बावरा मन...: मध्य प्रदेश

Sanchi is one of the World Heritage sites in India. It’s located around 45kms away from Bhopal. It’s basically famous for Buddhist Monuments and the principle monument is Stupa 1. I always enjoy the journey more that the destination and Sanchi was no exception!

I arrived a day early in Bhopal and was staying at a friend’s Mom’s place. A very warm and loving family, I really enjoyed my stay, spiritual talks with Aunt and playing with my friend’s nephews.

I decided to take a bus to Sanchi from Habibganj. Well, in my defence...before I reached the bus stop I had no clue that there were no state run buses. Yes, all the buses are run by private operators, but they are not that bad J

It took me close to 3 hours to reach Sanchi as the bus kept stopping at each stop for more than 15mins to get more passengers. The lady sitting next to me had kept a bag full of पापड़ in the carriage above me and due the bumpy roads and efficient driving; pieces of पापड़ kept falling on me. After a while, I started eating those.

I enjoyed those while seeing the beautiful site from my window. Golden yellow carpet of wheat farms (See the pics below).

Since I visited in April end (19th), it was after the crop was cut and what was left was fodder for the animals, but never before had I seen so much of fodder together and that too looking so marvellous !

There is a nice archaeological museum which can be visited before one takes an auto to go up to watch the Stupa. It’s about 1-1.5km steep way. I chose to walk rather than taking an auto. I met a really old man while climbing up; he had lived his whole life in that village and was working as a health worker at a community health centre. It’s amazing how someone can live their whole life in the radius of less than 10kms and still be happy and healthy and we, people who are exposed to a progressive society feel a need to travel, meditate, and meet new people so that we can be happy and healthy!

While I was struggling big time to climb up and was doing it really slow, he had no problem climbing up at all! He suggested me to take stairs as they would be more comfortable. I did so, and the view from up there was again splendid. I sat at a place for about 10mins looking at it and thinking nothing! It was so silent that I heard the sound of a leaf falling from the tree on the rock!

On my way back, I basically had no clue which bus to take and how to reach back and I loved that uncertainty! While having a चाय at one of MP Tourism cafe (BTW, they are damn expensive and no good), the waiter told me to stand on the road and wait for the bus. While standing on road and seeing everyone passing by staring at me as if they had never seen a woman before, I was imagining all sorts of फ़िल्मी things !

Alas, a bus came and I had a safe journey back to Habibganj:-p