“Chalo Bhulava Aaya Haiiii Shirdi Sai Baba Ne Bulaya Hai”. As the Indian saying goes, “jab tak bhulava nahi aata, tab tak nahi ja sakte” (one can pay a visit to the holy place only when god himself has called you and wants you to see).

Well, I didn’t believe much in this saying and always felt it is you who decides whether you want to go or not. But now i think, i kind of have some belief on this saying.

So the story goes like this. It was early this year when we all went (me, my son, parents, sister, aunt, and driver) to Yeola for shopping sarees in bulk for my sister’s wedding.

Yeola is famous for manufacturing and selling traditional Marathi-style sarees. My mom was very keen to visit Shirdi even before even reaching this place. We got quite late in Yeola, so we then decided to drop the plan of visiting Shirdi Sai Baba. And directly went back (I was a little happy as I was not so keen on visiting Shirdi).

The story moves forward by 3-4 months in June. Post my sister’s marriage, my mom was very firm to visit Shirdi even if she had to go alone.  But everyone agreed instantly. And the funny part was, we all went to Shirdi, the same combination of people, including our driver.

It was destined that we all go there together. So the saying goes “Chalo Bhulava Aaya Haiiii Baba Ne Bulaya Hai”.

It was the second time that i went to this place till date. The first time was when i was in school and now after so many years i visited this place.  It felt very nice. I noticed many changes happened compared to my last visit. It has become very organized now because of the heavy footfalls of devotees. The queues now are much longer all through the year.

One thing which I really liked. They have created a separate entry point for senior citizens, which is quite helpful during peak seasons. You only need age proof to create a special pass, which is free of cost. There were 3 senior citizens and a toddler in the group. So I got an entry along with them, hassle-free, Que free, my good luck.

We had an amazing darshan of Lord Sai Baba. Everybody was able to stand for a couple of minutes in front of the idol. This made the trip extremely successful. Otherwise, it is very difficult to stand even for seconds because of a huge crowd. But it was a little off-season, hence, less crowded. As I mentioned earlier, we were lucky.

Another attraction in Shirdi is the newly opened devotional theme park, “Sai Teertha”, dedicated to Sai Baba. There are four themes created: Teerth Yatra, Lanka Dahan, Sabka Malik Ek, and Dwarkamai, which is a combination of devotion, technology, and entertainment.  Although I have not visited this theme park, it is definitely on my bucket list.

*sai baba pictures sourced from google wikipedia