The Inner Child at Champaranya in Chhattisgarh

*The Inner Child at Champaranya in Chhattisgarh -the birthplace of the Saint Mahaprabhu Vallabhacharya,

We landed at Raipur airport and had few hours to spare. Sleepy Shobha preferred a relaxed sight seeing trip within the city, yet Sunny Shobha wanted to see more places if possible. We were advised by the Chhattisgarh tourism official to visit a place that was considered very sacred by the Vallabh sect  of Gujrathi pilgrims…we decided to visit Champaranya -the birthplace of the Saint Mahaprabhu Vallabhacharya! He was a visionary, extremely learned in the Vedas and Upanishads who established and preached the Pushti way of life in an era of budding religious beliefs. We hired a taxi and Sleepy Shobha got a little wary as she realized that we were almost alone on the highway with miles and miles of bare dry land around us. Chattisgarh seemed very barren and flat as we had earlier noticed from the window seat of our plane as we flew over this newly formed sate.

This pilgrim place Champaranya at Chattisgarh is different from the Champaran in Bihar that we learnt about in our History textbooks. We entered a colourfully decorated place, mistaking it to be the temple when actually it was a dharamshala or a rest house for the pilgrims. Sunny Shobha decided to visit the tourist office for some more information about this small place and walked in the hot sun to reach the actual temple of Saint Vallabharcharya at Champaranya at Chattisgarh

The simple nature of the locals and the low cost of everything surprised us. When we pay Rs.30 for a coconut in Mumbai…we were surprised to get a coconut with other pooja items for only Rs. 10. 

A very colourful and artistically creative temple has been constructed in honour of this Saint. The walk through the long decorated entrance lobby made us present to the magic in the air and the positive energy of the place.

There are two temples dedicated to Shri Mahaprabhu Vallabhacharyaji in Champaran. The first one is known as Prakatya Baithakji Mandir, and the second is the Chhatti Baithak. One of them is located at his birth place under the tree and the other one is at the Ghati pujan place. Many pilgrims were patiently waiting for the doors to open and to witness the sevais performed by temple officials. Sleepy Shobha was irritated to wait from 10.30a.m. to almost 11.15a.m. and nobody seemed to know when exactly the doors would open. She just walked away from the uncertain temple officials and sat back in the car. Then Sunny Shobha realized that this was Gods way of asking us to slow down in life, to be calm and immerse ourselves in the simplicity of the place. Sunny Shobha asked the driver to make a u-turn, we came back to the temple and prayed fervently in front of the still closed doors. 

When we got a darshan of the baithak of the Saint Vallabhacharya- ( the holy place where he used to sit and meditate) we thought it was worth the wait.

Apart from this there was a museum with bright colourful images depicting the story of the great saint. A small stream of Mahanadi river flowed near the temple. 

And we also got to visit the temple of Champakeshwara Mahadeva. Legend has it that a particular cow called Radha was discovered pouring a continuous stream of milk on to a rock shaped like a unique Shivalinga that had Mahadev, Parvati and Ganesh on it.

Sunny Shobha was ready to submit to the simplicity, calmness and the holiness of this pilgrim place.We imagined the many miracles of the Saint Vallabhacharya and the huge devotion of the Gujarathis and we considered ourselves to be blessed to be able to visit this sacred site at Chattisgarh.

*(There is an inner child within all of us. One that we were born as - warm and happy, optimistic, capable of serving and loving others, believing in the possibility of extra-ordinary achievements, filled with a kind of inner light and positive energy, taking initiative and action...I will call that your Sunny inner child.

And then we are exposed to circumstances and experiences. Depending on the way we react to our situations, a new inner child emerges. One that we create -  cold and sad, pessimistic, capable of being indifferent or hating others,  believing oneself to be trapped within ordinary limits, filled with a kind of inner darkness and negative energy, lazily whining, not taking action, I will call that your Sleepy inner child.
You have a choice on which inner child you want to encourage in your life - your Sunny inner child or your Sleepy inner child

I will call my inner child as Sunny Shobha and Sleepy Shobha. Together we will travel around the world)

The Inner Child at Raipur- The Capital of Chattisgarh

*The Inner Child at Raipur- The Capital of Chattisgarh

Sunny Shobha was in a state of wonder. Her airplane was about to descend at the Swami Vivekananda airport in Raipur. Sleepy Shobha realized that this was a city that we had not heard much about until it became the capital of a newly formed state of Chattisgarh in India. The famous Indian Swami Vivekanada had spent some of his childhood days in Raipur and the house he lived in had now been converted to a primary school. There was also a huge statue of him with a musical fountain at the beautiful Vivekananda Sarovar lake. 

The airport was some distance away from the main city and Sunny Shobha was happy to see  the green coloured arch welcoming us to the state of possibilities -Chhattisgarh. 

We drove past places like the Nehru garden, the Chhattisgarh Club and the Chief Ministers Bungalow. The City Municipal office and the miniature aircraft model in its front lawns was a place of pride for the locals.

Our taxi driver spoke less about the local tourism, yet was very thrilled at the new malls that had opened up in Raipur! A skeptical Sleepy Shobha had to convince him that a tourist from Mumbai would not want to go to such a modern commercial place.Instead we asked him to drive us through an old section of the town, literally called the Purani basti. The simplicity on the faces of the locals was in stark contrast to the street smart faces of the people of a metropolitan city like Mumbai.

We just had to spend some time looking into the waters of the lake here called Burha Talab. There seemed to be a Maratha influence in settlements like Tatyapura and Burhapura. 

Our driver took us to an old temple of Goddess Kali where we prayed for her protection and blessings. It is believed that the spiritual advisors of the royal family of Bastar had brought this 500 year old stone idol to its present location around 200 years ago.

We  had heard of the Bastar tribes and we knew that tribal tourism was an important aspect of this region. And the best place that reflected the art, music, dance and other culture of the tribals was at the Purkhauti Muktangan centre. We walked through this sprawling 200 acre place, which was a unique effort to bring alive the traditional art of Chattisgarh. There were numerous sculpted images depicting the tribal inhabitants with various musical instruments, dancing scenes and hunting scenes. This was a total new and interesting exposure to tribal culture for us city bred people.

We spent so much of time walking amidst and soaking in the tribal culture at Purkhauti Mukhtangan, that we did not have time to visit the other local temples of Raipur like Dudhadhari temple, Mahamaya temple, Jagannath temple, Jaitu Sau Math temple or the Hatkeshwar Mahadev temple. If we had more time we could have spent hours looking at the ancient artifacts, coins, weapons from all over Chhattisgarh at the five galleries of the Mahant Ghasidas MemorialMuseum.

At the junction of 4 roads, there was a small monument called the Jai Stamb, built to commemorate the martyrdom of Indian rebel Narayan Singh who was hanged publicly by the British on 10^th Nov.1857. Nearby was the Kaiser-e-Hind Darwaza an ornamental gateway meant to honour Queen Victoria, but now sadly pulled down and the façade incorporated into a commercial complex called Ravi Bhawan. A little distance away was the ornate Jawahar Gate which is the entrance to the Jawahar Bazar.

Raipur is usually visited as a temporary stopover on the way to see other natural beautiful tourist spots in Chattisgarh. As our taxi approached the Raipur railway station, we got present to the structured disorderliness in the traffic in the small lanes. 

Even around the station we saw a colourful temple, a Sikh Gurudwara and also a green, cream and pink marbled mosque all in close proximity to each other.

Each time we visit a new place in India, we are amazed at the absolutely new contrasting experience that was in store for us. We love our country and love the variety that it has to offer to one and all. Wow- India!

*(There is an inner child within all of us. One that we were born as - warm and happy, optimistic, capable of serving and loving others, believing in the possibility of extra-ordinary achievements, filled with a kind of inner light and positive energy, taking initiative and action...I will call that your Sunny inner child.

And then we are exposed to circumstances and experiences. Depending on the way we react to our situations, a new inner child emerges. One that we create -  cold and sad, pessimistic, capable of being indifferent or hating others,  believing oneself to be trapped within ordinary limits, filled with a kind of inner darkness and negative energy, lazily whining, not taking action, I will call that your Sleepy inner child.
You have a choice on which inner child you want to encourage in your life - your Sunny inner child or your Sleepy inner child

I will call my inner child as Sunny Shobha and Sleepy Shobha. Together we will travel around the world)

*The Inner Child in Assam

*The Inner Child in Assam

Guwahati

Her precious daughter had just left home to study abroad. Sleepy Shobha had been crying everyday non stop for the last two months, imagining and dreading the future loneliness in the empty nest. Sunny Shobha just prayed to the universe , looking forward to a life of traveling freely to new places. And almost at the last minute she was invited to join this group of seventeen people to a trip to North East India!

Sunny Shobha just about made it on time for the flight to Guwahati airport, flying past the majestic Himalayas and actually admiring the beauty of Mount Everest from the skies!

Everything about Guwahati airport fascinated her, including an unusual sign for the ladies rest room!

A late lunch for our VIP Mangalorean group was at a place called Mangalam on the VIP - Airport Road at Guwahati… a sign that very important things would soon happen in our otherwise routine lives.
White hairy tall plants caught the attention of Sunny Shobha, something she had not seen in the rest of  India. Later she was told that these were used to make brooms for cleaning! We drove past the sprawling campus of the University of Assam… and also the funny shaped Cricket stadium.

Our first crossing of the Brahmaputra river with the beautiful sight of the setting sun was just around 5.15 p.m. Sunny Shobha realized that we were in the eastern most side of India where the sun sets early and also rises early! The local driver told us that that the specialty of the area was its meat products. Sleepy Shobha wondered at what kind of vegetarian food we could get here.












On the return to Guwahati after a week in the wild jungles, Sunny Shobha was happy to enjoy the comforts of a modern hotel in Guwahati!

We got up as usual at 4.30 a.m. to get ready to see its main attraction – the famed Khamakhaya Devi temple. Sleepy Shobha went around the temple complex and felt sad for the innumerable goats roaming around. They would be surely offered as sacrifice, every single day.

The local belief is that the Kamakhya Temple denotes the spot where Sati used to retire in secret to satisfy her amour with Shiva, and it was also one of the fifty one holy places where the body parts of her corpse fell on the earth. It is said that her yoni fell here after Shiva danced with the corpse of Sati. We walked down the narrow steps to reach the dark  inner chambers called garbhagriha. Inside the cave like place, there was a downward sloping depression that was constantly filled with water from an underground perennial spring. It is this hollow place that is worshiped as the goddess Kamakhya herself and considered as most important abode of the Devi. The immense energy of the place can only be experienced but cannot be explained in words.

Many years ago my spouse had visited this place, a book about this temple was lying in the Gods room for years and Sunny Shobha was grateful to be actually called to this temple. The Kamakhya temple was situated on top of the Nilachal hill and on our way back, we stopped at a vantage point to get a panoramic view of the Guwahati city. The feeling of being on top of the world with the Brahmaputra river in the distance was another memory that was etched in the mind of Sunny Shobha.

Sleepy Shobha resented that there wasn't much time to do some local shopping, we had to go to the airport to catch our flight out of Guwahati. We left with the feeling that we had to come back again to see more of this wonderful city of Guwahati.


Tezpur- Sonitpur Elephant Reserve.

Sunny Shobha loves to sing whether it is picnic songs or even holy songs. To pass time in the darkness during the long drive from Guwahati, we sang bhajans in our Tata Sumo till we finally reached Tezpur for an overnight halt at the very basic looking Annirudh Hotel. Sleepy Shobha was told to ignore the obvious faults in the hotel room. Sunny Shobha preferred to remember the glow on the face of the room boy when he got an obviously higher tip than expected.

Later we were told that Tezpur was the place of a raging fight between the supporters of Krishna’s grandson Annirudh and his prospective father in law and hence the name Tezpur in memory of the immense bloodshed that had taken place here, hundreds of years ago.

 

We visited the Goudiya Mutt at the Tezpur chowk and saw colourful images depicting the story of Lord Krishna.

We interacted with a local woman in her two-piece typical Assamee Saree who still used firewood for most of her daily cooking.

We drove through the forests of the Sonitsar Elephant Reserve and even saw two elephants on the way. This was the so-called troubled Bodoland that we had only read about in the news and we were glad to do this drive in the day time!

*(There is an inner child within all of us. One that we were born as - warm and happy, optimistic, capable of serving and loving others, believing in the possibility of extra-ordinary achievements, filled with a kind of inner light and positive energy, taking initiative and action...I will call that your Sunny inner child.

And then we are exposed to circumstances and experiences. Depending on the way we react to our situations, a new inner child emerges. One that we create -  cold and sad, pessimistic, capable of being indifferent or hating others,  believing oneself to be trapped within ordinary limits, filled with a kind of inner darkness and negative energy, lazily whining, not taking action, I will call that your Sleepy inner child.
You have a choice on which inner child you want to encourage in your life - your Sunny inner child or your Sleepy inner child

I will call my inner child as Sunny Shobha and Sleepy Shobha. Together we will travel around the world).

*The Inner Child in Bihar

*The Inner Child in Bihar

Patna

1984. After a long and tiring train journey from Mumbai to Patna, Sunny Shobha was thrilled to be on the eastern side of India for the first time in her life. In those cost conscious times we had decided to spend one night in the railway retiring room. Our location was obviously in the heart of the city and our visit was during their main festival of Navrathri.

There was excitement in the air. I saw a lot of makeshift enclosures with idols of the Goddess with blaring loud music from the speakers. But what angered Sleepy Shobha was the close proximity of the two Devi pandals as they were locally called, both having different songs being played in very loud decibels - at the very same time! Our poor ears complained at this confusing cacophony and noise pollution, yet there was nothing much Sleepy Shobha could do about it.

We decided to get out and do as much of sight seeing as possible. The first stop was at the Golghar, a huge Granary - the place where the government stores the grains that have been collected from the local farmers. The impressive almost bee hive shaped structure had steps from outside to climb to the top if needed.

In our history text books Sleepy Shobha had read  a lot about the ancient city of Pataliputra and was quite confused about its various Magadha, Mauryan, Nanda, and 'Mughal rulers.  Sunny Shobha was proud that many foreign travellers to India also came to Pataliputra as it was a center of learning. Sleepy Shobha grumbled that even though this was the same city that was the capital of so many ancient empires, it looked quite ordinary and dirty in the present day times.

Sunny Shobha preferred to use her imagination when we went to Kumhrar- the archeological site to see the ruins of the Mauryan empire and wondered how the eighty pillared hall must have been filled, with riches and wealth around the year 250 BC. India really has such a rich and ancient culture and heritage to learn about.

We then went to theTakht Sri Harmandir Saheb at Patna, which is considered a very sacred place of pilgrimage for the Sikhs as their tenth Guru Gobind Singh was born in this city. This was our first visit ever inside a Gurudwara and Sunny Shobha listened carefully to the soothing religious prayer that was going on.

We then went to the Patna museum and we remember writing in the visitors book that we were happy to see the collection dedicated to the first President of India, Dr. Rajendra Prasad. We also saw a fossil of a tree said to be more than 200 million years old!

We did see some temples and the banks of the river Ganga, but because of the festival season there were noisy crowds that was for Sleepy Shobha to bear.  Sadly this is the memory of Patna that stayed with us after our short visit to the capital of Bihar.

Quie

Raxaul

India in the nineteen seventies was considered a developing economy. Without Internet and cable television, we hardly had any exposure to the international world. Whatever photographs we saw from our foreign return relatives made us open our jaws in amazement. Foreign travel was considered to be prohibitively expensive. So you can imagine our excitement when our family decided to go to our first foreign trip abroad- to Nepal.

We found ourselves at a relatively unknown border town called Raxaul. My dad told me that we were in the East Champaran district where Gandhiji had started the indigo movement, which was one of the first steps towards India's struggle for freedom.

And sleepy Shobha realized that our first foreign trip in 1984 did not start from some big  plane in a big airport. Instead we went towards the border in a manually driven small cycle-rickshaw! We cycled past the customs building and went into the small room which was the Indian police check point. My father filled some forms there and then we were allowed to walk carrying our own luggage towards a gate on the other side of which was another country, Nepal.

This short dusty bumpy cycle rickshaw  ride was in complete contrast to the huge anticipation of our first foreign trip. Sunny Shobha thought that this cycle rickshaw ride towards a foreign country was one of the most amusing memory that got etched in our mind about this border town of Bihar called Raxaul!

*(There is an inner child within all of us. One that we were born as - warm and happy, optimistic, capable of serving and loving others, believing in the possibility of extra-ordinary achievements, filled with a kind of inner light and positive energy, taking initiative and action...I will call that your Sunny inner child.

And then we are exposed to circumstances and experiences. Depending on the way we react to our situations, a new inner child emerges. One that we create -  cold and sad, pessimistic, capable of being indifferent or hating others,  believing oneself to be trapped within ordinary limits, filled with a kind of inner darkness and negative energy, lazily whining, not taking action, I will call that your Sleepy inner child.

You have a choice on which inner child you want to encourage in your life - your Sunny inner child or your inner Sleepy child?)

I will call my inner child as Sunny Shobha and Sleepy Shobha. Together we will travel around the world. )

* The Inner Child at SILVASSA – Capital of the Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli

* The Inner Child at SILVASSA – Capital of the Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli

Do you think it is time for a short getaway from Mumbai?y

Are you looking forward to taking your aged parents for a slow paced holiday?

Then you can decide to go to a union territory that you had learnt about in your geography textbooks.

Yes, so did Sunny Shobha…It was time to go to Dadra and Nagar Haveli.

Sleepy Shobha looked out of the window from her car. She was sulking because she had forgotten her handbag with her phone and her wallet back in Mumbai. Sunny Shobha told her to get work-related matters out of her head. She was looking forward to this tryst with nature.in Silvassa and it was Gods way of asking her to de-addict from the phone. And her parents debit card could always be used for emergencies.

As soon as we crossed the border of Maharashtra and Gujarat, we took the option of getting off the National Highway at Talasri. The Union territory of Nagar Haveli has 68 villages and we entered it from the southern side under an arch that boldly welcomed us to this seemingly rural terrain. As we drove on the Udhwa –Khanvel Road, we realized the contrast between the complex city life and the simple tribal life of the villagers. We drove past the Hindustan Petroleum factory and Sunny Shobha remembered how one of the trainers whom she had mentored years ago, had conducted a safety training workshop at this place.

We kept asking for directions to the Chouda village and some tribal looking strangers seemed indifferent to even bother to answer us. Finally we reached our hotel La Heritage at Khanvel which was overlooking the simple fields of the countryside. It was a good contrast from the hustle and noise of the city that we came from. And it was quite reasonably priced such that my 81 year old fashioned father would not grumble about our extravagance!

 

In the evening we drove on the bridge across the Sakartod river and saw a small dam on one side. We went to the nearby Butterfly park. Sunny Shobha was flitting from one flower to another like a light colourful butterfly. We did manage to see some butterflies and improve our general knowledge about them, however Sleepy Shobha ran to the safety of our car as we were attacked with huge sized mosquitoes instead!

Just opposite the Butterfly park at Khanvel was the colourfully decorated complex of the Nature Education Centre. The Warli paintings on the walls were a welcome sight to us city dwellers. Here we saw artificial replicas of the local wild species. We also read about the wonders of the forests and the natural wildlife in these areas. However the pink coloured observatory tower in the garden seemed to be stand out in the midst of the natural surroundings.

At night we had to visit the Silvassa city for some more discovery. We were also lucky to witness the pooja at the beautiful Swami Narayan temple filled with intricately carved panels. We had our meals at a Kathiawadi restaurant, relishing the local taste and flavour of the vegetarian fare of the region. We were then directed to a private house to buy some authentic tribal costume jewelry which I had not seen in the city markets.

On the next morning we had a very scenic drive on the Khanvel-Dhudhani Road. We drove past many tribal villages. In fact one of the government schools was celebrating their sports day right on the road itself. Restless Sleepy Shobha had to wait patiently along with hundreds of children cheering the racing enthusiasts running on the road! Sunny Shobha said this was proof that we were in a simple tribal area of the country.

Because of the Madhuban dam across the Damanganga river, there is a huge lake formed at Dudhani. We took a tranquil shikara ride across the water to get to the village of Kauncha. We had our leisurly breakfast in the midst of nature at the Himai Van resort. There were 11 young boys just relaxing in front of the television on a weekday morning- so different from the restless stress filled young faces that we see in the cities.  They were so used to normalcy in their lives that when Sunny Shobha gave them new instructions to serve us at the waterfront instead of the restaurant, they got flustered.

We drove past the Satmaliya deer sanctuary and actually spotted a deer from our car itself. Though we were just 1 km away from the Bindrabin Shiva temple, we decided against stopping there. We were more interested in going to the Lion safari park at the Vesona village. We were quite surprised to learn that of the 2 lions in the 20 acre complex, one had just died, and this so called safari in a caged vehicle was just to see one lone lioness that looked down at us with utter boredom. Being a royal Leo personality myself, I would have felt the same way if I was kept alone for many months! We had forgotten our handbag in the safari bus, when we returned about half an hour later, we found it back on the same seat…good that there were hardly any tourists to this place on a weekday!

The drive from Khanvel to Silvassa gave us a glimpse of the immense influence of tribal nature and the simplicity of this Union territory. There was hardly any visible evidence of the Portuguese rule in this area (with the exception of the beautiful ancient church of Our Lady of Piety). When in school we had learnt of the extra time and effort it took to finally get this union territory merged to the Republic of India in 1961.

We visited the Tribal Museum which is managed by the forest authorities and were surprised by the free entry to this amazing place. We could actually touch and feel most of the various items from the collections of masks, utensils, hunting tools and tribal jewelry on display.

We drove past the sprawling Hirwavan gardens which is a treat for nature lovers with its flower beds and waterfalls. We were not nature enthusiasts and decided against entering inside. After two days out of Mumbai, we had to return home to our commitments. So even though we saw a signboard saying that the impressive Vanganga Garden of Dadra was just half a kilometre away, we did not want to go in. Dadra is comparatively small with just three villages. We got out of the archway which now said “Thank you for visiting the Union territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli.” I wondered why it was called Haveli, when there was no such Haveli in the region. At least Silvassa was full of ‘silva’ meaning wood! A simple place that brought out my Sunny Shobha personality!

Just after we came out of the union Territory, the contrast in the environment was very visible and my Sleepy Shobha emerged from her hiding. We were suddenly surrounded with many normal looking commercial establishments of modern times. That is when we realized how lucky we were to have a memorable holiday amidst the simplistic natural greenery of Dadra and Nagar Haveli

*(There is an inner child within all of us. One that we were born as - warm and happy, optimistic, capable of serving and loving others, believing in the possibility of extra-ordinary achievements, filled with a kind of inner light, wonderment and positive energy, taking initiative and action...I will call that your Sunny inner child.

And then we are exposed to circumstances and experiences. Depending on the way we react to our situations, a new inner child emerges. One that we create -  cold and sad, pessimistic, capable of being indifferent or hating others,  believing oneself to be trapped within ordinary limits, filled with a kind of inner darkness cynicism and negative energy, lazily whining, not taking action, I will call that your Sleepy inner child.
You have a choice on which inner child you want to encourage in your life - your Sunny inner child or your Sleepy inner child?

I will call my inner child as Sunny Shobha and Sleepy Shobha. Together we will travel around the world).