ghost rider

saturday morning I decided to go. woke up a friend at 6 o'clock. He reached my home by 9 o'clock by 9:15 we were on the road. Took the highway i.e. NH8 till daruhera from there took a left for alwar crossed alwar. after alwar we stopped at a dhaba for our brunch of rotis, daal, and gatte ki sabzi. the daal and the gatte ki subzi both where heavy on spice and chilli thats the way it is in rajasthan, you always need spices to make your mouth water in the dry region like this. after the brunch we were standing at turning point and as always in life we had two choices the easy and shorter one and the not so easy and longer one. like heroes we chose the longer one which seemed to be more exciting as it was a drive through sariska. as we drove we met some nilgais, cheetals (spotted deers) and sambhars. not to forget loads of peacocks, peahens, langoors and other breeds of monkeys. as luck was on our side we could get some close look at the deers.








soon we where out of sariska after a nice jungli drive. another 40kms or so to bhangarh. where you can see ancient row houses with wide roads. Just that no one lives there unlike gurgaon.



the legend says bhangarh is spooky, there is a long story attached to the same but i'm not too sure. couldn't see one. none the less if ghosts exist this would be a perfect place for them to stay.

no humans to disturb their after life stay. the place is almost like a resort for the spooky types. got a nice old mossy kund like a luxuruies hamam for the spooky ones. surely the spooky ones don't get allergic or skin disease. loads of langoors for them to keep entertain, they don't need cineplexes i think. no clue what they eat probably nothing. nice rows of houses for a pleasurable stay.






though the houses don't have roofs, but who cares. we may but they prefer roofless houses i guess. The road with the roofless row houses leads to a temple and the palace. Infact there are two temples in the complex. One can walk all the way to the top of the palace.


We decided to turn back midway, i wasn't carrying my asthalin and didn't want to take chances with my breathing problems as i was already huffing and puffing by merely half the climb. the palace was deserted like everything else. as we could not see the inhabitants with our naked eyes. it takes special power to see them. the mandir was a nice find, some locals where having a lunch party.



people where sitting in rows and having subzi-pooris being cooked just outside the temple. i think this is the right purpose the temple to be a community centre.

right outside this temple was the kund with the mossy water.

probably people think it to be some sacred water as they where taking dip into it. behind the temple where the big kewda trees for some reason their was a sign outside the complex warning people against tinkering around with the trees. they are really big but i'm not too sure how old they are.


maybe a few centuries old. or maybe the ghost hang on to the branches of the trees in the night. soon we where out of bhangarh and on our way to ajaibgarg or ajabgarh. as the name suggests even this place had a garh (fort). we drove through the ghost town of ajaibgarh. Leaving the fort of ajaibgarh on our left.

took some pictures of the town which had houses on both the sides of the road but all of them were locked from outside, and mostly seemed to be out of use for a longtime how long i'm not to sure about. from






there the road took us to pratapgarh. a short tea break and photosesion at pratapgarh





and back to NH-8 near shahpura. just before hitting the highway we stopped at a dhaba to have allo parathas. And back home by 10 o'clock for dinner.
just hoping i hadn't been carrying one of the ghost in car... who knows whats in store.

few steps inside the earth

this place had been hanging somewhere in the top 5 positions of my travel wish list. been planning to go there for almost a year, that is since i saw the 15kb picture of the numerous steps of chandra baoli. the steps looked so graphic surely not like a piece of architecture but rather a drawing from escher's sketch book. the internet could not be of much help in throwing much light about the place or even it's location. all it said was Abhaneri is situated on the jaipur-agra highway around 60kms from jaipur. the confusion was that none of the maps i refered to had this name written on them. probably it's too small a place to be mentioned. anyways for me it made absolute sense to venture out on the jaipur-agra road and try finding this place. even people in jaipur were of no help. the name abhaneri sounded greek to them.



finally on a nice clear winter sunday morning i started on the agra road from jaipur, after around 30 odd kilometres some old gentleman in a filling station did confirm the existence of the place called abhaneri. the first ray of hope i could see. yes i am on the right track. the road was empty and wide. driving at the 5th gear was an easy game. the sun was rising and created hues of purple and mauve's all over, and a thin layer of fog could be seen on the adjoining mustard fields. after driving for around 80kms from the outskirts of jaipur i reached a place called sikandra crossed the toll booth over there and took the left turn from the chowk around 4.5kms ahead reached the pilot chowk and turned right. a narrow village road leads to abhaneri. as i reached the place the sun was showing it's first orangish glow. and it looked splendid as it created a halo around the spire of harshat mata temple.










undoubtedly the temple was much interesting than what it looked on the net. those 10kb pixelated pictures don't justice to the place. actually no picture can do justice to such beautiful places. well here am i witnessing the beauty of this village temple.





a short walk of just a couple of minutes takes you to a small fortress kind of thing, actually it's the outer wall of the chandra baoli, walk in through the stone gateway take a left or a right and there you are. who can imagine that out of the blue in this almost unknown village one could see such a baoli.



it's old, the water is mossy, the walls are greyish but it's so beautiful. the sun rays are yet to enter the depth of the baoli. it was not as big as i expected but surely more magnificent than my imagination.






i started walking down the steps and after a while it was like walking down a maze. not that you will get lost or anything still the structure gives the feeling of an illusion. archaeological survey of india has a decent collection of sculptures around the baoli inside the compound. but once there you would like to see nothing else but admire the architecture of the baoli. the steps are narrow one needs to be careful. once you are half way down the stairs it's like standing inside a deep pit, as if walking down towards the core of earth. i guess absence of sunlight was also making it look a bit mysterious. lucky enough there is a fence and beyond a point you can't go down the steps so no need to be scared of falling in the baolis mossy water in a cold winter morning. the place is neat and clean barring some pigeon shit around the walls.



it's nice to sit there for a while and keep admiring the baoli, when you are actually so few metres deep inside the earth and can see the ground level much above where you stand. yet again my camera can't do justice of showing the beauty of the place, but surely they should be able to inspire a person to make the trip. on one side of the baoli there are arches and below them in the niches are sculptures of mahishasur mardini and ganesh not clearly visible as they are at a distance on the other side of the water and inaccessible. my zoom lense worked as a binocular and gave me a closer look at the sculpture.



mahishasur mardini



ganesh

once done with admiring the baoli one should just walk around have a look at the carved pillars, arches, the little temple and the ASI conserved sculptures.











once you are over with all this take a short walk through the village,









have a cup of tea by the road side and move on...
...leaving behind a thousand years old baoli. a baoli which would have been the centre of technology, the centre of society, the centre art. a baoli which would have been the provider of water and centre of life.

reflections

things which are beautiful remain beautiful, even after some distortion and they make other things look interesting by their aura. yesterday i tried looking at some insignificant objects under the glory of jama masjid. and as i said jama masjid made everything else look interesting and beautiful. took a walk from the chandni chowk metro station to jawahar hotel. and on my way i kept collecting pictures of various objects with reflection of the mosque on them. even a small puddle in chawri bazaar jumped into life with the reflection of the spire of the masjid.




the junk of a spare part dealer started making artistic sense once i saw the reflection in a horn hanging there. the upturned mirror got lit by the magic of the mosque.



once in that area almost every where you can see the aura of that mosque, it's deeple embedded in every nook and corner of shahjahanabad. just that one needs to have the will and intention to see it.





surely for the past few centuries the mosque must have been enlightening people by reflecting in their day to day lives.

firozshah kotla

surely a fifty years back it would have been a splendid place for a picnic. things have changed since then, so has the concept of a picnic. what else could have one asked for than a vast open area, with some old monuments scattered here and there. a jami masjid to pray for the peace of mind and soul. and if things go too hot you find nice shade of trees in the well maintained lawns. kids can run around while the grown ups can play badminton. enough space for playing hide and seek. no scarcity of water as there is a nice baoli in the complex. though some say it's haunted but who knows. one can admire the ashokan pillar for it's size and sheen. how did that guy dare make such structutres so many hundred years back. the pillars haven't yet lost it's shine or is it a dull version which amazes us. but as i said picnics are no more in vogue. people prefer spending the sundays in a mall or watching a movie. things have changed. all you can find now in these monuments are couples who can't find solace anywhere else. they are desperate to be with each other and if luck strikes would like to go a step beyond a casual embrace. thats what you see over here. no more picnics. no more appreciation. no more of the kids playing. only hollow walls providing space for a few couples to embrace each other. i still hope to see a family picnic maybe sometime in yet another visit.

heart of darkness

i don't claim to have seen every other monument in town, yet i have seen a quite a few of them. did i know this sunday morning what was in store for me. never knew that the day was meant to discover yet another monument. something about which i have often read but have been before. was lazy enough to try and look beyond the bushes on the road connecting andheria mod to mahipalpur.
thanks to friend of mine who is a great reference point when it comes to history. i guess she knows it all or else just through a question and surely she will dig through the book for the relevant answer. and today she decided to show me around a monument i had never visited. and thats where the she got the idea to go south of mehrauli towards sultan ghari a bit off the main road leading to mahipalpur lies the beautiful complex of sultan ghari masjid.



It was built in 1231 by Iltutmish over the remains of his eldest son and heir-apparent, prince Nasiru'd-Din Mahmud. it's a walled enclosure giving a faint resemblance to a small fortress. one can see the hindu influence or maybe the pillars picked from some earlier hindu establishment. as we enter in the middle is an octagonal raised platform and somewhere in it's heart a few steps below is the actual grave chamber under the ground.


one can walk down the steps just need to be careful about the low entrance. once inside it takes a while to acclimatise to the darkness inside. the only source of light is a bit of light filtered from the little door and the small lamps lit around the grave, a few candles melting it's way off. but the moment your eyes get used to the darkness, the inside is so beautiful.







i think darkness always attracts me and exactly this is what happened. after a while i realised that i hadn't seen the ground level of the structure. took the steps back to light. probably this was one of the few structures of it's time to have use of marble in it's construction. to emphasise on certain parts of the monument marble had been used and intricate work can be seen on them rest remains of red sandstone.




one can see an octagonal structure with a false dome inside. the carvings where very basic in the dome but resembled hindu architecture.



the place is peaceful non-touristy, no non-sense. even the bird baths were empty and no birds to found nearby or did i scare them away. whatever it maybe, we thought of taking a walk around the mosque, had to wade through thick outgrowth of bushes all around to reach the ruins which where probably some residential settlements.



my friend knew about an extremely interesting short stone pillar over there somewhere among the bushes, it took us a few minutes to hunt for it but it was worth a picture, this had inscriptions which looked really out of place. did look like the grand dad of hindi. who knows what it was, maybe prakrit script.



there is so much more to the place than we see, hope one day i'll come to know the secrets. high time for me to put my pen down. maybe one day i'll write a sequel as and when i unfold the mysteries of the pillar and understand more about the darkness of the heart of the masjid.

the fort of gold

had been looking forward to this journey for years. a couple of times the plan had been made between me and a friend of mine who ditched at the last moment. its been around 4-5years since. this time i had given myself a date to begin the trip.

sambit intends to join in, even if he ditches this time i'm not going to wait for anyone. i have to go to Jaisalmer.

its the first of august and here we begin. 2 o'clock in the afternoon we are running late by a couple of hours. but now we are on the road. and in next 15 minutes we will be on the highway to ajmer via jaipur. the NH-8 is looking beautiful as its raining heavily. the wipers are on still visibility is low. at 4:30 a solar eclipse is about to begin. we are in a dilemma whether we should be driving around that time or not. i know of people damaging their vision in attemt to see the eclipse with naked eyes. i dont wanna take that risk. just after crossing daruhera sambit spots a wounded dog in the middle of the road. at any moment it could be smashed by a car or truck. we stop our car and sambit picks the dog and put him on the grassy bank of the road. sambit is back in the car got all drenched in the rain. we continue the drive toward jaipur. we have to drive a bit slow because of the rain. we took the first halt for a glass (not cup) of tea after crossing kishangarh it's already a bit more than 300kms since we started. along with the tea we buy a plate of kachori with chole, kachori was really good and much different from it cousins in delhi or mathura in the chole salt was missing. without losing much time we get back on the road. we have already. the eclipse is over by now and we didn't stop driving because of it(it was so cludy and rainy we didn't have to see the eclipse). by 8 o'clock we are in ajmer. heading towards mayo school to meet my friends parents who are resident art teachers in mayo. we spend a good 2 hours over there and off to the dargah. as we walf toward the dargah through the buzzing market selling all sorts of things we are hounded by beggars anyways we make our way through all that and finally reach the dargah. people warned us not take the camera inside as the security is a bit tight. anyways i sneak in with my little digital camera.

this is my fourth visit to ajmer sharif and as always i wonder what a powers does the place hold to be able to draw travelers for centuries, how did thousands of people from all over the world use to come to the dargah when there were no roads and no means of transportation. but we can also see people walking down to the dargah from hundreds of kilometers. no doubt this place has it's own power. there are stories that akbar the great mughal ruler walked all the way from agra to the dargah. we spent some time listening to the qawali.

now we are on our way to pushkar to spend the night. at the last moment we i had to cancel my plans of attending a marriage in ajmer for some unforeseen reasons. pushkar we reached in next half an hour and checked into the RTDC hotel. we took a short walk to The Birds Eye cafe. a cozy little terrace cafe overlooking the pushkar lake. i ordered a tomato and mushroom pizza (pushkar is strictly vegetarian). food was good and very filling. we were lucky to reach there before the last orders were being taken. sitting there i could click a few pictures of the small little town. back to the hotel and off to bed. early morning we are leaving for jaisalmer, yet to decide which route to follow will do that once we will be on the road.

it's still dark very dark and rainy. nobody has yet got up in the hotel. we had made the payments last night or else could have easily sneaked out. we browse through the EICHER Road Map and decide on driving towards Jodhpur. the roads are fabulous and the rain is never ending. the topography has changed a lot since we left Gurgaon. by the time we reach Jodhpur the Aravali's can't be seen anymore. we never enter the town rather take the bypass leading to Jaisalmer. soon we realise that we can go all the way to barmer and yet make it to Jaisalmer by the evening. so let's have lunch at Barmer. and if possible we can go to Munna Bao which is a border town. lunch was great at Barmer some Brahman Bhojanalaya it was. served pure vegetarian rajasthani food. we had tamatar ki subzi, gatte ki subzi and lahsan ki chutney with an assortment of roti's. the food was amazing and very local. the roti's were dripping with ghee.

back on the road, Barmer left far behind us. te road ahead is straight, empty and rainy. summing it up it's beautiful. as we cut through the rain and the road we come across a car stuck in the middle of the road with a flat tyre. we try to help them out get wet ourself and unable to find our own jack to lift the car. well after around 45 minutes of struggle another cab guy help them out. also tells us that our jack is fixed below the co-drivers seat. thanks to the cab driver, we continue with our journey. the landscape is awesome no obstructions at all only barren land and the road. not much have changed over the last couple of hundred kilometres, surely a lot have changed since we began our trip. suddenly we can see some three limbed giants doing kart-wheel at a distance behind a higher ground. have heard about aliens but never trusted their existence, what could these be. as we near we can see the windmills standing on very tall white poles. the windmills where spread over an area of around 25-30 kms. they where an awesome site on the light brownish barren land. a bit before 4 o'clock we could spot the fort standing on a a hill top, no to ways about it being called the sonar-kila or the golden fort it actually is golden yellow in colour. its big and its beautiful and its golden standing on a dark background given by the gloomy clouds.

we can't wait to be near it. in next thirty minutes we are standing right in-front of the fort. a fort surrounded by a small city around it. a fort with yet another city inside it. a fort getting drenched in rain. a bright yellow fort. so impressive a fort. after years of wait i am standing outside The Jaisalmer Fort. who knows where i will be tomorrow but today i am outside the Jaisalmer Fort and thats what matters the most at this point of time. i can't stop admiring it's beauty.

how could it withstand the hot desert winds for almost a thousand years. how could it bear the harsh climate to give comfort to the thousands of people staying inside for almost a thousand years. it looks like a fairy tale. cut away from reality. a fort standing in the middle of the desert all alone for centuries.