Wanderlust Tales : Diwali utsav pardes main....

Right after a fabulous celebration of Durga Puja back home in Bangalore, I was supposed to go on an official tour to Atlanta, USA.

These official tours somehow bore me a lot, mainly due to lack of good friends to hang around with and to top it, you also have to work late hours.But of course, it comes with the perks of staying lavishly in your very own room in the hotel and finding it crystal clean when you return no matter in what state you have left it in.The weather is a bonus.And of course, the all-time favorite for me is indulging in the best of ice-creams, chocolates, and cakes here. Absolute bliss! Fooooood........

It is a good time to spend time on your own, out of the social bondage - doing things you like. And for a change doing NOTHING, is also a change from the rote.

Things that happen occasionally at home become regular like reading books or interesting articles or listening to your favorite music, jogging.You experiment with food.You meet new people and make friends.

This break is the much-needed one as I share my room back in India. So the privacy constraints stay. 😑

This visit, I got to witness something out of the ordinary.No parks or factory outlets or museums but - a Temple!

Being a festive season, I was pretty upset that I would have to celebrate Diwali - doing nothing. Then some Indian friends I met during my stay there, suggested about going for the Diwali Utsav in a temple located about 30 miles from my hotel.At first, I was highly reluctant to visit a temple all the way in the States. 

But when I visited this place, I was nothing but left stunned. It would have been a mistake if I would have missed this.

It is apparently the biggest temple outside our country. 

The BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir as they call it was inaugurated in August 2007 after only 17 months of construction time utilizing 1.3 million volunteer hours. The Mandir is compromised of 3 types of stones(Turkish limestone, Italian marble, and Indian pink sandstone). More than 34,000 individual pieces were carved by hand in India, shipped to the USA, and assembled in Lilburn like a giant 3-D puzzle.

The temple sits over 30 acres of land and is a beauty in its own.

As you enter the premises you see the temple and it is gorgeously built - the pond right in front, the beautifully carved pillars in white. The white color adds to the more heavenly look - straight from the heaven. WOW!

The Diwali Utsav was being celebrated here. And during the time, they have fantastic fireworks show which lasts for about 15-20 minutes.

It is just spell bounding affair. I was left dumbstruck by the firework show - the music, the lighting and the fireworks all in sync, which made the sight worth seeing. Just stunning! 

The place was bustling with Indians, who had come all the way to have a glimpse of the fireworks. :)

The sky was speaking more than a thousand words, literally! 💞

I am attaching few pictures of the temple and the Diwali Utsav celebrations:

Entrance

Pond

Find the moon! :P

They had a number of food stalls serving dishes varying from pav bhaji, chole bature, khichdi, chai,various farsans etc. Apart from food stalls - they had the books stalls, stalls selling decor items for the house.

What surprised me was they were serving prasad at the exit which was beautifully and cleanly packed with a sweet and some farsan items. They were giving along calendar too.

In all, I would conclude by saying one well-coordinated event which definitely is worthwhile.

Reaching there was no big hurdle, GPS makes your life very easy to commute. For parking cars, they had a separate place near the temple premises where you can park, and the shuttles plying would pick and drop you, too and fro the temple. I was at residence inn, the north point so it took approximately 45 minutes to reach the temple.

I didn't expect much fanfare, but I am happy I didn't miss the event. 😆

Bon Voyage!! 👋

Cheers to life!!

~Journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step!

P.S.All the above photos have been clicked by me.