That Magical voice

You travel to various places, meet people en route, share a few moments with them or maybe spend a few days with them and those memories last forever in your mind. People say that it's all in our destiny to meet people. You just accidentally happen to meet someone who turns out to be very helpful to you and makes your trip easier. Sometimes you travel to remote villages of India where there is no electricity supply too. People give you shelter in their home, they give you food they are eating and wouldn't even take any money from you. 

I have met many such people too, just like most of you. We Indians are friendly by nature. We love to talk to strangers, make new friends and create that comfort zone for us wherever we go.

But have you ever travelled to meet someone you have just heard of? Some friends visit a place, come back and share the stories with you. Stories about the places and people. A similar thing happened with me too. A few friends visited Pachmarhi - a hill station situated in Madhya Pradesh. They came back with a story about a lady called Ambika. That's not even her real name. Nobody knows her real name. She sits in a Mahadev temple near Pachmarhi and chants shlokas (Sanskrit Verses). And when she chants, her voice echos everywhere. The temple is located on a small hill. You have to climb the hill to visit the temple. The lady sits somewhere en route.

Now, this much information was enough for us to zero on the destination. We were already planning a trip to Madhya Pradesh. We decided to include Pachmarhi in our itinerary just to meet the lady and see how she manages to make her voice reach the whole hill.

When we hired a Gypsy to go to the temple. When we reached near the hill, we could hear a distant voice - something that could be heard very clearly in spite of the non-stop chattering by people around the temple. You will not believe me unless you visit the place yourself and experience this. 

We started to climb the hill and the voice started to become clearer. It was loud and crisp. You can feel it touching your soul. I am not a religious person, but there was something magical about the way she was chanting the mantras. You feel like visiting the temple only because you get a feeling that some energy out there is giving her the strength to chant and make herself heard everywhere. After walking for 15 odd minutes, we reached where she was sitting.

That's Ambika. She doesn't talk to anyone. She just chants. People have come and visited her, tried to take her interviews, but they get information from people sitting around her, selling Rudraksha and other things. People shoot her chantings, take her pictures. And nothing of these distracts her. She continues to chant. 

Nobody knows who she is. She has been sitting there for the past 27 years. She stays there. That rock is her home. Nobody knows anything about her. Nobody wants to know anything either. She is an integral part of the temple and its heritage. She is the soul of that place. God gives her strength to go on as her voice is a part of the nature. Nobody knows how old she is. And her age doesn't change anything about her voice or the tempo.

Go and meet Ambika to believe me, my story. And you will not regret this trip - my promise.

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