Preparation for Yatra

When the thought of the Amarnath Yatra got indulged in our soul by Shiv Ji's (a respectful way to address someone in Hindi is to add “Ji” after his/her name) blessings, I asked my Daddy, who had done this yatra in 1979 to join us, we will be benefited of his experience. Initially he denied because of his old age and health condition. But on our repeated request he got agreed for this grand Yatra. So our next step was to decide a mutual acceptable date and to book train tickets on proper time accordingly, otherwise going to Jammu would be very tough for us because there is only one train from Mumbai to Jammu tawi, “Swaraj express” and during the yatra we all were well aware about the crowd. So we collectively decided a date of 9th July (from Mumbai and from Bokaro).

Initially we were only 7 members from Mumbai who got agreed for this yatra. So we booked only 7 tickets from Mumbai to Jammu tawi. Sharp on 10th April, 90 days before (As per railway reservation rule), I asked Mangesh to book tickets for all because it was Saturday (Our off day) and I do not have Internet connection at my home PC. But by bad luck Mangesh woke up little late that day, so he got late to book tickets and when he booked tickets then the status of those tickets was in RAC (Reservation against Cancellation). Then we got little disappointed but our excitement convinced us “Don’t worry”, It will be confirmed before your departure. Similarly we booked 4 tickets for Bokaro team Via Haridwar. As J&K Govt. had announced a new rule by this year for all Amarnath Pilgrim to be get registered for the yatra from any J&K Bank. Yatri without registration/ permit will not be allowed to perform his yatra. They will be stopped at Jammu or Udhampur. So we assigned this task to Shiva to get registration form and do the registration formalities for all members by J&K bank.

Daddy advised us to take dry fruits & sufficient woolen cloths with us, as it is very cold in the mountains even during the rainy season. He said to us that rains also come very often during the yatra. So we did all necessary preparation and marketing as suggested by daddy. We bought Dry fruits, Chocolates, Haversacks, Woolen Jackets (which is normally useless in city like Mumbai), Monkey caps, Hand gloves, rain coats & necessary medicines as well. Finally after making elaborate preparations we left our home in Mumbai for Jammu on 9th July.