AKS

I was in the panchavati region of the Nashik city, pretending to be a good tourist guide for my mama. We were done seeing the Kalaram and the Goraram temples. Now it was time to go, visit the Sita-Goofa.

This was the place where Lord Ram had hidden Sita. There’s nothing much to see except for a narrow cave, 5 banyan trees (panch-vati), and a hall illustrating the Sita-haran. The cave has got narrow passages to navigate, and the hyper-excited bhakt’s keep choking these passages with their bhakti.

We were at the Sita-Goofa, I gave all the known information about the place. Now it was mama’s call, whether to go - have a crawling visit in the Sita Goofa.

My cousin had not seen this place before, so she wanted to go down the cave. By default I chose to remain outside, and click some portraits.

I was trying hard to get the “peru-wala” (guava vendor) in my frame, a bunch of amma’s and their noisy kids encroached in the frame. They had hired an “Anna” as their tourist guide.

Anna seemed to be some side hero from Nagarjuna’s film. An amber colored 55 mm aviator ray-ban shades. Shiv-mudra at the center of his forehead. Brightly dressed/illuminated.

He instructed his gaggle to get into the line. Then lifting up both his hands, reverberating them right from his elbow to the fingertip. He started his pre-recorded cassette in the typical south indan accent.

“Yahan pe, Shri Ramchandrajee ne Seeta maata ko wanna-dayy, wanna night (one day, one night – south Indian accent) ke liye laya tha.”

“Idhar se-ich Ravan ne sita mata ko kidnap kiya. Fir yahan se Ram aur uska brother sita ko dhoondh ne chala gaya”…….

I was awestrucked at his first scentence……..wanna-day, wanna night? Was it something like a holiday package for Nashik?

But he had an outstanding style of giving out information, to my disappointment he’d crushed the main contents unknowkingly.

Anyway, this guide proved to be funniest of all other guides.