Chapter one

Day 1- 13.6.2015 Dayalbagh (AGRA) TO TIMARNI (via Bhopal- Salkanpur)
I along with my parents left for Timarni in the morning from Dayalbagh, with the team of Doctors who were going to conduct medical camps there.
We travelled upto Bhopal by Shatabdi Express and from there by road to Timarni in two big taxis. The best part was that we crossed the river Narmada by a ferry which could accommodate all of us along with our taxis.
We reached Timarni Satsang colony late evening after the whole day’s journey.

DAY 2- 14.6.2015 TIMARNI & RAJABORARI
Medical camp was organised on the grounds of the Radhasoami High School in the morning , where tents were specially put up for the same. I visited the camp as my father was a participating doctor and also to have a look at the magnificient bulding of the Radhasoami High School which was started in the year 1939.

We left for Rajaborari (which is a tribal area in interior Madhya Pradesh) around noon by road as a medical camp had been organised there in the afternoon.
The venue of the camp was the High School where different class rooms had been and alloted to various doctors.
I also saw other activities which were held there like English speaking classes, Textile designing and a wonderful science

exhibition by the students of the school.
We left for Timarni in the evening after the medical camp was over, reaching there by 7.00 pm.

DAY 3 – 15.6.2015 TIMARNI TO PACHMARHI (VIA HOSHANGABAD – PIPARIYA ) Distance - 200 kms, Travelling time – 6 hrs
The whole day was spent travelling by road from Timarni to Pachmarhi.
We left Timarni by a taxi around 9.30 am in the morning after breakfast.
It was a nice journey up-to Hoshangabad (which my father told me is famous for the Security Press of the Government that prints currency notes !). From there upto Pipariya the travel was slower as the route was single lane with lots of trucks.
We stopped en-route at an MP tourism motel for lunch and managed to reach Pachmarhi by about 4 in the evening.
We checked into an MP Tourism hotel by the name of Hotel Highlands, the reservations for which had been made in advance over the internet by my father. Its rooms were located amidst lush green lawns and gardens with lots of open spaces for a walk or so.

DAY 4 – 16.6.2015 Pachmarhi
In the morning we hired a Gypsy Jeep for our local sightseeing. Since it is a hilly area with surrounding protected forest, it has been made compulsory by the local and forest authorities that no one can go into the forest without a four wheel drive vehicle and a government allocated guide.
Our first stop was the cave shelters known as Pandav Gufa , after the legendary Pandav brothers of Mahabharat fame. Our guide told us that since there are five cave shelters carved out of solid rock. Legend has it that the Pandavs spent some part of their exile here. But historically it is more probable that these were made by the Budhdhist monks, the guide informed us.
After seeing the Pandav gufa we went to see the Silver falls. It has been named so because as the water falls from a height of 350 feet it looks like a silver line when the sunlight shines on it.
The site from where the falls could we viewed was reached after a long walk through a rocky jungle.
Our guide also gathered on the way a lot of empty plastic water bottles which the visiting tourists had strewn in the forest there by making it dirty and polluted. Seeing this, I also helped him gather some empty bottles as after-all we are taught the importance of this and every Sunday we do social service, when we clean our own locality of plastic and polythene back in Dayalbagh.
After the long walk to and from the Silver falls we drove down to Bee falls, which is in-fact the star attraction of Pachmarhi.
It has been so named as there are often numerous bee hives on the rocks surrounding the falls.
The jeep left us near the upper end of the waterfall from where we could see the water falling down and the people enjoying the bath in its stream looked like miniatures from the top.
The actual fall was reached after we descended about 220 odd rocky steps. But the effort was worth the trouble as the falls were beautiful.

After a busy morning we went back to the hotel and had our lunch. In the afternoon we went to see the MP government’s Silk farm. It was a wonderful and learning experience, since we are surrounded by silks in our day to day routine without realizing what goes into making this cloth !

The Pachmarhi farm is actually only a central Silk moth breeding and egg manufacturing centre. Lacs of cocoons are brought here from various centers and stored here in special mesh huts, till the adult moths hatch out.
The adult female is a large beautiful yellow moth.
After a few days it lays hundreds of eggs which are collected here and sent to various places in MP where the silkworm hatches out.
There these worms are fed on mulberry leaves till they grow and again form cocoons. Some of these cocoons are sent to Pachmarhi and others used to make silk.

DAY 5 - 17.6.2015 - PACHMARHI SIGHTSEEING
On our last day at Pachmarhi we walked up-to the Lake area and explored the towns markets etc.
The lake has a beautiful small well maintained public garden on one of its side.
The entry to the park is totally free.
The lake also has facilities for boating and we also took a paddle boat ride.

The town has an Army College under the command of AEC [Army Education Core]. Its cadets practice for the army band at various times of the day around the lake area. We could hear the sound of distant drumming and melodious bagpipes flowing over the lake waters, as we relaxed in the garden by the lake side.
There are many other tourist points around Pachmarhi like the various hill tops, valleys and temples, but we avoided them on purpose as it involved a lot of driving over the zig zag hilly roads.
I found Pachmarhi and its hotels devoid of the usual noisy crowds, little littering of tourist spots, plenty of chances to take long walks without the risk of being run over in heavy traffic, and thankfully - NO MALLS. It is a jewel of place, far from the maddening crowd.

DAY 6 - PACHMARHI TO BHOPAL
DISTANCE – 210 KMS, TIME TAKEN – 6 HRS
We left Pachmarhi at about 7.30 am. The journey was fast till we reached Pipariya after which we met heavy traffic all the way till Bhopal.
About 45 kms before Bhopal, 4kms off the State Highway 69, the lies a UNESCO world heritage site by the name of Bhimbetka cave shelters.
There are 750 shelters which date back to 100000 to 40000 years and about 500 of them have rock paintings drawn by pre-historic man. To see all of them involves 1400m of walk. We saw just saw a few of them and took us about 1 hour. I was thrilled to see these as I had read about pre-historic man only in the books!
After the above we proceeded to our onward journey to Bhopal reaching there in time for lunch at 2pm.

BHOPAL SIGHTSEEING
After checking into a hotel and leaving the luggage we decide to visit the famous Lake area.
Bhopal the capital city of Madhya Pradesh, is also known as the city of Lakes as it has many natural and artificial water reservoirs and is one of the greenest cities of Madhya Pradesh. Its two largest water bodies are known as Upper lake and Lower lake. The Upper lake has an area of 31km2 .
It is an important place of tourist interest with paddle boats, speed boats, ferry rides, adventure boating and sailing club and lake side restaurants and hotels. Over and above, on its one side is a low hill which has a drive through Zoo. There also an old real steam engine parked beside the restaurant. The whole view with the lake in the background looks very scenic.
We hired bicycles for a ride through the Zoo. We could spot only a few animals as their enclosures were very large. Nice for the animals

but bad for the tourists !
We did not take any boat ride as the weather was windy and cloudy and the large lake looked scary.
We however enjoyed snacks at the lake side café.
We reached back to the hotel after dinner at around 9.00 pm.

DAY 7 – 19.6 2015 - SHOPPING AND REST
After a hectic day the 18th we decided to go easy on the 19th.
We got up late and had a late Breakfast and decided to visit the markets of Bhopal. First we went to the famous New market area and visited the MP Government’s flagship textile store Mrignayani. It has a large collection of traditional handicrafts and dress materials and my mother picked up many things from there.
From there we went to the so called largest mall of the state the DB Mall. It was just another mall but larger and more fabulous. My father bought a wrist watch for me from one of the stores there.
We spent the rest of the noon and evening in the hotel watching movies on the TV.

DAY 8 – 20.6.2015 - BHOPAL TO AGRA (DAYALBAGH)
We spent the morning watching TV and side by side packing our luggage for the journey back home. We checked out of the hotel after lunch and reached Habibganj railway station of Bhopal. This is the terminal station of Shatabdi Express which runs between Bhopal and New Delhi.
Our train left at about 2.30 pm and we reached Agra Cantt. station at 9.00pm. A cab dropped us off at Dayalbagh at about 9.45pm.