My trip to Amarnath

The year was 1983. I had graduated the same year with a Master’s degree from Mysore. I wanted to meet my parents since I had been away for a long time. My father had retired and they had shifted for the summer to Kashmir. My mother had a desire to visit Amarnath - so after much discussion it was decided that I can take my mother along with my elder sister Veenaji ( née kuku) to our Matamal@safakadal for the next step. I vividly remember the people who agreed to accompany us. My elder mama ( papaji) , mami, Kiran ( pappuji) and his newly wedded wife (Santosh), and their sister Sushma. We started preparing for the journey among other things I bought a small bottle of Doctors Brandy ( purchased from Jawkak Wines - near Amira Kadak). We boarded a bus to Sonamarg and onwards to Baltal. The bus dropped us at roadside. There was a large group of people waiting there. We were told that the Baltal base is a few miles from there and a Punjabi charitable organization had a truck availability to ferry passengers to the Baltal base camp. Somehow we reached the Baltal base and started the climb in the evening. It must have been a moonlit night as the whole journey we traveled on foot during the night. Early morning we reached the cave , my mom insisted that we take a bath in the small stream of water flowing in the open. The water was freezing but after that we felt warm. Then began the long wait, as there was a long queue of pilgrims waiting. Incidentally the state CM Farouq Abdulla also came in a helicopter and everyone had to wait until he visited the cave. The cave was gigantic and my mama and me sat on a huge boulder and watched the scenery from there. Papaji ( mama) told me that the real darshan is of the cave. Some how I remember reaching inside the cave and seeing the snow formation - linga which was almost flat when we saw. We also saw two birds flying inside and everyone cheered - Jai Bhole Shankar  : the birds signify Shankar Parvati. I explore the inside of the cave and found a small chamber where some Sadhus were resting with quilts. There was no food stall there and I don’t remember anyone was hungry. On our way back our mami was having breathing problems - we gave her Oxygen at a medical tent and decided that she should return on a horseback. We took shelter under a tent where we were given kangri and spent some time resting at Brarimarg. We reached Baltal late in the evening and there we had parshad ( dinner) at the same charitable organization, they later dropped us back in the truck up to the roadside. Luckily there was a bus waiting there and we boarded it - there was general relief and  everyone dozed on the journey back.  I remember walking back to Safakadal through Idgah ( which is a giant graveyard now). Everyone came back safe and sound.