Dubki- Ujjain

After Nashik kumbh in 2015, next kumbh was immediately in 8 months. So, we had decided as long as possible lets witness the magic of kumbh. As the dates of shaahi dip were nearing we booked the train tickets from Mumbai to Ujjain and the journey to another holy dip started. 

Ujjain

So, this time apart from kumbh there was another reason I was excited to visit Ujjain. From the day people started asking me meaning of my name, I knew my name was kept based on Avantika Nagari ( Former name of Ujjain city). It was ruled by King Vikram Aditya, who was a legendary emperor of ancient India. Often characterized as an ideal king, he is known for his generosity, courage, and patronage of scholars, with his capital at Ujjain. I grew up watching Vikram -Betal stories on TV and thinking to visit Ujjain sometimes in my life. So, coming back to mystery of my name, it was kept based on a new train which was, and it still is running from Mumbai to Ujjain named "Avantika express". When we reached Ujjain, the old board/ hoarding still said as "Welcome to Avantika Nagari ". It was good feeling *wink wink* to have one of my checklists completed. We checked in hotel and headed straight to Shipra river for holy dip. This kumbh was also well organized and the water so pure and clean. 

We visited the mahakaleshwar temple post the dip and then headed to Indore.

Indore

There was no chance we were going to head back home without visiting Sarafa & 56 dukan market of Indore. So as night arrived, we visited almost each shop in sarafa and ate till our hearts were full. This is another benefit of like-minded, foodie people in group :). We started with bhutte ki kees, this is a unique Indore dish that is made by cooking Bhutta (corn) with milk and spices. Very different, very tasty – it has flavors of corn, spices.We then moved on to another famous dish of sarafa deep fried Garadu , next in list was sabudana khichdi and chaat items. Then finally we moved to desserts and had large sized thick jalebis which are called as Imarti's. Finally, all we needed was drink called shikanji to digest all this. Usually shikanji is nimbu pani , masalas and soda, but this one is little thicker and tastier and we concluded our Sarafa visit and went to sleep. 

Omkareshwar

Next day after breakfast at 56 Dukan, we started our journey to Omkareshwar. About 135 km away from Ujjain, on the banks of the sacred and purifying Narmada river is the holy destination of Omkareshwar which houses the Omkar Mandhata Temple, a jyotirlinga shrine. Narmada, one of the most sacred of rivers in India, Narmada or Maa Rewa, as it’s affectionately called by people of Madhya Pradesh. It reminded me of "Indian ocean" band song "Maa rewa tharo pani".  As our journey progressed, the water pipeline snaked alongside the road surrounded by hills we reached. Here are two highly revered Shiva temples in Omkareshwar, The Omkar Mandhata Temple on the island dedicated to Omkareshwar And facing it across the river  – the Mamaleshwar Temple , dedicated to Mamaleshwar or Amareshwar “Lord of the Immortals (the Devas)”. Omkareshwar is known as the jyotirlinga shrine, but as per an ancient record, Mamaleshwar is the Jyotirlinga.  We visited both temples and then A 10-rupee boat ride took us to Gomukh Ghat, on the opposite bank of the Narmada. A short, but very enjoyable ride.

After a two-hour drive from Omkareshwar, we reached Maheshwar at 4 PM.A very small town, all the main attractions are located in the magnificent centuries-old Ahilya Fort. Half of the fort-palace has now been converted into a luxurious hotel, Ahilya Fort. The palace depicted simple life of Ahilyabai who ruled half of MP. She is seen wearing the white maheshwari saree and holding the Shivalinga in her hand in most of the pictures. All around the place, there were detailed carvings of elephants and scenes from daily life in the Holkar Era and beautiful architecture. Maheshwar is also referred to as ‘the city of Ghats’, we headed to ghat. Despite of the may heat, the water felt cool. Maheshwar, a truly amazing place and unique experience of art, culture, religious and architectural.

So with this, we concluded our Ujjain Kumbh and started our journey back to Indore to catch our late night flight to Pune.