September/October 2021 -- The Trip with purpose

I wrote about my father's passing away in a blog post in my other blog. He passed away of COVID-19 during peak of pandemic in April -2021.  Because of the peak of pandemic, he was cremated with COVID protocol on the next day after his death and we decided to hold off to other rituals for a later date and time where it might become safer for people to travel.

September 2021 during pitru paksha, we decided it was the right time to continue and complete the first set of rituals related to his passing away. After his cremation, we had kept his last remains in our garden and asthi visarjan was the first step to kick start the set of rituals that were to follow. 

Here is the travelog of the road trip that we undertook to bid final farewell to my father.

1. Day 01 -- 17 September 2021, Bengaluru to Hyderabad
2. Day 02 -- 18 September 2021, Hyderabad to Bhopal
3. Day 03 -- 19 September 2021, Rest day at Bhopal
4. Day 04 -- 20 September 2021, Official Work at Bhopal
5. Day 05 -- 21 September 2021, Lots of bureaucratic work at Bhopal
6. Day 06 -- 22 September 2021, More bureaucratic work at Bhopal
7. Day 07 -- 23 September 2021, Asthi Visarjan at Prayagraj
8. Day 08 -- 24 September 2021, Asthi Visarjan and Back
9. Day 09 -- 25 September 2021, In search of North Indian Rivers, Bhopal to Noida
10. Day 10 -- 26 September 2021, Towards Haridwar and Rishikesh
11. Day 11 -- 27 September 2021, Noida to Gwalior
12. Day 12 -- 28-September 2021, Gwalior to Orccha
13. Day 13 -- 29 September 2021, Orccha to Ujjain
14. Day 14 -- 30 September 2021, Ujjain to Omkareswar and Back
15. Day 15 -- 01-October-2021, Ujjain to Bhopal
16. Day 16 -- 02-October-2021, Dashmi Rituals
17. Day 17 -- 03-October-2021
18. Day 18 -- 04-October-2021, Terahvi Rituals
19. Day 19 -- 05-October-2021
20. Day 20 -- 06-October-2021, Bhopal to Bhedaghat
21. Day 21 -- 07-October-2021, Bhedaghat to Amarkantak
22. Day 22 -- 08-October-2021, Amarkantak to Nagpur
23. Day 23 -- 09-October-2021, Nagpur to Bengaluru

This completes the total trip. The total Toll paid was Rs. 7778. Total amount towards fuel was more than Rs. 80,000/-.

Day 8 -- 24 September 2021, Asthi Visarjan and Back

 24-September-2021

We got up early and went to the Ghat for asthi visarjan. It took couple of hours for us to do that. Then we came back to hotel and got ready for our drive back.

We had started from Allahabad without breakfast and we thought we will have breakfast in Chitrakoot.

My dad had left some money to be donated to जगद्गुरु रामभद्राचार्य दिव्यांग विश्वविद्यालय चित्रकूट उत्तर प्रदेश।  So we straight away drove to the place. When we reached there, all the officials were in a meeting. So we decided to have our breakfast in the university canteen. After our breakfast, we met the officials and gave our donation that was left by my dad to them.

We left the university at 11:25 AM. We kind of did not find any place to have our lunch. We drove towards Sagar. We found a Dhaba to have some snacks and tea.

After crossing Sagar, we arrived in Bhopal at 10:10 PM.

Day 7 -- 23 September 2021, Asthi Visarjan at Prayagraj

The first thing that we needed to do was to do asthi visarjan. We had kept the remains in our garden, it was time to take them out and take these to Prayagraj. That's what our dad wanted and our family has been doing it for years.

I also decided to take few pieces of the remains and taken them to different rivers across the country that my dad liked and submerge them there. This kind of decided the plan of this complete trip.

We started from Bhopal at around 7AM and were on our way towards Sagar enroute to  Prayagraj or Allahabad.

8:45 AM We stopped at a road side dhaba to have some tea.

9:20 AM Crossed Sagar town towards Damoh.

11:44 AM Crossed Damoh town.

2:10 PM Stopped at MP Tourism Midway Treat just after Katni town.

7:00 PM Arrived at our hotel in Allahabad. We had booked Hotel Polomax near Allahabad Railway station

9:00 PM We walked around the hotel and went to Mahatma Gandhi Road and had our Lunch at Aaoji Haryana Da Dhaba.

10:30 PM Arrived back in the hotel and retired for the day.