Document

Next day was a Sunday and I got up early and wore my new Maroon Silk Saree that I had bought at Ladies Wearhouse, Bangalore, had my breakfast and travelled to the base of the Sri Adi Sankaracharya temple mountain.
I had bought the saree specially for visiting the temple.
I got down from the taxi and walked up the mountain for nearly 2 1/2 km until the taxi reached me and picked me up. While walking up the mountain I had met a number of tourists and some of them were Kashmiri Pandits who had many years ago left the state.
I could get a good view of Srinagar city especially of the Dal Lake.
There was snow everywhere on the mountain, but was pleasantly cold.
The taxi stopped at the beginning of 250 steps and I walked up the steps chanting Bhaja Govindam written by Sri Shankaracharya.
I reached the temple it is somewhat a kind of Octogonal in shape and has a Shiva Linga similar to the one at Jammu's Raghunath temple.
This is where Shankaracharya had meditated for many years and gained his spiritual knowledge.
I prayed for sometime and the priest there applied a Sindoor on my forehead and then I returned to the hotel room to change into a Salwar Kameez for the rest of the trip.
I visited the Mogul Gardens namely Nishat Garden, Shalimar Garden, Chasm-E-Shahi and Pari Mahal. At Pari Mahal there are different levels and at the top there is a fort and from this garden we can view the Srinagar city. We could get a glimpse of the Governor's house.
The Himalaya mountains looked very grand completely filled with snow. At Chasm-E-Shahi, there was a water spring that has medicinal value. We visited the Tulip Garden, but there were no Tulips, we only see the flower beds had been prepared. We could see the Taj Hotel at the top of a mountain.