Seeking God's blessings....even if it kills us!

A few days ago, while I was driving in my car, approaching a temple, I noticed a lady abruptly stopping in the middle of the lane. She proceeded to take off her footwear right there and stood in the middle of the road to pray in front of the temple for a few seconds before wearing her footwear and continuing to cross the road! This was during peak hour in the morning, with impatient drivers in two- and four-wheelers. She was willing to take the chance of getting run over in order to seek blessings from a divine being.

Similarly, I've seen drivers of two-wheelers who take one hand (or both hands) off the handle when they pass in front of a temple to fold their hands and pray for a millisecond. Do they realize that they may be putting their own or other lives in danger by doing so?

The Great Circular Indian Railway Challenge + extras

I am planning to take on the 'Great Circular Indian Railway Challenge', in which I visit the railway stations at the extreme compass points of the nation. These stations, from what I have understood, are Dwarka (West), Udhampur (North), Ledo (East) and Kanyakumari (South). In addition, I want to do a couple of other interesting trips that I have heard a lot about. The first is the 'Dhulghat Spiral' and the other is the Igatpuri ghat section. Information about these is given below for your review.

I am looking out for companions who can go with me on this trip. It is a lot more fun than going alone. I have done the first cut of scheduling this trip and I believe that it will take about 17 days to complete it. Tentative start date is 17th Aug, 2011, returning to Bangalore on 3rd Sept, 2011. The cost for the train tickets alone will run to about Rs.10,000-12,000, especially because there are a couple of Rajdhani Exp legs involved and also because I want to travel at least once by 1st Class AC in Rajdhani Exp (currently the Delhi-Guwahati leg). You will have to add food & lodging expenses to the train ticket costs. Lodging should be very minimal because the train will be our 'lodge' for the most part.

I am also looking for causes that we can advertise or raise money for during this trip. Any ideas from my to-be companions are welcome.

Dhulghat Spiral: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhulghat_Spiral

Great Circular Indian Railway Challenge: http://gcirc.wordpress.com/, http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=372971199730

Tentative Itinerary

Leg #	From	To	Hops	Train	Runs On	Date of Travel	Avbl	Class	Price
1	SBC	CAPE		16526/Kanyakumari Exp	Daily	08/17/11	Y	SL	325
2	CAPE	TVC		16525/Bangalore Exp	Daily	08/19/11	Y	AC3	120
3	TVC	DWK	TVC-BRC	12431/Rajdhani Exp	Tu,Th,Fr	08/19/11	Y	AC3	1940
			BRC-DWK	12906/HWH-Okha Exp	Su,Mo,Th	08/21/11	Y	SL	259
4	DWK	UHP	DWK-ADI	59548/Okha-ADI Pass	Daily	08/21/11	Y	SL	124
			ADI-NDLS	12957/Rajdhani Exp	Daily	08/22/11	Y	AC3	1210
			NDLS-UHP	12445/Sampark Kranti	Daily	08/23/11	Y	SL	274
5	UHP	LEDO	UHP-NDLS	12446/Sampark Kranti	Daily	08/24/11	Y	SL	274
			NDLS-GHY	22424/Rajdhani Exp	Th	08/25/11	Y	AC1	4140
			GHY-LEDO	15603/InterCity Exp	Daily	08/26/11	Y	SL	241
6	LEDO	AK	LEDO-GHY	15604/InterCity Exp	Daily	08/27/11	Y	SL	241
			GHY-HWH	15960/Kamrup Exp	Daily	08/28/11	Y	SL	332
			HWH-AK	12130/Azad Hind Exp	Daily	08/29/11	Y	AC2	1532
7	AK	INDM		52974/AK-RTM Fast Pass	Daily	08/31/11	Y	SL	100
8	INDM	IGP	INDM-KNW	52975/RTM-PAU Fast Pass	Daily	09/01/11	Y	SL	80
			KNW-IGP	11062/MFP-LTT Exp	Su,Mo,We,Fr	09/01/11	Y	SL	194
9	IGP	SBC	IGP-MMR	17617/Tapovan Exp	Daily	09/02/11	Y	SL	54
			MMR-SBC	12628/Karnataka Exp	Daily	09/02/11	WL #2	AC2	1362
									12802