Though our initial ideas about a
Gujarat Tour were confined to only the temples of Nageshwar (one of the 12
Jyotirlingas), Panch Dwarka, and Somnath, later we expanded the scope of our
tour to include a few historically important places, the deserts of Kutch and
the beaches of Diu.
Some comments on tourism in India in general
India, its diversity, and ancient
history offer tremendous scope for development of tourism. Unlike many other
countries, different places in India offer differing tastes to the tourists. There
is a great amount of variety here in India, which is very unique. Nature
tourism, Eco tourism, Religious tourism, Spiritual tourism, Leisure tourism, name
anything, it is all here in India.
Only, we don’t seem to have made
sufficient efforts to give a boost to tourism. We haven’t fully realized the
potential of tourism as a great catalyst to economic growth. So, in the past, we
hadn’t focused sufficiently on infrastructure development like roads,
electricity, water connection, communication, hotels, and other facilities to
encourage tourists to visit thousands of small places that offer excellent
scope for tourists to go.
To cite only a small example,
there is a place called Thiruppudaimaruthur in Tirunelveli district, close to
Cheranmahadevi. Here is a magnificent temple for Lord Siva, with a partially
complete temple tower in the front, five circumambulating corridors around the
Garbhagriha, right on the banks of the river Gadana (a tributary of the river
Tamirabarani), a clean bathing ghat, and to cap it all, eye capturing scenes of
flocks and flocks of birds foraging for their food and pecking for water during
particular seasons. Not many are aware of this place.
Brahmadesam near Ambasamudram is
another example. And there are several places in and around Tirunelveli alone.
In developed countries, they make a hill out
of a small mole. Volumes of printed brochures, information, visual aids, and
promotional materials are created for many places there that are nothing more
than a damp squib.
Why, I write this? Because, I
found that in Gujarat they have made a conscious effort to promote tourism of
every sort. They had rightly identified that deserts can be beautiful like the
forests, and scary too. In fact, they are. And people go there in numbers.
Now, let me tell you briefly
about the few places we were fortunate to visit:
Little Rann of Kutch:
This is a salt marsh, lying near
the Great Rann of Kutch. We stayed in a place called Patdi. This place is
famous for its rare wild ass sanctuary. Besides, it is also a destination for a
variety of migratory birds like pelican, flamingo, crane, ducks, Indian bustard
etc. The farm house where we stayed took us for the open jeep safari around the
marshy land. We also saw the beautiful sunset in the evening. The scary thing
about this open jeep safari is that there are no route directions or paved
roads to roam around in the 100 and odd kilometers-deep desert. One will be
lost in the wilderness if you have no guide. Also, although the marshy soil is
mostly dry, at some places it is still wet. There are shallow lakes due to
collection of rain water. In fact, when our jeep driver-cum guide was a little
distracted for a second, our jeep plunged into a wet marshy soil, and we could
extricate the sunken vehicle from the soil only after some tense struggle. Thank
God, we were safe.
In the evening, we were at the
Swami Narain temple, a fabulous structure of white marble, glittering under
lights of different colors and shades. The evening Aarti was a memorable and
exciting experience, with the Aarti song playing in the background over the
speakers and immediately after Aarti, one of the pundits dancing in front of
the Lord for another song.
To be continued...
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