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Today I am posting again after many months because there was a wedding function in my house due to which I was very busy with household chores that I was not getting any time to post. So this post is related to my ancestral village and the famous Vanar Devi temple which is also known as vindhya vasini devi temple of Almora and in this post I have told about my journey. It had been more than 2 years and I had not gone to my village because the first reason is that I do not get much time on weekends and the second reason is that our village is on a steep slope from the main road and to go there you have to travel on foot and the road is also very bad, due to which the people there also have to face a lot of problems. However, there are not many people left in our village now because the people there have migrated because there was a problem of water and many other problems, due to which only a few houses are left there now.
A few days ago my mother told me that you should have to visit Vanar Devi temple and village next week because we had not been there for a long time and I was also very keen to visit, so I agreed to her and made a plan to visit that village with my cousin brother on the weekend.
We planned to go early in the morning because I knew that it would take a lot of time to travel by foot and we would be able to reach there only late in the evening, so I told my cousin to reach my house by 8:30 and we would start towards our village by this route. My colleague reached my house on time and we started our journey, first of all I filled fuel in my vehicle and also filled air in the tyres because this is the most important thing in a long journey, which I always do.
When we started the journey, the weather was neither too hot nor too cold. You can see in the above picture that there is a lot of fog in front and this time is between 8:30 to 9:00 and the sun has still not come out properly. This fog is due to forest fires and there is no effect of rain, due to which there is a lot of fog all around. Although there are many ways to go to our village, but this time I went by a new route because the main road was under repair, so this time I took an alternate route. Although the alternate route is much better than the main road and there is less traffic jam here, but the distance covered is a few kilometers more. As we moved ahead on the road, we saw a beautiful view which was of our own city. I used to see this view from my school bus when we used to come from school to home through this route. I stopped there for a while and looked around and some of the views which I captured in my phone are in front of you.
As we were moving forward, we were seeing many views of the mountains which seemed a little different to me because whenever I used to come by this route, I used to find it quite green but this time due to less rain, it was completely dry here, you can see how dry it looks. I was also coming on this route after many months because I rarely come by this route. Then we kept moving forward slowly like this and we must have covered a distance of about 10 kilometers.
Then we moved a little ahead and we turned towards another road after leaving the main road and this road was much narrower than the main road and there were many turns here, so we were driving very cautiously and we had also reduced our speed a lot because one has to drive very cautiously in the turns because the visibility ahead becomes very low and sometimes suddenly a vehicle comes at a high speed on the turn, then there is a possibility of an accident. After going a little ahead, we saw that an uncle was loading gravel on his horse. It is often seen in hilly areas that where the road cannot go, horses are used to load heavy goods because a normal person cannot lift such heavy goods, so people use horses.
Then we moved forward and we saw that someone has set the forest on fire and smoke can be seen all around and the fields have turned black after burning. I felt very sad to see this because I don't know how these anarchist elements not only damage property but also destroy nature. It is very sad because we see the pollution that is happening around us and as I told you first that the smog that was spread all around was due to the smoke of this forest. Due to the smoke of this forest, people have problems in breathing and the carbon particles that enter people's eyes also cause many eye problems because I myself felt this thing, when I was passing through the forest fire, I was having a burning sensation in my eyes.
There are many losses due to forest fires and the first loss is that the animals that live in the forests and whose homes are in the forests become homeless and sometimes some dangerous animals like leopard or elephant that live in the forests come towards the city due to forest fires and due to this, the terror of these wild animals is often seen in the city and sometimes they even make many people their prey. I don't understand what some people get by setting forests on fire because I can only see losses from this.
hen after covering a distance of about 10 to 15 km, we reached the main gate of Vanar Devi temple which was right next to the road. Although it was just a gate, the main temple was still at a great height from here and it was going to take us about 15 to 20 minutes more to reach there. We parked our vehicle in a safe place and we went towards the walking path. As I told you, the path here was towards the height, so we were feeling very tired while walking and then gradually we also started feeling hot.
When we were walking further on this path, I saw that a lot of construction has started in this place and people are opening homestays and resorts etc. to promote tourism here, which will also provide employment to those people and also make good arrangements for the stay of those who come from outside to visit. I could not click this picture from close because it was quite far but you can see how beautiful the view is around the hills in front and I have shared some pictures of the construction work going on here. When I came here 2 years ago, I did not see so much construction here but today I saw a lot of construction.
Then after walking for about 15-20 minutes, we reached the entrance of the temple and you can see that the door which I showed you near the road below and the entrance of the temple are almost the same. When we turned towards the temple from the entrance, I saw that there was very little crowd here, about three to four families must have come here and there was complete peace in the whole temple.
First of all, we went towards the main temple and we saw that some people were getting the Puja done by Pandit ji there, so we waited outside for a while and after that when their Puja was done, we entered the main temple and we performed Puja very well and with great peace. Whenever I used to come to the temple before, I used to find a lot of crowd and we were not able to worship with so much peace, but this time the Puja was done very well and the mind really got a lot of peace. Here I have shared the picture of the main temple with you and could not share the picture inside because photography was prohibited there.
This is the main temple of Vanar Devi and there are many other temples attached to this temple. The tin shed that you see here may have been installed this year because when I had come here before, I had not seen it here. It may have been installed from outside to perform havan etc. because many times it happens that it is raining from the sky and people perform havan due to which rain becomes an obstacle, so it may have been constructed to stop it.
After praying in the temple, we went towards the other gate because we had to go to another temple, so we went from the back road and after walking for about 10 minutes we reached the temple. You can see how old this temple is and the idols inside it were also made of stones and looked very ancient. We prayed there for some time and after that we walked on the same path towards the road. This time it must have taken us a little less time to walk because there was a slope downwards, so we did not feel much tired and the time taken was also less.
Then we reached the road and sat in our vehicle and started towards our village. Then after covering a distance of about 5 km from there, we stopped on a road from where the road goes to our village and we parked our vehicle there and started walking on the footpath. You can see that this footpath of ours has already started and first of all this path has a downward slope and the path is made of concrete at some places and is made of stones at some places.
On moving ahead, we saw that there were a lot of rocks on the road and all the leaves were dry because it had not rained for a long time, so the leaves of the trees had dried up and fallen down and these leaves had completely covered the road. When we were looking ahead on this road, we saw that this road has not changed at all, it is exactly the same as it was before and no new work has been done on this road. When we go towards our village, we see that the road is very steep and we do not feel tired while walking on the slope, but when we come back, we feel twice as tired. There are a lot of stones on the road, due to which there is a little difficulty in walking. I regret that I did not wear trekking shoes, due to which I am facing a little difficulty in walking in normal shoes.
On going a little further, I saw that there is a lonely house here. I have always seen this house. Whenever I used to go to my village, I always saw this house. There is a lonely house in this place and the surprising thing is that only one man lives here who works in the city and comes here in the evening. I felt very strange that how can someone live so alone but then I thought that now he must have got used to this loneliness. That man has also used wood to cook his food and has also kept many woods on one side after chopping them with an axe.
We had been walking for more than 30 minutes and then we went a little further and I saw a cow walking in a dry field. I don't know what it is doing in this field because there is no green grass nearby, but still why would the owner of the cow have left it open in the field. It may be eating the dry grass but it is not right to leave it open in this hot sun.
Then after walking some distance, we saw our ancestral house but we had to go to our ancestral temple first, so we went on that path. We prayed in those temples and the path there was very bad and a lot of pine straw had fallen from the pine trees, due to which it was very slippery to walk there. We returned to the temple and started walking towards our ancestral house.
When we were walking back, I saw that there used to be a very big house here where about 6 to 7 families used to live, but today the house has become a ruin because all the families who lived here have migrated and this house is completely empty and the house has also been broken at many places, due to which its condition has become very bad. Due to lack of amenities, people migrate and settle in the city. Those people who do not have enough money to live well in the city, they live in the village.
Our village's house was destroyed in a disaster a few years ago but our grandfather's brother's house is still there because they have been living there for many years, so we stay with them. When I reached the main gate of their house, I saw a small dog barking at us. This dog looked very affectionate and probably there is a small child here and he must be around 1 year old. When I came before this, they did not have any dog but now these people have also adopted a dog.
This house is the house of my grandfather's brother and they have planted a rose tree in front and so many roses have come in it that you can see. These roses also look lovely and have bloomed quite well. Along with this, you can see that these are the views around our ancestral village and in this you can see that there are farms all around and very few houses will be seen. On coming to this place, you will get complete peace and you will not find any kind of disturbance here.
Although now the road is also being cut from the front, so it is possible that sometimes the sound of vehicles is heard but still a different kind of peace is experienced here. Whenever I come here, many times I feel like staying here but then due to lack of time or some work comes in between in which after sitting here for a while, I have to go back from here again. This time also same thing happened, we stayed here for some time and around three families live here and all three are brothers of our grandfather, so we sat for some time at the houses of all three of them and after that we left for our home.
When we were going back home, we felt that it would be very difficult to walk on the steep slope because we had a lot of luggage and the sun had also increased because when we were coming down, the sun was very less at that time but now the sun had also increased a lot and we also had very little water because we had forgotten to fill water from home. Then we started walking and it must have taken us about 40 to 50 minutes to reach the main road because the road was very bad and on top of that it was taking us more time due to the climb. When we reached the main road, first of all I drank a cold drink because I was really feeling very tired and I did not think that the thirst would be quenched by drinking water, so I drank a cold drink and then I felt a little relieved, then we sat on the same bench for about 5 minutes and then we again boarded our bike and headed towards our home.
Now although we were very tired but we enjoyed the journey a lot. Hope to go again soon with whole family.
Thanks for reading my post till the end🙏🙏
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