A bit of incredible India!!!

After the blog post of exams, i felt more burdened ;-). So to relieve this burden, i felt i need a day-break. My mom felt even she needed the break. So we planned a short trip to OMKARESHWAR, one of the famous places of devotees. On the note, I am not a kind of religious person, or someone who goes to place or worship every day or follow some fast or alike, i agree that there is some infinite force which is the cause of existence of all the living and non-living things.

Omkareshwar is about 90 km from Indore. Its located on the bank of river NARMADA. The way by road is good as long as you go by private vehicle. State transport may give you bangs. Dense trees can be seen along the way. The weather was good when we had been there with some drizzling on and some bright sun.

When we entered Omkareshwar, we paid 30 bucks at a booth.( Pilgrimage tax i suppose). At the parking area we were greeted by 'n' number of people who said "VIP GATE se darshan karwa denge.10 minute mein darshan ho jayenge" ( Means we will take you through the VIP entrance. It will take only 10 minutes for you to worship and come out). We denied. Then we were greeted by boatman asking if we needed the boat to go to the other side. ( The temple is at the other side of the holy river, NARMADA). We asked him the charges, reply was 2200 bucks. "HUHH", was my first reply.

(I thought, i traveled from Indore to the place paying 1500 Rs for traveling 200+ km. And for worship of GOD to go at other side 2200 bucks and that too in an engine boat, which worked with help of a small fan and made sound of MASS decibel :P  (Are you listening GOD???).

The boat in which we traveled

He later on stated that only to go on other side and come back, he would charge 400 Rs. We negotiated. (Trying to apply management). The matter was settled to 350 bucks.

We traveled to the other side of the river. The people who sell the worship items were one of the smart businessmen i have seen. The reason: they sold one of the item for Rs 1 only if you buy another items worth Rs 20 or more. This is call the "CONDITIONS APPLY" THEORY. (*)

As we moved on, we saw the crowd and lost hope of getting out in some hours. Finally came to rescue the ANGEL of GOD (The agent who would charge Rs 350 for entry through so called VIP GATE). We agreed to the angel, because we didn't wanted to invest our hours in line. Finally we finished with a short meeting with GOD's idol. (By the way, did i mention that the meeting did not even last for 350 seconds!!!)

We left the place within an hour.

On my way back, i thought~~~

If every vehicle entering in the town pays the tax, why is the place so stinky, filthy?

Why do people believe in bathing in holy river washes away all their sins?

The person who was called ANGEL above, ate some gutka, (local term for crushed arecanut with tobacco and some other ingredients) and people paid many ANGELS thousands of bucks a day. (I apologize to myself for doing that, but some inevitable condition made me to do that)

What would be the effect on GDP of India, if all the people visiting such places had not been there?

How much have i paid for 350 seconds of encounter with GOD? (1500 for vehicle+350 for the boatman +350 for the ANGEL +50 misc. = Rs 2250 only ) Had i not paid it, and not come here, how would have i spent it?

And many thoughts roll on..............

On the way back we visited a place TINCHA. A glimse of it at the end of this post to end it in a better way

A glimse of TINCHA falls