The numerous sturdy archaic palaces, temples and lawns make travelers like me lure toward cities like Udaipur and what gives even more glory are the fountains and lights of the city. While leaving Udaipur city with a heavy heart and a bundle of memories with us, and to close Udaipur dairy with a sweet tail to end, Hambir uncle took us to the eminent fresh sweet and morning snack center shop in Udaipur known as “JMB”. I don’t have a sweet tooth so as there were too many sweet dishes it is arduous for me to remember exactly what they were named. But there’s one name and taste of one sweet from that sweet mart which I guess can never drop out of my mind, Gud-Gajak. I couldn’t stop myself from finishing the whole box in one sitting and bought four more boxes of the same. Also it gives such a big disappointment that it is made only in winters.
To explore more forts, palaces, temples and many more things of Rajasthan we moved further from the Udaipur city to the next city. But before reaching over there we visited where India’s largest wall is built and the audacious Maharana Pratap was born, “KUMBHALGARH FORT” built by Maharana Kumbha. After China’s great wall the largest wall is built over here and is spread thirty-six kilometer wide on a hilltop. The legends say that it was very difficult to build the wall, it broke so many times while making and so the saint of the fort sacrificed his life to build that wall.
In Kumbhalgarh Fort too, Maharana Kumbha built a delightful Neelkanth Mahadev Temple dedicated to Lord Shiva. The guide told us that Maharana Kumbha was so tall that the Lingam of Lord Shiva of five feet high was built so that when he used to sit to worship Lord Shiva, the king’s eyes were at the same level that of the deity. There are too many beautiful temples of Hindu and Jain Gods and Goddesses built. All are beautifully architected with carved canons, idols and statues.
After entering the most prodigious Kumbha Palace there’s a ravishing blue hall. As it is on the acme of the Fort it is also known as Badal Mahal, which signifies Badal as Cloud and Mahal as Palace. The legends say that the panoramic view from this Palace in the monsoon season of the entire fort and green hills in the surrounding is conspicuous. The palace is comelily ornamented with quirky paintings and architraves on the walls.
The Ariat Pol, Hulla Pol, Hanuman Pol, Ram Pol, Bhairava Pol, Paghra Pol, Top-khana Pol and Nimboo Pol are all the Pol (gate) that come across the track while climbing the Kumbhalgarh Fort. Kumbhalgarh is also famous for giving birth to the fearless, valorous, bold and brave warrior Maharana Pratap of the Royal Rajput family of Mewar. It is also said that the great Panna Dhai, the audacious caretaker of the heroic King, Udai Singh, brought him safely to Kumbhalgarh Fort by abdicating her own son.
To fulfil our energy there are many snacks and breakfast centers inside the Fort. We left Kumbhalgarh Fort with a royal Rajasthani thali lunch and moved further to chase the belle of the next city in Rajasthan. But all of a sudden after a few kilometers, Uncle Humbir stopped the cab and said we can’t move forward without visiting this temple. Curiously, Suchita aunty asked him “We are Hindus, we can never say no to visit any temple. But still why and what’s the tale hidden in it?”.
Uncle Humbir replied that “ Everyone here believes that if you don’t stop here and visit the temple it’s a possibility that while moving ahead you could have a dangerous journey.” Deep inside my mind, I didn’t believe that sentence but also knew that I had to go, because my group won’t make it happen. I don’t actually believe in superstitions except if they have any logical rationale. Uncle Humbir continued, “A few years ago, a man was travelling from here on a Royal Enfield Bullet in the midnight. He lost his control and dashed to the tree. He lost his life on the spot of the accident and the bullet was lying on the road. On the next day, when the Police came and saw the incident they contacted his family members and arrested his Bike. At night the bike disappeared from the police station and was found at the accident place. The officers handed the bike to the bike owner’s family. But again the next night it disappeared and went back to the accident spot. The officers removed the fuel and locked the bike again in the police station but the story repeated again for a week. So the localities over here believed that it was a miracle and so requested the government to keep the bike over there and built a temple of that bike. And the localities named the temple as “Bullet Mandir”
We walked down the car and visited the “BULLET MANDIR”. In a glass frame the bullet was decorated and kept on a stand and the statue of the owner has been built beside it. I don’t know whether to believe the story or not but yes I asked for one thing over there “Even though anyone couldn’t or didn’t stop and visit the temple, don’t harm or spoil their journey.” If there’s anything yet over there the owner of the bike would listen to my inner voice and would make sure no one would get harmed because of that disbelief.
And boom until I reached the next city for around the next one and a half I couldn’t stop myself from thinking about the same temple. I googled it and it showed exactly what Uncle Humbir told. There were some ups and downs in the story but it almost precepts the same. I guess in the world of google, youths like me believe in google more than people. But we forget that the people who made google and who upload the stories are also the people. But our smartphone generation hears the story from the people and then cross-checks it by verifying on Google which is made by people and everything uploaded over there is also by people only. And yet by ending the part of Udaipur Dairy with the thought that “IS IT FAIR WE THE INTERNET GENERATION ARE TRUSTING THE THINGS MADE BY PEOPLE BUT NOT THE PEOPLE”.
Around 07:30 PM we reached and checked-in into the hotel rooms, got freshen-up and had dinner together in the restaurant. As I was tired of walking and thinking the whole day, by closing the Udaipur chapter I slept.
