Lost in time - The start

Another weekend passes by. In most parts of this vast and beautiful country, one could see skies lit up with beautiful fireworks and houses decorated and the front doors lined up with lamps lit up, for this is the way Deepavali/Diwali is celebrated here. It’s the biggest celebration in the country as the occasion also marks the New Year in few parts. But for me it would have been nothing but for just another weekend as staying away from home, there were no celebrations around.
I was in no way going to let it happen, so I decided to do what I love the most, Travel. I was contemplating the idea of travelling to a hill station or a beach as that’s the ideal holiday for most people around me. When I realized that I was to have no company, I was free to make my own plans and that’s how the idea of travelling to Aurangabad first occurred to me. It’s only 400 kms from the city of Mumbai and can be reached easily by rail or bus.
On Thursday night I started off from vashi and by the time the bus started to move it was almost midnight. On the move when the rush of air splashed on my face I suddenly realized how much I missed travelling and it was my first overnight journey in over 6 months! The plan was to reach Aurangabad and then travel to Ellora and Ajanta and a few other places around I read about on net and most notably ‘Bibi ka Maqbara’ a replica of Taj Mahal built by the Mughal Emperor Aurangazeb in memory of his wife Rabia-ud-Durrani among them, over the next 2 or 3 days.
In no time I was asleep only to wake up in the middle of the night a couple of times due to cold, again a first in 2 months because all I can categorize the weather in Mumbai is from Very hot/sultry-warm-not so warm.
It was about half past six in the morning, when I woke up to see that the bus was cruising in the outskirts of Aurangabad and after a few minutes I got off the bus at ‘Baba petrol pump’ , an auto rickshaw driver dropped me off at Pushpak lodge near the city railway station. After a shower and watching tv for a while, I started off from my lodge towards the MTDC information centre nearby.
MTDC offers day trips to both Ajanta and Ellora, but the Ellora being nearby was clubbed with half a dozen other places and hence leaving only a couple of hours to be spent at Ellora. So, I decided to do the Ellora trip by myself and booked a seat for myself for the Ajanta Tour the next day.
After having a good breakfast I started my day’s trip. My plan was to visit Ellora and then Daulatabad fort and visit other places if there was any time left. One can opt to take the pubic transportation or hire an auto rickshaw to take you around to the places of your choice. I chose to travel around by auto rickshaw. Ellora was the first place I was supposed to visit.
After about 40 mins ride, we reached Ghrashneshwar Temple just about 500 metres from Ellora, This temple is very famous because the Jyotirlinga here is said be self oriented and according to records, the temple was built in 7th century, the courtyard leads to the main temple with beautiful carvings depicting various mythological stories (please don’t ask me tell you the story now J). The temple has a Shivling infront of which is the marble image of Goddess Parvati. This is the 12th Jyotirlinga of Shiva. (and I have no clue where are the other 11 ;) ). I did visit this temple as my driver insisted that I should start my trip with this. Well, it’s worth a visit. After this we set off towards the cave temples of Ellora.