangotri glacier. But according to Hindu mythology, Gangotri is the place where river Ganga descended from heaven when Lord Shiva released the mighty river from his luscious locks.

07/05/2022

Yesterday the crowd at Yamunotri!

07/05/2022

The crowd ,overwhelming yatris
For darshan of Maa Yamuna.

07/05/2022

6/05/22 Day 2- Yesterday we reached kharsali for our onward journey to Maa Yamunotri . And what a day it was, full of adventure and anxiety . There’s unexpected footfall of devotees to the shrine as it has opened first time after pandemic. So obviously came the chaos and the infrastructure collapse. We all go with a faith to all the shrines we had the most difficult darshan of the deity at temple. After a tiring trek we all had lost our enthusiasm to pray at the shrine but reaching up at Yamunotri temple and seeing the beautiful udgam sthal of Yamuna river the Josh came back. The journey to the temple was most adventurous, due to more public and rains the yatra was disturbed. So much of traffic jam on way. We were stuck for almost 3 hrs on the way. Trek of 6 km - two and half hour was completed in six hrs with getting wet in the way. Almost stampede like situation was avoided thanks to all yatri who kept cool and patience. Total mismanagement of Uttarakhand govt. We have beautiful tourists spot in country but the infrastructure failure leads to disappointment.
Thankful and full of gratitude that we could make it to temple came back safe after darshan. Today we are heading to Gangotri dham will update from there later .
Jai Shri Yamune
Namani Yamuna Maham🙏🏻

07/05/2022

Day 2- Yesterday we reached kharsali for our onward journey to Maa Yamunotri . And what a day it was, full of adventure and anxiety . There’s unexpected footfall of devotees to the shrine as it has opened first time after pandemic. So obviously came the chaos and the infrastructure collapse. We all go with a faith to all the shrines we had the most difficult darshan of the deity at temple. After a tiring trek we all had lost our enthusiasm to pray at the shrine but reaching up at Yamunotri temple and seeing the beautiful udgam sthal of Yamuna river the Josh came back. The journey to the temple was most adventurous, due to more public and rains the yatra was disturbed. So much of traffic jam on way. We were stuck for almost 3 hrs on the way. Trek of 6 km - two and half hour was completed in six hrs with getting wet in the way. Almost stampede like situation was avoided thanks to all yatri who kept cool and patience. Total mismanagement of Uttarakhand govt. We have beautiful tourists spot in country but the infrastructure failure leads to disappointment.
Thankful and full of gratitude that we could make it to temple came back safe after darshan. Today we are heading to Gangotri dham will update from there later .
Jai Shri Yamune
Namani Yamuna Maham🙏🏻

06/05/2022

The most awaited trip to chota chardham started today with trip to Ma Yamunotri temple Uttarkashi. Reached Doon helidrom at 5:30 am just before the sunrise. Left the helipad at 6:12am . Beautiful chopper ride of 35 minutes amongst the valley . Landed at small town kharsali for the yatra ahead.

06/05/2022

The most awaited trip to chota chardham started today with trip to Ma Yamunotri temple Uttarkashi. Reached Doon helidrom at 5:30 am just before the sunrise. Left the helipad at 6:12am . Beautiful chopper ride of 35 minutes amongst the valley . Landed at small town kharsali for the yatra ahead.

Raman & Anu - Travel Diaries

22/05/2022

20/05/2022

19/05/2022

17/05/2022

08/05/2022

07/05/2022

07/05/2022

07/05/2022

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