M.P. : A ‘shot through the’ dill of Hindustan - up, close & personal

“DON'T LISTEN TO WHAT THEY SAY. Go See." - Anonymous (Chinese)

There was an ongoing fight between me and some unknown cosmic power/entity for the past three years. I wanted to travel Madhya Pradesh but it won’t let me. Starting from May 2015, I made three attempts, with 66.67% failure rate – the first one was with my Cognizant office colleagues/friends – we couldn’t manage adequate holidays; in 2016 – I couldn’t convince any friends (Dipayan had started doing MBA, but main culprit was Samit, he had already toured there). The success came at 2018, with my new office seniors at Hyland. I like to call this trip an open-heart surgery, from the left atrium (Khajuraho) to Papillary muscle (Jabalpur), the catch was I thought India is the patient in this allegory, but instead we were put on the O.T. courtesy - M.P. transport😊.

The trip plan started with three people myself, Subhankar da (Abba da, senior, one year) and his friend Sobitri da. Later we were joined by Nishant da (Lord Katappa, senior, 5-6 year), then just before 20 days of our journey, Sobitri da had cancel due to unforeseen office commitments and we were back to three. Nishant da was the charm of our group and Abba da was the decision maker. I was happy to skid through without any responsibility except only booking the trains.

We originally planned for nine days: ‘HOWRAH-KATNI-KHAJURAHO-ORCHA-JABALPUR-BHEDAGHAT-UMARIA-BANDHAVGHAR-BILASPUR-HOWRAH’ with Katappa till Bhedaghat only. But with the loss of Sobitri da we modified the itinerary and it also went through some run-time changes to become: ‘HOWRAH-SATNA-KHAJURAHO-PANNA_FORST-JABALPUR-BHEDAGHAT-JABALPUR-KOLKATA_AIRPORT’

Our planning was very limited. We only booked the major transports. Rest we decided to do at runtime as it was off-season in all the places in our modified itinerary (our Bandhavghar stay &safaris was booked & cancelled – we didn’t incur any penalties as it was govt. owned).

On the night of 4th May 2018 – we were supposed to board Howrah-Mumbai mail at 10:05 PM, but it was 8 hrs. late on source. Myself and Abba da spent the night at Howrah station waiting room, Katappa joined us at about 5:45 AM on the next morning. Frustrated with Indian Railway once again, tired due to no sleep, we still had the initial enthusiasm when we boarded the train.

The journey:

DAY -1: [HOWRAH - SATNA] – 5th May 2018(Saturday)

We started in ‘Howrah-Mumbai Mail’ @about 6:07 AM. During the course of our travel the train was further late by 5 hrs. It was ‘kind of a bachelor’s trip’, as not all of us was bachelor. But for a trip to Khajuraho, Katappa was given the honorary bachelor status😊.

Various characters in our S8-coach peaked my interest. There was a group of 4-5 Hindu priests who were travelling to Satna to perform at some religious function, Abba da & later Katappa played 29 (card game) with them for a brief period; then there was this retired forest officer for a small section of journey – a very lively person, fit as a fiddle even in his 70s – who gave us some free ‘Gyan’ about not drinking bottled water and occasionally some people native to Bihar and U.P. mostly were injecting them into our coach & sometimes seats even (as is the nature of our railway service passing through that region). By 12:50 PM that noon, we had crossed Koderma and it occurred to us that we hadn’t eaten anything all day. Hence, we ordered lunch from the pantry which was surprisingly quite alright (I have found this not to be the case in most of my train journeys, except in Rajdhani/Jana Shatabdi). When we reached Satna, it was almost 3:10AM the next day, it was tough to get off the train as most of the supposedly free passage in our coach had people sleeping on it ☹. Katappa was shell shocked (he was travelling in sleeper class for the first time in many years😊).

DAY - 2: [SATNA – KHAJURAHO (CHHATARPUR) & Temple Tour] – 6th May 2018(Sunday)

Our plan was to stay at Satna station or some nearby hotel for the night (as we were supposed to reach by 2:40 PM the earlier day), but while on a Sutta + Chai break just outside the station for an agitated Katappa, Abba da inquired and reserved a car to take us to Khajuraho that very instant. We were a bit skeptical whether the hotel would be open this early in the morning, but the driver assured us. Hence though still in some doubt we said hurrah and soldiered on (It cost us Rs 2200/-).

We drove through for about 2.5 hrs., sometimes along the forest buffer road vivisecting Panna tiger reserve, discussing along Katappa’s expertise on love, life and other ‘L’ words. At 6:05 AM, we reached Khajuraho and found Zostel (our intended stay) to be closed. Abba da & I inquired and mostly Abba da showed great enthusiasm in banging Zostel door to gain the focus of its attendants, who was kind enough to receive us. We booked an A/C dormitory room, which at max allows 8 persons in four bunk beds for one and a half day (this was an interesting feature we found out about that Zostel allows booking for half day also), it just very much cost-saving decision as the charge was only Rs 400/day per person. By the way Katappa had already started with his summer shopping spree (he brought two books on local architecture that early in the morning).

We initially decided to take rest that morning in our room but changed our mind after knowing about a recurring thunderstorm happening in that region for the past 3-4 days with more forecasted. Hence, we wanted to utilize the then current good weather fully. By 7:25 AM we finished our morning activities including bath and were ready to visit the famous temples of Khajuraho.

With the slowly ascending sun above our head, we entered the western section of Khajuraho temples created by the moon-worshiping Chandela dynasty. It is a UNESCO world heritage site. When our guide Mr. Satyendra Srivastava was solemnly explaining to us the sculptures of various erotic proclivity on the walls, I gaped in awe at the intricacy of the stone carvings. Yes, there is erotic sculptures all over the temple walls, but Khajuraho isn’t only about erotica; it depicts life of an era when sex wasn’t considered a taboo. It was as normal as people going to work, doing household chores etc. He said, Mandir means ‘Man ke andar’ (inside our heart), it in where the god resides, surrounded by our body and bodily needs. It was such a progressive culture.

The western temple section is hardly 5 minutes’ walk from the Zostel. There is an entry fee, Rs 30/- per head for Indians & Rs 500/- per head for foreigners currently. The large open-air complex dotted with impressive structures, parks, trees and modest number of tourists, both national and international.

We started from Lakshmana Temple (on the left side) after visiting a relatively small temple dedicated to Varaha (incarnation of Vishnu). There is a huge metallic statue of Varaha, inscribed with art cravings. After taking some pics, we entered another temple devoted to Vishnu and then a few, the last one was the most beautiful Kandariya Mahadev Temple. It is larger in comparison to other structures.

Satyendra explained, there are mostly three types of temple architectures in India - Nagara (North Indian), Dravida (South Indian) & Vesara (Mix), Khajuraho is an example of Nagara style hence the temples are placed on high platforms and do not have any enclosure walls. Every temple is divided into an entrance area followed by a hall and then to the sanctum bearing the main idol of the worshiping deity. Another feature is an arc-shaped thing with two conchs placed on the ends placed in front of the entrance of every temple, it is called Makara Arch (Makara is a sea-creature in hindu culture, half terrestrial frontal - half aquatic hind part, it is the vahana of Ganga), going under this arch symbolizes purification before entering main temple.

The last temple we visited here was “Matangeshwar Mahadev Temple”. We came to know from our guide that there was originally a total of 85 temples in Khajuraho, out of which mostly 18-20 are still intact.

Satyendra told us a story, Chandela kings wanted to increase their population to provide more men for their armies. Knowing that people would come to pray at the temple and walk around the outside, they put these carvings hoping that their subjects would be inspired.

He talked about stone carvings depicting tantra (ida, pingala, sushumna), Purusartha (Object of Human Pursuit) - Dharma (Moral duty), Artha (prosperity), Kama (Physical love) & Moksha (Spiritual liberation), amalgamation of righteous sex into spirituality to attain Moksha, Apsaras, war tactics, prohibited animal sex, and human’s fight with desire (in shape of animal). We were amazed.

My own readings about the origins of these temples is an enchanting mix of legend & history: Hemwati, the enchantingly beautiful daughter of the royal priest of Kashi, went to bathe in a pond full of lotuses, on a full moon night. Mesmerized by her beauty the moon god descended on earth and stated a family with her, he advises Hemwati to raise his son near the forest of Khajuraho. The son Chandravarman grew up to be a king, establishing Chandela dynasty, setting kingdom in Kalinjar. To atone for the sins of his unwed mother he laid foundation of the temples in Khajuraho, which until then was a forest of date palms (date – Khajur in Hindi). For generations the Chandela kings added to the temples of Khajuraho. With the passage of time, the temples were buried under thick forests until a British officer stumbled across them in the 19th century.

It took us close to 3 hours to cover the western section of temples, myself and Katappa was watching the last temple in this section, Abba da skipped that to went back to the earlier main temples to do a video recording. We wish to share a small audio commentary along with the video at a later point of time to give a more detailed explanation of the temples as we learned from our guide, that seems to be the better approach.

At about 10:30 AM, we were exhausted with burning sun over our head. Hence, we made our way back to Zostel for rest after confirming with Satyendra to start the next part of our temple exploration at about 4PM that day.

Back in Zostel, we found out we had a new room partner – Lee from Korea, the very brief time we spent with him made us feel he is a very friendly person. Lee was just going out to start his temple tour. We went out for lunch and stayed most of the time in Zostel due to scorching heat outside. Lee, after coming back from his tour shared some of his experiences with us, like he had left his job one year ago and started travelling around the globe alone. He has already visited Thailand, Japan, some of Europe, Latin America etc. with India being his last destination. Here also, he had been in Delhi, Agra, Jaipur, Jodhpur, Udaipur, Leh-Ladakh etc. Now he is in Khajuraho. After finishing India, he wishes to go back to his homeland to find a new Job.

At about 4:15 PM we left Zostel again to start our tour of the eastern and southern group of Khajuraho temples, Satyendra was waiting.

We took an auto. It hardly took 15 minutes’ drive to reach Southern Complex and there was no entry fee. Here we first saw Chaturbhuj temple, followed with Dulhadev. These temples were not in the same place, rather scattered across the city. A very special sculpture we came across in the walls of Chaturbhuj temple was that of Narasimha avatar, in feminine form. I don’t think in any other place we have such a feminine Narasimha.

The eastern group are mainly dominated by Jain temples and are smaller compared to the western ones, but have finer art engraved on the walls with more fascinating intricacies. But due to renovation work done on their compounds lost most of its charm. We managed to the view main ones, namely, The Parshwanath Temple, Lord Mahavira Temple and Adinath Temple (there were others too dedicated to other Tirthankaras). We were visibly tired and we haven’t had a proper sleep in the last two days, hence we decided to go back to Zostel. On our way we crossed the part of the town that resembles any other urban village with govt schools, tiny houses and stray animals. During this time Satyendra suggested us travel Panna Tiger reserve the next day. I personally had thought of visiting Orchha Palace, but the groups mind was set on Panna as we already had to cancel Bandhavghar, hence I complied. We paid Satyendra advance for booking safari and tickets for Panna and his dues as guide and took a group picture to remember him by.

As soon as we were back to our room, I went to sleep and woke up the next morning. It made us skip a few things like two archaeological museums, a tribal and folk-art museum, the sound & light show near western group of temples and even dinner that night😊.

The next morning, I found out that even Abba da hadn’t eaten anything that night, he only woke up once to pay the hotel dues, Katappa however had roamed around the city streets and enjoyed many local roadside foods.

DAY - 3: [KHAJURAHO – PANNA – SATNA – JABALPUR & Jungle Safari] – 7th May 2018(Monday)

We had chosen Panna National Park over Orchcha palace and Raneh falls. Not sure about others but I was not really expecting anything other than the beauty of the forest, my past experiences being not so good in case of jungle safaris.

We woke up at about 4 AM that morning and rushed to get ready, we didn’t want to miss the chance for a morning jungle sighting. The jeep was waiting on our hotel gate, we hopped on and started for Panna. It took us about 45 mins to reach old forests that lay bathed in the warm glow of the morning sun, along the vast expanse of the Ken River strewn with little islands.

Before entry, we have to pay some Rs 360/- as convenience fee and were introduced to our guide Kailash Sen. A Bengali by name only Kailash da's family has been in Bundelkhand region for the past 3-4 generations at least. Hence, except name there is no other bangaliana left in him.

Panna National Park in Panna and Chhatarpur districts of M.P. has an area of 542.67 sq. km, it is said to be the best maintained national park of India by our Ministry of Tourism, and it is obviously my best jungle safari till date. There are two entrance gates to Panna forest. It is possible to enter from one entrance gate and exit from other, we entered from Madla gate and exited from Hinauta.

Kailash da claimed we had great change of animal sighting and within mere 5 mins from the start of our safari we spotted a leopard, awestruck, I had forgotten to use the camera, Kailash da shouted click,click.. I handed over the camera to Abba da who was the better photographer among us, before he could adjust the focus, the leopard (may be scared of the crowd) ran fast though the road just in front of us, Abba da's click captured his whole body, except the head. But this was not the end.

Let’s just say Panna is beautiful, Ken river is gorgeous, perfect.

We marched on and saw many herd of deer of different kinds, they were very least bothered of our presence, Katappa called them celebrity with lot of ‘Bhao’. We saw some peacocks, a wild boar and occasional birds and reached a watch tower. Other safaris were accumulated there eating their packed breakfasts, we didn’t have any except our cookies, we munched some, Katappa smoked and Kailash da said let’s not waste time and he was right. We were driving down a trail with Ken river flowing below a cliff at our left we Kailash da shouted ‘stop, Tiger’. Then again ‘go back,back,back, now stop, see Nitish ji, see’(somehow, he had assumed Katappa is Nitish and kept calling him that the entire safari). We saw the tiger, finally after all these years in jungle safari, I saw my first tiger, and what a sight it was!! Submerged in river water she peaked our interest but we didn’t of hers’, she lied in relief of cold water below the burning sun as like nothing else matters, ‘what do you lame humans understand, let me take my bath’.

Camera shutters were going crazy everywhere Kailash da was fighting with other jeep guide to provide us the best view, and the view we did get. 10 mins of craziness and the tiger, ‘থুড়ি’ tigress had enough. She calmly swam under the next available bush in water to have more cover from sun, Alas far away from our sights. We marched onward. We saw the second leopard sitting in the branches of a tree. This time Abba da has enough time to take some click however most of time its face was in the reverse direction.

By 9:30 AM, when we finished we were satisfied tourists. Abba gave generous tips to both the guide and driver and they helped us boarding a bus – which was Satna bound.

While writing this post I did some searching and was pleasantly surprised founding out that very near the Panna forest there is Pandav caves (mentioned in the Mahabharata where Pandavas spent a long time of their exile), alas I was not aware of this before or wouldn’t have missed it, we had time.

Our bus journey was almost 3hrs long, including a 15 mins stoppage in between. By 12:15 PM we were near Satna railway station when we booked an Auto to take us to a budget hotel to kill the time till our scheduled train journey to Jabalpur.

Abba da courageously bargained with various hotel owners to get us a cheaper rate, after some futile attempts, we managed a dormitory room near the station for some Rs 600/-, where we took rest, bathed and only went out for lunch once, we spent most of the time sleeping. At about 7:30 PM, we left the hotel for station to catch PPTA-LTT express which was also as my luck would have it, 1.5 hrs late.

What is wrong with Indian railway? I wonder, but we had bigger fish to fry – What is wrong with M.P. railway stations? Was the suggested fish. Platform board said the train would enter at 9:30 PM after running late, it entered and departed by 9:20 without any sort of platform announcement, we had no clue, despite being at the station before time we missed the train. Dumb bad luck? Stupidity on our part? Don’t know now what to say – when I try to make people understand the scenario becomes debatable, but trust me on this, if you were not put into the situation, you can’t possibly understand.

Anyhow, we booked general tickets for super-fast train, fed our bellies with idlis from the station canteen and as per suggestion from Railway inquiry counter (who seemed more clueless than us) waited for the next GHY-LTT express scheduled to arrive at 11:10 PM.

It was 11:10 PM and a train had entered platform 1, we marched in hurry to board it, but I saw it is written on the train ‘Agartala-Habibganj’, this was not our train. The actual harakiri began right then, we three started asking people, 'is this GHY-LTT express?' some official said ‘yes’ (WTF- can’t you read), some vendor said ‘no’, 'Will it stop at Jabalpur?' 3 votes to ‘Yes’, 2 shouts to ‘No’. Abba da’s whats-app was pinging with constant worry from Kakima(his mother), I was lost, Katappa was in a zone of supposed ‘Moksha’. With all this madness we were in front of the last compartment of the train, there was no more time Abba da (the Bir Abba da) said 'উঠ, উঠ, দেখা যাবে | '(Uth Uth, dekha Jabe), we boarded, and it was the compartment reserved for handicapped people.

The saga of mishaps continued, in all this rush Abba da had spilled his coffee in his pant and on the train floor. Still it seemed the train journey was better than our last one (from HWH-SATNA), at least Katappa thought so.

We reached Jabalpur at 3 AM (again a journey that ended at 3 in night), there were no major hiccups in between. After a brief tea session, we enquired about retiring room and the station but all were occupied hence we booked an auto who promised to take us to a budget hotel, he did find out one for the night. But, I highly doubt in was one primed from one-night stands. The gloom spilling from the rooms, holes in bed post, timid lightings - all were supporting my claim, to make the assumption more concrete, the hotel name was ‘Tanhai', still we managed for a night.

DAY - 4: [ JABALPUR – BHEDAGHAT] – 8th May 2018(Tuesday)

I generally find myself on being able to sleep almost anywhere, under any circumstances. Once I had to sleep on an unreserved coach of a Dhanbad bound train while standing right beside the toilet (all this time my friend Dipak was fighting with other passengers to manage some extra space). Hence, it is needless to say, I slept well even in the seedy hotel room, but it was not the case for Abba da or Katappa, mosquitos were not kind to them that night.

On Tuesday morning when I woke up, everyone was already awake. By 8:30 AM we were ready, as the room was already paid for we didn’t waste any time. We left the hotel and reserved an auto-rickshaw to take us to Bhedaghat.

Bhedaghat is a small nagar panchayat in Jabalpur district, situated by the side of Narmada. In auto it took us near about an hour and a half to reach, travelling about 25 Kms. Our hotel here was pre-booked by Abba da. At last we found a proper bed, tired as we were, we went to bed once again.

When we woke up it was already past noon and we were yet to eat anything that day. Hence, we went for lunch. That evening, as per one of the hotel boy’s suggestion we decided to take the boat ride in river Narmada, flowing surrounded with marble rocks.

During our ride we came to know, previously they used to arrange boat rides in the night also, but due to many instances of local troublemakers concerning alcohol, that practice was scrapped. Now the boat ride only happens till 6 PM. Current charge for boat ride (as of May 2018) in Rs 100/person from Panchvati Ghat.

Marble Rocks boat ride takes place on a gorge along part of the Narmada River’s path. Earlier, the gorge was so narrow in size that, monkeys could cross over from one side to another. Hence, locally this place was called Bandar Kudni (Monkey's jumping place). The shear limestone rocks, rising perpendicularly out of the placid waters of Narmada River, creates a stunning spectacle. It was approx. a 5-6 km (both way) boat ride, operated by three person, two rowers and a steer-er cum guide (controlling boat’s direction). The fun part of the ride was the poetic/comical narration from the guide about the story of the Marble Rocks, with frequent references from Bollywood blockbusters (e.g. Jis Desh Mein Ganga Behti Hai, Bobby, Asoka, Mohenjo Daro etc.). As these marble cliffs have been the shooting spot of several Bollywood movies. The guide in a funny way correlated many cliffs with elephant & horses and even fighting kids. There were even structures representing the three monkeys of Gandhi, as per his imaginations. Every place along the boat ride trail has its own nomenclature. I remember an open area with several prospective outlets is called the Bhulbhulia, the maze. Another interesting thing here were the brave-heart local kids diving into Narmada from cliffs of marble rock, Abba da identified them as the ‘daredevils of Bhedaghat’. He had just recently saw a documentary about them. Confident of their dive in the death fall, they shout rates like Rs. 50/100/300 for a jump, depending on the height. If the tourists agree, from the slippery rock jump straight into the booming river, no safety gears and no fear. Whether it is just raw talent or forced action due to poverty is still debatable in my mind.

After the ride ended, we spent some time of the river side enjoying the surroundings. We skipped our dinner that night, no one was hungry. Rather there was a hunger for a debate. We debated over some very sensitive issues that night, almost till 1AM, due to privacy concerns of others I am not going to share the details here, just to give a sense – the words used were spicy hot. 😊

DAY - 5: [DHUANDHAR & CHAUNSHAT YOGINIS] – 9th May 2018(Wednesday)

We still had a day left and two places to visit. We skipped Dhuandhar falls on Tuesday intentionally, as the light was fading. On Wednesday, we woke up by 7:15 AM and went straight to the fall site.

Dhuandhar waterfall – Dhuan (smoke) + dhar (flow of water), it actually does look like smoke coming out of the river. Narmada descends a massive 98 ft. (10 meter) here creating the spectacle. There are viewing platforms next to the falls offering grands views of plunging water. There is also a rope-way supposedly providing a unique birds eye view of the falls, we could use it as the ticket counters weren’t open yet.

Following visit to Dhuandhar falls, Abba da and Katappa went on a shopping spree. There is a local market near the fall selling marble sculptures and other marble made artifacts. I am not respected as a responsible shopper back home. Me buying things while touring is strictly prohibited, hence I didn’t buy anything ☹.

We had our breakfast (cum lunch, as we had decided to do it so), Abba da went back to our hotel to pay back our dues. We still had to see the Chaunsath Yogini Temple, he was not interested though. Hence, I took Katappa and marched ahead.

Chaunsath Yogini Temple - magnificent, inimitable artistry, dedicated to the goddess Durga. The temple is one of the four major extant temples containing carvings of 64 yoginis, female yoga mystics (alternatively incarnation of Goddess Parvati). Built in the 10th century by Kalachuri dynasty mainly using local granite, commanding a view of the whole area around and of the river flowing through the marble rocks. One has to climb 150+ steps to reach the temple campus. I found the main campus to be clean. It houses one of the rare idols of Shiva-Parvati riding the Nandi bull. Although the sad part is most of the yogini idols are destroyed and defaced during Mohammed Ghouri’s invasions.

A probably fictional story about this temple is, Ghouri after destroying all the Yogini's Statues went to the central temple of Shankar and Parvati sitting on Nandi Bull was unable to destroy due to honey bees attack as a miracle.

The temple has 3 entrances, two on west and one on south-east. The statues of the Yoginis stood in the cells around the periphery of the temple. A circle broken down in 84 equal cells, 3 of them serving as gateways, rest 81 cells houses statues. Expert says, 64 out of the 81 are Yoginis, while the rest are other deities like Shiva and Ganesh (another section believes that all the 81 are Yoginis). The central Shiva-Parvati temple was constructed about two centuries later; seemingly by queen Alhanadevi in 1155 (an inscription is there on a slab). I started moving in the usual clockwise direction to cover all the yoginis, but soon found several names missing.

My readings informed me, currently, there are 4 Chaunsath yogini temples in India, two in Orissa (Hirapur, Ranipur) and two in M.P. We missed the one at Khajuraho this time around.

Our tour was done and dusted, the only thing left was a journey back home. At about 11:30 AM we were on a local bus towards Jabalpur. It took us near about two hours to reach Jabalpur railway station from there, Jabalpur’s Dumna Airport is about 18 Kms.

We had another adventure left. OLA was predicting a fare of about Rs 350/- for a trip from station to airport, so we ask an auto, as our luck would have it – it was driven by two underage boys (14-16 yrs of age maybe). They said the know where airport is and will take us for Rs 150/- , 30 mins after we came to know neither they nor us were sure about it. Abba da kept prompting them the way using google map, we were counting our blessings to avoid another transport mishap. We reached airport by 2:30 PM-ish, quite early for a flight at 5:40 PM. Then again it was M.P. Hence, following general transport customs (sadly) the flight was late too. When finally the flight took off at 6:10 PM we were thankful for the memories and finishing what in our life we hope would be the worst transport experience ever.

An american author Pat Conroy wrote, ‘Once you have traveled, the voyage never ends, but is played out over and over again in the quietest chambers. The mind can never break off from the journey.’ It has been more than 20 days since my return from M.P.(today is 31st May 2018). Still I am not free from the dreams of Khajuraho’s charm, Panna’s beauty or Bhedaghat’s simplicity, I don’t think I ever will be. In my memory palace the slideshow of M.P. will keep on repeating itself. You see, ‘..the voyage never ends’.

References:

1. Satyendra Srivastava, our Khajuraho Guide

2. Kailash Sen, our Panna safari Guide.

3. Some self-study in Wikipedia.