17 July – Mathura
Left Delhi for Mathura early morning and took the train
at 8 am. We got the 2nd class sleeper car. A ticket checker came by
and then another and asked us to pay Rs 150 fine (for what?). we gave it to
him. Then he asked papa if he should write it, papa told him to do whatever, so
the TT gave Rs 50 back and pocketed 100! What?!! What a joke. Reached Mathura
at about 11:15 am.
It was really hot in the city. Papa got conned by the
rikshawala to take a hotel in the city rather than stay at the train station
guest room as we always do. So we reached Pyare Mohan Hotel on Junction Road.
Room was a little dirty, but ok. The hotel staff came and cleaned it up. All
temples are closed till 4 pm, so se slept till after 3 pm. I got some dahi
kachori for some lunch. Yum!
We had to go to the bus stand to get an auto to tour the
city. There was no auto near our hotel. A nice autowalla, Rajesh, took us on
our tour. Unfortunately it started raining within 15 mins of our tour. We
picked up a religious studies student/guide for our 4 hr tour (Rs 350). First
we went to Holi Gate market. Went to Brijwasi Sweets, bought some peda, ghevar
and ate some ras malai and badam milk. Then walked back to Brijwaasi chaat and
had gol gappa, tikki and gujiya – all for Rs 23. And all just so tasty – no
words!!
18 July – Mathura
Today we toured around some temples. We went to Jamuna
banks – so peaceful there. There is very little water in the river. Our guide
said that Krishna used to sit on this one particular tree to see the gopis…yeah
– sure!! Went to Vrindavan. This was possibly my favorite place. It was a
medium size garden full of tulsi – about 3 ft high. Apparently all the tulsi
are gopis, and at night Krishn comes and plays flute and does raas in this
garden and all the tulsi turn into gopis. Radha is also comes during the
night. For me it was just magical. The
only problem was in the daytime was there were too many monkeys in the garden!
They almost took my camera! One interesting thing the guide said is that anyone
who spends the night here does not live to see the day. Hmmm….
Last stop was the birthplace of Krishn in Mathura. We
could not take our cameras inside so papa and I went in one by one. Krish was
born in the prison where his parents were prisoned by his Uncle, Kans. There is
a temple there, but the prison is also maintained as a prison. Of course it is
not the original prison, but one gets the idea.
It was a nice walk through. I wish I had brought in my purse with money
so I could buy some little trinkets. Another time. I will come back here some
day again.
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