In Shirdi, and the trip to the Shani mandir in Shignapur

We arrived in Shirdi on the 13th around 2 pm. Its changed significantly since my last visit in 1999. Things are on a much bigger scale, many hotels, even a water park. We found a nice room in a new hotel some 3 minutes from the temple. After a nice thali lunch at Woodlands (recommended by Aparna's mother), we went for darshan inside the temple. We were very fortunate, since there were no crowds. I had heard of long wait times, but there were no queues when we got there. Also once inside, the guards told me to take my time..normally they hustle people quickly to keep crowds moving. It was very nice experience and we got Baba's darshan to our heart's content. After darshan, we went to the PRO office and were able to get VIP passes for the night Arti (Shej Arti). The Shej Arti itself was wonderful that evening. I have never seen an Arti in Shirdi and this was a memorable event.

The next day, we decided to go to Shignapur, for the Shani temple there. There are various SUV operators that do this 5-hour trip. We joined an existing SUV with other passengers, and took off for Shignapur. I was quite impressed with the roads in Maharashtra. They seemed well-maintained and traffic kept moving. The single lane undivided highways were dangerous but I attribute that to bad driving habits. For example, our driver, insisted on scaring the oncoming cars by driving in their lane and switching only at the last moment. It was just reckless on his part. He was a Hindi song buff and kept mouthing dialogues and songs. He would talk to himself, and I would think he was saying something to me, but no. "main apne dil se baat karta hoon". This dude would mouth dialogues like "Insaan apne karmon se bada hota hain, paison se nahin", but would not hesitate to pass comments on girls walking on the street. On the way back, the dude points to my shorts and asked me to give it to him. Now these are my hiking shorts paid primo$ at REI, and I was in no mood to part with it. I just refused. He seemed a bit embarassed at my refusal.