MY ASHTAVINAYAK DARSHAN.

Ashtavinayak  means Eight Ganesha's. Lord Ganesha is the Hindu God of Unity,remover of Obstacles,learning and prosperity. Ashtavinayak Yatra is the most important worship yatra in Maharashtra. This pilgrimage or yatra covers the 8 holy shrines of Lord Ganesha,which are located around Pune City. Aachal temple has its own individuality  and mythology.No Humans have created these deities and we're formed completely  by nature. In today's hectic life , it's really a tough one to take on Ashtavinayak Yatra,which starts from Morgaon-Sidhatek-Pali-Mahad-Theur-Lenyadri-Ozar-Ranjangaon-Morgaon again.Its more than 1100kms distance to complete the whole route.
   Living in Mumbai , We alway wanted to go for Ashtavinayak darshan but surely cannot attempt the yatra , which has to be completed in one go ie , one cannot return back home without completing the total journey at a go.I and my husband  finally made up our mind to ,at least attempt the Ashtavinayak darshan. ..so u opted for our flexibility timing within our busy shedule life........

OUR ASHTAVINAYAK DARSHAN JOURNEY :

Since  March and April 2016 , got long weekends of 3 days each ,we chose to attempt for our Ashtavinayak darshan journey during this time. Firstly , we opted for BALLARESHWAR ASHTAVINAYAK, PALI......
PALI is a tiny little village off Mumbai - Pune highway about 11kms ahead of Nagothane.
MUMBAI-PANVEL-KHAPOLI - PALI. 
Pali is a beautiful village nestled in the hilly terrain of khapoli...the temple is in simple format....not much hussle bussle; one can give puja , one simply pray to Ganesha.

 
After darshan at pali , we preferred to get back home as there is alway huge congestion of traffic at wadkal, and we had to reach back home before sun down.

Next day ,being another holiday, was bit confused about attempting for Mahad Ganpati. ..then finally decided to go....it's not quite far away , only that we did not knew about it and the route......So OUR NEXT DARSHAN , WAS SEE VARAD VINAYAK  , MAHAD. 

After crossing Panvel, we took Old Mumbai - Pune highway towards khapoli. ...after Mathern cross it's just a kms or so ahead ...Road is very good to drive thru. ....it was a great experience at Varad Ashtavinayak, mahad. ..though the panditji was standing by ,but one has to perform ones own puja of Ganesha. .could touch it's feet and take his blessings. ....

From Pali , I got Mewa  and from Mahad , so tamarind at throw away price,before heading back home.....

Now had to wait a weeks time for another long weekend in April 8th to 10th 2016 holiday to plan for rest 6 Ashtavinayak darshan which are located around Pune and required a night halt at Pune or around.

It's was 8th of April 2016 ie .the auspicious ocassion of Gudipadwa that we planned to head off for pune city and complete the rest 6 Ashtavinayak darshan. ....though someone advice us to go for Siddhatek, Siddhivinayak which is located close to Solapur first and the farthest one but we started with CHINTAMANI GANPATI,THEUR first.

Theur temple is located by close on the highway ie Pune -Solapur.......it was almost mid day , by the time we reach Theur temple. It was beautifully  decorated on the ocassion of Gudipadwa. ...After darshan there ,we opted for food ie simple dal -rice served at mere penny of 15rs/plate in the complex itself . Chintamani Ganpati idol is very beautifully decorated besides the eye catching wooden framework on its entrance. 

 After that we had to head off to Siddhatek. ..it's really a very very long drive to the shrine . Siddhatek is situated off Pune -Solapur  Expressway in Ahmed nagar district , by the almost dried up Bhima river.....Daund Rly station is the closest  Rly station.....As we drove thru the Sugar belt , the standing crops of Sugarcane just mesmerised us....and kept us telling it's almost close by but after we left the expressway, the narrow road across Daund  to Siddhatek, just slowed down our driving speed.......The SIDDHIVINAYAK OF SIDDHATEK, was a beautiful shrine standing tall amidst total serenity. After darshan there , we just had 5 glasses full of yummy sugarcane juices each , did a bit of leather good shopping at throw away prices....and now we had to head towards MORGOAN  VIA SHIRUR -SATARA HIGHWAY and then diversion for MORGOAN. .....which was nothing less than some 40kms even after we left the highway towards Sipa. ...we had to hurry but crazy  traffic on this route too...it was almost sunset time.So after darshan at MORGOAN we had to leave first and take onto the highway before it turned dark.....

By now my husband was dead tired driving and wanted to give a stopover at the nearest best place. ....but we had to drive upto LONI to get a good hotel to stay the night and planned to head for  RANJANGAON, MAHAGANAPATI SHRINE next morning. 

 After a tiring day we just went off to sleep fast after some simple meal , to wake up fresh for the next  day trip ........We took the Magarpatta  city route to Rangangaon, to have our darshan of Mahaganapati. ...just the best shrine amongst all ...loved the complex and the way it is maintained clean and tidy. 

Now we decided to head for Ozar. ....on Pune -Nashik road.....since the highways are well laid ,didn't find too difficult to reach Chakan onto Narayangoan and then diversion into Ozar village.

VIGHNESHWAR, OZAR TEMPLE is situated on the bank of river Kukadi. ....

It's was literally  mid day and we were too exausted by the heat ....we finished our darshan fast and then headed for GIRIJATMAJ  GANPATI , LENYADRI.....it's total village road with sugarcane fields and onion and Ponegranate  fields all around ....the roads looked like Bulbuliya. ....we reached Lenyadri around 2.30pm.....it's under ASI, and a Ganpati  is placed inside cave...after climbing 350steps , one can have darshan there...the climb is almost 30 degree angle...seeing it only ,I was very sceptic to make it to the top in sun hot sun at 37c  temp.....still started but half way ,I gave up as I started feeling dizzy and asked my husband to continue instead and have darshan and I came down......it's really a nice one but only for the fittest as the stone steps are too high and really not everyone's cup of tea........

 So finally a happy soul ......we could complete our Ashtavinayak darshan  and now it's was time to head home ......My husband wanted to hit the mumbai -Pune expressway by 6.40pm but the maddening traffic on Chakan Road , got us late ...We took onto the Expressway by 7.15pm and could make it home by 9.45pm........

OM GAN GANPATAY NAMAH. .....I bow in His Prayers......

ASHTAVINAYAK :

MORESH WAR, MORGOAN 

SIDDHIVINAYAK SIDDHATEK 

BALLARESHWAR, PALI.

SHREE VARAD VINAYAK, MAHAD.

CHINTAMANI GANPATI, THEUR. 

GIRIJATMAJ, LENYADRI 

OZAR , VIGHNESHWAR GANPATI 

SHREE MAHAGANAPATI, RANJANGAON. 

MY VISIT TO NAGPUR CITY.

Nagpur is synonymous with ORANGES.....BETTER KNOWN AS ORANGE CITY. It's the 2nd capital and the 3rd largest city of Maharashtra.
It's quite a bustling city and well  spread across.

MY VISIT :
 Though , often as I kept travelling from Mumbai to my home state ,kolkata, I came across this city of Nagpur , but this time , it was my 2nd visit to the city. My husband stays a month every year during his training Camp at Nagpur Cant  . But I hardly could make it  everytime. But this time as we intended to go for a road trip across Madhya Pradesh ,  I planned to drop in as guest at his army unit , to join those Men in uniform and share a day experience with them. I landed at Dr.B.R Ambedkar  International airport around 8pm,  and my husband was there to receive me....and then off for a long drive upto his Unit at Nagpur Cant. Area.......It's almost more than 17 yrs that I last visited this place...Lots of changes, well furnished guest house and we'll spread food layout at its dinning hall.....what a lovely  evening to share with all those Men in Uniform.
Had to wake up early next morning, as my husband planned to give me a short trip across the Nagpur City  , on  our way to kahna  national park in M.P. ......Even my husband too was in relaxed mood after a month long rigorous training and that now he got his Lt.Col title too....Morning , after breakfast , I just had a walk around the premise of the unit , until our vehicle arrived....it's time to say goodbye to each one them for their awesome hospitality. ...
 We planned to visit RAMTEK  and KHINDSI  LAKE , before we push off for Kahna national park. ....and maybe on our way back from our tour of South East M.P  , I will check out the Dragon  Temple , and Deekshabhoomi. ...that's our plan .
Ramtek is located on a hill and was once known as Ramagiri......The drive upto the top of the hill was really an awesome experience....Once on top of the hill ,  it houses a fort , Jain  temples ,  Ram temple and Poet Kalidas  smarak. ...After parking our car , we had to walk up the stone steps to the top of the fort....Since pujas  are performed  in the Ram temple, inside the fort ...we had to remove our shoes and walk across....really a nice place to visit...very well maintained  and the view from the top was really awesome.....Besides religious  flavours,  it was giving a old world charm.After exploring every corner of the fort ,we walked down to the Kalidas  Smarak. ...it's a monument in his name but well  built. It's worth visiting ....the paintings from kalidas's stories was nice going thru....

After RAMTEK we headed for Khinsi  lake....KHINDSI  lake is a large water reserviour  situated within the Satpura Hill Range.its very popular as a water sport destination. ....The entry ticket to the complex was 25 rs each ...bit more , I personally felt....As we strolled around the park area , I saw school  children coming for picnic , people going for boat ride in the lake , but we had hardly much time to spend there as it was long way off to Kahna national park. 

It was on our way back from Madhya  trip that we stopped our at SAUSAR,the orange land ....as we drove from Panchmarhi to Nagpur.  Couldn't stop our curiosity  to make a stopover at some orange orchard by the highway....it was total fun to fluck oranges ( offcourse with owners permission ) and have it.....It's just yummy taste....the cotton fields by its side was also an attraction......Spend quite sometime in the Orange Orchards at Sausar..before we headed for the Duration Temple close to Kamptee. After my prayers and darshan at the temple we drove off to the DRAGON  PALACE TEMPLE. IT'S A BUDDHIST TEMPLE, VERY BEAUTIFULLY MADE . As we it's design and it's accostics of Buddha mantra....oh , I loved  the resonating  prayers in the evening sky......Such Soulful sound echoing across the air and enriching it's environment. 

We were now literally  getting late to reach the airport for our flight to mumbai back home ....so had to drop the idea to visit the Deekshabhoomi,  as the madening  traffic of Nagpur is well known and talked about.....Had to get myself a box of SANDRA BARFI or orange sweets,before I left the city ......Just had a great time .

KAHNA NATIONAL PARK , AN ADVENTURE TRIP.

As we planned our first exploration trip to Madhya Pradesh,a visit to KAHNA NATIONAL PARK was an obvious  choice.....We started our journey from Nagpur. The total distance was suppose to be 260kms approx. We left the city of Nagpur , bit early ie 9am....as we thought to reach Kahna before it gets dark.Had got our bookings done online prior  ie.both resort stay as well the safari to see the national park next morning.

Route :Nagpur-Tiroda-Gondia-Balaghat-Baihar-Mukki-kahna.

INTRODUCTION :

The total area of the park is 940sq  km.
Best time to visit :Feb -June.
Kahna is home to over 1000 species of flowering plants.The lowland forest is a mix of Shal and other mixed forest but the Highland forest are tropical moist dry deciduous type.
Swamp deer,Indian gaur, spotted deer, sambar, Barking deer., barasingha  has made it their home.Presently , tiger conservation project is on but the national park is too huge to locate a tiger population of just a handful. 

MY STORY:

We had our booking at Gawa  kahna Resort , which is on the other side of kathia  gate of the kahna reserve forest....After starting from Nagpur city, we visited Ramtek  fort on the way...The Adani  Tiroda  power project that came on our way was really an impressive one...heard of it before but for the first time got to have a chance to glance upon a world  class project.....Road , all across is too good to drive down. Balaghat stretch is really nice with Babul  trees all around.....just was thinking in mind that it's just the beginning of our JUNGLE TRIP ACROSS MADHYA PRADESH. ...
We reached our resort around sunset almost...looks like a brand new property owned by Madhya Pradesh tourism. ....really a classy one......As we checked in ,I glanced upon the Herbal garden owned by MPTDC  , and wanted to check out after getting freshened up.Though was bit tired after the long drive but my curiosity keeps pushing me.....we were assisted by an employee of the resort to the Herbal garden...offcourse , knew many of the plants there but few like Hing plant (ashophotida ) and NuxVomica plant was totally new to me.Though , I came across Camphor,  clove,  Cardamom, Rudrasha plant at our herbal garden trip at Andaman Island  trip earlier years ago. But truely  interesting one.....Had early dinner ....it was quite chilling cold. ..just wanted to rest in the cozy comfort of our room in the jungle....it was pindrop  silence all around , sometimes a little light blinked  thru the bushes...really fun !!!
After watching TV for a while , we were off to sleep.
A beautiful  morning in the jungle...Had to wake up early as we had to start for the safari  and reach mukki  gate by 6.30am. ...There was lot of confusion,  it seems the payment we did online for the safari was just a token booking of 1500 rs...now if the resort people has to escort us to mukki gate we have to pay 600 rs + jungle entrance  fee of 2500 + 300 rs guide fee...this are all for the Safari of the kahna  park....We had no choice  but to give in to their  demand of payments.....but just curtail that 600 rs instead planned to take our own vehicle upto mukki gate and then take on the safari  vehicle....as we started in the dark ,  we just missed the route as hardly any marking .....we drove off almost 30kms off into the deep core ,  ....just don't know but hardly could take any help for the route from anyone......we were trying GPRS on our mobile but bad luck...no connectivity....Was feeling so so upset ....then we just took a total U turn to reach the same place we started from.....Now it was slowly clearing up...an old lady from the village then guided us to take the proper route to Mukki Gate. ...Finally we reach mukki gate which was just 7kms from were we were staying ....anyways,  early morning had a jungle darshan. .....
Now we changed over to the Safari vehicle....As we entered the park premise,  I remembered my visit to Kaziranga  National Park in Assam...and so was our expectations too high...offcourse this jungle of Sal Trees , too is really impressive but I really had a big doubt about TIGER......as we drove across , spotted varieties of Deers and Gaur, Few birds....but no monkeys, elephants and forget Tiger...the guide was simply  misguiding us with stories ;I was really getting  upset about those stupid behaviour of the guides and the way they were fooling tourists.....maybe locales  were given jobs as guides  . but neither knows the names of the trees in the jungle neither birds....anyways had a fun time filming the beautiful jungle of kahna in the morning  sunshine....
At 11am the safari was over and we had to push back to our resort , and after lunch had the plans to drive off to AMARKANTAK. ...