Bhangarh:Town of ghosts

I have heard about lot of ghost stories and all of them are based on some place like building, mansion etc. However, I had never got a chance to visit such a place. While in Narhat village (Alwar district, Rajasthan), I heard about a place called Bhangarh which is supposedly one of the most haunted places in India. Apparently it is quite a popular place.

One day, I got an opportunity to visit the place. It was a typical Rajasthan afternoon..a hot and sunny one when me along with Ayush and one local headed off to Bhangarh. Bhangarh is right next to Ajabgarh village(in Thanagazi block). The road to Ajabgarh-Bhangarh reminds you of the horror serials with bare trees lining up on both sides of road.

The actual area of Bhangarh is quite well preserved by ASI. A temple is situated at the entrance of the walled area after which ruins of the marketplace are located. The ruins clearly show that the kingdom had lot of shops. All these shops had similar architecture..and surprisingly, all these shops have been destroyed from same level..like someone has chopped them off from the top. The whole area has 3 temples and all of them are still intact. There is also a 4 storey palace, it used to be 7 stores high but now only 4 storeys remain. The palace lies in lap of hills and lots of bats (and probably some ghosts too) live in its rooms. From the top of palace, a beautiful view of the whole kingdom and the plains ahead can be seen. The area also has a garden with lot of plants. One can hear the wind gushing among the greenery. Overall, the site is quite well maintained.

The folklore has it that Bhangarh was once a prosperous town. The king and queen lived in the palace. There was a sadhu living on the nearby hilltop in his cottage. He liked the queen and wanted to get her. Once he gave some hair oil to a maid servant so as to apply it on the queen. The sadhu had done some magic on oil so that whosoever would use the oil would come in his cottage. The queen got suspicious of the oil and threw it on an arch of palace. The result was that the arch flew and landed over sadhu’s cottage. The sadhu was crushed and while dying, he cursed that Bhangarh will be destroyed in one night. All the people fled the place. All the buildings –except temples- in the town were destroyed overnight and ghosts started living there. The locals believe that if anyone goes to Bhangarh after the sunset, he/she won’t return. We heard this story from a number of locals. Apparently, earlier there was a Govt. of India signboard at this place saying that government is not responsible for anybody who enters the place after sunset but we did not find any such signboard.

We left the place well before evening but the memories of such a beautiful place will linger for long.

Jaisalmer:The Golden City

A trip to Rajasthan is incomplete without seeing the sand dunes in Thar Desert. Even before reaching Rajasthan, I had made a point to go and see the actual desert, the one which I had seen in so many Bollywood movies.

There were five people of my batch in Rajasthan (myself, Ayush, George, Arthy and Pratibha) and all of us planned to visit Jaisalmer. Jaisalmer is the westernmost district of India having Pakistan on its western frontier. We reached Jaisalmer on a Saturday afternoon after 14 hrs train journey. The journey is long and once you cross Jodhpur, you can see only vast barren plains. I am from Punjab and have seen lot of plains in northern India but nothing like the ones in Rajasthan. These plains continued for couple of hours of train journey and were devoid of any life. Only some shrubs were seen here and there while the remaining area was totally uninhabitated.

We reached Jaisalmer railway station and headed off to Hotel Desert Haveli. We had already booked this hotel prior to our arrival here. The hotel guy called ‘Aladin’ (now thats a name one can’t forget) had come to receive us at the station and he took us to the hotel.

One of the main attractions of Jaiselmer is its fort. The fort is a marvelous piece of art and the best part is that it is still inhabited by people..infact, it is teeming with people and shops. The buzz of market kicks alive the whole fort and it is a different feeling altogether. Our hotel was located inside the fort and from its window, one could see a beautiful view of the city and the desert beyond. After freshening up, we had lunch at ‘The Trio’ restaurant. It had a good ambience with food being served under a tent at the rooftop. After this, we started the sight seeing leg of our trip.

One striking feature of Jaisalmer is its golden yellow color. All the buildings inclusing the fort, havelis, houses, petrol pumps and even police and railway stations are built from golden yellow limestone. This gives the city a totally different aura and hence, it is also known as the Golden City.

The hotel people had arranged a jeep for us and first, we went to a Jain temple (don’t remember its name) on the outskirts of Jaisalmer..the temple had a wonderful architecture and was preserved well. After this, we went to see the ruins of Kuldhara village…this site is also now managed by ASI. It was already 4 PM and all of us wanted to see the sand dunes fast so we asked the driver to head over to ‘Sam Sand Dunes’. These sand dunes are about 45 kms from Jaisalmer and are a major tourist attraction. The driver dropped us two kms before the sand dunes and we got onto the backs of camels to go right into the desert. Camel ride is fun..but you really gotta balance yourself else you might fall. Once we reached the dunes, we just walked on the sand, tried to run from one dune to other.. and with Rajasthani folk music in the background, ‘twas lotta fun. The dunes really look mesmerizing at the sunset..like someone has splashed colors on canvas.

At night, we stayed at a resort in the desert. There was a folk song and dance program happening at the resort but none of us liked it. We had arranged for tents for our night stay but we preferred to sleep outside in the open. If the desert is burning hot in the day, it turns into freezing cold at night. We had to use blankets at night to protect us from chilly winds.

I woke up early in morning and at sunrise, I again walked upto the dunes.. It felt like I was under a spell, some sort of magic by a beautiful witch…which kept on pulling me toward the lovely golden sand. The fierce winds at night had created beautiful scales on the sand.. I was alone in the middle of nowhere but then reality dawned and I bade goodbye to the sand and returned to tent to take a shower. I took shower and stepped outside the tent and bah, I was engulfed in sand again. Fast dusty winds (at 8 AM) had ensured that I can’t feel the luxury of a shower for more than 5 minutes. Anways, we had breakfast and returned back to our hotel in the fort.

We had coffee at the hotel and then we went out for some more sight seeing. We visited the Jain temple inside the fort. After that, we didn’t see the palace and went to see a haveli instead. Though there are lot of havelis in Jaisalmer, Patwa haveli is said to be worth visiting. One can take an autorickshaw or just walk down the narrow lanes of the city. The haveli is a beautiful and grand piece of architecture and is worth visiting to see the grandeur of erstwhile times. (Photographs of haveli at its official website: http://patwahaveli.com ). The haveli has lot of exhibits used by its owners and together, they take you into different era altogether.

We also bought diaries made of handmade paper as a souvenir. While creating the paper, the manufacturer often adds leaves, flowers or grass inside the paper thus giving it a totally different look. I also bought another souvenir of a window representing the many windows which forts and havelis have. The shop owner gave me a fossil stone with this purchase..apparently, this stone is extremely old and has medicinal properties. As per shop owner(s), it can convert milk to curd though I didn’t test this claim.

This culminated our Jaisalmer dream. We had sumptuous food in the city and started back for the long journey.

Things you find only in villages

Looking for something to eat while waiting for bus at Pratapgarh??? Why don’t you try the latest brand of finger chips??? It is called Kurekur .

Kurekur is not available in cities like Mumbai and Delhi and it appears that a famous brand has lifted the packaging style of Kurekur to rake a big moolah :). You will almost mistake it for being that famous brand unless you are careful enough to notice the..err….typo in the name.

The bagheera (leopard) of Narhat

Update 1

While at Narhat village, my favourite timepass at nights was to gaze at lovely night sky…won’t be able to see it in so much glory once I go back to Mumbai. However, my happiness was cut short by a local who told that a bagheera (leopard) frequents the village during night to drink water..and apparently two nights earlier, that bagheera was roaming right outside the house where we were staying. A neighbor spotted the animal at that time.

The local however added that the bagheera is not a man eater..and only eats animals like goats etc. … and hence it was safe to venture out at night. Also, all the villagers sleep outside their homes at night and the bagheera doesn’t do any harm to them…and then, the local peacefully returned to his home.

Needless to say, as soon as the local went back to his house, we closed the doors… Me and my roomie didn’t dare to venture out that night to see the sparkling stars..Well, you do not want to be the first person to know that a bagheera has just turned a man eater..right???


Update 2

Two weeks later, I again went back to Narhat and this time I happened to speak to an old lady about this leopard. She nonchalantly replied that the leopard runs away when you scare it with a stick…I was dumbstruck by the callousness by which she was telling me all this...as if it was their way of life.

The VIP syndrome...When will we get over it?

India appears to be humiliated and outraged and the reason??? One of our most popular figure of recent times, Dr A P J Abdul Kalam was frisked by Continental Airlines officials before boarding the aircraft. The print media as well as electronic media are up with arms in criticizing the 'incident'. There was ruckus in the parliament over this issue and our govt has lodged FIR against the 'guilty'. Frankly speaking, I am not amused. We have a history of beating around the bush on all the non-trivial issues in the world but will refuse to admit this ostensibly uncovered truth.

Personally speaking, I do not see anything wrong with the frisking of Mr Kalam. Like most of my fellow Indians, I also admire him and have high respect for him. However, considering what has happened in recent past, I think it is high time that we come out of the VIP syndrome. Why do we have to treat a VIP as some sort of God? Afterall, isn't a VIP a human being in the end ? To allow him to fly unchecked is a threat to the security to other fellow passengers. India has seen the Kanishka bombing and IC-814 hijack case...so why to take a risk? Or are we waiting for a VIP to hijack a plane before we accept our mistake and then make up laws stripping VIPs of this privilege. We have often heard of the criminal-politician nexus and a sizable number of our MPs and MLAs have criminal background. Treating them as the privileged ones is like playing with lives of people. Someday, we as a country have to learn to be tough, be proactive and to treat all its citizens at par.

Human life is of paramount importance and once lost, the void in the lives of relatives/friends can't be filled. If I was travelling in a plane, I would want EACH and EVERY passenger checked, whoever he/she may be. I do have a right to care about my own life..don't I...or have the VIPs have snatched away that also?

Visited Salarjung, Charminar & Mecca Masjid

An old saying goes like this: 'Ghar ki murgi daal barabar'. This is true in case of historical monuments also. Most of the visitors in any historical place are from outside the city in which the monument is located. The locals generally don't find the place as important since it has always been there for them. This situation has been fully true for me. Having stayed in NCR, I never visited Red Fort or Qutub Minar or Jantar Mantar or Lotus Temple. I have seen these places many times from outside while travelling but never actually went to see them during my stay at NCR. The same situation happened at Hyderabad also. I hadn't visited Salarjung Museum or Mecca Masjid or Charminar since the time I have come here. But this time, I decided to make mends. Today, I went to see all these three places.

I started off with Salarjung Museum. I reached there at 11:30AM and straight away headed for Musical Clock. I had heard a lot about this clock & hence didn't want to miss it. Crowd had already started gathering in the hall to watch the 'event'. Since I had some 15-20 minutes in my hand, I decided to visit Rebecca gallery. Here I must confess that I ain't among those persons who will look at the finer details of each work of art..Mostly, I'll just give a passing glance and move on.. I agree that the craftsman must have made something good and he/she must have got good money for it but what the heck, what is the need to drooool over it. So while in Rebecca Gallery, I just saw some sculptures and passed by..until I reached the statue of Veiled Rebecca.. and then, my heart stopped. Oh God, the statue was awsome. Now I know why people sing praises of it. The sheer beauty of the sculpture hooked me..I spent 4-5 mins just admiring the beauty of the statue . Now 4-5 mins is LOT for me considering that I hardly give couple of seconds to each work of art. I tried to think how Benzoni would have created such a masterpiece but was at loss of ideas.
Since the time was ticking by, I went back to the hall hoping to grab a seat but all the seats were already taken. So I stood by one side near the wall and waited for the 'moment'. At 12:00PM, a timekeeper came out and struck gong 12 times and then went back inside the clock. Whoa... what was that? Agreed that the clock is nicely built and has lot of dials..but still, do hundreds of people wait daily for this dng-dong thing?? It is just a watch folks and there will be thousands like this in people's homes. I didn't find anything special in it.. But seeing that the museum folks are earning lot just by showing a watch, I'm thinking that I should also buy one clock with a cuckoo and ask people to pay for watching it come out of watch at the stroke of every hour.. Well, it sounds like an idea to me. If ppl can go to see the timekeeper doing some ding dong, why they won't come to see a murgaa saying cuckroo-koo.. :)) Long story cut short, I didn't like the watch show. There were a lot of other collections too in the museum.. some egyptian, french, south indian, kashmiri etc etc etc..I sleepwalked thro' most of them. Some collections were really good..like the porcelain stuff and the wooden sculpture having two faces.. even the marble sculptures were good. I didn't like the modern art section though. Actually, it was not a problem with the collections, I should say that I don't understand this form of art. I saw a painting by M F Hussain and I couldn't decipher what it was meant to be. It looked to be some random array of colours.. why would someone keep it in a museum.. or for that matter, why would someone even call it a painting? LOL :)) So overall, this museum was worth mainly for statue of Veiled Rebecca and some other sculptures/crafts. The collection was good and I'm sure that the Salarjungs had loads of money to buy all those costly artefacts but then, I sleepwallked thro' all that stuff.

My take: To evoke interst from junta like me, the owners should allow us to get one souveneir free of cost or better still, they can allow us to take an artefact back home. Atleast, then we'll see everything closely and admire the art (and choose the best artifect for us too). OMG, what an idea sirjee....anybody listening???

Once Salarjung Museum was done, I headed off to Charminar. Charminar is 1.2 kms away from Salarjung and both Museum and Charminar are in old city area of Hyderabad. I went to the upper storey of Charminar and saw the surroundings from there. I could see the Salarjung Museum from there. Another thing I noted was that the autowallahs had taken over the road right below Charminar.. I thought to count the number of autos but then dropped the idea. I have posted a pic which I clicked. If you are reading this blog then probably you have got nothing better to do. So could you please count the autos for me and post in the comment section :) I'm just curious to know.

I spent some time at the top of Charminar and then headed for the Mecca Masjid. It is situated right next to Charminar. It is a big mosque and you'll find lot of pigeons just after the entry gate. I spent some time there. Saw some kids playing with pigeons and running after them. Yeah..seen so many times in movies when lots of pigeons fly...today, I was right there.. It is indeed a wonderful sight!!!

Oh yes, before I finish, wanted to mention the entry fees for each place:
Salarjung Museum: 10 bucks per Indian person.. Foreigners need to shelve INR 150.
PS: Photography not allowed inside Museum.
Charminar: INR 5
Mecca Masjid: No such charges...
Better to keep some change handy to avoid any issues!!!

Chalo I'm done for this post.. C u folks l8r..
Bye

My view: General Elections 2009

Finally, election results are out and it is UPA which has emerged as the biggest coalition with Congress coming out as the single largest party. In many ways, this election was perhaps the most important since 1977. At the time, the country was reeling under the emergency rule and people voted for a change. This time, the country was standing at the crossroads and people had to choose the way forward.

Previous 5 yrs of coalition politics had yielded many situations in which most of the partners were pulling govt in different directions. For example, Insurance bill, pension reforms bill, SEZ issue and most recently, the nuclear agreement. The end result: No clear cut policy framework thus sending confused signals to the world. In today's recessionist scenerio, this translates into even bigger problem because investment is meagre and you have to be ahead of the competition which other countries pose. Another important issue was that of terrorism. Who can forget the deadly Mumbai train blasts or the serial blasts in Bangalore, Ahmedabad & Delhi or the 26/11 terror attack in Mumbai. All these issues required a collective & firm response but the govt was too busy in setting its own house in order and in trying to last for the full 5 yrs. It won't be wrong to say that whenever the PM wanted to take some tough decision, he was always pegged back by his partners who were more keen towards their securing their regional goals/aspirations rather than actually do something for the larger good of nation and its people.

Most of these issues came because the 2004-2009 UPA government was made as a result of 'post-poll alliance' and involved far larger proprtion of regional parties. I am not much of a supporter of post-poll alliances. My reasoning is simple. The individual parties ask for people's mandate based on their own manifestos and promises. Once the results are announced, they simply shake hands with other so called 'like minded parties' and come out with a 'Common Mininum Program (CMP)'. Later on, such alliances form the govt and execute policies as per the CMP. But c'mon, to start with, people never voted for the individual parties due to the CMP. People voted for the parties due to each party's manifesto, which, due to post-poll coaltion govt & CMP, is dumped altogether. The CMP is often a much milder version of the mainfesto and as such, no major policy decisions are included in it. This amounts to a treachery towards the people of this nation. Even if one person tries to do something as per his party's manifesto, the allies will cry foul saying that it was not part of CMP. Hence, I strongly believe that if any alliances have to be made, they should be pre-poll only and the common manifestos should be launched for each of such alliances so that people can get information about their policies. This time, UPA has reached close to the majority mark and it appears that no major post-poll alliance will happen. So long, so good....

As far as the regional parties role in national scenerio is concerned, this election has been a watershed moment. Most of the regional parties' leaders don't have any knowledge about the challenges that face our nation. If you ask them any question related to foreign policy or any law, their faces will go blank. However, they play far too bigger role in deciding who gets to be PM. Also, most of these parties always try to bargain their support in parliament in exchange for favours at the state level. Only a few parties (like Left Front) abide and stand by their ideology. This time, before the results were declared, the regional leaders started blow their trumpet and list conditions for their support. Mulayam Singh offered support to ANY party in center if it sacks Mayawati's govt in UP. May I ask why?? Mulayam should understand that it is India, and not UP, which is at stake here. Mayawati offered support to make govt in center only if she is made PM and the justification that she gives is that she is a Dalit and hence, should be made PM. What kind of logic is that? Is this written anywhere in our constitution? Also, will Mayawati tomorrow go to United Nations and ask for the UN secretary general's post based on this reason? Moreover, if we go by Mayawati's logic, then we should be having a PM from each of the thousands of the castes and tribes that India has...Why should Mayawati alone get the post??? I also observed that couple of parties went ahead and formed number of fronts (like 3rd front, 4th front, Grand Alliance etc) but all that is done with only one idea: To get the maximum bargaining power. Fortunately, in these elections, most of the regional parties have lost ground to national parties. This will reduce their interference in the central govt and let it take decisions for the benefit of the country as a whole.

Overall, I feel that this verdict is for stability....the party/alliance doesn't really matter. UPA has triumphed but it could well have been NDA. People have seen too much of political brickbatting over past years and are tired of it. We, the people, are not demanding anything fancy like spacewalks or house on moon etc from the govt. The problems that we face today are the same that we faced 50 yrs ago like jobs, house, water, food, power, roads, transport, safety etc. We want solutions and not excuses from govt. If even now the govt doesn't deliver the goods, people will surely teach them a fitting lesson in the next elections.

Signing off in hope of a better future for all of us...

P.S: Just like most of my fellow Indians, I am not associated with any political party. I only want a govt that delivers the goods.

Ghajini soundtrack...a masterpiece

Imagine you are listening to a song ... then you just get up and go outside for some work..but your mind can't stop humming the song..During whole time, the song keeps on playing in your head. As soon as you reach back home, you connect to internet and start listening to song again. Thats when you know you are addicted!!! Same thing happened to me when I heard the songs of Ghajini... and nowadays, I'm hooked.

5 songs + 1 instrumental - guzarish, kaise kahoon(song+instru), lattoo, oye bacchu & behka - all 0f them are captivating courtsey A R Rehman. He has dared to experiment and yes, you do need a different music for a movie like Ghajini which promises to be so much unlike the run of the mill bollywood flicks that we have seen over years. Though Ghajini is a remake of a hit malyalam movie(which was also titled Ghajini), I keep on hearing that it is actually based on Christopher Nolan's Memento. I have seen Memento and admittedly, I couldn't understand what was going on in the movie for most part of it but in the end, the director's way of story telling simply blew me away. It is an awesome creative masterpiece. I did felt that Memento's narration was somewhat inspired from Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction but frankly, I don't want to take any credit away from Nolan. Having said this, movies like these come once in a couple of years and they are the trendsetters for others to copy..err follow.

Okay...back to Ghajini music now!!! Actually when I heard the album for the very first time, I didn't like it(except Guzarish ofcoz)...I thought that Rehman has experimented once too many and may be this time, couple of songs from album will be chartbusters. But then Rehman's music has always been like that. It keeps on haunting you unless you fall in love with it and I am no exception. His music is like nasha...dheere dheere chadta hai.. and then you can't do without daily dose of it :)

Chanda Mama is all smiles :)

1st Dec 2008

As soon as I came out of office building, I ran into couple of friends. While talking to them, I suddenly realized that something was smiling on us from Heavens. I looked upwards towards the sky..and lo and behold, to my utter surprise, it was moon. Two sparkling stars combined with moon's crescent were putting a dazzling smile on show in the night sky. I kept gazing at it for some time, trying to take a picture in my mind .. for you don't see a smiling moon daily.


Next day, the incident was reported in the newspapers and over internet. Apparently, Heavens had decided to skycast the show across the world. Later on, I came to know that those eyes were actually planets Venus and Jupiter.The brighter one was Venus while the other one was Jupiter. The planets can still be seen in the night sky with naked eye, though that particular smile is not to be seen anymore...it is only to be cherished in memories and photographs.

My 2MP mobile phone camera was not good enough for such occasions...so I found this image over internet...have a look.