This is was a beautiful and spiritual experience in Newcastle. On 3-January-2009 I went to Newcastle by catching a Metro from Sunderland with a Day Rover ticket. A day rover ticket is nothing but a ticket which can be used in Metro, trains, Buses in the Sunderland and Newcastle for any times in a day. I reached Newcastle around 2 in the noon. From there took a bus (10, 11, 38) which goes to West gate. West gate road is the place where there is ISCKON temple and Hindu temple. I got down at West gate road, opposite to the bus stop was ISCKON temple, but unfortunately it was closed and also there was a Sikh temple nearby to it. From there I walked to West Road, where the Hindu Temple is situated. It was about 20-30 minutes’ walk. Finally I found the temple in the corner of the West road. Now it was around 2.45 noon. There was no one in the temple, it was closed. I was disappointed. But I came to see a board which stated the temple timings. In usual days the temple opens at 9 to 11.30 in the morning and again at 6 – 8 in the evening. And in Sundays it was 10 – 4 open. So when I saw 6-8 open in the evening, I was happy to visit the temple in the evening. But confused what to do for the rest of time. Then took a bus to city center. I spent there around 3 hours in the city centre. It was a nice place and almost all shops were in the city center. There were lot of malls like Elsdon Square which was the biggest one and Monument Mall, the Gates and some more. Took some snaps and again took the 10 bus from the city center and roamed a full trip in the bus. Then I reached the temple around 5.30 PM. And I was happy to see the temple open and 2 people were moving inside the temple. The temple was very spacious with number of idols placed. There were Lord Shiva and Parvathi, Lakshmi, Radha Krishna, Ganapathy, Saraswathi and Durga Matha idols in a stretch and Lord Venkateshwara idol separately placed. Then the couples started to do alankar to the Lord Venkateshwara Idol and they started to sing Vishnu shahasranama. They told me too join in singing, they gave me a printed book of Vishnu shahasranama and I joined them. It was a great pleasure in singing. After which there was a pooja then followed by the prasadams. It was wonderful experience in Newcastle Hindu Temple. Finally I interacted with the couples, they have settled in UK around 35 years, he was a senior Doctor. And then left to sunderland.
