bph: Shirdi

Its exactly a month since I went to SHIRDI :)

3 of us - my cousin, her 5 year old daughter and I - went to Shirdi and had a GREAT darshan :) We booked the train tickets for the 3 of us in Ahmedabad express in March. And a month later booked the hotel in Shirdi.

We left Bangalore around 1.30 pm in Ahmedabad express on a Sunday. The train journey was comfortable and fun. We played cards, talked a lot, played with S, and ate! Time just flew and we reached Kopergaon the next day around noon. We took an auto to Shirdi - Rs.250 since it was just 3 of us. It took about 45 minutes to reach Shirdi. We had booked MTDC's Pilgrim Inn, right next to the temple. It was a pleasant hotel. The best part was that it used to take 2 minutes to reach the temple.

The room was not yet ready when we arrived, so we had lunch in the restaurant. By the time we finished, our room was ready - on the 3rd floor.

We slept for sometime, woke up, freshened up and headed out to the temple. It had started raining by then. We went inside the temple for the darshan of Sai Baba. We had a GREAT darshan, and we could see BABA for a loong time. One of the best moments :)

We went around the temple premises, collected Udhi, went to the Hanuman temple and Masjid.

The temple surroundings gives such a pleasant feeling. It feels good just to roam around the area. I cant explain the peace I feel when I am there :)

We walked back, admiring all the shops. We had dinner at the hotel. They serve decent food. We walked for a while after dinner, and headed back to the room to sleep. We wanted to goto the temple for the "Kakada Arathi" at 4 am. We got up around 1.30 am and left around 2.15 to the temple. There was already a room full of people waiting. Around 3.45, we started moving in.

We were made to sit for the Arathi. I had bought the Arathi book the previous night, so I was able to sing along the Arathi songs :) Felt good. After the Arathi, we moved closer to the Baba idol, and a GREAT darshan. We came out of the mandir, and walked around. We had chai outside the temple from the gaadiwala. Went to Dwarkamai, where the Dhuni is present, and many other things that Baba was using.

We came back to the hotel and rested for a while. Had breakfast and headed out to shop a little. It was nice to see the colorful bustling town in the morning :) We couldn't stop admiring all the paintings, pictures of Sai Baba in all the stores. They were soo beautiful!

I bought a small marble idol and a small photo for my car.

We had to check out at 12, so we went back to the hotel, packed, got all our luggage downstairs and sat in the restaurant having a lengthy lunch. We sat in the lobby for a while and it was time to leave. We got into an auto near the temple and headed to the railway station. The Karnataka express was supposed to stop only for 2 minutes, so we were a little nervous. But the station had all the compartment numbers marked in different positions, so it was very easy to get in. We had booked 1st class for our return journey. Once we got inside, it was like a luxury hotel room :) We all loved the seats/coupe. S had a lot of fun :) We could lock the door and it was so private :) We had a fun time in the train.

We were back on Wednesday at 2pm in the Bangalore station. It was a successful trip :) Thanks R and S, I had loads of fun with you guys :)