INDORE

For a native to tell a visitor what places in the city are worth visiting can be difficult I guess. When we enquired in Indore what places to visit we could see the puzzled look. But all it took was stepping out of the hotel room and Indore’s liveliness unveiled itself.

Chappan Chowk-crowd enjoying their evening

We were staying at The Balwas International, South Tukoganj. We wanted to get a feel of the city and started exploring Indore from the Chappan Chowk. Chappan is 4 km from our hotel and we walked to it.  The south Tukoganj streets had nice big houses and pretty boutiques leading to main roads hustling with heavy traffic, public transport seemed mediocre. After a 30 min walk, the site of Chappan Chowk did not let us down. The Chappan also known as Chaat market is said to have 56 food stores(chappan means 56 in hindi), I tried to get a count but couldn’t really get an accurate number. If you are a student looking for some variety of food joints in affordable prices after 5 pm you would find yourself at this place often. Mind the timings; post 6 pm is the best time to be here. The choices of food- Indian hotdogs, all types of Indian chats and sweets, sandwiches, pizzas, Chinese, momos, maggi with Punjabi tadka, chai, lassi and what not. After a nice snack and hot chai we returned to our hotel. We planned to go to Sarafa the next night for dinner.

  

A mixed chat platter at Chappan



food stalls in Sarfa

 Indore has always been known as the place for great snack lovers, but you need to go to Sarafa to really see how much they love their snacks. It is a market for gold jewelers in the morning where food joints are opened after 9pm and go on till 12 am. No food joint has the facility to sit and they are all live food counters; you keep moving from one joint to another. It is more like pub hopping; just that food replaces the drinks.  

Live Counter-Makke ki khis and Garedu

The specialties of Sarafa are Garedu – deep fried 2 inch long pieces of Yam and makke ki khis – cooked and finely ground American corn with some spices. If you have a sweet tooth this is your spot, with big dishes of kalakand, gajar halwa, gulab jamoon and other Indian sweets. You will find the other common favorites from dosas to chat items also. Sarafa is a food lover’s paradise. 


Night view-Rajwada

Just adjacent to the Sarafa Street is the Rajwada. The 200 year old palace in shades of brown and white, has the first three floors built in stone and the rest four built in wood . The palace has survived 3 fire accidents.There is a garden with some fountains in the front. This monument looks distinguished and noble. The king Malhar Rao Holkar has built the Rajwada and made it his residence. The whole setup gives an impression that this place might have been the commercial centre of Indore for quite some time. If you walk further ahead to a distance of 300metres, there you will find the Chattrees. From a distance they look like 2 very beautiful Marathi temples, they are actually memorials of the Holkar rulers. It is said that the Chattrees have been built on the burial sites of the Holkar rulers. These places are closed to visitors by 5 pm in the evening, so be sure to be there before that for a detailed tour of these places.



The Lal Bagh Palace



The Lal Bagh palace was another beautiful place to visit, should not take more than 30 minutes to complete its tour. It closes at 5 30pm and is 6 km away from the airport, so this can be the last stop before leaving from Indore . The Lal Bagh palace is a 150 year old palace associated with Tukoji Rao and Shivaji Rao of the Holkars. It is a two storey building with around 25 acres of open land around, the statue of the Queen still remains in the garden (which is kind of annoying). The Narmada river (which is now a small water canal) flows by the palace. There is a big entrance hall with high pillars made of colorful marble and some beautiful printing of colorful dotted peacocks on the walls (I don’t even know what it is called). On either sides of the hall there is a billiards room, two assembly halls and one reading room (it is what I remember). All the ceilings have beautiful paintings, the kind you find in the movie Da Vinci code. There is a beautiful gold colored border on the non marble pillars and around the paintings on the ceilings, the furniture is exquisite. The kitchen is on the other side of the Narmada River, food from the kitchen would arrive from an underground tunnel to main dining hall, and the lift is still there for visitors to see. The dining hall with 25 feet long dining table along with smaller round dining tables around can accommodate 50 delegates at a time, I am sure this could be converted to a ballroom accordingly also. On either sides of this hall are two other smaller dining halls- one Indian and one western.  On the first floor, there is the king’s bedroom, queen’s bedroom, queen’s dressing room and a huge Bathroom. The furniture is minimal and simple. You can also find on display the hunting escapades of the kings, two or three dead leopards and tigers. Outside, there is the tomb of peer baba and another small Shiva temple. The guide said that the entire structure has been designed and made of material brought from Europe. The grandeur of this palace is inexplicable and breathtaking.  It is an amazing monument I should say. This is a must-see visitor spot in Indore.

Sabudana khichdi- you will find this at every nook and corner of Indore

There are some other interesting places in Indore to visit-Kanch Mandir- a Jain temple with interiors in glass, Choki dhani- A Rajasthan theme park, probably the museum, Zoo, Gandhi hall and the list is longer.  Around Indore there many places to visit- Dhar which is a scenic location at 35 kms, Mhow which is also a scenic location at 35 kms, Ujjain and Omkareshwar are religious places @ 50kms and 75 kms respectively, Mandu which is a historical place @ 100 kms, Patalpani which is a beautiful waterfall @ 35 kms. All these places look their best in the monsoons.

History of Indore: After the collapse of Mughals, the Malwa region came under the Maratha generals –Holkar, Scindia and Pawar who established their states at Indore, Gwalior, Dhar and Dewas.  The Holkar state (also called Indore state) was a leading state, which is now a part of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. Indore state comes from the name of its capital Indore which in turn is a distortion of the name Indrapur. Initially Maheswar was the capital of Holkar state; Indore was made the capital in 1818. Indore was surrounded by 18 princely states and was well connected to all of them.

Maharani AhilyaBai Holkar

In early 18^th century, the Maratha s defeated the Mughals. Malhar Rao Holkar, the Maratha general received special grants from the Mughal emperor then. After Malhar Rao’s death, his grandson succeeded him but died in nine months. So Malhar Rao’s daughter-in-law Rani Ahilyabai took up the administration. After her death in 1795, the Maratha General Tukoji Rao ruled for next two years. After his death, strife for the crown went on between his sons and Yashwant Rao emerged to be the next leader. He defeated army of Peshwa and Scindia and conquered Pune; he was the last prominent Holkar. After a series of failing rulers, it was during Yashwant Rao Holkar third that there was considerable some progress in Indore, but in 1948 he finally signed the Accession agreement unwillingly in the wake of India’s independence.