Dekho Apna Desh Mission with Passion by Banasthali Prof BR Natarajan

From the iconic ramparts of Red Fort on August 15, 2019, Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave a clarion call to citizens in India to visit at least 15 domestic destinations beyond their home state within a year by 31 Dec 2022. At that time little did he know that the Covid pandemic will change the lives of crores and hit the tourism sector. However there are many Indians who love to take up challenges and it goes without saying that presently senior citizen Prof Natarajan aka Dean Nattu well known BITS Pilani alumnus with home state Rajasthan has always been one of them.

Nattu for whom Tourism Geography is of special interest made an initial plan to cover 5-6 locations during Diwali Break in Oct 2019 followed by 5-6 more during summer 2020 and remaining during Diwali break in Nov 2020. As per this plan fist 6 locations were covered in Oct 2019 which included from PM home state Gujarat Ahmedabad, Rajkot, Sasan Gir, Somnath, Porbandhar and Dwaraka. But March 2020 brought on the Corona Pandemic crisis across the nation at large and all plans made went topsy-turvy.

Feb- March 2022, with the world and nation at large fast retuning to normalcy and most forgetting anything about Dekho Apna Desh Challenge, Nattu decided to have a relook at the same. Hardly 9 months were left for December 2022 deadline. Nattu had taught Project Management umpteen times and was familiar with Time-cost trade-off or Project Crashing technique which simply refers to the process of accelerating the project activities so that the project can be completed in a shorter duration.

The challenge was to visit 15 locations outside home state within a year and Nattu decided to crash the one year span to just one month. On May 11, 2022 Nattu took the Dekho Apna Desh Pledge from the mygovt.in website and decided to cover 15 locations spread across Maharashtra, Tamilnadu, Delhi and Haryana during May-June 2022. Kick-off was marked for 17 May 2022 and the starting point was Loharu in Haryana loaded with history spanning Rajput - Mughal - British era and its connection with famous Urdu Poet Mirza Ghalib who was married to Umrao Begum from the Loharu Nawab family.

On 17 May 2022 at 1.00 PM Nattu with his wife Booma boarded Train 12240 Hisar Mumbai Central Duronto Express which reached Mumbai Central on 18 May 2022 morning 8 AM. At Mumbai, Manish Jani was waiting with cab to take us to Bhimashankar near Pune which is a wildlife sanctuary housing one of the twelve jyotirlingas spread across India. From there, reached Ahmednagar (aka Ahilyanagar) which has an impregnable fort used to house none other than Jawaharlal Nehru during freedom struggle from where he wrote the famous book "The Discovery of India".

19 May 2022 proceeded from Ahmednagar to Shanishingnapur where the temple of Shani, the Hindu God associated with planet Saturn is located. After Dharshan, blazed the highway to Aurangabad (aka Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar) and covered Bibika Maqbara (Deccani Taj), mighty Deogiri fort aka Daulatabad, Khuldabad where the Tomb of Aurangazeb and the UNESCO World Heritage Ellora caves as well as the Grushneshwar Jyotirlinga temple. Same day evening reached Shirdi, had dharshan at Sai Baba Temple and halted for the night. 20 May 2022, hit the road to Nashik to perform rituals on the banks of mighty river Godavari which originates from there and had dharshan at Trimbakeshwar Temple considered one of the twelve Jyotirlingas in India.

22 May 2022 was spent sightseeing thanks to Pooja Natarajan at Mumbai which included VT Terminus, iconic BMC building, Asiatic Society Library, Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vatsu Sanghralaya aka Prince of Wales Museum, the awesome Gateway of India. The majestic Taj Hotel, Chowpatty Beach and sunset at Marine Drive. From Mumbai took the Indigo 6E 5357 flight to Madurai on 23 May 2022. The places covered in Madurai during 24-25 May 2022 included the mighty Meenakshi Temple, Gandhi memorial museum, St Mary's Cathedral, Mahal aka the Thirumalai Naik palace.

From Madurai to Tiruchirapalli (Tiruchi) went by car and covered during 26-27 May 2022 Nallandavar temple at Manaparai built by Pandya king Sadayavarman Veera Pandian, , Grand Anaicut aka Kallanai built by by Chola king Karikalan, 300 year old Esambalam temple and Shiva temple at Bikshandarkoil village, the Trimurthi Sthal Uttamarkoil temple, Bhoologa Vaikundam Srirangam , Tiruvanaikoil Jambukeshwarar temple, iconic Rockfort temple, Our Lady of Lourdes Church. 27 May 2022 took the Rockfort express and reached Chennai 28 may morning. Nattu's nephew Ramu aka Ramaretnam played a stellar role with his mobike shuttling to various places in and around Tiruchi

At Chennai Nattu's nieces Reshma and Sushma and sister in law Hema Suresh anchored the visit to various places which included Rippon Building, Central Railway Station, Madras High Court, Anderson Church, Fort St George, Uinversity of Madras, Anna Karunanidhi Jayalaltha MGR Memorials, Namma Chennai, Vivekanandar Illam, Light House, Santhome Basilica, Triumph of Labor, Kannagi Statue and timeless Marina Beach.

On 29 May 2022 took the flight from Chennai to Delhi and thanks to Arjun Natarajan covered UNESCO World Heritage Site Humayun's Tomb, Sunder Nursery, Gurdwara Damdama Sahib, India Gate, Amar Jawan Jyoti and National War Memorial. Satisfied after covering 12 different locations during 17 May - 29 May 2022, Nattu proceeded from Delhi to Pilani by road.

On 09 June 2022 Nattu took the Volvo bus to Hisar and visited thanks to Monika Sheoran (MSc Chemistry student of Guru Jambeshwar University) Lat ki Masjid, Feroz Shah Tughlaq palace, Jahaj (George) Kothi, Ancient Gumbad, Tomb of Baba Pranpir Badshah. Jindal Gyan Kendra etc. From Hisar took the bus to yet another historic place Hansi and covered Barsi Gate, Ruined Qiila, Dargah Char Qutab and proceeded to ancient archaeological site Rakhigarhi of Harappan civilization and ended the trip after visiting Agroha Dham.

On 14 June 2022, Mahesh Jat who is Nattu's student from ITM Bhilwara, whisked Nattu on his mobike for a thunderbolt tour of heritage loaded Narnaul in Haryana which included the Doshi Hill (an extinct volcano), Chor Gumbad, Birbal ka Chhatta, Tombs of Ibrahim Khan Suri - Shah Wilayat - Pir Turkman - Shah Quli Khan, Jal Mahal and Tripolia Gateway.

As it stands, starting from 17 May 2022, 15 locations stand covered by 14 June 2022 completing the Dekho Apna Desh challenge in one month instead of one year. However, Nattu's travel passion took him further on 22 June 2022 accompanied by Mahesh Jat did a road blazing trip to visit archaeological site at Naurangabad near Bhiwani; Khushan Stupa at Asandh Town; Cantonment Church Tower, Kalander Shah Tomb, Karnal Lake, Taraori where Prithvi Raj Chauhan had fought Mohmad Ghori at Karnal; Brahma Sarovar, Science Centre, Jyotisar, Bhisma Khund, Sannihit Sarovar, Nabha House at Kurukshetra and Tomb of Ibrahim Lodi, Kabuli Bagh Mosque by Babar at Panipat,

10 Aug 2023, Nattu took a brief trip to Amar Tomar Kolkata and had a go at iconic Flurys rumballs and Biswa Bangla showroom highlighting Murshidabad products. 11 Aug 2022 was go go Goa day thanks to Pankaj Jat and Bharat Khamma criss crossed Vasco bridge across Zuari, Silver Salts villas, Silly Souls Bar, Dona Paula, Miramar beach, VM Salgaocar College of Law, the floating Casinos, Baga Royal Enfield Museum, R&B Reybier plant, Harvelem water falls, Arvalem Rock caves, Ravindra Bhavan Sankhali, Sanquelim temples which included Pandav period Rudreswar Mahadev, Dattatreya, Vithal Mandir, Shree Radhakrishna Murlidhar Sansthan etc.

26 -27 Sep 2022, Nattu took a trip to Pune and thanks to TMI Pune and Prof BV Prasad visited Bhandara Dongar Temple, Dehu Gatha Mandir, Shaniwar Wada Peshwa Palace and Shreemant Dagdusheth Halwai Ganpati. Thanks to Bandha ho Bindas Proud to be BITSian Rohit Pamnani, 3-4 December 2022 Nattu took a trip to Jabalpur and visited Tiwara Ghat, Dhundhar waterfalls, Cable car ride across Narmada river, Bhedaghat marble rocks, Chausath Yogini Temple and much more.

As on 31 Dec 2022, only 249792 people had taken the Dekho Apna Desh pledge of which 19983 were senior citizens which included Banasthali Prof BR Natarajan who visited much more places than the 15 stipulated. The places visited by Nattu during 17 May 2022 to 04 Dec 2022 include Loharu, Bhimashankar, Shanisinganur, Aurangabad, Shirdi, Nashik, Madurai, Trichy, Chennai, Delhi, Hisar, Narnaul, Naurangabad, Karnal, Kurukshetra, Panipat, Kolkata, Goa, Pune and Jabalpur.

Prof Natarajan submitted all details of visit to Ministry of Tourism and India Torism Delhi vide letter dated 22 June 2023 felicitated Prof Natarajan with a certificate along with a gift hamper containing Incredible India T Shirt - Pen - Souvenir and Yuva Tourism Club Mug. When asked what next, in his inimitable style Nattu replied 'Picture Abhi Bahut Baki Hai"

Prof BR Natarajan
BITS Pilani Alumnus
Pilani Rajasthan India 333031
Phone: +91-9799476406
Email: brnatarajan@bitsaa.org
Website: https://www.bitsaa.org/

Pilani Chronicle covers news about happenings in Pilani including achievements of Proud to be BITSians who are alumni from institution of eminence BITS - Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani spread across all latitudes, longitudes and altitudes.

This release was published on openPR.