Ambaji calls us #Goodluck

We (family of 3 – husband, wife(myself) and kid) were travelling from Mount Abu to Ahmedabad. As per our plan, we had decided to visit the temple of Ambaji that comes on the way. We had onward journey by train from Ahmedabad starting at 2pm. So, we had to reach well in time.

We started by 6 am from Mount Abu hotel. When we reached Ambaji temple which is down in the town, it was around 7.45 am . We hardly had time to go to the mountain since he had no idea how much time it will take to reach up, how long will be the queue. When we parked the car in parking, me and my husband were thinking whats to be done. We didnt have time to stand in queue too. We had no idea how crowded it will be and we had no idea what it will be like inside with a 3 yr old kid.

When we got down from the car, a man came to us asking if we wanted to buy any flowers, Ambaji coins to be offered in the temple. We actually wanted to and hence decided to go with him. We generally dont trust strangers. But that day, dont know why, but followed him to his shop to buy the things. We bought stuff worth Rs.500. Dont know why but we were too much occupied by the timings we had to meet. 

After buying the stuff, when looked behind, saw a long queue for darshan. And we looked at each other. Then the stranger said – he could take us directly to the idol to take darshan without taking a penny.

We still wonder why we believed that guy. And why we agreed to go with him. We removed our shoes at his shop and walked behind him. Dont know from where that trust came  – that he will really take us to the idol and he will not charge anything. We walked past the queue, looking at the people standing behind the steel bars waiting for their turn to take blessings from Ambaji.

We were stunned to actually enter the main area of the temple without any interruption. He showed us the way to enter inside and take blessings. We took darshan and returned to his shop. It hardly took us 30 minutes to take darshan.

While wearing our shoes back, the shopkeeper asked if we were going to the mountain. We told him that we didnt have time since we had a train at 2pm from Ahmedabad. He calmly replied that these days, very less people go to the mountain and there is not much waiting time in the cable car to the top. We listened to him and went outside the temple.

Then we had breakfast outside – hot poha and chai. While having poha, we were discussing if we can go to the Ambaji temple on the mountain top. The travel to the base of mountain and back was around an hour. It was 8.45am. And it was around 3.30 hrs journey to Ahmedabad from there. So we had and hour or so in hand. 

After all the time calculations, we decided to take a chance and started on our way to the cable car point. We reached the point and we were not surprised to see very few people.

We had a waiting time of just 3 minutes to board the cable car!

While in the cable car, we saw many people climbing the mountain by foot. So we were still in doubt of the queue on the top of mountain inside the temple. Worst case could have been that we returned back after taking darshan from outside the temple.

We reached the top – literally ran towards the temple after getting down. Not many people in the queue, took darshan quickly and had few minutes to click photos and soak in the silence. And then back to the cable car point to descend back to the car park area. We were again surprised that we could complete it in dot 1 hour.

We took a 20 minute halt on the way to Ahmedabad for lunch and entire journey talked about our “Bloody Good Luck” 🙂

Even today we are thrilled by its remembrance … 

#Goodluck

@swetasamota

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You can also WIN Ashwin Sanghi’s book ’13 Steps to Bloody Good Luck’
by posting your #goodluck story on trhs!

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