The tickets of both sides were wait-listed. My ex-boss, Shri Alok Kumar, an IRPS Officer presently J.S. in the Cabinet Secretariat got those from New Delhi to Mumbai confirmed through his links while the return ticket got confirmed automatically. We boarded the train on 24th December 2009 and reached Mumbai the next morning. The train was late by an hour. One of my friends Shri Arun Aggarwal was there to receive us at the Mumbai Central Station. Shri Aggarwal is a CSS SO presently POE on deputation to Mumbai.
25th December 2009 - Triambakeshwar
At Mumbai, we stayed at PWD guest house in Kala Nagar. From railway station to our Guest house in Kala Nagar, we took the route through sea link. It is an express highway connecting Swami Vivekanand road at Bandra to Worli at Worli end with overall length of 5.6 kms. Passing through the beautiful highway over the sea, one feels trvavelling through the sea. One has to pay
a toll of Rs. 50/- for using this express highway for one side. However the amount is more than compensated by saving on account of fuel besides gaining invaluable and unforgettable experience. After freshing ourselves, we proceeded towards Triambakeshwar at around noon the same day. We were total 7 persons, I, my wife Seema, my son Master Aditya, my friend, his wife Smt Renu, his daughter Ms Shreya, his 
son Master Shreshtha.Triambakeshwar is around 180 kms from Mumbai. On the Mumbai Nasik route, just about 30 kms before Nasik, there is a left turn for Trimbakeshwar. It is a religious centre having one of the twelve Jyotirlinga and is considered to be the birth place of the river Godavari. There was a long queue to reach the entrance of the temple. From the entrance and right up to the inner sanctum there are barriers erected to ensure that visitors enter in a queue. Within an hour of entering the temple, we were blessed with the darshan of the holy deity. As is customary, photography was prohibited inside the temple premises. After darshan, we proceeded towards Shirdi. Shirdi is approximately 125 kms from here. We reached Shirdi at round 10 pm.
Since we were already quite late and also tired, we decided to go for darshan next morning. Thus, we took dinner and went to bed.
26 December 2009 – Shirdi and Shinganapur
Next day, we started at around 7 am. The temple was 6 kms from our hotel. On the way to temple, there was huge traffic jam and it took almost an hour to reach near the temple. As we reached there, we were skirted by the local touts, who promised to whisk us through to the inner sanctum for a fee of Rs.2000/-. No queues. In connivance with local security and police, they even assured us to get a parking space near the temple gate! We bargained for Rs.1000/-. As we reached near the temple, we were told that special arrangements were not allowed up to 5th January 2010. The sight of enormous crowd sent shivers in all of us. However having come this far, we decided to have the darshan of the holy deity. During other than rush days, there is a special queue for all government employees. One could get this by displaying the I-card to the Public Relation Officer (PRO). We had to stand in queue for 3 hours and finally got darshan for a few seconds before we were jostled outside by the volunteers and security guards.
After darshan, we came back to the hotel, had our brunch and proceeded towards Shani Shinganapur at around 2 pm. On way, we had to cross the temple where there still was a huge jam. After crossing about 6 kms, the traffic policeman directed us to take a detour to avoid further jam. Shani Shingnapur is approximately 70 kms from Shirdi. The presiding deity of Shingnapur, Sri Shaneshwara or Shanidev- the personification of the planet Saturn is w
orshipped with utmost reverence and devotion by multitudes of people from all over the world. The spectacle of the deity in black stone is overwhelming. A unique aspect of this place is that no temple structure houses the Shanidev. There is only a simple platform on which stands the swayambhu idol, in black stone. Only male devotees are permitted to worship in the temple. The devotees have to first take bath in the public bathrooms and then pray with wet dhotis without any upper garment. Others can have the darshan from a distance only. The village in which this temple is situated has a very unique feature in that no house has any door. The belief is that Lord Shaneshwara protects them from all evil, including robbery and theft.W
e reached the temple around 6 pm, had darshan and proceeded towards Mumbai. Distance from Shingnapur to Mumbai is approximately 330 km. On our way, we took a break for tea and snacks and reached Mumbai at 1 am. We noticed that the catering service on all our way to Mumbai was very poor. The ordered food would be served after around an hour or so hence a lot of our time was wasted in this.27 December 2009 – Local Mumbai
Today we decided to go for local Mumbai darshan. We started late because of hang over of the last night. We visited Gateway of India, Elephanta Caves, Marine Drive (queen’s necklace), hanging and Kamla Nehru gardens, Siddhivinayak Temple, church, Juhu beach and ISCON temple.
The Gateway of India is situated on the waterfront in South Mumbai. It was designed by the British architect George Wittet and was opened for general public in the year 1924. Anyone coming to Mumbai from this harbor is greeted by the huge monument, which stands as a testimony to the imperial bygone era of the city. As one passes through the gate from the city side, t
he first scene that looms into view is that of the waterfront of South Mumbai. A popular harbor, it is used by a large number of people for traveling to the other parts of Bombay, especially the Elephanta Caves.Elephanta caves, situated on Gharapuri Islands 15 miles from the Gateway
of India, dates back to 6th century A.D. It is famous for the statues of Shiva and Parvati. The most striking statue of Trimurti, Shiva in the three moods as the Creator, the Destroyer and the Preserver is a masterpiece by itself. For reaching elephanta caves, one has to take ferry boat by paying Rs.150/- per head. By paying Rs.10/- extra to the ferry person, we went to the upper deck of the boat and enjoyed the travelling very much. On our way, we saw many big and small ships. It takes an hour to reach the Gharapuri Islands. From here, one has two options; either walks for 10 minutes or takes the small train. We decided to go on foot as there was heavy rush for the train. 
Hanging Gardens are also known as Pherozeshah Mehta Gardens. The Hanging Gardens were built in 1880 and renovated in 1921. These are popularly known as Hanging Gardens, because of their location on the slope of a hill. The terrace garden looks south from Malabar Hill towards Colaba, and affords a panoramic view of the city and a breathtaking sunset.
Marine Drive or popularly known as Queen’s Necklace, is a wide road skirting the sea in a semi circular curve on the south west end of Mumbai city which is always a
live with vehicles during day time and with tourists and people out for a walk in the evening. It looks better at night as the glittering lights make it look like a queen’s pearl necklace. We spent some time here and did some photography. However one can spend one full day here because of its panoramic view.Then we visited Siddhivinayak Temple, a famous Ganesh temple in Mumbai. From here we went to Arun’s house for tea and thereafter to Juhu beach. Another friend, Shri S.N. Bharti, also a CSS SO and presently POE at Trivendrum also joined us to Juhu. We planned to have a spectacular sight of the sun-set at Juhu beach. But because of the traffic jam on way, we reached after sunset. The roads were so jammed with vehicles as if the whole Mumbai was going to Juhu. After spending some time in dark at Juhu, we went to ISCON temple.
ISKCON Temple of Mumbai, dedicated to Lord Krishna, is one of the forty ISKCON temples across India. Built by the ISKCON Foundation, the elevated spire of this temple dominates the skyline of Juhu in Mumbai. In the premises of the temple, there is a restaurant where food in buffet system is available. We took our dinner which was very delicious. The speciality of ISKCON food is that no onion or garlic is used in this. After dinner we went to our respective destination.
28 December 2009 - Local Mumbai
This day we decided to take rest for full day and catch the train in the evening. But after sometime we f
elt bored and decided to experience the skywalk as it was near to our guesthouse. Skywalk is 1.3 km long, a bright yellow iron bridge extending all the way from Bandra Suburban station to Kala Nagar in Bandra East. Skywalk construction in Bandra consists of 4 meters elevated walkway framed structure with Polycarbonate Sheet as roofing and resting on 1.0 m. dia. Pier of ht. approximately 6.0 m above the ground level. It has four staircases at Anant Kanekar Marg Police Chowki, near ONGC Building, Kalanagar on either side of Sion-Dharavi Road. The experience of walking on this overbridge without any traffic was marvelous. I wish there were some skywalk in Delhi also. In the evening we caught the train and reached Delhi the next day and stuck to our daily routine.Over all, our this trip was very tiring as almost as everywhere we were caught in traffic jams and heavy rush which we wanted to escape.
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