Pandharichi Wari: Part 6

June 28, 2023

Pandharichi Wari: Part 6

Saswad:

A Rest Stop in the Holy City

June 15th

The next morning anticipating the frenzy for use of bathrooms I woke up around 2:30 am and was one of the first ones to brush my teeth and get a bath. I washed my nauwari and other clothing and put it on my rope to dry. We had to eat our own snacks for breakfast. I had rasgira ladoos and some other stuff that came handy.

Once we were ready Snehal Kewle from Amravati, her older sister Mangala Khapre from Nagpur and me decided to go get darshan of the palkhi. It was still dark outside. The Sangameshwar Temple was illuminated and looked beautiful against the dark skies. On our way we stopped at Sopan Kaka Samadhi Mandir. Daylight was breaking in by then. A lot of warkaris had stationed in that compound overnight. The line was too long for darshan. We offered our respects to the Sopan Kaka from outside and proceeded to Dnyaaneshwar Mauli’s palkhi site. It was the same story here. Even worse. The line extended for miles outside the compound. Here too we left without stopping for long.

On our way back we decided to see the Sangameshwar Mandir. This is a very beautiful and large Shiva temple on the banks of the Karha River. Two huge Nandis, one after another sit facing the shrine. The dark rock of the Mandir reminded me of the Peshwa era Vireshwar Mandir in Khopoli.

At 9 am I got a call on my phone. It was Akshay, the park watchman. He called to inform that the doctors had set up their booth near State Bank of India which was not too far from that municipal park. I could go get my dressing changed. I had casually asked him the day before if he knew where that booth would be.

Snehal Kewle and her husband would accompany me to the medical booth because they too needed some help from the doctors. Three of us walked to the main road where this booth was. I got my dressing redone. I was on the lookout for Akshay both times on way to and from the booth but I couldn’t find him. On our way back we stopped to buy a few things in the market. I got a bottle of buttermilk from the same dairy store. Snehal accompanied me to a women’s clothing store and helped me buy white leggings to wear inside my nauwari. I also picked some band aids and gauze at a medical store.

Rest of the day we remained inside the cool comforts of the Karha Devi Mandir. There was amras for lunch.

After lunch there was a meeting to discuss the program for next few days. Dr Kulkarni who is one of the senior Dindi organizers gave a spiritual talk( pravachan). Later in the afternoon around 4 pm a keertan by a guest keertankar was scheduled. The atmosphere at such gatherings is very uplifting and cleansing for the soul.

The Latur ladies next to me had become friends. Pradnya Kulkarni, Vidya Gokhale, Shaila Sardeshmukh and Maya Gandhe. They were all related to one another. They shared their home made snacks with me as hunger pangs started to kick in by evening. That night somehow the organizers were quite disorganized. No one had made plans for dinner. After 8:30 pm the team scrambled to make some rice and dal for the entire dindi of over 180 people. It was past 10:30 when dinner was finally served. The Latur team’s snacks from earlier were surely appreciated in the midst of this delay.

The clothes on the rope had dried by evening. I folded them away into the suitcase and also the rope. Leaving aside just the clothes I would need for the next day everything was packed in before calling it a day.