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The day was spent
moving from Gwalior to Khajuraho. On our route, we stopped at Jhansi and
Orchha. The bus was comfortable but the roads were bad. Most of the roads are
being redeveloped, There is construction everywhere to built better roads, some
of the cities of MP have plans to become smart cities. On our way, we stopped at Jhansi ro see the Jhansi fort. There
was some rally and the road was blocked.
Many of them walked up
to the palace to have a dekho, but I was in no mood to climb the steep hill,
therefore I just waited in the bus. However the guide came to the bus to tell
me the story of Rani Laxmibai of Jhansi. He said that she married at the age of
11years, was widowed by 22years and died at 27yrs. It is amazing that she
accomplished so much in such a short life. Later, my friends told me about the
palace and the artifacts they saw at the museum and that I had missed it.
Our next stop was at Orchha. We stopped to visit Jahangir Palace and Raj Praveen Mahal. We crossed a long bridge to
enter the huge wooden gate leading to the stone and mud steep path.
I needed help to
navigate, specially to walk up the stairs that had no railings. We entered a
large courtyard, that was surrounded by smaller rooms. Only two rooms had
beautiful paintings on the walls and on the ceilings (belonging to the king and the queen). Raj Mahal was occupied
back then (in another century) by king and his six wives. However only the
senior most queen enjoyed all the privileges, she had large room with
beautiful painting, while others had just bare bedrooms.
There were stone
stairways leading up to top floors and then to the terrace. The guide told us
that queens spend most of their time in
their room, or on the terrace or in the courtyards.
Their parameters of movement was restricted to only inside the palace. (how
lonely their life must have been, sometimes I wonder about that)
We climbed more steps
to reach Jahangir Palace. The
architecture is beautiful, with hanging balconies and turquoise blue tiles,
built in 17th century as a warm reception to Jahangir, but climbing
more steps to see the interior of the palace was not on my list.
The left side of the
building was under redevelopment. It was being converted into a hotel. Nice way
to monetise on these artistic building, which, otherwise would stand neglected.
Luckily I saw
some cars parked in the driveway, so I discovered that there was no need to
climb down those steps to reach the bus that was parked at quite a distance. I
called up the auto service and took a ride back.
We stopped at the roadside
for freshly brewed tea, that was very refreshing and then drove towards
Khajuraho
To be continued………..
