NIZAMUDDIN DARGAH

Nizamuddin Dargah is the Dargah of the world famous Sufi Saint Nizamuddin Auliya. The place where hundreds and thousands of people from all over the world visit, in order to raise their palms and hold their hands to the belief and credence of the one and only Almighty.

People sew their garland with wishes and desires of good health, love and prosperity and tie the thread of contention with heart felt conviction that Allah will be  taking his own initiative to distribute their desires evenly on the basis of sow and reap.

The nearest metro station to the Dargah is the JLN ,from where one can avail an auto and reach the destination. There are two entrances to the Dargah. The first one being the one which takes us inside after passing a water place and the other one takes us through all the small shops and vendors which offer us a wide range starting from the arrangements which we can offer at the Dargah,(this consists of a silver plate with incense stick, the holy chadar to offer at the pious mazar, holy rose petals, small packet of sweets and a bundle of laal dhaaga which one can knot on the walls of the Dargah or can tie around their wrist, which they believe will keep them protected from all the sins) to a mouth-watering  non-veg dishes. Also one can find small shops portraying Muslim culture. I prefer taking the second route as it enthralls me under the shed of the righteous religion.

Inside the Dargah we can find lots of people from different caste, colour and creed losing themselves in the holy worship of the mazar; which is a belief of many that Allah would grant their prayers, some find it the best place to recite the holy prayer, some say that they have come to get rid of all the sins and add meaning to their lives and for people like me it’s a place of ethic and belief which stirs the faith and praises the beautiful fabrication of the beliefs and the being.

I choose to visit the Dargah on Thursdays, as not only I get enshrined by the holy belief of the Azaan but also by the soulful qawwalis of  qawwals which is followed by the intonations of ‘Allah Hu’… The qawwalis start after the sunset and its really the best way to vent out your stressful thoughts aside and drown in the peaceful praise of the unseen.

“Through the eyes of Mirza Ghalib, “Na tha kuch to khuda tha, kuch na hota to khuda hota”

WEEKEND GET AWAY TO NAINITAL.

Nainital is a beautiful hill station in the state of Uttarakhand, India. This mesmerizing hill station has the height of the hills as well as the foam and drift of the lake. No doubt why it is known as “The Queen of the hill stations.”

Distance from Delhi to Nainital is around 6hrs 30mins depending upon the time when you are starting from Delhi and considering the then traffic condition.

I along with my friends and family started from Delhi at an early  hour of 2am in December night and yes we had to face a bit of traffic due to the traffic of the loaded trucks and reached Haldwani at around 5.30am. Sounds strange??!! All thanks to my one and only friend who can really curtail Google Map distance by an hour or two with this thrilling speed and tiredless hands i=on the steering. At Haldwani we took a power nap of around half an hour and started for the main city and within 1 hour we were viewing the Naini lake right infront of us. Oh what a piece of God’s creation.

                            

Though we thought and were confident enough that we can get a hotel easily after reaching Nainital but all in vain as that was the peak time in December to visit the hills and thereby we had no other option than check out each and every hotel out there, to suit us at the best .Finally we chose to book one through Make My Trip. Hotel Shivalik at Almora it was. Almora is again around 1 hour from Nainital.

So we decided to have our brunch in a nearby restaurant and then roam around a bit followed by going back to hotel by evening. It was a spectacular experience to take a stroll around the naini lake. The shimmery rays of the sun made the lake glitter as a silver dangler in a maiden’s attire. We soothed our sweet tooth craving with a ‘kuch nahi Sunday’ of the Gianis at the mall road of Nainital and headed back to Almora.

The way to Almora was similar to the dark room with a single breath. The entire road from Nainital to Almora was fortified by hills at the right and dense forest at our left. Again Almora is a small place, quite away from the hustles of the Nainital city. Hotel Shivalik was a decent one with very good and spacious rooms and the staff at the hotel were quite good at their behaviour. The food that we ordered were again very tasty among which ‘Kali Mirch Chicken’ was the best. After a wonderful sleep at night we started for Day-2 which was meant for some specialties of food around and some woollen goods.

We came back to the same mall road place and started for the Tibatti market or the Tibetan Market. This place had a variety of Tibetan fooding and stuffs. Also it had wonderful range of street marketing. We headed towards the interior part of the markets to get hold of some ethnic and alluring shawls. Choosing out the best was also becoming a big job for us. And yes you should expertise sarojini nagar and lajpat’s street shopping first in order to conquer the market place with your shopping bag full of stuffs at a reasonable rate.

 After a good amount of shopping we were entraining for the food. We tried a plateful of thukpa and it had a magistic touch to out taste bud,

followed by chicken momos and a wonderful dish of ‘bhutwa’-the mutton liver dish. Our tummies had a rest after a leisurely walk at the garam sadak beside the Naini Lake

and finally took our way back to our hotel.

The next day was the time when the bells rang for our way back to home. We had our breakfast at a local dhaba where we were served with kadak chai(a very strong tea) and bun-omlette.On our way back we packed a box full of ‘baal mithai’ the very famous sweet of Uttarakhand and finally started for Delhi.               

Though the time was very less and we couldn’t explore a lot , but even then we had a tempting time at Nainital.

On the way from Nainital to Haldwani.