When I am upset, I feel alone in the fight, something not going well.. my heart takes me to the black stone..the stone of faith..the stone of terror…the stone without any figure carved on!!
Shri Shani Bhagwan of Shingnapur – I regularly visit the place, at least 6 times a year, on the bike. Each time I come back with same peace and energy.
I am not sure why there is needless terror about God Shani in the minds of people. Unlike other Gods in the pantheon, why are you scared of God Shani? He is your friend and not your enemy.
Trip Period: 22nd June 2013
Approx Distance (To & From): 340 kms
Motor-Bike: Hero Honda X-treme
Friend in the trip: Lalit Sanap
Trip Route:
Pune > Wagholi > Shirur > Ahmed Nagar > Ghodegaon > Sonai > Shingnapur > Ahmed Nagar > Shirur > Wagholi > Pune
22nd June 2013: Saturday with perfect monsoon mood! I was at Lalit’s house, ready with all set ride mood!!
Lalit Sanap – a team member at KPIT-Cummins, a colleague at BNY Mellon, now a friend 🙂
Though he was smiling on the pillion seat, Lalit was not so happy. He never liked the idea of traveling on the bike that long and in rainy days. I could feel his upset mood.
We had nice lunch at Viman Nagar and started the run. As the day and distance passed, Lalit got along with me in josh! We kept stopping on so-called dhabas and enjoyed tea-snacks in cloudy weather. And finally caught up heavy rain near Shirur. Ohh.. It was just awesome… We were happy.
Our fun was at the peak point. “Hookka Barr”.. Leaving all stress and bad memories behind, I was dancing on the highway (and rain stopped suddenly..lol)
We reached Shingnapur around 4.30 in the evening. After refreshing ourselves, we entered the main temple along with offerings in the form of black cloth, oil, coconut, and flowers.
Darshana of holy stone is just divine. It relaxes mind and body at first look itself.
God Shri Shani is placed in the middle of the open ground in the temple area. They are in the form of big black stone (called as Shila).
After offering our worship, we sat around the god for some time. One of the clean and well-managed temples in India. Silent music of bhajans, the smell of oil and agarbattis and chants around were making the place more enjoyable (yes.. I was enjoying those spiritual moments). We bought Prasada and came out after an hour.
It was almost dark rainy night when we started our journey back. I still remember that world famous ‘Talaw Pulav’ (actually I wanted to eat Tawa Pulav at Ahmed Nagar, but no one there recognized what we were asking), I still remember that hour on the highway, when Lalit opened up his memories for the first time. We were talking, laughing and having chai-pani in the mid-night as road side Romeos!
Fun on bike-ride!! I am sure Lalit will be happily ready for our next two-wheel thrill 🙂
1 Comment
Beautiful description of the beautiful place.