Post Card From Madhya Pradesh

 It seems like a distant dream, as I sit enclosed in my house during Pandemic, afraid to take public transport. I have been confined to my house since last 8 months, with short trips by car to my sister’s house during week-ends. I love travelling and have been to lot of places, I had plans to explore many more cities during this year, but I digress.

I am happy that I captured some memories on my blog. My MP trip, that I made in November 2019 has been memorable one and I have blogged in 16 parts. 

The tour was of 15 days,  we travelled a total of 2300kms by road plus 2 days of railway travel. Our tour started from Gwalior and ended at Indore, we covered Jhansi, Orchha, Khajuraho, Bhandavghar, Jabalpur, Pachmarhi, Bhojpur, Bhimbetkar, Sanchi, Bhopal, Ujjain , Omkeshwar, Maheshwar, Mundu, Indore.

Part 1.. The trip  

After a long night journey in the train-Punjab Mail, we reach Gwalior at 4pm. The tour operators come to receive us from the station and we are to stay at  Hotel Landmark. There is lot of excitement, we go to each others room to compare the comfort and we discover that some have good rooms and some are average. Our (I shared room with my friend) room is average. 

Part 2 Gwalior

The day was spent moving from Gwalior to Khajuraho. On our route, we stopped at Jhansi and Orchha. The bus was comfortable but the roads were bad. Most of the roads are being redeveloped, There is construction everywhere to built better roads, some of the cities of MP have plans to become smart cities. 

Part 3 Orchha 

We reached late evening at Khajuraho and checked into the hotel- Khajuraho Temple View. There was a beautiful view of lake outside the hotel and on the other side of the lake were the Khajuraho temples.

Part 4 Khajuraho 

After driving all day, we reached Bhandarvagarh late evening. I couldn’t see anything, but a narrow road and thick bushes on either side of the road. It seemed like a ghostly town with not a person in sight. The bus moved slowly  over uneven mud road till we reached the beautiful resort called Mogli Resort. We were to stay in the middle of the jungle. 

Part 5 Bhandarvagarh

We spend lot of time on road trip all over MP, but bus journey was not boring. I am reminded of the movie ‘Bombay to Goa’ wherein you meet all kinds of people. Some are dozing, some fast asleep, some noisy, some want to sing, some want to eat. 

Part 6 Jabalpur

Like every state in India have their own hill station, Madhya Pradesh has its hill station at Panchmarhi at 1067 meters, commonly known as Satpura ki Rani. It has also been recognised as UNESCO biosphere reserve.

Part7 Pachmarhi

On our way to Bhopal, we stopped by at a very interesting site called Bhimbetka.  Here you find large rock shelters that have paintings that date back to thousands of years depicting the life of the people through different eras.  This has been now declared as UNESCO world heritage site.

Part 8 Bhimbetka

On our route towards Bhopal, we stopped at Bhojpur during evening hours.  We were here to see the Shiva temple called Bhojeshwar temple. The bus had stopped at quite a distance, and we walked through narrow, broken roads, passing through thatched house where villagers still use dried cow dung as fuel for cooking. 

Part 9 Bhojpur

We reached Bhopal late evening and checked into a nice comfortable Raj Bhoj Hotel. Bhopal is the capital city of Madhya Pradesh, known as the city of natural and artificial lakes and is also one of the greenest cities in India.

Part 10..Bhopal

We drove 46kms away from Bhopal to reach Sanchi stupas that are one of the oldest stone structures in India and important monument of Indian architecture 

Part 11 Sanchi 

Any direction you look, all you see are temples. We visited many temples at Ujjain and all were unique in its own way. We were asked to stick to vegetarian diet, so that we could visit all the temples guilt free.

Part 12 Ujjain

I consider myself blessed that I have been able to visit the sacred island of Omkeshwar that is shaped like as symbol Ohm- the holiest symbol of Hinduism , it has one of the 12 Jyotirlinga shrines of India.

Part 13 Omkeshwar

For my women friends, Maheshwar was the most interesting place, you know why? Because women love shopping and they love temples. 

Part14 Maheshwar

MP is full of rich history and ancient architecture. Most of it has been reduced to ruins or is neglected.  There are beautiful palaces and nature is abundant, but hardly any tourist.  The roads are bad and infrastructure is also poor.

Part 15 Mandu

Indore - one of the cleanest city of India, is the last stop of my MP tour. The charm of the city lies in rich cultural heritage preserved over the years. 

Part 16 Indore

I used to blog during my trip, at the end of the day on FB but writing on this blog has taken some time, because of many distractions during this year. But I am glad to have completed the series successfully.

MPdiaries Part 12. Ujjain

Any direction you look, all you see are temples. We visited many temples at Ujjain and all were unique in its own way. We were asked to stick to vegetarian diet, so that we could visit all the temples guilt free.

We visited temple dedicated to Lord Shiva, Mahakaleshwar Jyotilinga, that has shrines said to be most sacred abode of Lord Shiva.

In another temple, there were beautiful painting on the walls , ceiling, doors, pillars, exhibiting the 14 disciplines of knowledge.

Our next stop was at Kal Bhairav temple. Kal Bhairav is the guardian deity of Ujjain. He is considered as Senapati of the town. I was surprised to see the tray of prasad that people were buying at the stalls. There was liquor, incense sticks and marigold flowers for offering amongst other things.

Hundreds of devotees offer liquor to the deity. I stood in front of the deity to watch the pundit offer prayers and take the saucer containing liquor near the deity’s lips, that had slit. He tilts the saucer and the liquid disappeared. The rest of the bottle was given back as prasaad.. The priest claims that there is no cavity in the slit and that deity swallows the liquor offered to Him.

There are five tantric ritual offered to temple deity known as Panchmakara: alcohol (madya), meat(maansa), fish (meena) parched grains(mudra) sexual intercourse(maithuna). Only alcohol is offered, other four offering are in form of symbolic rituals.

Outside the temples, the roads were very busy with street vendors selling all kinds of things, and I was drooling over big sized papads sold on the streets.  (which of course, I didn’t eat)

The Ujjain Simhastha is a mass Hindu prigrimage. This is famous for the Khumb mela that is held every 12 years, on the banks of Kshipra river. During the Simhastha, thousands of Hindus gather to bathe in a sacred river.

I didn’t visit all the temples, but clicked the pictures from a distance, saying prayers silently, mainly to seek blessing for living my life peacefully.

MPdiaries Part 11. Sanchi

 We drove 46kms away from Bhopal to reach Sanchi stupas that are one of the oldest stone structures in India and important monument of Indian architecture 

Originally commissioned by Emperor Ashoka, the great of the Maurya Empire in the 3^rd century, its nucleus were built over the relics of Buddha on a raised terrace encompassing its base, a railing and a stone umbrella on the summit..

Although made of stone, the gateways are carved and constructed in the manner of wood and the gateways are covered with narrative sculptures, considered as the birthplace of Jataka illustrations

The reliefs show scenes from the life of the Buddha integrated with everyday events that would be familiar to the onlookers and so makes it easier for them to understand the Buddhist creed as relevant to their lives. Women were given the equal status and women are seen also riding the elephants.

The complex is huge and there are many different shape and sizes of stupas.

It was a scenic spot and we could see the bird's eye view of the city. There is a small restaurant-cum-handicraft shop that burnt our pockets and we gave the shopkeeper a lot of business.

There were geese (symbolical perhaps of the flock of the Buddha's disciples), happily moving around in the compound and were a target for our photography.

On the northern slope, just before the stupa is the Chethiyagiri Buddish Temple and a museum.

To be continued….

MPdiaries Part 10. Bhopal

We reached Bhopal late evening and checked into a nice comfortable Raj Bhoj Hotel.

Bhopal is the capital city of Madhya Pradesh, known as the city of natural and artificial lakes and is also one of the greenest cities in India.

I couldn't see all the lakes but did see one big lake (on route) a Bada Talaab aka Bhojtal that had a 32 feet statue of Raja Bhoj, the king of Malwa in the water closer to the promenade.

According to legend, Bhopal was founded by Parmara Raja Bhoj, King of Malwa, in the 11th Century AD. He was intellectual, believer of justice, art lover, musician and a good administrator.

We had stopped earlier at Tropic of Cancer spot to click few shots

 Tropic of Cancer, otherwise known as northernly circle of latitude, was used by ancient travellers, who used the heavenly guides, as the crucial demarcation lines. Many of my fellow travellers got off the bus to click pictures with that sign in the background.

Bhopal attracted international attention in December 1984, when there was leakage of deadly poisonous gases composed mainly of methyl isocynate. We passed by the affected area, that was shanty. This part of the city bears the scars of that disaster. The impact of the disaster continues to this day in terms of physiological and neurological disabilities, blindness,, breathing and birth disorders.

The city is developing into the smart city and there was lot of constructions going on. Very close to our hotel was a most innovative Peoples’ mall,  (still under construction) but worthy of our visit.

Spread over 80acres, PeoplesMall is the perfect option for spending a leisure time with family and friends. It is no ordinary mall with shops, food court and multiplex but it also has a huge theme park in its complex that has ship, airport and railway station. We hired an electronic cart to explore the area that had miniature monuments from around the world that included the replicas of Taj Mahal, Red fort, Taj hotel of Mumbai, Statue of liberty, Japanese and Chinese monuments and many more important monuments.

There were street performers, live.music and many more such entertainment. For children there is water park and car rides. There is go-carting for youngsters. I was told that this complex is also used for wedding and other important events at its large open spaces. It is a must see place when visiting Bhopal 

To be continued….