What a nice way to people empty corridors I thought as I read "If at first you don't succeed call it version 1.0". Printed over a T-Shirt and stuck to a wall it looked so cute. I read the next one "It's all Geek to me". Smiling I Walked down to the Breakfast hall. More such "people" looked out at me. The lonely table mats told such nice jokes to each other. I read a few and chuckling looked up. A young girl was setting up juices, spoons, glasses etc. I crossed a tall glass shelf stacked with bottles filled with lime yellow and green water. The colors were so pleasant they whispered "Psst, Lemon tree". I was up early as usual and had the entire hotel to myself. "Check out the jokes in the rest room" a friend had suggested. I went in and read all of them. This hotel had a great sense of humor. I walked out of the door to the Swimming pool and sat on the pool chair. The boy cleaning the pool smiled and wished "Good Morning". I wished him back, a couple of days and I would be a regular fixture on this chair at this time I thought. A white flower with a yellow center from the "Deva Kanigaley [White Frangipani]" tree behind rode the wind towards the pool. The boy picked it up. There was another tree on the opposite side. There was one outside as well. The "people" on the walls, Firangipani trees, lovely Bastar statues in alcoves and jokes everywhere :) And lovely decor. Nice hotel all in all :)
"People" | White Frangipani |
Half an hour later a pink Dravidian Shikara [tower] rose out of nowhere at Grishneshwar. Only the tower was visible, the Temple was hidden by a saffron wall with shops and a crowd all around. We joined the crowd, left our footwear and walked towards the temple. "Leave all electronic goods and just take a small purse along" the security lady said. We halted in our tracks and looked askance at each other. We were not ok with this. "Let's go by turns" someone suggested. This was welcome :) Handing over our bags the first group cleared the security. We crossed the door and entered a courtyard. All I noticed was a small Nandi guarding the temple. We turned a corner and joined the queue. Men wear taking off their shirts and tucking them under their arms. The queue moved quickly and before I knew we were in the hall leading to the inner Sanctum. I noticed a priest talking to some people and the next instant I was inside. The two people deep crowd moved to the left and suddenly I found myself towering over the Jyotirlinga. Sacred water dripped over it from a vessel overhead. A priest sat beside it and gently picked up the flower offerings and returned it to people. Some people sat down beside him and prayed. I bent down and touched the Jyotirlinga with my hands and touched them to my eyes. I couldn't believe it. I had touched God! All my life I have waited outside the door, waited for the Priest to mediate. I have stood outside the sanctum in reverence never once going inside and today I had touched God. I did it a couple of times still unbelieving and then walked up to Goddess Shakti and touched her too. It was all over and I walked out in a daze.
Our friends transferred the luggage to us and went in. The enterprising lady collecting the charges for the footwear collected some more money to feed a dozen destitutes in our name. We walked out and browsed the shops. The shops were selling votive trinkets. And strangely a lot of toy horses were being sold all around. I gaped at the Til [Sesame] Chikki the size of a big chapathi and 10 cm thick :) People were milling around everywhere, children cajoled us to buy trinkets saying they needed money for school. Suddenly I wanted to again see what happened when people were given direct access to God. There was no queue at all. I left my footwear and ran in. I crossed the courtyard and walked into the Sanctum with ten odd people. I walked up to the Jyotirlinga. It was a few seconds before I realized what I was doing. I was bending, touching it and bringing my hands to my eyes repeatedly. I was in a daze. It was so unbelievable this whole business of touching God. Even after I became aware I could not move from that place. I kept doing it lest it turned into a dream. After a while with great difficulty I turned towards Goddess Shakti.
Grishneshwar Temple
"This was a profound moment" I shared with my friends. All our life we are restricted from entering the Sanctum Sanctorum in most of the temples especially in South India. We are prohibited, forbidden and stand at the door and wait for the priest to intercede on our behalf and today I had communed with God directly. It was unbelievable. This is such a paradox. I can also believe there is no God and agree with Devaru by A.N Murthy Rao and here I was feeling disbelieve at having touched God! I guess I am in a good place and can hold two diametrically opposite views without being overwhelmed :) We had been to "Vaishno Devi" temple J&K almost twenty years ago. Not being very religious I had not expected getting carried away in the wave of devotion all around us. But I had tuned into it and it had resonated within me. That idea of a supreme being above us learned from childhood is tough to shrug off :)
We were back to discussing the entry of women in all temples. And a friend remarked " not everyone will think and feel like you and want to be allowed inside". "I agree" I replied. If we keep deconstructing time honoured traditions/rituals then we will move towards a no God state. This too I agree. And the discussion continued. "We will wait" is a counter campaign by women who feel the status quo about women entry inside the Sabarimala temple should continue. And the court is treating the whole matter as one of rights rather than as a gender equality question. It is asking questions as to why "man" is more privileged than a woman where God is concerned. Interesting debates.
A twenty minute drive and we were near Daulatabad fort. Curiously we looked at it. It sat on top of a hill. There was hardly any crowd. Buying tickets and picking up a Guide, Shree Raj Siraj I am confused with the name, was a breeze. We walked in through the main gate as he started narrating the history of India's impregnable and unconquered fort. It had changed so many hands all without being breached :) It was built by a Hindu king and its most notorious resident was Muhammad Bin Tughlaq who made it the capital of India :) The guide didn't call him notorious; I did on the impression that moving a capital was a foolish thing :) The guide actually complimented him for being far sighted in wanting the capital in the centre of the Kingdom :) Crossing the courtyard where different types of cannons were laid out I caught sight of the machicolation abutting a tower. Was a guard ready to pour hot oil on us as we passed by? As we entered the sprawling fort to our left was step well with shrubs growing through the crevices in the walls and water at the bottom. We picked our way through shrubs and stones to look at it. A ruined temple and lots of guard rooms lay on our right. The water management in this fort was very elaborate with terracotta pipes carrying water the guide said as he showed us another huge water tank in a much better condition. Water and grass shared space at the bottom. "Which door would you take" the guard asked smilingly as we gaped at a turning. The big door on the left ended in a wall while the smaller one to the right let us in. "The enemy would run through the big door, the guard above would drop the doors and ..." the guide looked at us meaningfully :) Ohhh :O A young couple walked hand in hand blissfully unaware of the dangers around them :)
Cannons everywhere | Machicolation |
We climbed up a few steps and entered a huge open area with pillars all around. Far away was an orange temple of Bharath Mata with cells on either side. "This was a temple long ago" the guide said. Contentment and peace slowly filled me up as we sat down on the clean steps gazing at the temple. It was just the seven of us and the temple. "Since this fort was ruled by both Hindus and Muslim rulers the court decried this would be a temple for the new nation and installed that picture in 1947 " the guide's voice floated in the air while I communed with history and felt a connect with that empty place. That empty place was soothing. Orange coloured "Chand minar" rose thirty feet into the sky close by. The Minar's diameter is consistent throughout and has four storeys. Climbing to the top is prohibited as the usual someone had committed suicide here some years ago story was dished out. We gave the Langurs frolicking on the ruined walls a wide berth as we walked up to the "Chini Mahal" with its blue Lapiz Lazuli tiles. This was Abdul Hasan Tana Shah, the last king of Golconda's jail for 13 years until his death. He must have felt like a parrot in a gold cage I thought as we gazed at the Chinese porcelain tiles.
Bharath Mata Temple | Chand Minar |
We looked down at the thick layer of green moss covered moat with deeply gorged walls as we crossed the iron bridge towards the "Andheri", the labyrinthine passageway that led to the final citadel. We reeled at the strong smell of bats and the stomach churned. A whole family quietly turned back as the teenage son became nauseous and ran out to throw up. We covered our noses with duppattas, swallowed the saliva and holding hands followed the guide as we climbed uneven steps in darkness. I am sure the almost blind and groping for support enemy got killed by the guards hiding in the guard rooms that were barely discernible. At every fork we peered into wrong tunnels and shuddered at the plight of the unsuspecting enemy literally walking into the arms of death. Taking a wrong turn and walking into some light would lead them to the moat below. Just as he thought he had reached the end the enemy would have boiling oil poured down from windows. Never once did our guard falter as we turned and twisted through the darkness. Never once did our guard falter as we turned and twisted through the darkness. Luckily we lived to tell the tale and walked into light at the top. And far away was the Samadhi of Janardhan Swamy. That was not happening today I thought as I gazed at it and walked back through another route.
Citadel
The turret so like the Upli burj at Bijapur beckoned and we climbed up. A huge cannon sat on it serenely pointing its muzzle at the horizon. There was no balcony around and I was jittery as I admired the Ram head, the beautiful floral designs, two proud lions and Aurangazeb's name on its back. I took pictures of it with an eye always on the edge of the turret and was relieved when we climbed down :)
Ram headed cannon
Soon we were at the outer gate and bidding goodbye to the guide. The Gods had heard us :) and we saw a hawker selling cheap "Kaala Chasma" and we giggled again. A quick check out as soon as we arrived at the hotel and we drove off. We bid goodbye to the city of gates as we crossed the flyovers thinking this is quite a big city. Half an hour later we were in a valley with hills all around us. Small shrubs and grass dotted the landscape. We would be in this landscape all through our journey. A small temple broke the monotony. I had been seeing them throughout our trip. These temples were room sized and had plain Shikaras. For a change this temple had modern art on it :) a creeper climbing up the Shikhara from a pot! Slowly darkness fell and we made a pit stop for a coffee at a neon lit hotel. A couple of hours later we joined the traffic and hit the Pune Ring road as we drove to Hinjewadi 3rd phase. With lights on both sides the six lane road was awesome. Do we have anything like this in Bangalore I thought as we zipped over it. Hot Parathas and home food awaited us at a friend's home. The new daughter in law was swamped by her mil's friends :) Her mil made the mistake of traveling with us :) Dinner done we zipped back over the same awesome road to Shreyas hotel and checked in at 11 that night :)
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