Varkari (Wiki link )
Text by Pankaj

After having the glimpses of the Palkhi and few hundred thousand devotees’ walk from the Pune city’s famous Lakadi bridge during the Friday evenings, we were eager to shoot this procession when it passes through the swirling spins of the Diveghat on the Saswad road, which is the most difficult patch of the Palkhi wari in its 22 days, 300 odd kilometers long walk from Alandi to Pandhapur.

Soumitra, Pankaj, Umesh, Ajinkya (front to back)

It was said and understood that we cannot go in Diveghat from the ususal route as it would be packed with warkaris and traffic is restricted on this road. And hence we decided for the alternative route which takes us to foothills of Diveghat via Kondhawa and Undri. But when we reached at the Kondhwa junction with our 4 bikes, cops raised barricades on that road too, refraining our bikes to enter on those roads. Few local people advised us to go from the Holkarwadi village and according to them that road would take us to Diveghat base. After couple of kilometers of tar road we found ourselves in a private property which was a full of barren land, small hillocks fenced by barbed wires. There was no sign of road after that. Fortunately another gentleman biker showed us a way out from there and went in opposite direction. When we traversed the path we found that there was no sign of civilization except empty farm fields and a pathways. Continuing our bike rides like a dirt track motocross and asking few stray people in that jungle we finally made our way till Sakal press after few bike slips and a topple.

When we reached at the Vadaki village the palce had become lively with the colorful atmosphere of warkaris, pandals, devotees and saffron flags. We could see Diveghat’s 6km stretch was full of walking devotees (Warkaris). We had to go to the top of ghat to have a vantage point for photshoot. Fortunately we a water tanker driver helped us and offered a ride atop sitting on a roof of its cabin. In a transit we could shoot the procession of the cabin roof. When we reached at the Zendewadi village atop of ghat steaming hot tea welcomed us for the great shooting day ahead. The person who runs a tea shop in a city (called Amrut-tulya in local marathi) was offering a tea for all devotees and visitors. He was determined to offer tea of a thousand litres of milk in a day, that too free of cost. Those who couldn’t go 300km walk offer their services to god by serving the walking devotees. That was a perfect example how devotion and convinience go hand-in-hand.

Weather was in our favor too, with few cloud, no harsh sunshine and cool breezes englfuing around. The atmosphere was pleasant. Even those chai-wala wre befriended by us and forcefully offered a tea cup per pic. We could not turn down their affection towards us had to gulp down at least 10-15 cups of tea. Around 2pm clouds took over the mountain ranges it started drizzle. Warkaris were maha-happy with the first showers during their toughest patch of the 22 days procession. All were chanting with the words “Maauli-Maauli” (English meaning mother) in a rhythm. Even in this joyous mood they hadn’t forgot the descipline. Few hundred thousands warkaris were divided into close to 200 Dindis and every Dindi had assigned a unique sequence numbers and they keep on following the same sequence for 300km, 22 days walk.

Around 4pm main Palkhi, a center of attraction entered the Diveghat and the crowd steeped up to the peak. Devotees, cops, administration services representatives, care takers, fire brigades, ambulances all were lined up for this procession. There wasn’t any sign of exertion on the faces of warkaris after otherwise tiring 6km ascent stretch. Once Palkhi passed from the ghat we started our walk down the ghat in the rain drizzles with our hearts filled with the eagerness of the upcoming monsoon, of which we witnessed few drizzles.

Palakhi ‘09

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