Shillong Cheerapunjee 2 Kolkata Day - 11, 12 & 13 - Page 11

C2C Shillong, Cheerapunjee & back 2 Kolkata Day - 11, 12 & 13  (Page - 11)

We are at Shillong and we welcomes the New Year 2017 on 1st January 2017.

We had reached Shillong from Kaziranga National Park and had come via Guwahati by visiting the Mother Godesses Kamakhya Temple and in fact we had reached Shillong in the mid of night and I was pretty exhausted. 

2 AM early morning of 1st January 2017 we had checked in.

We slept well and got up a little late relaxed without any hurry and what a view outside the hotel.

I was enjoying from outside the hotel window. My little daughter came up to me & put her little arms around me and hugged me & kissed me hard and wished me a very Happy New Year. 

She said go and look into the mirror.

Well what can I say? She said do not rub it off and let it be and you should go outside with it. 

She told me I should go outside with it. I said I have no problems. My son & wife were feeling awkward and told me you must be kidding, I said honestly no. I had no problems in going out. 

When you are hit on one cheek show the other. 

Little Shrimeenakshi was all the more eager and competition was growing. Original ownership rights were claimed. 

Finally matter settled. Got the other cheek kissed. No 2 guesses!!!!

Love them both with all my heart.

Having breakfast in the morning at Delhi Sweets Hotel in Shillong

Shillong Market, both the kids & my wife wanted to roam around and bought some stuff.

We started off from Shillong at 11.45 AM towards Sohra / Cheerapunji in Meghalaya.

We are near to Cherrapunjee. A sign board Welcomes us.

What an awesome place. Gods gift to mankind. Lush green forest. Mountains. Clouds. 

Luckily it wasn't raining on the day of our visit and we had a bright & sunny day and we enjoyed it a lot. The climate was cold and the sun was warm.

Finally we came to a place called MOT PALONG PARK and what is interesting about this place is you get a very clear view of our neighboring SAARC Country BANGLADESH from here.

INDO - BANGLADESH Border at Cheerapunjee.

We had a great visit at Shri Ramakrishna Math Ashram and spent a lot of time. The time was 4.30 PM and it was time for us to start from Cheerapunji. 

Saw this poor FIAT UNO lying in this state. All 4 wheels off and raised and kept on stones. Maybe the owner still hopes to get the not so available parts to restore it and use it. Even after so many years of its manufacture it is still in great shape.

We finally came to ORANGE ROOTS. Cheerapunjee's Vegetarian Restaurant.

What is more interesting is the staff at Shri Ramakrishna Ashram who happened to be from Trichy South India from Tamil Nadu was so happy to chat with us in Tamil told us that the promoter of Orange Root is also from Madurai in Tamil Nadu.

I told him then in that case we will not leave Cheerapunjee without meeting him at his hotel and hoped he would be around. 

Well it is always destiny that we have to meet some one in our life.

It was such a wonderful experience we had here. The ambiance was excellent, food was awesome and so very tasty and it just happened that we saw the promoter who hails from Madurai married to a local lady and is settled down here sitting inside and having his lunch.

We went to him and introduced ourselves and joined him. It was so nice to spend time with him and to understand more from him about the area and how he came so many years ago and settled down and opened this restaurant and he also has opened adventure tourism & has resorts. 

After a great meal and food we had it was finally time for us to say good bye to Cheerapunjee.

We had come from Chennai 2 Cheerapunjee.

We had covered a total of 4485 KMs from our home till here so far. Almost 4500 KMs.

We just realized we also had a long way to go back home. 

We had a very long way to go from Cheerapunjee all the way to Kolkata it was non stop drive.

We started from Cheerapunjee on 1st January 2017 at 7.30 PM night and started our drive.

Cheerapunjee Starting Odometer reading 64090 KM at 7.30 PM on 01.01.2017.

We reached Kolkata on 03.01.2017 at 3 PM afternoon. Odometer reading was 65148 KM

Distance traveled Cheerapunjee to Kolkata was 1060 KM

The route was Cheerapunjee - Shillong - Rangia - Bongaigaon - Falakata Coochbehar - Alipur Duar - Siliguri - Dalkhola - Farakka - Bahrampur Farakka Barage Bridge - Berhampore - Nadia - Kolkata. 

We took a hotel near to KALI MATA Temple.

At 6 PM evening we left our car in the hotel and took an Ambassador Taxi from the hotel and went to the most famous Kolkata Kalighat Kali Mata Temple.

It is believed that Sati daughter of Daksha Prajapati wanted to marry Lord Shiva and against the wishes of her father she selects Lord Shiva as her husband and marries him.

Daksha never recognized Shiva whom he considered a heretic and uncivilized and did not invite him to any religious ceremonies.

Daksha wanted to conduct one of the biggest fire worship Yagna and invites almost every one except Shiva.

Sati gets to know about this and wanted to take her husband & visit the Yagna. Shiva tells his wife that it wouldn't be proper to visit as uninvited. Against his wish Sati goes to the Yagna. 

Shiva had forewarned her telling her that Daksha would insult him in front of every one. Sati out of love for her father goes and finds that Daksha insults her husband and speaks so filthy about him. Not able to tolerate this Sati curses Daksha her own father and jumps into the fire and kills herself. 

The death of Sati reahes Shiva who is so pained and gets enraged. He sends his lieutenant and right hand man Veerabhadra and his army who go to Daksha's kingdom and destroy and defeat Daksha & his army. 

Daksha's head is chopped off. Out of respect for his wife's father and Daksha being his father in-law Lord Shiva tells his army to find a first living creature and bring its head. The army find a goat and cut its head and bring it to Lord Shiva.

Lord Shiva revives Daksha by fixing the goat head and brings him back to life. 

Sati is not alive and Lord Shiva carries her corpse on his body and goes around aimlessly and dances the Ugra Tandava or dance of Destruction. The death & destruction of this dance of Lord Shiva creates uncontrollable consequences in the 3 worlds.

Lord Vishnu comes to the rescue. He realizes that Lord Shiva will not be contained by him in this state & decides to remove the corpse of Sati from Shiva. Separating the  dead Sati from a grieving Shiva  was not so easy. 

Lord Vishnu uses his celestial weapon the most powerful Sudharshan Chakra and manages to cut the body of Sati into 52 pieces.

It is believed by every one in India that all these parts of Sati Mother Goddesses and consort / wife of Shiva fell in different parts of the country.

These places became known as Sakthi Pethas (Petha means place) place of Sakthi.

The right foot of Sati Mata fell at Kalighat.

This is believed by all who come here and devotees worship the mother Goddess here as Kali Ma. 

More information can be read from this link below;

https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Daksha_yajna  

After the temple visit we came back to our hotel and I had my old friend & fellow FIAT lover Shanthanu Banerjee and his wife coming to meet us.

He took us in his FIAT Grande Punto and we went out for an excellent dinner. It was a great time we had and we discussed on so many things most of it about our road trip & experience so far.

By 10 PM night we came back to our hotel. 

The next day 4th January 2017 we had to leave Kolkata all the way back to Chennai and we had to cover close to 1800 KMs.

Cheerapunjee Starting Odometer reading 64090 KM at 7.30 PM on 01.01.2017.

We reached Kolkata on 03.01.2017 at 3 PM afternoon. Odometer reading was 65148 KM

Distance traveled Cheerapunjee to Kolkata was 1060 KM

To visit to HOME PAGE - 1 click on the link below;
http://maheshnatarajan.blogspot.in/2016/12/chennai-2-cheerapunji-preview-page-1.html
To visit to the FIAT Palio Restoration & Refurbishment Page - 2 click on this link below;

http://maheshnatarajan.blogspot.in/2016/12/restoration-rebirth-of-fiat-palio-16-sp.html

To visit to the CHENNAI TO KOLKATA Page - 3 click on this link below;

http://maheshnatarajan.blogspot.in/2017/01/c2c-chennai-to-kolkata-day-1-stared-on.html

To visit to the KOLKATA TO BONGAIGAON Page - 4click on this link below;

http://maheshnatarajan.blogspot.com/2017/01/kolkata-to-bongaigaon-day-4-page-4.html

To visit to the BONGAIGAON TO TEZPUR Page - 5 click on this link below;

http://maheshnatarajan.blogspot.in/2017/01/bongaigaon-to-tezpur-day-5-page-5.html

To visit to the TEZPUR TO DIRANG Page - 6 click on this link below;

http://maheshnatarajan.blogspot.in/2017/01/tezpur-to-dirang-day-6-page-6.html

To visit to the DIRANG - SELA PASS TAWANG & TEZPUR Page - 7 click on this link below;

http://maheshnatarajan.blogspot.in/2017/01/dirang-to-sela-pass-tawang-back-to.html

To visit to the TEZPUR TO KOHIMA  Page - 8 click on this link below;


http://maheshnatarajan.blogspot.in/2017/01/tezpur-to-kohima-day-8-page-8.html

To visit to the KOHIMA TO KAZIRANGA  Page - 9 click on this link below;

http://maheshnatarajan.blogspot.in/2017/01/kohima-to-kaziranga-day-9-page-9.html

To visit to the KAZIRANGA TO SHILLONG  Page - 10 click on this link below;

http://maheshnatarajan.blogspot.in/2017/01/kaziranga-to-guwahati-to-shillong-day.html