IMPROMPTU...!!!

"Hurry up...Pack your bags quick, we have to leave tonight,"
Were the words my mom yelled out to me...
As she ran around in a frenzy...
Throwing clothes haphazardly into a bag....
Where were we going...
Your guess is as good as mine...
Till i snatched the tickets from my mom and read on top...
'Shirdi Return Trip Tickets'...
Cool...
At last my mom's dream of going to Shirdi was coming true...
Shirdi-the home of Sai Baba...
A place of pilgrimage...
Our journey to Shirdi was a long overnight trip...
In a bus driven by a crazy driver...
Who believe me seemed possessed...
He drove like the Devil Himself was behind him...
Narrowly missing every truck possible...
I wouldn't have been surprised if he turned out to be a
runaway from some asylum...
He kept they whole bus awake with the fear of toppling off the hillside in the darkness...
And never being heard of again...
But as the whole bus settled into a fitful slumber...
Sleep evaded my eyes and i decided to enjoy the landscape
rushing by outside my window...
Mountain sides, trees, fields, brooks...
As they flashed past the bus in a blur...
I again admired God's wonder...
Bathed in the gray moonlight..
The countryside looked so different...
So beautiful...
And losing myself in this beauty...
I fell asleep i don't know when...
But not for long...
As we were rudely awakened by the driver...
Who informed us that our destination had been reached...
In loud hoarse tones...
Desperately trying to rub the sleep out of our eyes...
And extremely happy to survive the journey in one piece...
All the passengers alighted the bus and looked around in wonderment at the first
sight of such a holy place...
A look which turned to dismay and then to disgust in seconds...
As we absorbed the sights that greeted us...
The skyline was filled with hotel rooftops cropped close to one another...
Garbage lay in heaps all round...
And should i mention the garbage was 'HOLY'...
As to say offerings and garlands of the temple...
Cows lazed around...
Much like the zamindars of a plot of land do...
As a bunch of squealing piglets scuttled from one place to another...
Well here it lies...
Shirdi-the place of pilgrimage...
Whatever may it be...
We were here to pray...
My mom and i...
So pray we would...
But not before checking into a hotel...
Having a bath(At the unearthly hour of 6 in the morning)...
Changing into fresh washed clothes(Does God really care whether i
have had a bath or no, i wonder)...
Draped in a nice pretty salwar..
Looking very nice, subdued and most importantly...
Very girlish(Tomboy that i am)...
I very sweetly followed my mother to the Sai Baba temple...
Where the multitude of people milling around was a kind of shock to my senses...
Nevertheless...
Braving the crowds...
And avioding the persistant pandas...
Mom and me progressed for the Darshan...
Holding puja thalis in our hands...
But how unfair...
After waiting in the queue for a better half of an hour...
We could get close and pray to Sai Baba only for a minute...
Till we were rudely shoved outside by the priests with the words...
"Bahut Darshan hua. Jaldi chalo"...
Ufff........
If only God was there at that moment wouldn't He have been so mad...
His devotees treated so bad...
Hmmfff...
Well no use complaining...
I prayed all i could in a minute...
And then set forth to explore the temple grounds...
Spread over a vast expanse of land...
A lotus pond, a miniature waterfall and different trees with brightly
coloured flowers created an air of tranquility...
The famous neem tree under which Baba did his gyaan..
The building that holds his Samadhi...
Everything had a feeling of spirituality to it...
Well as the sun rose higher in the sky...
So did the rumbling in my tummy increase...
So i half dragged half pulled my mom to eat...
Before i died of hunger...
And slowly but steadfastly the time ticked by...
Till at last it was the hour to return...
To Home Sweet Home...
God if i thought the last bus journey was bad...
This return journey was worse...
Forget trying to kill us all...
The driver drove in jerks and halts that kept everyone at the edge of their seats...
Nails digging into the upholstery of the seats...
Clinging on for dear life...
Trying not to slide off every 5 seconds...
It was a oneway ride to Hell...
Wasn't i just so happy to reach Mumbai and step down on solid ground again...
But all in all...
The trip was great...
Fun, spiritual, spontaneous...
I felt happy and at peace...
With myself and the world...
The trip was planned all of a sudden...
And it turned out to be awesome...
But then things always turn out good...
When they are done in...
IMPROMPTU...