Nashik Trip

Those of you who follow me on Twitter @selurus would know that I went to Nashik yesterday. Yesterday was the Feast of Infant Jesus so we went to the Shrine in Nashik, my parents and me.

We went by an early train, Tapovan Express, which left at 6:25am, had to wake up at 5am (this was why I had to sleep early.) We reached Nashik well in time at 10am. We took a rickshaw to the Shrine, about 10 minutes away, fare 20 rupees for 3 people.

Mind you, the rickshaw does not operate by the meter, so you've got to agree on the fare with the driver before boarding to avoid getting into an argument later.

The masses are held every hour, when we reached the Shrine the 10am Mass was already in progress, so we decided to go freshen up and then waited for the 11am Mass. The Bishop of Amravati Lourdes Daniel said the mass with a number of other celebrants. At present there isn't any Bishop appointed for the Diocese of Nashik, so the Bishop of Amravati has been appointed to take care of the Diocese. There was a special priest who co-ordinated the hymns, didn't quite catch his name, sorry.



Once the mass was over we went for the veneration. There was a very long queue there. Took us about an hour, no jokes. But the queue was well organised, no pushing around. There was water available and the place was also shaded, imagine standing in the hot sun for so long *faint*.

After the veneration we went back to the ground and sat and ate some sandwiches which my Mom made. There was chutney, beet root, tomatoes, potatoes and boiled egg too but I didn't eat the eggs. After eating we went to the market just outside the Shrine and bought some grapes (Nashik is famous for grapes) and raisins.

We decided to leave early and too the train at 3:30pm and reached home at 8pm. While returning the train was very crowed, so I was very tired when we came home and I didn't do much. I slept early too. But overall it was a nice experience, I really enjoyed the trip.