Day 9 (29st Oct 04): Jai Mata Di !

As usual, woke up early and set of for “Maata ke Darshan” at 4-30 in the morning. This was one reason, says mom, that nothing happened to any one of us (Maata ke darshan jo karne thhe). We took 4 horses as we climbed up slowly. In fact I’d’ve preferred walking up. Stopped at a new built ‘Café Coffee Day’, hep n all eh! Finally after half trekking/half walking and rest ‘ghoding’ we reached the top at arnd 9. The ladies were yet to come, and finally reached at 10. Had the darshan and after a light lunch, decided to walk back. It was great to see the enthusiasm of people all along. Shout “Jai Mata Di” once, and u’ll be surprise to hear the same from 10 different corners. Finally got back at 4, and huh, was I tired. In fact everyone (except me) was supposed to stay at Katra tht nite – as I had to catch my train from Jammu. But, dad luckily managed to get the booking transferred from Katra to Jammu JKTDC lodge (where we’d stayed on the 21^st). So, we packed our luggage asap and left for Jammu which was about 60 km from Katra. But just when life seems back to normal, something happens. We must’ve been arnd 20 km from Jammu at arnd 8 (and my train was at 9-20 pm), when at a junction a traffic police (or whoeva) tells us to take a diversion. We took it cuz a bus ahead of us did the same. We kept going for like 20-25 min, but dint see “Jammu” written on even a single milestone. As I was mentally preparing myself to miss the train, thankfully I saw a milestone with “Jammu” written, but still 20 km from there. This was disgusting, but we managed to reach the station a good 30 min before the departure.

I had a Side Upper (3AC - Jhelum Exp), and as I entered my bogie I saw an Oriya group in the compartment. I was about to leave my bag n get out to talk to parents, there goes an announcement “If you find a single passenger, someone who looks suspicious (and with my bloodshot eyes – of late I certainly looked suspicious), inform us immediately”. And boy was there distrust written all over their face! I immediately ran out and called dad in (cuz he looked more human that I did), and started talking to him for a while in front of ‘em, before which we went back outside. Finally, I could see the temperature drop a bit, hehe!

As we were doing our “byes’ n stuff, around 10-15 armed jawans marched into the platform with some “VIPS”, cameramen all over them. When we found it, we learnt that a Pakistani Delegation had come over for some meeting, and that there was high-alert. Apparently they were under some kinda threat. Slowly, I saw the Pakistanis segregate and enter MY BOGIE, and as I went in they were in the next compartment!! I was just hoping tht if someone’s to come and kill them, they better have a good aim – “Kaheen aas paas waale ko naa maar dein”. ‘Bye-byed’ parents n set off for Delhi.