Vaishno Devi: Spirituality and a Latte, to go Please

There's only one possible way you could get to Jammu from manali. that one is by road, through a forebodingly eerie mountainous terrain. any other route, involves getting back to delhi and probably flying to jammu. As luck would have it, we got on to a bus with exceedingly appalling suspension, a window that chattered as it vibrated and a certified loony for a driver. You have to see the terrain to believe it. Huge towering mountains on either side, and the Beas down below, now of a distinctly muddy hue. It seemed like a river in a midlife crisis. The bus careened across the bends, and all the while the horrors of a watery grave flashed before my eyes. The route from Manali passed through Dalhousie, dharamshala and then finally on to the plains of jammu. Before we reached Dharamshala, at about 2 in the morning,a bus which had passed us while we had stopped for dinner, apparently had fallen in to the gorge. I can still remember the horror of tragedy in the voice that said "Bus gir ghayi hain, Bachao". After that none of us could sleep and anna and I kept talking about things well into dawn.

Jammu is in the plains. its Kasmir thats in a valley, so if you venture to jammu in summer, don't be shocked if the mercury reads 46 degrees and yes you're completely screwed when it reads that. Vaishno devi is located ypon a mountain in a place called Khattra, which is about 30 km from jammu. In summer the climb from Khattra to vaishno devi is undertaken only after dusk, no amount of steroids or spirituality will ever get you up there if the sun is reigning down on you.
we started he climb at around 11 in the night. There are soo many pilgrims who are also climbing with you that a certain form of spirituality also grips. I'm not a believer, but the power of faith is soo strong, that you can only wonder. the climb is roughly 14 km to the top, you could hire ponies, but we preferred to climb. the pathway has all kinds of shops selling religion paraphernali, dry fruits and also cricket bats,(???). Then you'll meet drummers, sadhus and other weirdos who fill the perfect hindu stereotype. but its fascinating if you're an urban Indian. at about 4 km into the climb, i encountered one of the bizarrest things ever, a cafe coffee day outlet!. cold coffee and jai mata di anyone? surely theres place enough fore everybody.

Till 6km into the climb, its a crowd. you're getting runover by ponies, palaquin wallahs, maalish wallahs, and the the way diverges one to himkoti and the other leading to ardh kunwari. the road to himkoti is the one least taken and there are no stalls, hawkers, ponies in the way. just mountain air and an arduous road to the destination. We took that and I'd advise people to take that, because thats when the din subsides, and an inner equilibrium takes over. You know why you're huffing and puffing all the way to the top, despite being a non believer, you have faith, you know theres a force stronger than you, its a force that brings the scent of the honey suckle and makes you sencient. You're going up there because you're in awe of the world around you.

Reaching Vaishno Devi makes you exult at your own achievement and then you see the serpentine queue and then you go, oh bother!. but fear not its a queue that clears up pretty quick and while you're in the queue you appreciate the jiffy service being offered at the other end, till you get to the other end i.e., when you go into the shrine all you see is a huge bunch of secirity guards, and then theres a priest shoving you forward into thecave, and another one shoving you down out of the cave. I barely caught a glimpse of the deities. 3 seconds is all you get.

The climb down was even more arduous, i think that kills you more than anything. we started climbing down at 6:30 in the morning and took 4 hours to descend. then we went back to the hotel and slept all day.