Couple of Days in Deoghar

Whenever we gather together i.e. my cousins and aunts and uncles, it invariably leads to a trip plan. The success rate of that plan turning to reality is albeit pretty low but there is never any lack of enthusiasm or a cringe of excitement during this planning phase. So, a couple of months back, when a bunch of us boarded the Jana Shatabdi train heading to Jasidih, it was indeed an unreal moment to cheer! The train was right on time, chair cars were pretty comfy, the big windows served nice views and the AC vents kept us necessarily cool. We started our journey about midday and when we stepped into the Jasidih station, the Sun had just set for the day and a cool breeze brushed our cheeks! It was pretty hot back in Kolkata that time, so we weren’t expecting anything different there either. Is it going to be cold here?! - everyone seemed to wonder. The question was justifiably answered when we all of us tucked ourselves under duvets at night! This was March and we were in Jharkhand, after all. We were anything but dreading the heat. So, the soothing cool breeze was a pleasant surprise.

Just me being me ;)

Our hotel was about a 30 minute drive from the railway station. It was a nice big house repurposed for tourism. The front of the house had a little garden, a fountain and a swing. After checking in, we spent the evening in the garden, sipping tea and munching pakoras.

Just by our hotel

The next morning I saw everyone was up and about pretty early. Nope, it wasn’t just the keenness to travel though. The restless, barking dogs outside the garden did the trick! We were at the ground floor and the dogs seemed to bark all night long, right by our ears! The house owner seemed to have three big cranky dogs who would be sleepy and lazy in their locked rooms all day and were left to bark and mess around at night! C’est la vie!

Trikut Parvat in the distance

Deoghar is a pretty well known name for us. Old story books and grandpas and grandmas always talk about visiting Deoghar for a change of scenery, for its good weather and water and so on. The very popular Jyotirlingam and Usri falls and lots of tiny scattered hills that have been identified with mythological stories of Ramayana - everything together paints an interesting picture.

Temple campus

After having our morning tea and nosing around a bit in the neighbourhood, we set off for Baidyanath Dhaam (one of the twelve Jyotirlingas where Lord Shiva is supposed to live.) What amused me was, how could the Lord, if there is, live amidst such chaos! We were literally pushed by certain guards and pandits into the inner sanctum. The chaotic scene, however, had a drastic change when it was getting broadcast in one of the big television screens outside the temple later in the day. Anyway, besides the apparent chaotic devotion, I must say, the lingam was very unique compared to the ones which I had seen so far (possibly not many, forgive my religious ignorance).

Lovely rock art..somewhere near Khandoli dam

After the super-contact mayhem, I definitely needed a boost which came in the form of the best pedha I have ever tasted! The sharp kheer, the smooth blends, the slight touch of cardamom - Ah! You must take a bow. It was indeed heavenly and I felt pretty pious whilst relishing an array of those pedhas! I possibly could visit again just for this.

Burrp! Okay, I am back.

After some pedha followed by fresh sugarcane juice, we arrived at Trikut Parvat - 3 small peaks which the locals refer to as Brahma, Vishnu and Maheshwar. Powered by pedhas, we all got out of the car and just as my youngest aunt sneaked her head back in the car to grab god-knows-what, a monkey vaulted itself inside the car, grabbed a bag of pedhas and jumped out of the window! Everything happened so fast, that when we tried to spot the monkey, he had already devoured his snatch of the day (or maybe just one of the snatches!) A happening start indeed! A guide immediately recruited himself to escort us up to the top. Okay, the top was really a very short climb to a slab of flat rock looking out at the three hill tops. On the way, we saw quirky rocks - some shaped like boats, some like elephants and so on! These were all naturally formed and hence pretty interesting. The ‘falls’ as promised by our guide was however a disaster! It was water coming out of a small pipe. This water apparently had “gut healing” quality but I had a pretty gut wrenching episode in the toilet the very next morning, so pardon my scepticism!

Trikut Parvat, just before going up

After Trikut, we drove up to the Tapovan. Now, this was quite exciting! As you go to the top flat bit, you would feel a huge gust of wind and hence the nickname ‘buk dhorphori’ (fluttering heart - pardon my poor translation!). You would then cross over to visit the monkey hill or otherwise known as ‘hamaguri pahaar’! This is just uber cool in my mind! I just can’t find a translation that can do justice to these sentiments! ‘Hamaguri pahaar’ (crawling hill - again I beg your pardon!) was really fun! That my body could twist and turn into so many strange shapes and sizes was an enlightenment ! And the fact that I could slide through hill cracks and slip between rocks and sneak in narrow gaps like the way we did - was completely bizarre! To top it off, my not-so-thin mother (Nope, it’s not body shaming if it’s between me and my mom. :P ) with her still-healing fractured arm could do the whole walk (it was more a twisty drag than a walk!) as well, which was a bigger surprise! We were going about exploring this hill all by ourselves. There were multiple guides calling out to us. But nope, we were super confident and went ahead with constantly wavering agility!

Slicing through the rocks :D

We came across a big boulder where three or four locals perched themselves and called out to help. Nope! We shook our heads. We climbed on top of the boulder but then there was no way forward! We just couldn’t figure out which next boulder or rock to set out to! It all looked like a dead end or a dead edge. We caved. We agreed for a guide then and Voila! The way forward magically appeared right in front of us! Albeit through a small slide between the rocks! We were barefoot the whole time. People are asked to take their shoes off at the foothill because it’s considered holy. The other theory is - with shoes, there is a very big chance of losing grip and getting stuck in these rocks! Well, all’s well that ends well and this “hamaguri” (crawl) on the “hamaguri pahar” (crawling hill) rightly ended with some hot piping tea with big laughs and broad smiles!

From the top of Tapovan

After clashing our way out of the temple (!) and a good bout of “buk dhorphorani” and “hamaguri” with Mother Nature, we returned to the hotel for some rest.

Naulakha Temple

The next day’s highlight was Usri Falls. But before arriving at the Usri Falls, we made our pit stops at various places like - Naulakha temple (a lovely architecture indeed!), Nandan Pahar (I was expecting some exciting monkeys here, but nope! Just an array of gods and their tiny series of temples :D This was the first time I saw Yama, the Hindu god of death established in a temple), Khandoli Dam (a dam in its peaceful state at the time, a park by the side and a little climb up some stairs to get a good view of the town - all put together in a nice little area).

Khandoli Dam

After a touristy stroll in all these various places, under the scorching heat of the Sun (yup! The bright Sun was back again!) and some random tummy-fills with chats and ice creams and jhalmuri and what-not, we headed to Usri Falls - finally, a place away from the crowd, with the light soothing breeze, gushing water, nice big boulders to relax on and cool gargling water to dip our feet in.

Usri Falls

The short and sweet trip ended in due time. Deoghar felt special to me especially for the lovely pedha that I must have hoovered up like a maniac (not guilty!), the funny, ticklish hills that made us twist and turn our muscles in precarious angles and finally, the success of having a trip together that we always seemed to plan! We boarded our train back home, holding an usual promise for the next trip together…

With the promise for tomorrow...