The BJP Era (2014- )

*NOTE: NO PHOTOS IN THIS BLOG; ALL PICTURES ARE ADVERTISEMENTS

Part 1: The Travellers

                “The first atrocity by this government”, Lakeisha said.

                “Haha”, Jay said into the phone. He was expecting the call from his wife since yesterday night; since the time the Prime Minister had announced about the demonetization scheme. She was at her maternal home saying her goodbyes before their road trip began.

                “Where have you been, I have been expecting your call since the announcement. Is our trip on?” Jay said.

                “You know me; I waited till I got to work and heard about it in person from my colleagues to get a better picture. Also did not want to stir up a hornet’s nest at my parents’”, she continued ,“Where are you?”

                “In the queue, at the bank, waiting to exchange a few notes, for our trip”, Jay said.

                Lakeisha smiled, she was happy to have married a man with impetus.

                “Oh good. I observed all the ATMs on my way to work, no lines coz no cash in them, just like the one in my office campus, but I can feel all ogling it”, Lakeisha said.

                “I should get a handful of the new notes, the rest we can do on cards, cards are not affected, you know”, he said.

                “I have my coin collection, haha”, Lakeisha continued, “Should be around four grand in the piggy bank.”

                Lakeisha had the habit of collecting Rs. 5/- and Rs 10/- coins, ‘gold coins’ she called them – because of their colour.

                “Then it’s on”, Jay continued, “Let’s leave the chaos and run”         
     

                Lakeisha laughed at his repetitive joke. He had been saying the same ’dialogue’ since the day he met her, or maybe it was later, since the day they decided to get married to each other. They had been married for more than twenty years now; she was allowed to forget some of the details.

                The trip had been decided weeks ago, leaves planned; they were to leave early from work Friday and resume work on Tuesday. Jay had his Microsoft excel sheet prepared, like he always did.

                “We do so much Excel work for our work-life, can’t we adapt a few good things into our personal lives”, she remembered this dialogue from years ago; on their Hampi trip.

                “You remember the fans, I guess”, her friend Sofia used to poke jokes at her. Sofia was always a little jealous, because they travelled a lot and Sofia and her husband couldn’t.

                “Because of my children”, Sofia had said. She had four of them and yes they were rascals. Lakeisha envied her though, as she couldn’t have any of her own. Jay had anyways not wanted children.

                “Too much population” he used to say, may be to calm her, but she had known it from her childhood, the doctor had diagnosed her correctly. She had secretly tried though, not letting Jay know about it. She had followed a schedule for a year, but it was of no use, maybe Jay was defective too. Hence, they had time to travel a lot. The bags were packed in advance and in the car, and on the way to pick her up Jay had taken a small detour to get her coin box out of the ‘drawer below the safe’, which he could not find. Were all husbands were bad at finding things, that too in front of their noses!

                The car halted, she got in hurriedly, “Let’s vamoose!”
               

Part 2: Mandu

                “Toll tax has been waived off by the transport dept, until the change situation is stable”, Jay said.

                “Let’s see, I’m skeptical because some tolls are government subsidiaries and not fully owned by the government”, she said.

                They passed Mumbai’s exit toll booths which were manned yet no one asked for money. They sat in the music being played on car stereo. Lakeisha was not too keen on the type of music, she just wanted the company, that was Jay’s ideology too; she knew he liked to go on long drives, and they were good enough company for each other.

                “So where are we off to?” Lakeisha said.

                “Mandu, it’s a hill-station not too far away from Indore”, Jay said

                They stayed overnight at a hotel on the highway. They had looked out for a hotel with Wi-Fi because they surmised; since the hotel had Wi-Fi it would also accept cards. They were correct. As Jay lowered himself into bed, Lakeisha switched off her bedside lamp. Jay too did not want to get into any conversation, lest he spoil the surprise that Mandu was hill-station from the Mughal era or even earlier than that probably.  Tomorrow they would be in Mandu, and she would find out for herself. He liked to surprise her and see her smile.

                By noon they had checked into the far end room at MPSTDC resort. It accepted cards and the room had a nice view of the valley below – the view of the side they had driven up-hill. The weather was pleasant – it was a hill-station after all. The valley green, a few huts sprinkled along the slopes. They decided to have lunch in the restaurant at the entrance of the resort which doubled up as it's lobby too. Lakeisha peered at the pamphlets on the desk.

                “Hey there are ruins here!” she said.

                She picked one of the booklets.

                “It says, Mandu is on the list of tentative UNESCO World heritage sites, with palaces, ponds, temples, mosques and tombs.

                She pointed at a long concrete picture on one of the pages.

                “Jahaz Mahal”, she continued,”I wonder how they carried so much building material so high up on a hill.”

                Jay could she Lakeisha was getting excited. Lunch was being walloped down.

                “Oh yeah! Right! Now it makes sense. I was wondering why we had to pay to enter a hill-station. They don’t ask us entry fees when we go to our Khandala cottage!” Lakeisha said.

                “And you missed the Dilli Darwaza. I thought you would get it then.”Jay continued, “Seems like age is catching up with you.”

                They had noticed in their numerous travels that most forts had an entrance called the Delhi Gate or ‘Dilli Darwaza” and they had concluded that allies entered the fort via this gate and those who didn’t were enemies trying to infiltrate that fort. And the entrances were mostly Northern, at least Mandu's was.

                “Oh yes! The arch on the road right after where they stopped us for the entrance fees”, Lakeisha continued, “I was more bothered about them taking our cash, that too in times like these.”

                Lakeisha jingled the coins in her pouch.  They saw in the map that a few ruins were nearby so they took a short “post-lunch” walk towards the Dilli Darwaza. They turned right, northwards.

                “Mandapa Durga”, Lakeisha read the MPSTDC sign at the gated temple, “Now we know why the name ‘Mandu’.”

                “612 AD”, Jay said.

                A few paces ahead off the road they came to Gada Shah’s shop, a three storey building of which only the outer walls remained. The multiple huge exits proved that it was once used as a town hall.

                “Drapes would have hung to keep the sunlight out“, Jay continued as he looked at the roofless structure, “You think it had a roof?”

                They climbed onto the adjacent hillock and were greeted by a few wet kids. Two tanks were cut deep into the rock; fish could be seen swimming two floors down. Jay climbed down the wide steps while Lakeisha took a few photos.

                “Check the names of the tanks”, Lakeisha continued from the top, “Ujala Baodi and Andheri Baodi.”

                “1405 and 1300 AD, the Mughal era”, Jay hollered back, “Bet this one is called Andheri coz it’ dark and enclosed.”

                Andheri translates to dark in English while Ujala translates to light. Lakeisha’s eyes fell on Dilli Darwaza and followed the boundary wall which formed an artificial horizon. The wall curved past them and hid behind a thicket, and then her eyes fell on the ship-shaped structure.

                “Let’s go to Jahaz Mahal”, she said.

                She pointed to a steamer like structure in the distance. ‘Jahaz’ translates to Ship, while ‘Mahal’ to palace. Jay spied a few villagers’ hutments in between them and the palace and did not want to invade on their privacy.

                “Let’s take the car and enter via the main market like normal people”, Jay said.

                They retreated to the car park of their resort and next stopped for tea in the market place. On either side of them were ruins. Far south they could see Roopmati Pavilion, it was at a lofty height. On their left were ruins of a mosque. Behind them was a Hindu temple of recent origins.

                “Hey doesn’t the architecture look Buddhist”, Lakeisha said.

                Jay saw she was looking at a Jain temple on the right.

                “There’s no mention…wait there is… it’s a Jain temple”, she continued, "Doesn't show it's history though."

                The Jain temple was in use and was open as place of stay aka as Dharmasala. The Durgah on the left was supposed to be two floors, of which only one stood now. They roamed the entire building from the top; stairs led to the now can-be-called terrace. Two tombs and a mosque were enclosed in this building. They crossed over to Jami Masjid, but were informed that it was closed for the day, so they walked into the building behind Jami Masjid – Hoshang Shah’s tomb.

                “It seems the Taj Mahal’s architects made a trip to see this building to take some ideas from it”, Lakeisha said.

                The marble mausoleum was a soothing sight, with well-maintained gardens around it. Pavements led into the tomb from the north and south gates. There were at least three graves inside the main building. The eastern boundary wall had a row of evenly spaced columns supporting a roof, for people's shelter. They exited the walled area onto the road but avoided Jahaz Mahal on their right and headed in the direction saying, “Sunset point.”

                The rest of the monuments would have to be done tomorrow. They decided for a quiet dinner in their room. Jay had carried his hip-flask which was gifted to him by his darling wife. It would be enough to keep them cozy.

Part 3: The Love Story

                Their breakfast done they were at the doorstep of Jahaz Mahal, it was indeed built like a ship. The upper deck had views of water on both side and the elongated form of the building made it even more so.

                “Was it really envisioned to be a ship?” Lakeisha said.

                The boundary walls  on either side  were far enough for the housed water to give it a look of being adrift at sea. The palace held 15000 women to form a harem in the Khalji-era.

                “It would have looked good with curtains”, Lakeisha said.

                Domed canopies adorned the ship, with steps at both ends. The garden were well maintained by the Madhya Pradesh State Tourism Development Corp. Behind them adjacent to Gada Shah’s shop was the Royal palace of which Hindola Mahal was one of the standing structures- the rest destroyed or plundered. A huge stilted area in the center in front of an Olympic sized swimming pool type depression was marked as queen’s bath. They circled back to Jahaz Mahal via the left hand side tank.

                “These look like barracks”, Jay said.

                They were equidistant from the Royal palace and the harem. Jay pointed at the water distribution system in the knee-length remains of the colony of houses. Before they exited they paid a visit to the onsite Museum.

                “Oh there’s a love story here”, Lakeisha batted her eye-lashes at Jay, “Roopmati Pavilion’s Rani Roopmati had a lover Baz Bahadur and they used to be together most of the time.”

                There were painting and inscriptions, family trees, invasion history and coins. Lakeisha posed with her Rs. 5/- and Rs. 10/- coins next to the coin collection.

                “One memory for the BJP era”, she smiled.

                Next they visited Jami Masjid, which had shut down yesterday. It was a huge single storied structure almost a football fields length with innumerable domes on one side  -  the side facing towards Mecca.

                “For acoustic reasons, one must say”, Jay said.

              They entered the car and explored further. Lakeisha had downloaded a map of Mandu and they headed to the various isolated ruins. Chor-Kot mosque, Chappan Mahal, Ek-khamba Mahal – all singular structures. Sarai Kothdi a rectangular structure win nine rooms.

                “Probably they had them designed as a wall for a greater sense of security and fortitude”, Jay said.

                Darya Khan’s Tomb was the next huge campus with a Mosque, Lal Sarai and a tank. From here they could see Nilkanth Palace in the distance and decided to skip it as it was too much off the road. And as per Lakeisha’s view, too much hassle to see a singular repetitive styled building. Next they stopped at Malik Mughith's Tomb, which was opposite a lake. Various holiday resorts dotted the lake. It had boating rides in it too. Malik Mughith's Tomb was similar to Darya Khan’s tomb and that’s when Lakeisha pointed to a diversion towards Dai-Ka-Mahal. It was another singular domed structure.

                “But it’s next to Echo Point”, Lakeisha said, she was pointing in the direction of the road. They could see people shouting, so they shouted back.

                “Maybe they would think it’s their echo”, they both laughed.

                Dai-Ka-Mahal was unique because it had a would-be stream, if it was the monsoons. Hence it felt more tranquil.

                “Look at Rani Roopmati’s Pavilion”, Lakeisha said, “Too bad, the love story’s a tragedy!”

                “The Mughals invaded and Baz Bahadur fled while Roopmati poisoned herself so as to not fall into the hands of the enemy. Wait there’s more… Baz Bahadur came back and won Mandu back but only for one year, before the Mughals took over again.” Lakeisha read.

                “Let’s have lunch”, Jay said

                “No, it’s okay, we’ll eat some fruits from the street vendors”, Lakeisha continued,” I want to see Roopmati’s Pavilion. The love story has intrigued me.”

                “It says here, that Roopmati Pavilion was initially built as an observation post, but later modified for Roopmati's use”, Lakeisha continued to read from Google.

                They drove to the southern end of Mandu. It was an incline from the car park. They had some lime juice and freshly cut pineapple for company. First was Baz Bahadur’s Palace and it overlooked Rewa Kund, another tank.

                “Are you sure this Baz Bahadur was not a pervert”, Jay continued, “Looks to me like he had Rani Roopmati cornered and ogled at her having baths.

                Both laughed. The palace was multi-leveled as it was on an incline. A complex structure with cisterns in the center, room for guards to stand at the entrance. Spacious open courts, beautiful gardens and stupendous view of the countryside.

                “And of course a view of the wholesome Roopmati Pavilion”, Jay said when they were at the topmost level, continuing is insinuation.

                "Didn't you see the paintings of Baz and Roop riding horses together", she said.

                Roopmati Pavilion could be reached via steep iron ladder or an S-shaped climbing pathway. It was a two-storey structure with domes in it – the domes added later so as to give it a non-military look. The structure was sturdy, one of the most recent of empire before the Marathas took over from the south.

                “A view to kill for” Jay said.

                “Who? Rani Roopmati or the valley?” Lakeisha said. She too got in on Jay’s jokes whenever she could.

                The river Narmada to be seen as a silver outline in the south, followed by another strip greenery which then got lost into the horizon.

Part 4: A Brief History 

                They had reached home and showered, it was a Monday. And Lakeisha loved these Monday offs. Jay had bent her towards these kind of offs – the ones after a vacation.

                “To decompress after the jet lag”, one of his dialogues

                “See what I penned down, while you drove back”, she said

                “In 500AD Mandapa-Durga gave Mandu its name and maybe the system of barter,
                Then the Paramas from 950AD to the 13th century got about the sense of money charter.

                Mandu via Alaudin Khalji of Delhi via Ainu-l Mulk got the copper Tanka.
                1400AD it was widely used as the tanka or taka or tangka.

                Which was followed by the Gani and then Dinar.
                1406AD Hoshang Shah brought Mandu to its greatest splendor.

                While Ghiyas-ud-din’s Jahaz Mahal housed women, numbering thousands.
                In 1534 Mandu came under Humayun's rule who was from a background of Persians.

                But it was Sher Shah Suri in 1538 to bring in the universal Silver rupee.
                Yet in 1544, our lover Baz Bahadur was happy only with Roopmati.

                Roopmati killed herself so as to not fall prey to Adham Khan.
                Adham Khan a part of the Mughal era’s Akbar the Great’s clan.

                Then  in 1732 Peshwa Baji Rao-I, would  bring Mandu the Mohur.
                Followed by the British Rupiya; in 1950 one pice divided the anna by four.

                Pice and anna being dissolved into Paisa and then into the Rupee.
                And demonetization made our trip on the coins of 5 and 10 Rupees.”

“Needs a little bit of work, but nice!”

               

--- THE END ---

Length of blog: 2900 words.
Genre: Road-Trip