Day 2
We stayed in a home stay - House No/ 153, Madhav in Viraj Residency. Madhav ji & I got ready at 5 am. I went for a morning walk. There were many home stay facilities there. I could see boards of Shroj, Rudra, Dosti Homestay but there were many more there. Its a good business there in Gaudeshwar & Rajpipla. I returned at about 7.15 am.
All others were ready by about 7.30 am. Our attendant bought hot water on our request. we had carried Ready to drink premix powders of Tea & coffee with and without sugar. We had tea, Then we had Gul Poli brought by Neelima Tai and a second round of tea / coffee. We were ready for the day. We reached the entry at S o U, at about 8.15 am. We saw a cabin where booking of 11 seater golf cart was to start at 8.30. Satish ji could not resist the temptation of getting fresh poha. They say " Kharbuja Kharbuje ko dekh kar Rang Badalta Hai ". How true it was. Another plate, followed by another plate of Poha came and we all had tasty pohas.
It was almost 8.40 am and still there were no signs of anyone opening the cabin. Madhav, Madhukar & I got restless. The person at Helpdesk came to our rescue. He contacted someone and soon someone appeared on the scene, We booked the cart and had a sigh of relief. Our waiting game did not end even after making the payment. Finally at about 9 am a cart appeared. Unfortunately it was not a 11 seater cart. So we had to squeeze in . Our Sightseeing finally started.
We started our tour with Jungle Safari. I could get some good shots of avian friends. However, we could not go to the exotic aviary because of paucity of time. All in all we had a good time in the Jungle safari,
Next on the list was Nauka Vihar starting at 10.30 am . it lasted for about 45 minutes. I got to capture few of the birds on the banks of Narmada and also a serpent eagle perched on a distant tree. I could also capture a purple sunbird as we came up near our cart.
A Cruise drive was next on agenda. our cruise was Unity 2 starting from Shreshtha Bharat Bhavan Jetty to the Statue of Unity. We stopped at Best View Point on the way to the jetty. Really the spot is well selected as it gives full view of the S o U. we indulged in taking few shots. we also took group photos there showing the statue standing tall over us all. The cruise took us around the Patel statue and brought us back. The 20 odd minute cruise was enriching experience as we could see the stature from a close distance.
No doubt the Statue is a piece of marvel and anybody can hardly take off his or her eyes when you see it from a close distance. It is visible from anywhere in the campus of Ekta Nagar. L & T has done a great job in creating this engineering marvel.
We had a quick lunch in a road side dhaba opposite the S o U. Now we were ready for the grand experience of the visit to the Statue of Unity. Its here we realized how tall is the personality of Shri Madhukar is and how the L & T staff everywhere still hold him in high esteem, even so many years after his retirement.
We all got a quick VIP like entry to the campus of the S o U. A gentleman greeted us warmly and took us straight to a point where a cart took us all to the main lounge. One Mrs. Karnal ( affectionately called Colonel ) came and greeted Shri Madhukar and us all. She took us to the gallery and explained how the S 0 U work was conceptualized, planned & executed by L & T in a record time.
A separate dedicated blog is a must to give details about the S o U.
We were escorted to the Office Mr. Shailesh Master head of L & T unit there. A small video about the project was screened and we were served snacks and tea / coffee. We then headed for the Audio & Laser Show about the stature. Finally we were taken to the exit point by a cart. We then went to the Ghat to attend and experience the Grand Narmada Aarti followed by laser fountain show.
All in all. we had a highly enriching experience got detailed orientation tour of the S o U. It all was possible only because we had Shri Madhukar with us. But for him our visit would have been much like thousands of visitors visiting the S o U. Yes, we would have seen the statue and tried to assimilate information from the boards on display, but with out minutest details which we got. That made our visit of S o U a most memorable one, which will be engraved in our memory for time immemorial
Thanks giving is too small a gesture to Shri Madhukar Kotwal from us all.
Three cheers for Madhukar - Hip Hip Hurray, Hip Hip Hurray, Hip Hip Hurray.
In lighter vein three of us gents ( Madhav, Satish & I ) would have said in style of the movie Three Idiots - Tohfa Kabul Ho.
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