I arrived in Khajuraho on the 15th February, where I was to have a short break from the Trail, to attend the wedding of some of our closest friends, who are really family, Ishan and Shiva. The event also meant I was able to meet up with my parents and Nish, my brother, for just under a week. After a few weeks of travelling alone, I could not help but appreciate the company of those closest to me.
The wedding also allowed me to meet with a great number of other friends and I enjoyed a restful few days in the Ashram at Khajuraho with good food and good company. The ceremony itself was beautiful, a feast of colour for the eyes, food for the stomach and emotion for the heart that left everyone with a smile on their faces.
We briefly visited the temples in Khajuraho, and i really do mean brief, it was a 15 minute quick walk through them to ensure we saw as much as possible before closing time. The rush was down to the fact that, as we often do, we had prioritised food over seeing the sights.
The few days I was there seemed to fly by and before I knew it, the time had come to set off to Allahabad to continue the Trail. I am fortunate to have the family that I do, as they decided to join me for this leg of the journey.
Although I was not directly on the Trail, staying in an ashram gave me another experience linked to it. Rama, along with Sita and Lakshmana, spent a great number of his 14 year exile staying in ashrams. Places where I find I do not have to worry about the problems in the world I am so used to living in, giving a space and a freedom to just be. I would also be staying in an ashram in Allahabad, my next stop, and I will elaborate on this further in my next post.