My travelogue to Mussoorie outskirts jungle

RupeshT

Bharadwaj Muni's Temple has never been visited by enough people other than the localites who go yearly to visit their local god. Story is that "Aswathama" from Mahabharta still is alive and lives in this mountain. I just got well from typhoid,rather paratyphoid which lasted for 25 days and frnds prompted me for a journey which needed climbing mountian, rather trekking for continous 6 hours (approx 30 kms from Sudhowala,(near Tons River)Chakrata road dehradun.Instead of going over the bridge we took short- cut through the river road. It was August, the muddy tide at Tons river swept all our clothes and few Bags and we were left with almost nothing, but boz we had started so there was no turning back till the battle has been worn. So we started ahead with the trip. 25 kms more to go and it was almost dark and raining heavily"cats n dogs". walking through the narrow uphill road the powerful and speedy running muddy water was trying to uproot our feets. 5 frnds drenched and hands in hands fearing the wild animals (junglee pigs, Tiger, Lion, wolves)slowly n carefully were heading towards the bhardwaj Munni temple. "As i recall great poet Ram Dhari Dinkar's poem from "rashmirathi"

Varsho tak vun mei ghum ghum, baadha vighno ko chum chum, seh dhup-ghaam pani patthar, pandav aye kuch aur nikhar..sobhagya na sab din sota hai,dekhen aage kya hota hai,,,n,,,jub Naas manus par chhata hai pehle Vivek mur jata hai..(vivek here means ache aur bure mei pehchan karne ki chammata)

we felt as if it was our last day on earth travelling through the wild jungle. Black Leech"jonk" were flying all over and were also strangled with our bodies. (Leech has a tendency of sensing human smell & blood and jumps toward that in a jungle") we were trying to rub salt on leeches and were busy keeping and tearing it away from our body. At around midnight we lost the road and luckily we saw a lantern at some distance. We carefully paved our way through to the burning lantern to find some place for help but were terribly hit by "bichu grass" obnoxious wild weed? (no-no it was not this one which Matthew Hayden described but it is our very own dear bichhu grass which dwels nearby our vilages and we still love it as it is our own ancient herb.)which were in abundance,,to our surprise after sometime the bicchu grass"khujli grass" had no effect on our body, the survival theory was in our mind rather than caring for that bicchu grass. We luckily reached the lantern which was there outside a hut as mentioned in Munsi Premchand's stories and meant for keeping cows and buffaloes. The villagers light a lantern in d evening to keep their herds and go back downtown, so no human was there and we carefully emptied the cows from a hut and cleaned the fresh dung from inside the leaking roof(it was still raining heavily). We plucked enuff leaves from branches of trees so make our rajai and gadda, we openend our clothes and rubbed salt on leeches those were still busy eating our bodies. we ate the wet food (the chapatis had turned back to dough after being washed by water)which was left in one of the bags. Luckily we had RUM(the magic that saved us that day), we did drink plentyful but due to cold weather and wetness it hardly struck us but yes it did keep us warm. I cud see some blood under my thighs and ankles after being struck by leeches. We took 2 hours rest and at 4 AM started uphill to reach the Bhardwaj Munis temple. After 2 hours of rigrous climbing we finally reached there but cudnt light a dhoop bhatti as temperature was almost 0 degree and our hands were trembling with cold + we have weakened ourselves by trekking whole night + we have been wearing the wet clothes throughout the night. We just closed our eyes and prayed the god to help us and smoothen our return journey. After pooja we again supplied our body with the RUM to keep up the body temperature and came back to our home which was 30 kms walking again down the difficult terrain.

Journey started at 4:00 PM from-Shyampur(Premnagar,Ddun) in 2002 and succesfully ended. I am currently working at Noida (NCR) at a Technology company.mail me ruppuin@yahoo.co.in and i will revert you back.

Friends, I dont have any pics for this place as understanbly the cameras were taken away by the river tide and we had just managed to save ourlives from the overflowing rainy sprout. Even while writting and recalling those moments, my spines are shivering and em feeling as if thousands of ants are running all over my body and leeches are striking my veins.

Note- always carry salt ro khaini for trekking where you know that Leeches would be there, Leeches leave your body as soon as they are in contact with salt.

Dilliwala

That shud be Bhadraj.

RupeshT

yes ur right its called Bhadraj now but if we look at history- than originally it was called Bharadwaj,,,(Bharadwaj muni is a better known and respected figure in the Gods and Muni's community) now the villagers and localite have broken it into easy hindi and call it bhadraj or bhadras.

Thanks for replying thogh!!
Cheers
Rupesh

RupeshT

sorry i pasted the reply in wrong place. You are right its called Bhadras, but i did my own research adn thot tht bhadraj doesnt look like original and got a book for the same and also did visit last year and did speak to local brahmin's there to know the history.. so the corekt and original name is Bharadwaj (bharadwaj muni was a better known figure in god's and muni's community).

Cheers and apology for doubling up the same content in two threads.

Signing off for now!
Rupesh