16th May in Patna
We stared the day late, it
was 830 before we were all ready and moved out by 0900 hours, Sager and Murtuza
of BRS was there to take us for breakfast we hogged on Sandwich, kachori, lassi
and jalebi, we were so stuffed after 3 lassi each, we took a break by the
Gandhi maiden, and admired the artwork all around the places, Madhubani
paintings adorned most of the walls and we had a good time walking around in
spite of the heat before we set off for the day
The agenda was Gurudwara
hopping
We set off to visit Guru ka
bagh,
While we were on the way we
started to cross Bihar museum to be precise and we could not pass it by, so we
did make yourself culturally rich for 2 hours in the museum along with Sagar of
Brs, before we met with Vikas Mehra, who accompanied us to the gurudwara Handi
Sahib, I had langar for the first time, interesting they served Khichiri , and
it seems that hey don’t serve Kichiri normally, and Kichiri is one of my
favorite
The story here is : -
Where Guru Gobind Singh Ji And His Hundreds of Followers took
Langar, From one small clay pitcher in the hut at the age of sixGurdwara Handi
Sahib - Danapur is a cantonment station, 20 kilometres west of old Patna City.
Guru Tegh Bahadur had returned to Punjab in April 1670 leaving his family
behind at Patna. It was only after he had been at Kiratpur and Chakk Nanaki for
a few months that he sent for the rest of the family to return. The family
after leaving Patna Sahib made their first halt here. An old lady named Mai
Pardhani served a kettleful (handi) of khichari (rice and lentils) to them
after which the shrine subsequently built here was named as Handiwali Sangat,
which is now called Gurdwara handi Sahib. It is housed in a small hall with
verandah on three sides and a small brick-paved walled compound in front on the
bank of a seasonal stream, Son Nadi.
This Gurudwara was built in the memory of Shri Guru Teg Bahadur
Ji. As in 1728 Bala Preetam Ji with Mata Gujri and his family walked from Patna
Sahib to Anandpur Sahib then Patna residents accompanied Shri Guru Gobind Singh
Ji to see off him. At that time Guru Ji was 5.2 years old. People walked about
12 miles and reached Danapur. It was night time. Sangat of Danapur gave them a
warm welcome and entertained them. An old lady whose name was Mata Jasni cooked
Khichdi for Guru Ji with love & affection and put the pot(Haandi) of
khichdi before Satguru Ji and requested him to eat. Seeing all this Satguru Ji
impressed with her. Satguru Ji ate the khichdi and also served khichdi to the
Sangat. Jasni Mai requested him to always be here. Then Satguru Ji said, so
long khichdi would be cooked in that Handi and would be served to sangat, you would
feel my presence here. Fortunate Mata followed the Guru ji's words and
converted her house to a Dharamshala. She kept cooking the khichdi in that
Handi and kept serving to sangat. So this place is known as Haandi Sahib
( source: sikhiwiki)
Next stop, Guru Da bagh, and
boy the way was quiet a experience Google took us into fields and slums and
roads barely wide for one car to go through, we prayed no car came from the
other side or we would be stuck, backing would be a scene too,
The story here is:
The holy visit of Guru Tegh Bahadur turned the dry and deserted
garden into greenery. As this incident was reported to Muslim brothers they
reached to see the revered Guru and their garden along with their courtiers.
Guru Tegh Bahadur asked three times the nawab brothers about the ownership of
the garden. The nawab brothers decided to donate it in the name of Guru as it
was turned green because of holy and pious visit of Gurujee. They submissively
requested to accept their little offer of the garden. It is about 4 kms from
the Takhat Patna Saheb on Patna-Fatwah Road.
At present this garden is popularly known as "Gurudwara Guru
Ka Bagh". There is a Sarowar and beautiful gurudwara. It was the place
where Guru Tegh Bahadur met his son for the first time.
And then we found our way to
Kangan Ghat and
Finally Gaughat,
It was almost 0700hours
before we managed to find a spot where we could get ready for the evening and
go meet up with the bride to be harsha
and spend the evening making merry well into the
night , almost till 2330 hours
and then we were on our way once again, we
descided to start off at night itself to avoid traffic and hopefully we would
be back in Jsr by 1000 hours
we were once more accompanied
to almost 60 km out of the city by some of the BRS guys and we sat around and
chatted till almost 0200 hours , before we could start back on our trip
what a great 48 hours it had
indeed been,
sorry to say though Hotel Panchwati where
most buses stop, folks get a bite, the toilets here are so dirty, All disease that exist can be
found in these bathrooms, Though I wonder who to blame the passengers who are
forced to use these unhygienic bathrooms, or are the hotel owners who are only interested
in profits alone or is there a 3rd front I know not about.
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