I did the morning walk around the residency and then visited our childhood temple of Hanuman ( more on that later) and then off to Bhopal : Capital of Madhya Pradesh ( MP).
We did the 120 mile journey north in a luxury ac ( air conditioned) bus. The bus started promptly on time and the highway was nice four lane road. The journey of 120 miles took 4 hours and was quite uneventful. Few minutes into the journey they started showing the Bollywood movie ." Blue ". There are no headphones and the volume was full ON to make sure everyone can hear it properly :) We passed through beautiful country side that is true India: Small green patches of farms with smaller mud homes, few farm animals and women in colorful sari gracefully balancing load of grass, feed or water on their heads. It was a total contrast to the movie blasting in the bus about fast cars, luxury boats, women in bikinis and nightclubs.
Our friend Shalabh was waiting the the other end and his wife Kumud at home. After the delicious lunch, Kumud offered to show us what is best of Bhopal. She is determined to show us all there is to see here in the Capital city. She is a world renowned psychologist who trains the ICS officers as a full time job and gives tours of Bhopal to friends like us ;)
Unlike Indore, Bhopal is much cleaner, greener and has lots of lakes ( clean as well as dirty ones) . But, like Indore it is still India, still very crowded and has challenging roads. But, thanks to our your guide, in one afternoon we have seen "Museum of Man" , An elegant Mugal Palace turned into restaurant, a lake side cafe, a beautiful cultural center ( forgot the name already...bad me) , chief minister;s home ( from outside). I also found out that just two years ago they have found a sight full of Dinosaur bones and 100 nest and egg fossil near Indore.
We also managed to visit my old friend /teacher in the evening for a very short time. It was not nearly enough to catch up for last 45 years , so i will go there again tomorrow. She was my high school chemistry and biology teacher for four years and we were the best friends ever:) ( When i told SHalini that , she said, " so you were the teacher's pet...no wonder you were first in the class.") . Her family was all there , kids and grand kids . Thanks FACEBOOK...
Everyone is sleeping and I better get some sleep too before Kumud starts the tour of Bhopal again ..Good night...saroj
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