The trip takes 15 days from Alandi to Pandharpur as the pilgrims walk 30 km each day. I’ve been meaning to do this for years, ever since I realised that my daughters were born on Ashadhi Ekadashi and Kartik Naumi ( two days before Ekadashi), the dates associated with the culmination of the pilgrimages marking the beginning and the end of the 4 month long sleep of Lord Vishnu.

I took this as a sign that my life was somehow connected with Lord Vithal and observed some self-imposed sacrifices during these four months. Chaturmas or these four months do have some strict traditions to be followed but since I do my own thing I set my own rules. Most years it involves being vegetarian, not eating any sweets and strictly avoiding alcohol. Some years I even stop eating after 5.30 pm ( before sunset) but from year to year I modify them.

Walking the trail

One summer holiday I decided my mum and I should do this trek ourselves and decided to join a group comprising of like-minded people rather than the hordes of walkers who were mainly simple, rural folk.

One afternoon we set off to the old part of Pune where an ex-army wife who organised such a group lived in her ancestral home. Going through the winding lanes we knocked on a rather shabby-looking door of an old house. Entering the darkened room ( most people keep the curtains drawn in the day to keep out the glare of the sun and make the room cooler, we had to squint really hard to figure out where we were.

Mrs. H pushed aside the dirty looking green-rag of a curtain and came inside with her hair all over the place and her crushed saree tucked into her ample waist. Taking in her rather dishevelled appearance and rather unfriendly welcome, it struck us that we had disturbed her mandatory siesta. Apart from a quick call in the morning to fix the appointment, we hadn’t really given her any advance warning.

She gave us a cursory look totally disapproving of my loose trousers and shabby T. My mother somewhat passed muster because of her impeccably starched sariand neatly combed hair. Bidding us sit down on a green rexine covered sofa, without so much as offering us a glass of water, she asked us what our intentions were and why we wanted to do the pilgrimage. After listening to us, she proceeded to shoot out the rules.

No talking and walking. You had to sing the hymns in unison with everyone else. You had to keep pace with the walkers.

No walking in trousers or salvars. We had to wear saris. Also we had to walk barefoot.

We had to rise at 4 am have a quick bath in the dark in just half a bucket of cold water in a makeshift tent, wash our clothes and squeeze them dry and leave them in the bucket for the helpers to carry in the truck that followed us with the rest of our luggage. After a quick cup of hot tea, we had to walk for around two hours or so, before we halted for breakfast. Then we walked another stretch before stopping for lunch. This was a longer break and we had to hang out our clothes to dry on the wash line that the helpers put up. After lunch and a short siesta, we had a cup of tea and then walked till sunset where we would stopped for the night at a village school. After a simple dinner, we went to bed, spreading out our bedding ( only 5’x2′ on the floor. No sleeping bags were allowed – only a thin mattress, a thin pillow and a blanket were permitted.

Of course, these were Mrs. H’s rules, and we realised that there were many other teams with less stringent rules. Additionally, this was in the early 1990s, when not many people wore Punjabi suits (as they were called by the locals). But most importantly, I think Mrs. H was determined NOT to have the two of us anywhere near her because my father had rejected her as a prospective bride over my mother!

As years went by, I would keep asking my mum if we could walk trail because this trip is also done in December when the weather was more pleasant. But as usual life goes by and we grew older and both of us abandoned the idea of walking to Pandharpur. We did eventually make a day-trip to the temple off season and satisfied my desire to visit the temple.

But this year, while scrolling through my Insta feed, I found that a friend of mine actually walked part of the route and once again inspired me to do it. Perhaps this time I will do it with my daughter rather than my mother, and we may be able to walk with a more modern group that will allow track pants, sneakers, sleeping bags and perhaps ear pods as we do the trail.

Please do have a look at Amita’s Pilgrim trek in which she has captured so beautifully the spirit of the Pilgrim Trail on her Instafeed..

Well, I don’t know if I will make the trip or even keep to the restrictions I’ve made this year.

Everything is possible, isn’t it?.

Ciao,

Unishta