Picnic to Bhopal (18-02-2012)

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Every year we have a number of picnics such as class picnic, diocese or congregation picnic and annual picnic. Most interesting and most thrilling of them is the annual picnic. Last year we had gone to Indore and had great fun, but this year was more enjoyable and more fun-filled. This year we had chosen Bhopal as our picnic spot.

            It was the beautiful morning of 18^th February 2012 that brought the bright son of great thrill. The day began with Holy Eucharist at 6 in the morning. Soon after the Holy Eucharist we had breakfast and prepared to go. The bus that was hired for the purpose was already parked in the play ground. Since the archbishop of Nagpur was coming to visit the brothers from Nagpur, so they had to stay back to welcome their archbishop.  However rest of us started with singing and shouting at about 7:30 a.m. on the way there was lots of fun and frolic with singing and playing different music instruments. Scarcely had we felt the distance of almost 2 hours, and we were there.

            The first stoppage was the biggest mosque of India, the Tajul Masazid (the full name is Darul Uloom Tajul Masajid) which means the crown among all the mosques. There we were explained by a gentleman all about the mosque. He said this was built by certain Begam Shahajehan who started the work in 1887 and somehow passed away without completing it in 1901. Latter on this was completed by following ruler. At the time of its completion, this was the biggest mosque in whole of Islam world. But presently it has the prestigious credit of being the biggest in India. According to the brochure given to us at the place, the purpose of this mosque was to keep alive the culture and education of the Arabs (Muslims). It was for this purpose that the network of many madrsas was spread all over India. This was to be the biggest center of not only Muslim learning but also praying, and that’s the reason that this mosque has four hostels for the students of different ages numbering around 700. Another speciality of this mosque is that it has special place for women to pray. It was great visit.

            Our next stoppage was the Bidla Temple and Bidla museum. None of us was interested to see the museum, however we went to the temple and it was beautiful to see the city from the top. It is built on a high place.

            After seeing the temple we started straight to Ratanpur parish, where there was also our next destination. There were welcomed by the parish priest, and also a priest of Sagar diocese. There we had sumptuous lunch which we had carried with us. Little while later, after lunch we went to the Fun City. We had got the tickets on concession with the help of Fr. Biju Philip of Sagar. In the Fun City we had great fun on the swings, train, thrillarium and many more games and sites. After about one hour we entered in the water park inside the fun city itself. We had great fun, swimming, and enjoying in the cool water. We enjoyed in the water for almost one hour. From fun city we came back to the parish and some snacks and cold drinks.

            On the way while coming back we also visited the DB City (a shopping mall from Dainik Bhaskar). We enjoyed seeing such a beautiful place and very specially going up and coming down on the escalators. After that we started back and did not stop anywhere except for tea. Around 9 p.m. we reached back to the seminary and thanked God and everyone for making the day special and enjoyable. Now we look forward for the long tour next year which comes after three years.