The Trip to Sailana

8/8/2019 The Trip to Sailana

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The Dark Book

Trip to SailanaSid

Since long, our family had longed for a weekend trip to some nearby place. However because ofmy mom's health, and scarcity of leaves f rom my work, we were prevented f rom doing so f or quite

some time. Recently I planned to visit my parents on "Rakhi". By this time mom also had regainedher full strength and confidence (after her surgery). And we had all the reasons, time andopportunity to take our much wanted trip. Mom herself had planned it all out much before we (meand my wife) reached Ujjain. Dad had booked the taxi, a comfortable 8 seater Toyota Qualis,meaning we 5 had all the luxurious space to st retch our legs and take a nap if we wanted, while onthe run.

How to Reach Sailana and where to stay:

Sailana is a small village in the district of Ratlam. It is 25 km from Ratlam city, and just 50 km fromRajasthan border. Closest (within Rajasthan) to Sailana is the district Banswada. Ratlam is a bigrailway station and connected to Mumbai by "Avantika Express" which runs daily. Also Ratlam isonly 115 km by road from Ujjain district which is a very important holy city of Central India, one ofthe four places where "Kumbh" takes place every 12 years, and my home town :-). Ujjain is a"junction" speaking in terms of railways and is well connected to Delhi by "Nizamuddin Express" ondaily basis. Two important trains here which could connect you to Indore-Ratlam-Ujjain belt (called"Malwa" region) on daily basis are:

1. Avant ika Express: Indore - Ujjain - Rat lam - Mumbai Central.2. Nizamuddin Express: Indore - Ujjain - Hazrat Nizamuddin (New Delhi)

If you plan to st art your journey f rom Indore or Ujjain, then hiring a t axi would be t he best opt ion. Ifyou are t aking a t rain, I would recommend you to halt in Indore (if you want to shop) or Ujjain (if you

want t o worship and cleanse your soul) and t ake a taxi f rom there t ill Rat lam. The lesser spiritedsouls can halt in Rat lam itself, and save t ime on traveling to Sailana. Indore also has a domest icairport (if you want to shell out more bucks) and is well connected with Delhi / Mumbai / Pune /Bengaluru / Chennai / Nagpur.

Best time to visit Sailana:

Monsoons, morning hours only. Sailana is a small village and as such the places we visited had litt leor no lighting.

How we reached Sailana:

As I said, we hired a Toyota Qualis from Ujjain till Sailana and back. The road is fairly decentcompared to st andards of MP (roads in MP are the worst in India). The entire trip cost us 273 km.The best time to reach Sailana is around 11:00 AM, as around that time all shops / village is / arebuzzing with activity. This also gives one ample time to explore all places, and st ill make it in t imefor a hearty lunch.

Start ing f rom Ujjain we stopped at village Ingoria (10 km f rom Ujjain) for breakfast , the trademarkbreakfast "Poha and Jalebi" of MP.

On our way we crossed the city of Barnagar. The road from Ujjain till Barnagar is awesome, andthe traf f ic is also minimal.

However f rom Barnagar t ill Rat lam, and within Rat lam city t he roads are pret ty bad. But once youcross Ratlam city, the road is again neat till Sailana. We also crossed two rivers "Gambhir" and"Chambal" on our way.

Coming back to Sailana, what to do, where to go:
http://sidsdarkbook.fadnis.org/2008/08/ince-long-our-family-had-longed-for.htmlhttp://sidsdarkbook.fadnis.org/2008/08/ince-long-our-family-had-longed-for.htmlhttp://sidsdarkbook.fadnis.org/2008/08/ince-long-our-family-had-longed-for.htmlhttp://sidsdarkbook.fadnis.org/2008/08/ince-long-our-family-had-longed-for.html


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Sailana was f ormerly a princely stat e, and I guess, it was a part of Rajasthan. Post independenceit was merged in MP. A Fort belonging to the then royal family still stands tall in heart of Sailana,and the area is known as "Palace Chauraha", or "Rajwada". A descendant of t he royal family st illoccupies part of the fort, so we were told, by the officials present at the fort. The main touristattraction of Sailana, is the Cactus Garden, housed inside this fort. It boasts a myriad collectionof various types of cacti, some of them small, bush like. But most of them, large, huge andgigantic. It gives us a f eeling, as if we have entered t he neolithic era. The place is very serene andquiet, and the silence is only disturbed occasionally by squeals of peacocks, who thrive at theplace. The place is also yet unaffected by commercialization, as the entry ticket is only Rs 5 perperson. The cost to carry a single camera inside is just Rs 10 per instrument. The fort housessome empty cages, hinting that some animals were also kept here for display. But this was laterdiscontinued for lack of animals / funds / rights to cage animals. I strongly recommend this placefor f lora enthusiasts.

Next we went to "Kedareshwar" temple of Lord Shiva. This is again famous in Sailana, andactually there are two of them, both 4 km both from the fort (but in opposite directions). Wevisited the one, which had a better connecting road! The temple is situated in a man made cave(carved out f rom a clif f of igneous rocks). The cliff along with many others surrounds a small valley.From the top of the cliff, a small stream of monsoon rain water forms a waterfall and joins a small

pond of water in the valley. From here a river originates and flows down into the plains ofRajasthan. The whole setting is very beautiful, and quiet. Especially during the monsoons, all this isblessed with lush greenery, and is literally a treat for the eyes. After offering our prayers to LordShiva, all of us, including my parents climbed down the clif f into t he valley (do not panic, there arestairs). We simply sat by t he pond, frolicked in water and had lots of fun. Had we brought along aspare set of clothes, we could have had a nice swim / bath. This place also, I must comment, isf ree f rom commercializat ion and priests haggling devotees f or money and donation.

Where to dine:

On our way back to Ujjain, we stopped at Ratlam, at a restaurant called "Palash". The place is

pret ty clean and has clean wash rooms. The food was also nice, and I was pleasant ly surprised t of ind cont inental food on the menu. Though the place is pure vegetarian, they do have a bar, whichis housed in a different section of the premises. On way back, we again took a halt at villageIngoria for "Chai".

The conclusion:

I never imagined, there could be such an interesting place so near to Ujjain, ideal for a day's outing.I strongly recommend this place to all people visiting the "Malwa" region of MP. I would say, visitthis place, when you have just a day to spare and want to spend it peacefully, and experiencewhat India was like some 100 years ago. Cheers.-------

Hey, this text is added to this post , aft er the post was published. I came t o know later that Sailanaalso has a bird sanctuary. Funny, this was missed f rom t he wikipedia art icle on Sailana.

--------- The Stor in Ima es -----------------------
http://www.forest.mp.gov.in/sailana.html


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The Trip to Sailana