Joy of Unknown

Today morning we stared from Garudeshwar. After walking for about 150 km it feels as if I am entering an unknown territory. Unknown in terms of the geography because these are places I haven’t been to as against all the other villages we crossed before. From here on we will be walking in the tribal belt, hills, sparse scattered mud houses, local tribal dialects, less to no traffic and small patches of farms. With that kind of silence unknown in the cities, we can hear children giggling from half a kilometre away. 

While walking in the known spaces I knew people, places, kilometres, which way to go, where not to go, almost everything. Today was the first day when I knew nothing, not even the name of our next destinations. But there was joy in not knowing, in the uncertainty. 

A few kilometres of walk into the unknown and the gifts of the day start to unfold. Jagdish bhai stopped his cycle after greeting us Narmade Har and invited us for tea at his place. While we were walking to his house, he has done the pilgrimage thrice. 

He took our phone number and told us to stop at Undava village at his sisters place for lunch. He said her name is Amba and she stays next to Hanuman temple, just go there, I will tell her to prepare lunch. Not only lunch, he fixed our lunch for day after also. 5 minutes of interaction and our two meals got fixed in to homes that we have never been to. When we ask the question why – the answer that comes to us is that because we were walking on this path. This path is known as the path of Vairagya (path of renunciation). People here give with no strings attached, we feel that all the time. 

Jagdish bhai made sure that we take the right turns with the GPS of his heart we reached Jeevanpura (Nani Ambaji) our shelter for tonight. 

Signing off from Nani Ambaji