New Year's: Reflecting on a past trip that changed my viewpoint!

On the midnight of the glorious New Year of 2025, I would like to reflect back on a beautifully memorable trip that I went on last year. The vivid experiencess of this trip taught me a lot of new things and reminded me of old values hidden deep inside my mind. 

My family and our family friends went on a trip to Mathura that is situated in the state of Uttar Pradesh in India. It started with the 7 of us narrowly missing our early morning train to New Delhi, from where we would take a train to Hazrat Nizamuddin and another to our destination. We changed trains twice. All of us were tired and the experience of the third train had us completely worn out. We were quite relieved to have reached our guest house in the late afternoon. But, I had contacted a fever, which left me quite weak. But as they say : "When the going gets tough, the tough gets going". Thankfully, my fever and its side effects remained for only that day with the help of an antibiotic and several paracetamols. The next day, I was as good as new. We visited (via a rented car) the Shri Radha Rani Temple in Barsana (shown in the image below), and the Shri Banke Bihari Mandir in Vrindavan and viewed the beautiful idols of Shri Radharani and Shri Banke Bihari respectively. The temples were quite crowded and I consider myself very lucky to have witnessed the beauty of these two idols. On the last day of our trip, the two families were lucky enough to visit Gokul (the city where it is said that Lors Krishna was brought up) and go to Govardhan hill. At Govardhan hill, we completed a chhoti parikarma (small circambulation) via auto and foot. During this, my family and I also visited Radhakund and the Kusum Sarovar. And lastly, we all went back to Mathura and went to Krishn Janmbhoomi (Krishna's birthplace). We visited various places in two days, which usually would have worn me out, but the atmosphere and the people here was so warm and loving that I wanted to spend a few more days over there. But this trip has definitely taught me many things. I learned to always remain positive in any situation because whatever happens is for a good reason. I also learned that anything is possible with willpower and that the best things lie after the hardest obstacles. These are valuable lessons that I often forget in the midst of busy days and sleepless nights. But nevertheless, I plan to carry forth these lessons with me throughout the new year in the best way that I can.

To anyone reading this, I wish you a happy and healthy new year. May this new year introduce many blessings in your life.