Trip to Jabalpur

We were three friends. We create a possibility of a pleasure trip whenever we get holidays. Last time we planned to go to Jabalpur, a well known city of Madhya Pradesh. It may not be wrong if we call Jabalpur the center of India with a lot of tourist places and worth watching spots. In fact it is a place of traditions, culture and faith. Our dream of visiting the land of holy river Narmada was fulfilled.

There are four direct trains to Jabalpur from Delhi. New Delhi Jabalpur Super Fast Exp. which starts from New Delhi, MP Sampark Kranti Express, Gondwana Express. and Mahakaushal Express from Nizamuddin Station of Delhi.

We got our 3 tier reservation done through internet very easily for Gondwana Exp. which starts at 3.25 pm from Nizamuddin Station of Delhi and spend around Rs. 900/ per berth. Tatkal ticket is around Rs.1200/ per berth. The journey was absolutely pleasant. I called up Comesome Restaurant through my mobile to get my dinner at Agra Station. The food was delicious and did not coast us more than Rs.100/ per head. We enjoyed the dinner and went to sleep comfortably.

We reached Jabalpur at 7.30 in the morning and took an auto for hotel Narmada Jackson a three star hotel. Autowala charged us Rs. 40/ only. Jabalpur is a quite cheap city. There are many good, neat and clean hotels like Narmada Jackson, Satya Ashoka and Samdariya with reasonable tariff ranging from Rs.500/ to Rs.5000/ per day. We got a double room in Narmada Jackson for Rs.1500/ per day only. Since we were three friends we got a double room with an extra bed to be together with 50% extra payment. All of us were very keen to see and get authentic information about the land of Narmada.So we asked for a guide at the reception of the hotel and went to our room to get fresh.

There were two restaurants. One was an Indian food restaurant with all kind of Indian variety of food for a very reasonable amount and the other one was a fast food one. We had a nice breakfast with milk, butter toast, poha jalebi and sabudana vada which is a specialty here. It did not cost us more than Rs.100/ per person.

The charges of guide were on higher side. Hotel people advise us to take such a taxi whose driver is fully aware of all the places and they arranged for the same. Taxi expenses were Rs. 1500/ only. Taxiwala was a very interesting person and has got all kind of authentic knowledge of Jabalpur and its worth visiting places. He took us to all important and worth watching places like Pisanhari ki Madhia, a Jain temple. Ram Lala Mandir where a non stop Ramcharit Manas Path is going on for the last 17 years, Ma Sharda Temple situated at the hills of a very old fort Madan Mehal. All of us were very thrilled to see the entire Jabalpur from the fort of Madan Mehal.Nearby is a wonder of nature ‘Balancing Rock’ where two very big stones are balanced naturally at each other on their tip only. All of us tried to move it but of no use. It’s a real marvel of nature.

Bheda Ghat 25 km from Jabalpur. It has got a heavenly scene which is called Dhuandhar.The River Narmada is falling down from very high rocks to produce milky water creating a cool dense watery smoke which gives a spectacular view of the river and it’s flowing towards the city creating a faith, tradition, culture, social values, life line and sentiments for the people of Jabalpur. Taxiwala became sentimental telling us about Narmada because Narmada is not like a river for them. It’s like a daughter and mother to them.

We went to Panchvati to have a boating pleasure. The river Narmada is very quite here and I really enjoyed boating through the zigzag water passing through huge rocks visibly not very high but very deep inside the river. Finally we reached the calm and quite place at the bank of Narmada called Gwari Ghat where a temple of Narmada is made in the mid water stream of the river. We hired a boat in Rs. 50/ only, offered pooja in the temple and came back to the Ghat and sat down quietly for some time to have glimpses of a row of flowing ‘Deep Dan’ down the stream in the river which is just not a river but the soul of sentiments of citizen from Jabalpur.

Taxiwala took us to a very nice eating joint to have the dinner. The dinner was a real treat with papad, chutney,ghee ki katori and tawa roti along with all kind of other dishes and that too with quite a reasonable amount of Rs.400/ for all of us. Taxiwala told us about National Parks around Jabalpur and then finally the time came to travel back to our nest and that was Delhi so at last we boarded in and came back.