Two Ghumakkars Together :- It all happened this way……By Vishal Rathod

Dear Viewers,

This post starts with story of  two persons who were unknown to each other before a year. But due to common platform called The Great ” Ghumakkar.com” came together in the following way. They came together in such a way that if they speak about their episode to anyone they can’t believe them. Like mine, many infinitesimal (minute) relationships are growing . So my basic goal is to join these small infinitesimal relationships to one big infinite relationship.

I don’t know whether this story is a travelogue or insight or story of two friends , my wish or any general article ,but what is written is coming straight away from  my soul.

MARCH -APRIL – MAY – JUNE, 2011

It was around mid March2011 , I finished my Kashi Yatra and it was decided that the next destination would be Omkareshwar and Mahakaleshwar that too in mid July2011. Now Ujjain being very famous and a large town you get every information on net. Mahakaleswar Temple has its own website also along with very good contact details. But the problem was with Omkareshwar.I started surfing google maps to see where Omkareshwar lies and I found that the nearest railway station was Khandwa which is around 72 kms from Omkareshwar. I know that 72 kms can be covered by bus in two hours, but now I need to find an accommodation in Omkareshwar. I knew Shree Gajanand Maharaj Bhakt Niwas, but strictly they give it on first come first serve basis and no advance booking. we have to go there and then only we can book. I started searching website for Omakreshwar Temple but in vain, At that time Omkareshwar temple had no website . Then I started searching blogs so that I can get more information on Omkareshwar. Also I wanted to know more information on Parikarama of this Island.

I typed ” Omkareshwar trip ” in Google Search Engine and there came lot of pages on which First Page was of blog called ” A Trip to Omkareshwar Jyotilringa – Day 1″ in Ghumakkar from author called Mukesh Bhalse. This was first time I got introduced to Ghumakkar.com and at that time I didn’t know that where I was going to go in near future. I liked the post very much and was very much informative as far my trip and things what I wanted to do was concerned. I then had a view on Mukesh Bhalse’s profile in Ghumakkar.com, which stated that they also wanted to to go on trip to each jyotirlinga as my small family want to. I started taking some interest in this person’s views .A series of heavy and long comments regarding devotion started in that post from both the sides.

Omkareshwar – Mahakaleshwar- Dewas Trip

Please click the link to read.

http://www.ghumakkar.com/2011/02/12/a-trip-to-omkareshwar-jyotirling-day-1/

http://www.ghumakkar.com/2011/02/17/a-trip-to-omkareshwar-jyotirling-day-2/

This went on for few days.So from Lord Shiva Bhakti as our common interest our relationship started building.The most important quality of Mukesh Bhalse which attracted me was his behaviour as a gentleman and a complete genuine family man.

Mukesh encouraged me to write some stories on my travel.So I started writing Somnath and Dwarka posts . This was the way I started in Ghumakkar.com

And in the end phone numbers got exchanged. We started exchanging views on Shiva bhakti and our future travel on Jyotirlingas . It was first time that I had anyone from outside my house who had many similar views on Bhakti. So I decided to make this forward. I started sharing my phone discussions with my wife Sonali and similarly Mukesh started this discussion with his wife Kavita .

In my trip schedule Ujjain was coming on Sunday. Mukesh staying around 70 kms away ( 2 hours) from Ujjain. Things went further ahead when Mukesh told that he is going to come and meet me in Ujjain. So excitement level in this coming trip became rose to extreme.This was the first time our meeting was planned………

But unfortunately before some days Mukesh told me that he cancelled coming to Ujjain due to some personal work. I thought it might be Lord’s wish that he is not meeting me now. OK.

JULY – AUGUST , 2011

Omkareshwar – Mahakaleshwar- Dewas Trip

I finished my great Trip to Omkareshwar ,Mahakaleshwar and Dewas.I still thank from my bottom of heart to Mukesh Bhalse and ultimately Ghumakkar.com for guiding me on this tour. I wrote some stories on those trips .

Again from July till September start talks were going on at least three times a week on cell phone. Now if we don’t share our talks with our wives , they used to get upset.

See the conversation

Sonali : मुकेश के साथ कुछ बात हुई ??

Vishal : कुछ ख़ास नहीं , general बातें हुई .

Sonali : General में मतलब क्या?

Vishal : बस ऐसे ही इधर उधर की बातें , कुछ ख़ास नहीं.

Now i don’t know that this was seriously affecting her.And really we were talking something very general, nothing we can say much about it as far as importance of those talks are concerned.

Then Sonali and I changed the subject and started talking on something else for another ten minutes. Those ten minutes talk ended in small disturbance between us..

Again Sonali asked : मुकेश के साथ क्या बात हुई ??

And this time I had to say what all ” GENERAL TALKS “ we did on our cell phones to avoid that disturbance into a full fledged quarrel.

And after that whenever Sonali used to ask “मुकेश के साथ क्या बात हुई ?? ” I would tell in detail what all happened . I think the same condition was with Mukesh and his family members.

SEPETMBER – OCTOBER , 2011

And then it was August end or September start , Mukesh started to plan his tour again in Maharashtra. His plan was to cover Parli – Vaijnath, Aundha Nagnath , Nanded , 1-2 Ashtavinayak Ganapati and then finally Bhimashankar near Pune. He already booked the train tickets with 8 day tour staring from 1st october 2011. All the planning was made by him the itinerary was mailed to me in which Bhimashankar’s turn was coming on Dusshera day a bank holiday. I thought Mukesh is coming to Bhimashankar on the day before Dusshera , stay there , perform Abhishek in Dusshera early morning and leave for Mahaganpati Ranjangaon nearby. So I thought why not I take holiday on the day before dusshera and go to Bhimahankar. Also Sonali had not seen Bhimashankar. This way both the task can be accomplished .Sonali getting darshan of Bhimashankar and our families meet.

I started convincing Sonali to take 2 days off on her Yoga Classes ( By the way she is a POWER YOGA Teacher) which was more difficult than my taking holiday, even though I was in job and she was self employed. That much is her demand for Yoga. Sonali gave me consent for the trip after few days. I quickly rushed and bought tickets for Mumbai – Pune Intercity Express, which reaches Pune at 9.10 am . Mukesh and family were coming by Nanded Pune Express which was arriving Pune at 9.30 am similar time, So our first meeting now was scheduled at Pune station now.Meeting first time with Mukesh and family was scheduled for second time.

Now the dates were nearing and Mukesh Bhalse in Ganapati festival, September , was Head anchoring programs in his area till late night. Due to this his sleep used to get affected. He used to complain and talk with me in the morning about this and his mood was not upto the mark as it used to be. Then it happened that he started having high fevers just 10 -12 days before his tour which was about to start on 1st October. This continued three days before the tour.High fevers and heavy shivering . I used to be on the cell phone with him at least twice a day. He went to doctor and was on medicines. I thought that this time Mukesh’s trip and our meeting in Pune was in threat.

Just before two days Mukesh felt somewhat better and then decided that trip to Maharashtra was on . So once again positive excitement rose.on 30 September 2011, Friday my phone call went to Mukesh at night . He told me that all the packing was over and he was feeling fresh and excited . He was about to leave next day evening in train from MHOW. Next day I called in the morning to just have a word and LO! to my surprise Mukesh was sounding terrible. He said that he was again attacked by heavy fever in the night. And now this time his trip was cancelled. He was admitted in hospital. Our meeting for second time was cancelled. One week he was in hospital and this was the time I gotintroduced to Kavita Bhalse his wife. I used to talk to her regarding his health. Both the families were upset to highest level. But may be it was Lord’s wish.

Mukesh was terribily ill for around 8-9 days in hospital. Now my chat started with Kavita Bhabhi regarding Mukesh’s health and Shiva Bhakti. Mukesh’s health used to fluctuate in between . Sometimes very bad to ok. The worst part of this illness was the doctors were not able to diagnose what trouble he was having. As from chat Kavita Bhabhi told me that he lost his weight few kilos and not able to move on his own, required support to move. Finally two days before Mukesh started telling Kavita that this time he is not going to survive. Better she look for job and take care of kids. That much severely was Mukesh ill. But ultimately two days later due to God’s Grace he started recovering and got better and then discharged. Even after discharge, He was so heavily intoxicated due to heavy medicines that it took nearly a week to recover.He thought at that time that he was now mentally ill. But all came good after one week. Thank you Lord once again.

NOVEMBER – DECEMBER , 2011.

Shegaon Trip – Mukesh and family

Tamil Nadu Temple tour

Tamil Nadu Temple tour

Mukesh after recovering from few days went to Shegaon trip. Then it was me who went to my South temple tour .And then again Mukesh  went for short Dewas and Ujjain tour .  And then went toKutch on official tour. I booked my Jungadh Somnath and Dwarka tour in new year. Mean time after my any tour the planning for next starts . I decided to go for some small 3-4 days.Immediately in my came Gokarna – Murdeshwar – Udupi ( Coastal karnataka) in March start. The places are spiritual and ideal of rest and relaxation near beaches. Murdeshwar has also water sports like water scooter paragliding , family boating and apart from this a wonderful beach for bathing.

Dewas Ujjain Trip – Mukesh and Family

Ujjain Dewas Trip – Mukesh and family

Kutch tour – Mukesh

I started searching internet for information on these places and one thing came in my mind that There was one post regarding Murdeshwar. I started searching Ghumakkar and found that. It was written by Karthik.Please go through below.

http://www.ghumakkar.com/2011/07/24/murudeshwar/

Mukesh Bhalse also liked Murdeshwar so much that it became one of priority places of his visit. After reading his comment again on the above post I decided that this the fair time again to call Mukesh for this trip with me.I again had chat with Sonali regarding this, because This time if we were planning to go together he would come to our house first. She gave Green Signal. I mailed whole itinerary along with cost details regarding this Trip.Mukesh discussed with his wife Kavita and after say 2 days told me yes to our Coastal Karnataka Trip, Somewhere in December2011. Thus meeting first time Mukesh Bhalse and Family for first time scheduled for third time.

Exactly 3 months before I booked tickets of our Matsyagandha Express to Udupi. Also I advised some Trains to Mukesh to Mumbai. Mukesh booked Jaipur SF Express from Ratlam to Mumbai a day before. Apart from this Mukesh had already planned short trip to Parli – Vaijnath and Aundha Nagnath in January end. Then again came my bouncer to Mukesh . I told Mukesh if he can extend his trip to 2-3 days more he can go to Bhimashankar near Pune or stay in Mumbai and have darshan of World’s Most populous City ( source :- wikipedia ) . Again Things started running his mind and after discussion with Kavita it was finally decided He would extend 4 days more with stay in Mumbai and have darshan of this Great City. So dates of the tour were arranged from 15 march – 24 march 2012 for Mukesh and family. So Finally the tour was some what like this.

Mukesh Bhalse and family –> Ratlam –> Mumbai ( + ( Vishal Family)–>Udupi –>Kollur –> Murdeshwar –> Idagunji –> Gokarna –> Sirsi –> Gokarna –> Mumbai (3 & half days in Mumbai ) — > Ratlam .

I went to tour to Junagdh , Somnath and Dwarka on 30 th December 2011.

JANUARY – FEBRUARY – MARCH, 2012.

My Gujarat Trip

My Gujarat Trip

I came back from Dwarka on 7th January 2012 with my Kodak camera damaged finally.

In the process of explaining my building relationship with Mukesh I forgot to tell you one thing, that I am a very average middle class guy with small family in this Great Mumbai City. I was working in company called Creative Concepts as Senior Sales Manager till December 2011. Now I have promoted myself to become Marketing Partner in the  same organisation .Now my role is same as before,authority is more, but now there are no time restrictions in my organisation for me.I can come and go any time I want to. Only thing required is business.

My parents, my small   brother and his family shifted to new house on 28th December 2011.So Mukesh Bhalse and family were going to be first guests at my place who are going to stay and that too Lord Shiva Bhakts.GREAT.  This house required some repairing and painting. So Icalled some painters , plumbers , carpenters to repair and paint the house. This started on 17 january  and went on till next 5 days. Then It was time to decorate this house with new look. I added some photo frames with some hanging handicrafts brought from Somnath. So Most of the my January went like this in office work , painting .

Meantime  Mukesh and family goes on tour to Nanded , Parli Vaijnath and Aundha Nagnath for around three days around 26th January.

Nanded, Parli, Aundha Nagnath Tour – Mukesh and family

Nanded, Parli, Aundha Nagnath Trip – Mukesh and family

My February went on asking about Mukesh and family about their food habits, likes and dislikes. I had made itinerary also for Mumbai darshan. What all things can be covered in these three with fullest extent considering their tiredness also from Karnataka trip.While Mukesh and family were preparing for shopping, Sanskriti’s exams and Mukesh’s Company audit happening around 6th March. One more thing This Big Quality Audit , one of most important process in any Quality ISO certified organisation, was landing on March 15 -16 when Mukesh was leaving. So still difficulties regarding our first meeting were coming from all the four sides. Mukesh went out of the way and somehow convinced his senior authories to prepone the Audit. finally It was shifted to 6th March 2012. Thank God not this time………………..

My March  went on shopping for basic food items , shopping for my travel (main thing was new cameraSony – Cybershot DSC-W630/B with Carl Zeiss lens) and giving charge to my subordinates about 8 day work in office when I am not there. So next tour you are going to see on Sony Camera with Carl Zeiss lens.

My New Camera :- Sony – Cybershot_DSC-W630

When only a week was pending on Mukesh ‘s Arrival , a big customer complaint had arrived. I had never seen customer so furious with our organisation this much fro past 3 and half years. Oh no ! not again . I went mad to solve this complaint within those seven days. I met that client more than 5 times and assured that everything would be fine and there would be no problem. I definitely wanted that complaint to be solved within that week , so he does not disturb me in my trip. Finally it was solved amicably on the day before Mukesh was suppose to arrive.

Once again THANK GOD………………………. 

Now it was last 2-3 days I was thinking on minute things. Mukesh told me that his kids are very excitedabout the more than them. Shivam used to ask every day that how days are pending . He packed his bag one week before. Sanskriti was also very excited to come to Mumbai.So were those kids excited that even if the trip brings happiness to his kids it will  be well and good. Then I remebered in one of older posts that I had one promise to keep for Sanskriti. When Mukesh was out on Kutch tour he had breakfast of Faafdaa and Jalebi. Sanskriti said ” mooh mein paani aa gayaa.” I told that I will make her have that breakfast when she comes to Mumbai. So One more challenge to me.

The post where I had promised her.

http://www.ghumakkar.com/2011/12/24/my-souvenir-sojourn-to-kutch-part-1/

FINALLY IT WAS THE DAY

It was 15th March 2012, on the day when Mukesh was supposed to leave I quickly had final word in office and clients about my trip. Mukesh left from his home to Ratlam to catch Jaipur SF express at around 4.30 -5.00 pm. He informed me about this. I was so busy that day arranging things at home because he was my first individual guest who is going to stay at my place. Mukesh called at 10.00 pm that he caught the train. He was suppose to reach Mumbai at 7.00 am. So now the countdown begins.Now it is sure that meeting between him and me is going to happen finally on Third attempt.I and Sonali had divided our household work for this occasion like arrangements and food preparation  will be done by her and other cleaning will be done by me.  Sonali after doing household work slept at 2.00 am. I finished my work at around 3.00 am. Now Mukesh was coming at 7.00 am at Mumbai- Borivali station.There was hardly time to sleep as I had to wake up at 5.00 am to do my Pooja and Abhishek before they arrive.  But i thought sleeping two hours would be good enough. So  I tried to sleep for about 15 mins, but then sleep had vanished. So I thought may be I am hungry that is the reason.So at 3.20 am in the morning I made 2 packs of Maggi ( my favorite food). I had that in  no time watching TV till 4.00 am .

Tried again to sleep for an hour but ALAS ! no sleep. I went to temple at 5.00 am and did my Pooja. At 6.15 I left home for Borivali station. At 6.30 while in Local train I called Mukesh to see where he is. He told me That he was in Virar. So now after 20 mins he is going to reach Borivali and finally going to see face to face. Finally His train arrived and we met face to face at Borivali station for first time.Quickly rather than greeting each   other much I was in a hurry that its going to be a great rush in Mumbai Local train if we become late. This was explained to Mukesh earlier. So My goal was to make them catch local train first and land them in Goregaon station ( suburb where I stay). In a hurry Leading the family I took them To Mumbai Local Train ( His family’s first visit) . Then while travelling in Local train for about 15 mins till Goregaon station we had friendly chat for first time face to face. At that time I was seeing Mukesh and his family’s emotions.Mukesh was ok  as usual, Kavita Bhabhi was staring here and there enjoying the mood in local train clicking pictures, Sanskriti was feeling new and shy and Shivam with his crazy plays thinking Local train as his new play station.

In Local train while reaching my place – Perhaps the only photo of Me and Mukesh together

We got down at Goregaon Station and went to my place by auto rickshaw. More than me they were more excietd to meet Sonali because I was already talking to them on phone. It was Sonali for the first time that they were having chat. We chated for around half and hour. Then after getting fresh I and Mukesh again went to Railway Station to take some breakfast. I had at  that time kept Sanskriti in my mind while buying the breakfast. And this was what I brought.

Morning Breakfast – My promise of wada pav to Mukesh and faafdaa jalebi to Sanskriti

I had promised Mukesh that he will have lot of new variety of food which he will be having in Mumbai.First one he had was WADA PAV in breakfast, which is in every street of Mumbai. Second one was IDLY CHILLY in starters in Lunch with chinese noodles.

Southern Indian Idly fried in Chinese Gravy very spicy. Still they are remembering Idly Chilly.

Spicy, tasty and slurpy Idly Chilly

At around 11.00 am I had chat for first time with Jatdevta Sandeep Panwar ( For me he is greatest Ghumakkar) through Mukesh .

At around 12.30 we had lunch and left for LTT station for going to Udupi in Matsyagandha Express.Our train left at 3.20 pm and whole evening we had lot of chating . Since I  was awake last night I slept early .

At this moment I am ending my story with meeting Mukesh Bhalse and family here .

FINAL CONCLUSION 

My basic motto of writing this post here is to show how two ghumakkars came together. But my intention is something different. For past 4-5 months ,lot of these kind of relationships are building at rapid pace.

Talks on phone with Sandeep Jatdevta and Ritesh Gupta are started . Had  video chat with Silent Soul and exchanging mails with many other ghumakkars.

Mukesh,Silentsoul,Ritesh ,Manu , Sandeep, Neeraj, Amit ,Giriraj ,Maheshjee, Manish jee, Sahil,DL , etc. to all( sorry If I have forgotten some names to mention and please excuse) and after all not to forget our Nandan and Vibha ( two main pillars of Ghumakkar)  are being felt as extended family to me. I mention names daily in my house with my wife ,friends etc.

PS :- After 1st  April episode I think there are lot of  VIEWERS also whom we don’t know but also attached with Ghumakkar as do (Some came out with extraordinary emotional reactions on that day)  . So they too are kept in mind although we don’t know their names.

And I think same feeling must be with you all. And Mind says to have more , Yeh Dil Maange More . So my request to you all ghumakkars  is that lets take out some time from our busy schedules for around say 5- 7 days and meet together at a place where we along with our families meet have fun with each other. The place should be away from the city in shadow of mother nature where we can have adventure ,talks with each other in the day and campfire in the night. This is the desire which is coming straight away from bottom of my heart.

Let any one of the editors , owners or authors even regular viewers take initiative and arrange this ……………………..

After this there should be complete story or newsletter or page  with Heading ” All Ghumakkars Together ”. Lets make Infinitesimal to INFINITE.

Next post I will come with first day of tour of Karnataka. Thanks for reading.

HAPPY GHUMAKKARI…………………..

By - Vishal Rathod