Harihareshwar
As intended we reached Alibagh in the morning, saw the fort, which stands tall in the sea. (Why will any one want a fort surrounded by water? So inconvenient…probably it was built on shore and because of global warming it’s gone in! ). Our driver (bless him!!) suggested that there is another good beach nearby. But near turned out to be quite far (it took us 3 hours to reach the place, but then.. it was his definition of near!!), and all of us were pissed off by the time we reached Harihareshwar, the site of the beach more than made up for it. The place is unexplored and there were not many tourists even on a Sat.
The beach was very clean and as it was low tide we dared to venture a bit deep. In no time we were all totally soaked and were enjoying every bit of it. I tried the little bit of swimming I know. (Had been raring to swim for pretty long!) Stayed on the beach for pretty long, thanks to it I stilll sport a tan.
There is a temple also on the beach, but I wasn’t very keen to go there. (Infact only few of us were.) It’s on top of the hill and as we started climbing, I had the picture of a typical temple-on-top-of-hill in my mind. After climbing for sometime, the steps lead you down. And the view from there is totally out-of-the-world. Rocks on both sides surround the steps…and the sea beckons. We go down and and find ourselves standing in a huge groove formed by the sea. I was amazed that such a place existed in Maharashtra and I hadn’t even heard of it. It was so much like Kanyakumari (or should I say, my idea of Kanyakumari, as I have never been there .)
The temple is a niche in the rock and the pradakshina* of the temple means a pradakshina of the hill. As we go around the hill we are treated to many beautiful vistas…. the rock formations, the patterns formed on the rocks, (I spotted a heart, a question mark and an exclamation...now whatever that means!) the sea being painted by the sun… The place is a literally a photographer’s paradise, you click just anything and you would come up with an awesome picture. As the sun sets, we sit down amidst crabs and enjoy the view. If this is somebody’s idea of temple I agree with it whole- heartedly; Nature, there is no better definition of God for me.
We complete the pradakshina and start back, we hear a lady telling someone that this is a particularly auspicious day to take a bath in the sea. (Later I come to know that Harihareshwar, also called dakshin kashi, is a religious hotspot). And I wonder that what was it that made the driver bring us here… sometimes its because of total strangers that beautiful things happen in life. We cheer the driver for this and start back, I am smiling because the visit to harihareshwar has whetted & quenched my thirst to wander at the same time.
*Pradakshina- Circumambulation, To go around the deity or a temple
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