Impressions from Indore

It was a weekend on the move. Sourabh's wedding gave me a chance to visit Indore, for my first tryst with the center of the country. The first impressions of Indore were that of a typical small Indian town. As we left the station, the rickshaw travelled through small roads, lined by old buildings on both sides with little clearing from the streets. At 10 in the morning, it seemed the town was sleepy with hardy any shops opened to business. Later in the day, a trip to the 'Kaanch Mandir' just reinforced this stereotype. This trip took us to the heart of the old city of Indore, where the lanes were so narrow that vehicles seemed to brush each other. The acrobatics skills of the rickshaw driver surely shocked Nirav. Nirav hails from Mumbai, and this sight must have been a rude shock, though Puneites like me have come to expect this dance on the road. I must concede that even by Pune standards, the traffic discipline was bad. The rickshaw driver was calling out to vendors on the street, he seemed to know many of them. We then travelled to Khachrana, which lies on the other side of Indore. It took us across the Indore railway station, and that is when a whole new modern city opened up. I saw broad roads, huge commercial complexes, malls and apartment complexes befitting Indore's status as the commercial capital of central India. The contrast between the old city and the new city is to be seen to be believed.

I must mention the Kaanch Mandir. It is a Jain temple, whose interiors are completely made of glass shreds. The floor, roof, walls, idols are completely made of glass. The walls, roofs are covered with stories from Jain legends, again told in glass. It is an impressive structure, not to be missed if you are in Indore.

We next visited Ujjain. The bus-trip is a tale in itself. The bus left the stand at a crawling pace, with the conductor walking in front, trying to get passengers to fill the bus. Not a single space in the bus was to be wasted, the conductor trying to get kids on sit on their wards' laps, so he could squeeze in an extra passenger. All this made for constant chatter among passengers, rarely heard in Pune. Finally, after about half an hour of the fun, a quiet journey to Ujjain was underway. Such experiences are rarely obtained if a taxi is exclusively hired. To know the pulse of a place, we must travel by its public transport and that's one thing I always try to do in a new place.

In contrast to Indore, Ujjain is a quiet town. This town's claim to fame is of course its religious significance. We visited the Mahakaleshwar temple in Ujjain, one of the 12 Jyotirlingas. One thing I could see was the clear contrast with South Indian temples. In South India, the temples create an aura around the deity. The sanctum sanctorum is strictly off limit for devotees, with access restricted to only the priests. The ancientness of the temples is repeatedly reinforced, like the insistence on a dress code and the display of the stone structures. In contrast, the Mahakal temple and most in the North bring about a feeling of naturalness and informality. The sanctum sanctorum is easily accessible. There is no dress code applied to devotees. Even though the Mahakal temple is an antique stone structure, the stones and old wooden structures have been painted white and the sactum sanctorum walls are covered with tiles. There seems to be an adaptation to the times. Do these contrasting approaches to the Lord suggest some difference between the cultures and sensibilites of the people in the North and South?