Tuesday, February 28, 2006

Episode 8 of India Travels: Trip to Hazoor Sahib


On day 14 of the trip, 9th July 2003, my mum, taayee jee (aunt) and I went to Hazoor Sahib, which is where Sri Guru Gobind Singh jee left his physical body leaving Guruship solely in the hands of the Guru Granth & Guru Panth. Sri Hazoor Sahib (which is in Abachal Nagar, NandeR, Maharashtra) is one of the Five Takhats (thrones of authority) in the Sikh nation.

We boarded the 'Sachkhand Express' train from Jalandhar, which went directly to Hazoor Sahib in 27 hours (2 days), stopping on various stations on the way. The journey was "eventful"! We should have got FIRST CLASS seats but out of ignorance we got SECOND CLASS. Dear me! The seats were okay at first but after four or five hours, my backside was NUMB (despite the seats being soft). Sat Naam!


The food! Waheguru, Waheguru. We had brought Daal Sabjee and Roti from home (Rab Da Shukar). There was a waiter on the train who kept on coming to us and saying "CHINESE NOODLES". He was hillarious. Every 15 minutes he would come and ask "CHINESE NOODLES". I notice Indians are obsessed with NOODLES. I prefer to stick with good old Roti and Daal Sabjee. It was beautiful to see Gursikhs giving out Guru-Ka-Langar at Delhi and Gwalior train station. Click here to to read a nice article about how a non-Sikh came across these Gurdwara sewadaars distributing Langar on the trains.


At night time we lied down on the seats and went to sleep. At Amrit-vela we woke up and washed our faces and did Nitnem on the train. As we started Nitnem a police officer standing near by lighted up a cigarret and started to smoke. I didn't know where the smoke was coming from. Next thing I know, a Hindu man sitting near us gets up and goes up to the police officer and says, "Please stop smoking. You are standing near Sikhs. They are praying." The police officer immediately distinguished his cigarret and said "sorry" to us. It was very nice to see the Hindu gentleman be so courteous and respectful. Waheguru!


There were a lot of "DODGEY" people walking around on the train, from beggars to men dressed up as women clapping their hands up and down the train! Waheguru! Rab Rakha!


To be continued...

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Parj Ji,

are there not 5 Takhats:-

Akal Takhat
Sri Keshgarh Sahib
Patna Sahib
Damdama Sahib
Hazoor Sahib

?????

Please can you clarify as I am confused.

Thank you

P.S. your blog is very interested and I enjoy reading it.

Manvir Singh (UK) said...

My apologese. It was typo. (Thanks for pointing out)

There are FIVE takhats :)

Anonymous said...

paaaaji :@:@ lol
u always stop ur stories wen they get to the good part ;) lol

any ways... the noodle thing...lol

ur funny
:D

fateh

Prabhu Singh said...

The last Indian train I was on, about 2 months ago now (seems like yesterday when I see your picture), I was on it for 8 hours or so. It was the Shatabdi Express from Amritsar to Delhi, which was totally not express that day. I got on the train at 5 AM (early) and I woke up at 1AM after two hours of sleep so that I could meditate and take one more dip at the Hari Mandir Sahib. In Delhi I had to visit a few music shops and then catch my plane after midnight, which took 17 hours, then a layover then another few hours on a plane. That was a long day for me, but there was a really great part, where I spent some time at the home of a really nice Sikh family, which you can read about on my blog.

Anonymous said...

Gaj Ke Fateh Balow.
Vaheguru Ji Ka Khalsa Vaheguru Ji Ki Fateh.

Men dressed up as women clapping and dancing on train. hahahahaha. thats soooo funny.did they think it was ur wedding Manvir?? i'm laughing so much. i can imagine wat ur face wud like.

please tell us of ur experiences on ur trip to Hazoor Sahib on the train

Vaheguru Ji Ka Khalsa Vaheguru Ji Ki Fateh.

Manvir Singh (UK) said...

Baljiwan Singh jee - Sleeping on the train wasn't scary because there was a police officer guarding each compartment. So there was little or not threat of outsiders coming on and stealing things or causing hassle.


Dhadi Master Sahib jee - I have skipped the train journey part as I thought it wasn't anything worth remembering!! (You can read the continuation of the story from when we arrive at NandeR onwards).

When the men dressed up as women came on the train clapping and dancing about, they were asking money and singing something. They looked SCARY! Waheguru! lol. It was bit like a bloke dressed up as Goth (people who were dark, over the top make-up) + Pat Butcher (from Eastenders) + freaky Sari like from an old Hindi film.

When they came up to us, they saw my Taayee jee and I wearing Gatra Kirpaans. They took one look at us and didn't even bother to clap, walking to the next guy sitting nearby and asked him for money. Waheguru Bhalla Kare.

Then a young (poor-looking) boy came on the train and apparently nicked a bloke's newspaper or something, and in return he got a big slap from the large-looking bloke! A SLAP JUST OVER A NEWSPAPER!!! Welcome to India! Waheguru.

Then we had random beggars keep coming up to us and saying "Sardaar jee" "Hai Bhai" etc... We told them to eat Langar if they are hungry.

Then there were RANDOM Sadhus and weird looking blokes (who I think were supposed to be religious or something) asking for money IN THE TRAIN. Some didn't look SPIRITUAL but more like FREAKY. Seriously they had negative vibes. Rab Bhalla Kare.


Erm... also people sat in our seats. And then a kind Panjabi man helped us to get the random people sitting in our seats to sit somewhere else (as all the seats in our cabin were pre-booked ones).


So thats the info about the train journey!! Waheguru.

Take care.

Shridhar Mhatre said...

Hazur Sahib Nanded