Sipnaa Part 3

The first official starting point was village Kukaru from where the actual Pad-Yatra begun.

The Pad-yaatra Begins..

The Villagers were already told about our arrival and they were waiting for us since morning.On the way we walked on the road..through the farms..a bit of jungle to reach a plane..form where another river Khandu originates.We rested the Sipna maiyya-Idol for a while..drank fresh water out of the  habshi(handpump)…the real mineral water..the taste was so good that we could feel the oxygen flowing into our blood and freshening up every cell of the body..

Resting before going for the oogam

The oogam of Sipnaa

The ada patel of the village(I will tell you more about this self-governance system later)personally guided us to the origin.And down a village called jambukheda , in a place called maulzira(“zira” means spring) we were shown the origin of the Sipna…first time in my life I saw the origin of the river and was wondering how this small spring cathes momentum to become a big river..

we had a local artist(I can write an epic on this man!) whose creativity started flowing on seeing the Sipna oogam, which he also saw for the first time..we started preparing for the puja and hey..where was the diya..one fellow..quitely went to the side dug some mud and started making a beautiful lamp..the diya!..use wht you have … no cribbing!!his fingures quickly helped the lump take a shape of simple and elegant lamp and we start our Puja..the Sipna maiyya was offered Chunari by the senior local citizens and the aarti for Sipna was sung…

The person holding the Idol actually made Diya

Puja of Sipnaa Maiyaa

the whole environment was charged with emotions..some curious villagers

..bystanders actually unconsciously joined us in the rhythm of the dhol and dafali and the aarti was evolving..i think this was the starting point of connecting with the localites and also helping them connect with their own jivan-dayini the Sipna..more later.