Delhi-Simla Memories- Part 16 - Goodbye Shimla; Hello again Delhi

Dressed in the traditional attire, we took a parting picture at the altar to carry the love and divinity of Shimla with us.

17/04/2010 - We will miss you Shimla...

Though located towards the west in India, Shimla enjoys an early sunrise. I thought that when the Lord was residing there, even the sun wanted to rise in the Brahmamuhurtam! When I woke up, I found that CG had gone to the terrace to capture the beautiful dawn of Shimla. (All these camera shots were useful in making the video documentary on the Shimla visit. It is now available as a Sai Blossom DVD in five different languages - English, Hindi, Telugu, Russian and Spanish). By  7:00 am we were all ready to leave. A convoy of cars would take us down the steep hilly parts after which, we would get into our bus.Thousands of devotees had filled the darshan grounds already. I felt sad that I would be missing a darshan in this paradise. But that was Swami’s wish and knowing that makes it easy to accept everything.

Swami had arrived to Shimla in a 16-seater plane and it would be ferrying Him back to Delhi with the elders. The airstrip at the Shimla airport could not support the take off and landing of bigger planes. In fact, even the small 16 seater could only land with full capacity. For take-off, there was only enough runway to gather momentum with 12 people aboard! No wonder every seat on the aircraft was a premium. On top of all this, Manoj had fallen very sick. He was already suffering from vomiting which had got worse while travelling to Shimla by bus. Special permission had been sought for him and he was to fly with Swami in the plane. Lucky fellow! With God, even an apparent misfortune becomes a piece of fortune.

Manoj was there at the convoy waving us goodbye. He would be there for the darshan and then would be part of the convoy till the airport before finally taking off with the lord Himself. Feeling a bit jealous, I sat in the front of the SUV and stretched out to relax and enjoy the sights we would be seeing. CG was also along with me in the vehicle and we had our cameras in hand.

Another unforgettable photograph - in front of the beautifully lit mandir at Shimla.

{This is the 16th part of an ongoing series. You can read the previous part at this link:

Delhi-Simla Memories- Part 15 - All good things come to an end - so does the Shimla visit

Or you can read from the beginning of the serial where each part is linked to the next. The link to Part 1 is here:

Delhi-Simla Memories- Part 1 - Hello Delhi}

Having a camera in hand when you have to travel quickly through beautiful places in a blessing and a curse. It is easy to understand why it is a blessing - many spots whose beauty cannot be admired only for a few moments can be captured and relished over time. But as our driver (and the rest of the convoy) soon found out, it was also a curse. Every now and then, we would stop to shoot. Since the convoy order and discipline had been strictly instructed, none would overtake us. Soon, there would be a jam of about 10-15 vehicles on the road! (There were separate vehicles carrying our baggage!) I remarked to CG,

“It’s not daily that we get to visit the hills of Simla. So let us just stop and shoot wherever we feel like. Others will not understand a cameraman’s plight and delight. Good that we are together!”

Lovely sights of Samashti with Srishti filled the entire journey.

Shortly before 8am, we arrived to the spot where we would exit our cars and board the bus. Waving goodbye to all the friendly volunteers, we got into the bus and began the journey towards Delhi- at a more leisurely pace. (the pace was not a benefit- our driver just seemed to have a mental block to speed beyond 40 km/h). We had to halt at a level crossing and we thus glimpsed the meter gauge train that runs in the hills. It was such a romantic sight to watch this little toy of a train chug through sylvan beauty. Once the train crossed, we too did the same and resumed the journey.

The merry little train chugging down the hill.

The journey was quite uneventful except for a few stops here and there that we made to take photographs. Most of us slept for most part of the journey. However, an interesting episode occurred and we got to know of it later.

All flights from Simla/Chandigarh fly past a village in Darwa district in Haryana. The village has a vibrant school,Sri Sathya Sai Jagriti Vidya Mandir, started by an alumnus of the Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning - Amar Vivek. As Bhagwan's aircraft got airborne, the faculty was informed on phone. The children quickly got into a formation and waved to Swami's plane from the ground! Later, this picture was shown to Bhagwan in Prasanthi Nilayam and Swami blessed the picture, getting 'emotional' while listening to the story of the picture.

We completed our lunch en route and enjoyed the wonderful city-planning in Chandigarh. It was evening by the time we entered Delhi and our driver seemed very convinced about ‘slow and steady’ winning the race. The speed at which he was going, I had my doubts whether we would have darshan before Swami retired for the day! It was after 6:00pm that we reached the International Centre at Delhi. There was a lot of hustle and bustle on the street and it was evident that Swami had gone out for a drive. He was expected to arrive soon.