(Hello Anna (we
call our dad Anna)),
How are you??
It’s already been 8 months you left us Anna 😢. Time flies like anything and we are still stuck
on March 12th. Especially I am stuck at the moment when you had held
my hand tightly. We remember you each & every second and feel you around in
everything we do Anna. We are going to Ujjain for your 9th month
death anniversary. Hope with your blessings everything goes well and you will
continue to rest in peace 😇.
As usual Amma has prepared our saviour food Ragi Hurittu & dry Gojjavalakki (My Viashno Devi blog readers would know about it). We are getting ready, but as you are aware, I had high fever & cough since last week. Had been to Dr Vidya aunty and under medication. Fever has gone but still have cough. I am praying I should be able to control it when I am inside the flight. After this pandemic I always wondered will they stop boarding if anyone sneeze or cough😜)
1stNovember 2021
12.5 hours =
2 hours of Journey !!
Yes !! though
Bengaluru to Indore journey is just 2 hours, it took 12+ hours for us. After
Covid lockdown lift and regulation relaxation, travelling in flight is bit messed
up. You might expect break journeys and changes in schedules at the last
moment. Our journey to Indore was first scheduled via Chennai which got changed
to - via Delhi at the last moment. Our flight was scheduled @10:10 PM to Delhi.
Since it was raining in Bengaluru, keeping traffic in mind we left at 4:30 !!
too early right? I know, but we didn’t want to take risk. It anyways took more
than 2 hours for us to reach Airport. I guess after double dose vaccination, people started travelling again (like us 😁) and Airport was too much crowded. Later
I heard, that day Bengaluru Airport had around 50K departures!! after finishing
security check-in we still had 3 hours to our flight. we took some rest and had
food. As usual airport food was expensive than our taxi bill !! Anyways, with
no delay in flight timings, we reached Delhi on-time @1:30 mid night. Airport
was beautifully lit up for Deepavali. We were feeling sleepy, but Delhi airport
is sooo big that we had to walk for almost 1.5 kms (we landed at international
terminal 3 and we had our connecting flight to Indore from terminal 2 !!) We
got a chance to experience ‘Travelator’ for the first time. At the exit of
Terminal 3, our terrible experience with airport food continued and we ate
look-alike of Idli which was not at all good. We had no other option as my
mamma’s yummy foods were packed and sent in check-in luggage. Do you also feel hungrier
when you are not getting good food? I was
going mad at mid night with some real food cravings. Finally, around 4:00 AM
restaurant “Gujarati Svado” started operating and luckily the hot Pav Bhaji was
good.
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Happy Deepavali 😍 |
2nd
November 2021
Ujjain – A City
full of Spiritual Vibes:
Our flight to Indore was on-time at 5:30. Amma and CK slept once we boarded. Somehow, I can’t sleep in flight especially when I get a window seat 😍. I peeped through the window; it was still dark. But the bright lovely moon accompanied half of my journey. In 15 minutes, sky started turning ombre with the combinations of bright Orange, Yellow and Blue which later turned into burning gold. Such a spectacular sight !! It was my first early morning flight, it’s so wondrous to watch sunrise from the sky. Amma & CK were still sleeping. I woke them up too, coz I did not want them to miss the mesmerizing view. Just before we landed at Devi Ahilya Bai Holkar Airport by 7:20 AM, Sun woke up pandiculating and said Gooood Morningggg Indore !!
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| Did you see the Moon on top of the image 🌜 |
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Good Morning Indore !!🌞 |
We came out by 7:30 collecting our luggage. Our cab arrived 15 mins late. Unlike south where we find more trees on both sides of the road, here roadside is less in green. But road to Ujjain is good and broad. We reached Ujjain in an hour which is about 55 KM from Indore. After reaching Ujjain, we checked 1-2 of hotels (Anna, when Karthik went to check hotels, we remembered how you used to accompany him for supervision and finalize the room after checking if it meets all our criteria 😐). He finalized a room in ‘HORI PALACE’. We wanted 1st floor room for convenience and had to wait for 20 mins as checkout was in process. By that time, they served us refreshing tea. Guess it’s prepared using buffalo milk; it tasted amazing. The best thing about HORI PALACE is, it’s just 4-5 mins walkable distance from Mahakaleshwar temple. It is clean and well maintained, the staff-hospitality is also too good. Even with all these perks, it won’t cost you much.
Jai Mahakaal:
We got fresh and by 10:30 left to visit temples. first, we visited “Bade Ganesh Ji” mandir which is near the entrance gate of Mahakaleshwar temple. The magnificent Ganesh ji of 18 feet hight and 10 feet wide built in the year 1875 would definitely catch your attention for his artistic sculpture. This temple also has panchamukhi Hanuman, Yashodha Maa feeding little Krishna and dwadasha (12) lingas.
After this, we went to Mahakaleshwar
temple. The Jyotirling here is dakshinamurthi Swayambhu linga. You have to show
double dose Covid vaccination certificate at the entrance, without which one
will not be allowed inside. Temple is well planned with queue complex building
to manage the pilgrim rush during peak days. Because of this, we need to walk a
bit to get into the temple premises. The huge premises have 3-4 TV display
units on queue system pathway which will have direct telecast of shringar/pooje
happening inside the temple. The wall is artistically decorated with embossed
clay paintings of all 12 jyotirlingas. All these will perfectly create the divine
atmosphere for the devotees standing in queue 😊. The queue complex
building exit will lead you to Mahakaal Mandir entrance in 1st floor. From there
you can have a glimpse of his shringar and get down to ground floor to take his
darshana (due to Covid guidelines, pilgrims are not allowed to touch or enter
the main garbhagriha of Mahakaal). In many south temples, have seen security
person pushing you by not even giving seconds to take darshana. But here at
Ujjain, security staffs are very co-operative and will allow you to seek
Mahakaal’s blessings peacefully.
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| The Queue complex 🎨 |
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| Embossed clay painting of Mahakaleshvar Mandir |
Once you come out of Mahakaal shrine, there is a mandir for Omkareshwar on the first floor (which will be open for visitors round the year, whereas the Nagachandreshwara linga, situated on the third floor is open only on the day of Naga Pancahmi). The architecture and the pillars of Omkareshwar mandir are beautiful. You will also find many small mandirs inside the premises dedicated to Ganesha, Radha Krishna, Navagraha, Lakshmi Narasimha, Hanumaan and other forms of Eeshwara like – Swapneshwar Mahadev, Vruddhakaleshwar, Nagachandreshwar, Chandradityeshwar. Even the Navagraha’s and Saptashri’s here are in the form of linga. You would be allowed to do abhisheka to Shiv ji in these mandirs. Please do plan at least an hour to take blessing at all these shrines. Riddhi-Siddhi Ganesh Ji and Radha-Krishna shringar is so colourful to watch. Mainly, don’t miss Sakshi Gopal (in the form of Radha-Krishna-Revathi-Balarama). Seeking his blessings is the proof for your darshana of Mahakaleshwar 😊.
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| Riddhi-Siddhi Ganesh |
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| Sakshi Gopala |
By the time we were back to room
around 1:00 PM, Anand uncle (pandit ji at Ujjain) had come to visit us. Thanks
to my friend Vinod, who introduced us to Anand uncle in Ujjain who is a very
polite and sweet person. He helped us in arranging all pooje items to perform
our dad’s death anniversary which was next day on 3rd November. He
also helped us to well plan our city visit. As per his guidance, we went to
“Apna Sweets” restaurant for lunch. It’s very famous in Ujjain and Indore (like
our Mahalakshmi Sweets in Karnataka 😊). Apna sweets has been
awarded with “National Award for Empowerment of Divyangjan (Specially-abled person)
2017” by the President of India Shri Ram Nath Kovind. The food is tasty and
hygiene. It is at a walkable distance from temple. (It actually became our
lunch and dinner point for all the 3 days during our stay @ Ujjain). Our next
plan was to visit Sandhya Aarathi of Mahakaal which happens exactly at 6:45 PM
every day. As we couldn’t have proper sleep the previous night due to
travelling, after lunch we came back to room and took a nap. Karthik went to
temple again to collect next day’s Bhasmarthi tickets.
Sandhya Aarathi
(Evening Aarathi)– Experiencing Mahadev’s Powerful Vibe:
After getting up we ordered flavourful
hot tea. Few minutes later the hotel boy came and with a smile handed over our
tea telling – “Madam aapki chai”. Such a cute teenage boy !! We were
already blown away with the goodness of MP people and this boy’s smile was
icing on the cake. The hospitality of hotel staff made
us feel at home.
We got ready and went to temple at
6:15. The main prangana of ground floor also facilitated with steps like
amphitheatre. Devotees are allowed to sit and have darshana during
Sandhyaarathi and Bhasmarathi’s (Would suggest, be early to the queue and sit
in front line).
Mahakaal was looking spectacular with Bhaang (cannabis) Shringar (Yes!! You read it right. Here at Ujjain, Shiv Ji would be decorated with Bhaang paste) on which they arrange dry fruits, cardamom, haldi-kumkum, moustache to give facial image. Final beautification with the ornaments, flower garlands add more power to Shivji’s look. Simply Amazing, as if Shiv ji is looking at us and giving smile!! Sandhya Aarthi started exactly at 6:45 which led to the sudden flow of energy in devotees inside the prangana. The divine sound of shanka & bells indicating the begin of Aarti, Shivji’s bhavya shringar, rhythmic beat of the big drum during aarti and the way pandit ji offers aarti in sync with all these musical sounds - are just beyond words. What a powerful vibe it is!! Getting goosebumps even while writing about this. One will forget everything in such energetic atmosphere and start clapping in sync with the drumbeat. (I started crying missing you Anna. Do you remember the previous night of your demise, when we had been to Shrikantheshwara temple on the occasion of Shivraathri – you were enjoying the bhajan in the same way clapping in sync with the music, how you were patting on my shoulder with joy. I felt you are standing behind me during Aarthi and patting me the same way. Tears flood from my heart. Miss you a lot Anna 😢). For those 15-20 mins of duration, I was lost in my own world.
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| Jai Mahakaal 🙏 |
While coming out after aarati - at the exit, Mahakaal’s photo with Ardha Naareeshwara Shringar caught my attention. I felt that is the most beautiful and effort consuming shringar on Mahakaal. Noticing this photo on the wall of temple is very special memory for me – the reason you will get to know while reading. Later we took blessings from Sakshi Gopal & Omkareshwar. On the occasion of Deepavali week, temple shrine was illuminated with colourful lights. We sat in the premises for few minutes relishing the colours and reminiscing the aarti experience.
Maa Harsiddhi temple (kuladevi of Raja
Vikramaditya) is about 350 metres away from Mahakaleshwar temple. It is one of
the Shakti peetha where Maa Sati’s elbow fell.
Shakti Peetha: Various legends explain how the Shakti Peetha
came into existence. The most popular is based on the story of the death of Goddess Sati. Out of
grief and sorrow, Shiva carried Sati's
body, reminiscing about their moments as a couple, and roamed around the
universe with it. Vishnu had cut her body into 51 body parts, using his
Sudarshana Chakra, which fell on Earth to become sacred sites where all the
people can pay homage to the Goddess. (curtesy: Wikipedia)
Fortunately, Sandhyaarathi was
happening there too 😊. (However, we missed the event of lighting
the 2 huge deepa sthambam which is of total 1111 lamps which takes 60 ltr oil
to light all lamps for 10 minutes. These 2 deepa Jyothi stambh inside the
temple premises will be lit during evening aarthi.) Needless to say - the
Bells, the Chants, Cymbals, Tambourine sounds created sacred atmosphere equally
like Mahakaal mandir. Beautiful Annapurna Maa is painted in dark vermilion
colour. On that day, she was attractively decorated with dry fruits.
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| Maa Harsiddhi 🙏 |
From Harsiddhi temple we took auto, had dinner and came back to room around 8:30. As next day we had to go to Bhasmaarathi we wanted to sleep early. But since it was Deepavali week, due to firecrackers sound we could not. By that time, I started feeling feverish again and cough got increased. I had to skip next day Bhasmaarathi to take rest and recover. 😔
3rd
November 2021
Bhasmaarathi:
Amma and Karthik got up by 1:30 AM mid
night and got ready to go to Bhasmaarathi. Good thing is - the hotel staff were
awake and available 24*7. We could get hot coffee even at that time.
Note: Bhasmaarathi would cost 100 Rs per
person and you need to collect ticket at temple counter the previous day itself
before 5:00 PM. Better to book online (between 8 AM to 9 PM) well in advance
before your travel at: “dic.mp.nic.in/ujjain/mahakal/default.aspx” and get the ticket collected at temple counter
(again, the previous day itself before 5:00 PM, else you will not be allowed to
attend Bhasmaarthi next day). This will save your time during your travel.
While booking online, you need to update each
visitor’s details as per the Aadhar Card along with Aadhar number and photo. Do
not forget to carry Aadhar card and booking printout (with QR code) to show at
the ticket counter. Ticket with Aadhar number will be validated next day too
when you visit Bhasmaarathi. Hence, always carry your Aadhar card.
I woke up at 7:00 AM and got fresh. I was feeling alright as fever had reduced but was still feeling weak. Amma & CK came back at 7:30 AM. They missed me for Bhasmaarathi and narrated me their experience. Since our stay at Ujjain was comfortable and we had lot more places to cover, we decided to extend our stay to 3 days. (Thankfully, CK had already booked for 2 days Bhasmaarathi 😊. His travel planning is always perfect).
At 10:30 we went to Anand Uncle’s home where he had arranged for our dad’s Shraadh. Rituals went well and we were very much satisfied that we could perform this at a holy place, at the holy river Shipra.
Places to
visit Around Ujjain:
Note: We always prefer booking local rikshaw/auto for city
visit as they in turn become our tourist guide too, the best way to get to know
the eminence of the place. At Ujajin, you can get auto to visit around 10+
places for Rs 300. Better connect with your hotel staff, they will have
internal business deal and the drivers will not miss any place if you go
through them. Since we had one more day stay, we decided not to rush in covering
all the places in one day.
Gadkalika Temple:
We booked an auto and first visited Gadkalika
temple which is devoted to Maa Kaali. It is about 5 Km from Ujjain. This is one
of the 51 shaktipeeth where Maa Sati’s upper lip fell. I guess – In MP, dark
vermilion colour is used as the prominent colour to decorate the Deity. The
colour looked so pretty on the big smiling face of Kaali maa😊.
It is also said that Gadkalika wrote beejakshara on the tongue of Kalidasa (4th-5th
Century) and made him a classical Sanskrit author who was illiterate before the
incident. (Few great drama’s written by him are – Abhijnana Shakuntalam,
Kumarasambhavam, Meghaduta etc. In 1983, Kannada film was released named
“Kavirathna Kalidasa” based on his life along with the narration of his poetic
drama Abhijnana Shakuntala acted by Dr. Raj Kumar).
Kaalbhairav
Mandir:
Next, we went to Kaal Bhairav Mandir which is 2.3 Km away from Gadh Kaalika, believed as the guardian of the city. Interestingly this is the only temple where devotees will offer alcohol to deity 😃. Pandit Ji at temple explained, due to Covid regulations they are not allowing. Otherwise, they offer liquor near Kalbhairav Ji’s mouth and he does drink all, no one know where it goes. Anyways being non-alcoholic, we did not take chadava basket as we had no idea what to do if they return it back to us as Bhairav ji ka prasad. 🙆😅
From there, next destination was
around 7 Km away. Mangalnaath temple is said to be the birthplace of Mangala
Graha (Planet Mars). Temple is located in peaceful and spacious area, known to
be the famous place to perform puja to get rid of mangal dosh. When we visited,
renovation was going on, but the temple is open for devotees. The main
attraction of this place is 51 feet colourful bird house which gives shelter to
thousands of birds. They feed 25 kgs grain to birds every day.
Chaubees Kambh:
On the way back to hotel, we wanted to
visit Dwarakadhish Gopal Mandir. But since it is inside the market and due to
deepavali shopping crowd we had to drop it. We took darshan of the
oldest temple in Ujjain with 24 pillars dedicated
to choti mata and badi mata (Goddesses Mahalaya and Mahamaya). It was
constructed in the times of Raja Vikramadithya during 9th-10th
century. It was the main entrance gate to Mahakaal Mandir road. But later got
closed due to city expansion.
Sandhyarathi Day 2:
We came back to room, got fresh. It
was time again for day 2 sandhyaarathi. Temple was gearing up to welcome after-depaavali
crowd. Barricades were put on even outside the temple (almost from Harsiddhi
temple to Mahakaal Mandir) to maintain queue system.
We got inside prangana and waited for aarthi to begin. On the auspicious day of Dhanteras, priests offered Sparkle Aarti to Mahakaal. entire garbhagriha was brightened up and created heavenly atmosphere with sparkles.
Note: In one of the Facebook pages related to temple - I came
to know that, Mahakaal gives darshan in 1825 forms throughout 365 days.
Sometimes he gets decorated with hemp, sometimes with sandalwood & dry
fruits, and sometimes with fruits and flowers. All this decoration happens
during 5 types of aarti daily – Bhasmaarathi, Dadyodak aarthi, Bhogaarathi,
Sandhyaarathi & Shayanaarathi. So no matter for how many days you are going
to stay at Ujjain, do not miss any of the opportunity to attend the aarti’s.
After aarthi, we went for shopping. We
thought of getting some chadava for next day bhasmaarathi. We purchased dhoti
for Shiv ji and some sweets for him.
4th
November 2021
Bhasmaarathi 2nd Day:
I was completely recovered by next day
and got up first at 1:00 AM mid night. We got ready for Bhasmaarathi and
reached temple by 2:00 AM. At the entrance they verified our aarti tickets and
aadhaar card.
Note: No cameras and plastic bags are allowed inside the
temple, please ensure you are not carrying any.
Though you would be allowed inside prangana at 4:00 AM, people start gathering in queue from 1:30 AM itself. Before we reached, there were many people in queue already. After 5-10 minutes sitting in queue, I started feeling sleepy. I looked around and saw, many were snoozing 😴. We did not want to sleep inside temple premises so somehow avoided .
I noticed a charming senior citizen couple sitting next to me who were discussing on their trip plan written in their dairy. I just wanted some diversion to control my sleep and peeked into their diary. By looking at their attire (cream sary with border and vibhooti on forehead) I thought they are from Kerala. I started the conversation in English and told them how nicely they have made a note of each place, date & time of visit, which places are yet to cover and all. It was almost like a mini blog 😊. They smiled at me and said – though they are from Kerala, they live in Bengaluru since 40 years and proud kannadigas. They were very happy to come across Kannadigas outside Karnataka. That’s it !! It initiated a wonderful conversation between us which went on for 2 long hours from where they stay to, what all places they visited and about their Army son. It was a proud moment for me as well to meet Kannadigas outside Karnataka and more importantly - meeting parents of an Indian Army officer 🙏.
Exactly at 4:00 AM, they opened the
gate and we were allowed to sit inside the main prangana. Prior to
bhasmaarathi, priests started decorating shivji with Haldi-kumkum, dry fruits
and ornaments. Speakers were on and we could hear the chants along with taking glimpse
of sringar on TV display. By the time decoration was completed, two more priest
collected the chadava’s from devotees in big bags.
They covered Shivji’s sringar in white
cloth and started sprinkling the Bhasma on shivji chanting aghora mantra. The
entire garbhgriha was encased with bhasma. after bhasmaarathi - the sweets, the
dhotis, flower garlands, Bilva patre (Indian Bael leaves) – each and every
single item given by the devotees got its place in main decoration and made
shiv ji look even more radiant. The entire process of 3 hours duration is a serene
experience and takes you to hypnotic mode. After aarthi, once again we did
register our attendance at Sakshi Gopal and came back to hotel at 7:20 AM 😊.
Before/after bhasmarathi and sringar post aarthi:
Bhasmaarathi: Out of 12 jotirlinga’s, Only at Mahaakaal mandir Shiv ji gets decorated with Bhasm. Here at Ujjain, earlier aghoris used to bring previous day’s last cremated body’s ashes from rudra bhoomi (burial-ground) and offered it on Shivji chanting Aghora Mantra. But now the practice has changed and they use cow dung to prepare bhasm.
(Below one is my favorite Bhasmarathi sringar photo, received by Anand uncle - very strict, yet a very handsome Mahakaal😍)
Chintaman Ganesh:
After breakfast we started for 2nd
day city tour. On the way to Chitamani Ganesh temple, auto driver showed us the
land area where Sadhu’s will stay during Ujjain Kumbh mela. He also explained
us about the history of Chintanam Ganesh Mandir.
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Courtesy : Google |
After Dhasharatha’s demise, Lord Rama was
worried on what will happen to Dasharatha’s soul. Rishi Agasthya seeing lord
Rama’s concern, suggested to pray Ganaesh to clear all his worries and also
suggested to perform Aparkarma (Shraaddha). Rama was again worried as there was
no water available to perform the shraadha. So, Lakshmana with his arrow
created a water pond which now flows as river Shipra. Hence the place is famous
with 3 Ganesh moorthi’s in one temple:
Chintaman Ganesh – Who will clear all worries
Icchaman Ganesh – Who will fulfill all wishes
Siddhi Vinayak – Who will give success
Jantar Mantar:
Sandeepani Ashram:
Auto driver had kept it at the end
knowing this place would take minimum an hour. Very calm and quite place which
will tell you more about the schooling and childhood days of little lord
Krishna – the Gurukul where Krishna along with his brother Balaraama and friend
Sudhama learnt all vidya’s from Guru Sandeepani.
It has a dedicated shrine for Rishi
Sandeepani with Krishna, Balarama, Sudhama (sitting and writing).
The premises has Gomathi Khund –
Stepped water pond. It is believed that Shree Krishna summoned all the holy
waters from various rivers so that his elderly Guru Saandipani Rishi would not
have to travel much for taking dip in these holy rivers. Hence the Kalyani is considered
auspicious.
During his education in this gurukul,
Krishna learnt 14 Vidya's and 64 arts like singing, dancing, use of weapons,
making tools, furniture, jewellery, learning veda’s etc. all the vidya’s and
arts are catalogued on wall in the form of colourful paintings. By looking into
these paintings felt nostalgic as well as wondered even we learnt few skills but
did not give much importance to it as a kala – like making flower garlands, playing
with dice, practicing language difficult to be understood by others (like we
used to add ‘Pa’ before every letter in a word while talking), splashing the
water with stone (throwing a stone into river water which goes jumping 2-3
steps) 😊.
Ram Janaki-Janardhan Mandir:
Next we visited this 17th
century temple which has shrine for both Ram and Janardhan (Krishna). The murthis
are of 10th-11th century. There is a pond in front of
Janardhan Mandir. It is believed that this is the only place which is visited
by lord Vishnu during his both avataars and Krishna used to play in the pond
with his friends during the breaks of his gurukul classes. In this temple of
lord Rama - the left legs of Rama, Lakshmana and Seetha is not straight in
standing position but crossed and facing left indicating their journey to
Vanavaas.
Sandhyarathi Day 3:
Our 3rd day Sandhyaarathi was very
special as it was Deepavali Night !! Temple was filled with festive vibes with
the colourful lights and cheerful devotees. While entering the queue
complex, on TV we saw - that day it was Ardha Nareeshwar Srinigar - the most
beautiful Srinigar photo which had caught my attention on day 1. We could not
believe our eyes !! We just ran inside the temple, didn’t want to waste a
single second. Mahakaal was looking delightful, half side as Shiv ji with
Bhaang and the other half as Parvathi with Chandan !! On the occasion of
festival, temple authority and priests families were present near garbhgrih for
aarti and there were so many colourful sweets kept around Nandi as decoration.
Drumbeat, the special Sparkle aarti everything added more energy. We just stood
there and felt the inexplicable power of Shiva-Shakti. What else we could have
asked for before bidding adios to this supernal city !!
Next day early morning we left Ujjain.
A series of wonderful places Indore-Maheshwar-Omkareshwar were waiting for us.
Somehow it took
many days to finish this blog, for the reason I was occupied in work and also
unknowingly I always worry about the length of my blogs. My friends-family
tried convincing me that detailing really keeps them sail through reading as if
they visited these places and helps them for their travel plan. Finally, my
aunt Shobha suggested - I can also plan to publish it in 2 parts. Thanks to her
for this brilliant idea. This helped me to regain the interest and sit back to
finish part 1. All credits to her !!😘
We really had some wonderful experiences with the other cities of MP which I did not want to cut down giving length reason. I cannot wait to share it with you all as a separate blog : "Madhya Pradesh – The Heart of India : Part 2" .
See
you sooooon 👍!!!!
