Being a Keralite born and bought up in Bhilai, Chattisgarh, our family follows a mix of customs. We celebrate Holi, Diwali, Raksha badhan, as well as Onam and Vishu too. Though I have heard the importance of “Sawan somvar” from friends, I was never one to follow those customs. I must say it happened without much planning!! We got to visit famous Omkareshwar in Indore and Mahakaleshwar in Ujjain in the Hindu month Shravan or Sawan. Sawan mae hum bhi Jyotirling darshan kar liye … It was an experience by itself.

We have a group of friends who meet regularly once a month for potluck party. Now we are mostly in the age group of 55+ and our children are mostly out-of-the-nest. Basically it is the men – my hubby and his friends, who were college-mates, after marriage, it so happened, spouses became pally and all of us would meet once a month, share food, sit together talking about our favourite topics. We started depositing a small amount of money each month into an RD account and once we had a good sum, we used the money for planned trip. We have travelled to many places like Vizag, Nainital, Manali, Chandigarh, Haridwar, Katra for Vaishnav Devi Temple, Munnar, Trivandrum with our gang of children and have a special bonding between us.

Once the effect of Corona slowly reduced and travel plans looked possible, we wanted to explore again. This time, I was given the duty to find a place to travel to, as per our budget. I searched through internet for State tourism accommodations and found a wonderful location “Sailani Island” near Indore in MP Tourism site. The major attraction was water sports and I was thrilled. Also Omkareshwar and Mahakaleshwar was very much do-able! Discussed about this with the gang and got approval for the plan. Shekharji and his wife Sunita, Chavreji and his wife Dr. Archana, Tiwariji and his wife Sunita, and Basantji and ofcourse me and hubby were ready. Shekharji didn’t even know where we were going but simply agreed – “Chalo ..jahan bhi sabko theek lagta h ” 🙂

Train tickets to Indore and Flight tickets from Indore were booked and I was bubbling with excitement looking at the internet pictures of Narmada flowing by the Omkareshwar and had checked ‘n’ number of times where is actually Sailani Island and I could see Narmada and Kaveri sangam too in the map. The review given on the internet for Sailani was mixed, hence did not expect much with MP Tourism stay.

On July 14th, all of us reached Durg station. We boarded the train to Indore by 2.30 pm and spent the evening sitting together, playing cards, had lots to eat too. Train was late and reached Indore by 9 am. We had arranged for a 12-seater tempo traveller to take us to our MP Tourism stay @Sailani Island, nearly 80 km from Indore station. We have to cross a ghat to reach Sailani resort, there was a lot of traffic jam and we were getting delayed. Finally, the tempo traveller left the NH and made thru the off-road (nearly 2.5 km) and deposited us with our bags, from where the Sailani Island resort steamer boat would collect us. Standing there in no man’s land, we could see nothing but water all around and greenery at the other end. This has been a dream come true moment for me.. to arrive at a place in a boat! 🙂

I could feel, on arrival, the stay at Sailani is going to be a delight, one can spend two days just relaxing in the surrounding greenery, tranquil water all around, walking in the resort, enjoy water sports, away from the city, on an Island! The rooms were fabulously placed in the resort with names like Tessu, Kachnar, Mahua. Basantji had a room with a balcony facing the Omkareshwar temple (he could see the lights at night) !!!! Everyone’s balcony was facing the water from Indira Sagar dam. We had freshened up at our wonderful rooms and had lunch which was fabulous, much to our dismay(Reviews given on net) !!! It was nearly 4 pm, two three among us decided we will go to Omkareshwar temple in the evening. All the men in the group said they were tired and didn’t want to budge. Whoever is ready lets go.. I checked with the resort staff who said a steamer will drop us to a point from where we planned to take a boat across Narmada river. That boat ride was special .. I wanted to feel the Narmada river and see Omkareshwar Temple from the river. But on reaching the steamer, staff there checked with someone and said there is no boat service in the river today as they are on strike!!! So the staff arranged for an auto to pick us from the other end of the Dam waters. During all this commotion all the men had slowly arrived except Tiwariji who had a recent femur surgery, and was in pain all through the journey and wanted to sleep. But he was cajoled and he too joined!! The Steamer service at Sailani is free once while we reach and when we leave, otherwise charges Rs. 300 to and fro (per person) mainland. All seven of us boarded the large Auto.. that trip to the Temple was epic. The road had steep slopes and heights, it felt as if we were in a water park …. swissshh down and then up, there were three four more!!! Hats off to the auto driver!!!!

Omkareshwar temple premises itself looked as if it was a mela. Walking nearly half a kilometre from the road we reach the bridge over Narmada 🙂 finally …. the river was muddied and we could see all the boats were docked. I stood there looking at the pleasant site .. the river below flowed cutting through the rocks and the huge temple structure marred by the ongoing construction, thronged by people everywhere. We walked ahead and found a queue for darshan, all of us stood in line patiently and inched ahead. As we were nearing the sanctum, the crowded line moved ahead very slowly, I felt a bit suffocated and was wondering how much longer. Thankfully ceiling fans above made standing in the queue a bit easy. Suddenly at a turn a youngster calls Shekharji, “Aap idhar se chale jao” showing a open corridor. Shekharji said “hum VIP darshan ka ticket nahi liye hai” but the youngster still forced us to come out of the queue and all of us ran thru the open corridor, felt so special when we reached at the Temple sanctum- the Shivling just in front of us devoid the crowd !!! Wow!!! It was a blessed moment.. we quickly said our prayers and walked out. I had so many plans to walk by the Narmada river, sit by the rocks, spent some time in the temple looking at the sculptures… all that was forgotten by this special moment 😀 I had read so much about the Shankaracharya cave, could not explore that even…

We returned back to the same auto and he took us to a nearby Mamleshwar temple. It was getting dark and could feel chances of heavy rain. While returning, we discussed about the water sports to be done next day when suddenly Tiwariji says “koi jarurat nahi hai yeh sab risky khel ki” I was so aghast, how can anyone deny water sports, afterall we had discussed it already. So I told him “Aapko nahi jaana hai toh theek hai, mujhe mat rokiye” Dr. Archana Chavre joined to support me and said “Ladkiyon ko pehle pitaji se permission lena h, fir pati se, fir bachon se. Hum kabhi apne mann ki kar sakte hai ki nahi ?”

We were taken back to the resort again by the steamer. It was a very pleasant feel.. dark clouds overhead and water everywhere around us, lights from the Dam glowed warm, and our steamer speeding towards the resort lights.

Next day was our day when we enjoyed our water sports activities and others took a rest day. Real fun it was, to have your heart beat so fast out of fright !!!! I will not write more details as one has to actually enjoy the time there, rather than read about it.

We got back to the mainland on July 17th morning, after thanking the staff and our stars for the discovery of a wonderful Sailani Island. The plan was to reach Ujjain, Mahakal darshan, and eat at Indore Sarafa bazaar by night. We boarded the tempo traveller at around 9 am reached Ujjain by 1 pm. Mahakal temple is a very famous Shiv Temple in India and our Darshan here is a very long story which I will write some day 🙂

July 18th, we had few hours before we boarded the return flight when we roamed the streets of Indore. I was looking for the ways Indore people keep the city clean but didn’t get time to explore much. It rained most of the day but we were safe … umbrellas from Bhilai came to use! 🙂

Indore has vast history as Holkar dynasty ruled the place for long and the trip though very short, felt great, to have traced a bit of our history.