Sylhet 2009 (Day 2): Rock and Water

The spot that played the chief role in bringing us to Sylhet was the Madhabkunda water falls. On our second day, we started real early towards there in our rented microbus, right after Fajr prayer. The road to Madhabkunda was a beauty itself. Curving this way and that, climbing uphill and going down again, we wished all of our roads were like that. At about 8:30 in the morning, we reached the gates of the Madhabkunda Eco Park, from there a walk of about half an hour in necessary to reach the falls. While walking towards the fall, we already started to feel that we're really gonna like this place. We could see the water from the fall running over the rocks below, at one point we got down from the path into the water just to get our feet wet and take some photos. We kept walking and admiring the beauty of the place, and then we saw it. The water fall itself. The stream of water running down from the top of the hill is like the grand jewel in the crown that is the whole surrounding. The sight that was in front of my eyes only made me wonder how much more beautiful can paradise be? The wide encircling rocky hills, decorated with green, the sparkling water falling from high above, the pool of water at the base, the stream and the sound of pure nature, this is heaven on earth. I was taking a lot of photos as I was walking towards the fall, but when I saw it for the first time, I just put the camera in my pocket and looked at the whole place for a long time. Then I started taking snaps, and I couldn't stop.

The pleasure got on to a much higher level as soon as we put ourselves in the water. It was cool, and yet it didn't hurt, it was just relaxing, it seemed to carry away all my thoughts away from me. I felt like there's just me and this place, and nothing else. I can swim, but I'm not confident about it, so all I did was sit in shallow water and take a few dips. As we went real early, for more than an hour we had the place totally to ourselves, just the six of us. I was busy taking photos of nature alone, while others where taking there own pictures for their facebook profiles, hehe. After staying there for about two and a half hours, against our heart, we started to head back. There's a watch tower which gives great view of the whole place, we got on top, and it looked as if I'm looking at a piece of art, come alive out of the canvas. Subhanallah. Guess who's the artist?

Our microbus took us to a bus stand in Maulavibazaar, where we took a bus and reached Sylhet City by the after noon, where our friend from AUST, Nahiyan picked us up. He helped us getting a hotel room in the viscinity of the Dargah of Hazrat Shah Jalal (R), the most visited shrine in the country I guess. We visited the shrine later that night.

After filling our starving stomachs with some food, we headed out to look around the Sylhet city, guided by Nahiyan. We saw the Keen Bridge, and the famous Amjad Uncles's Clock.

Before the Isha prayer we perfomed the Ziarat of the grave sight of Hazrat Shah Jalal (R), who was one of the key preachers of Islam in the subcontinent, and has been the medium of Hidayat of a large number of people. After coming to Sylhet, it was an unavoidable duty to pay a visit to his shrine. I knew the the dargah was full of Bidaats and non-islamic rituals, but I never imagined it to be so bad. The things that people are doing in the name of this noble person, was absolutely unacceptable according to Shariah. I don't wanna get into details here, but the scene inside the dargah cannot be fitted into any particular religion, as if these so called Khadems had invented a whole new religion using the name of this mighty hero of Islam. May Allah give these people Hidayat, and May Allah give peace to the grave of Hazrat Shah Jalal (R).

Me and Pulak stayed up late, walking in the streets and gossiping, while others went to bed early. A very eventful second day of our trip had come to an end.

Read about Day 3 of this trip!