MPdiaries Part 2..Gwalior

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After a long night journey in the train-Punjab Mail, we reach Gwalior at 4pm. The tour operators come to receive us from the station and we are to stay at  Hotel Landmark. There is lot of excitement, we go to each others room to compare the comfort and we discover that some have good rooms and some are average. Our (I shared room with my friend) room is average. After freshening up, we go to the dining hall that is behind the building. We meet other members of the group over the short introduction. There are about 48 people who will travel with us..28 members have taken 7days tour and 22 members will be taking 15days tour with us. We have two buses.

The next day we do sightseeing.

If I were to just see the picture of Gwalior fort, I would never dare to explore it..I am afraid of steep steps and long treks..but somehow the curiosity got better of me and I followed my friends, walking slowly and went ahead to admire the architecture of this beautiful fort that is two miles long and 35 feet high. We had a guide with us who told us interesting stories as he took us around the fort, showing us the music rooms, library, entertainment lawn and many other rooms..The carvings and the designs on the walls had significance of art and culture....unfortunately, the mirrors that gave the fort its beauty are not there anymore but it indeed fits its description as "The pearl amongst the fortresses of Hind" 

Cross posted from my Facebook timeline

One room I was specially impressed was the music room that had lattice walls. The queens sat behind the walls and watched the performance of the musicians and dancers, but the musicians were not allowed to look up to have any eye contact with  the women. 

We spend two hours exploring the fort, each room very artistically done with engraving of animals, flowers and geometrical designs…Next we drove through busy street to go to Tansen tomb.

Gwalior is blessed with musicians. It is believed that even when a child cries..there is music in his voice .Remember Tansen? The great musician of Mughal era? His body rests here surrounded by architectrual structure with hexagonal pillars in four corners. The building is square, topped by a square dome with blue ceramic tiles. The tomb walls have intricate carvings with latticework. There was a tamarind tree closer to Tansen's tombs. We plucked the sour leaves to clear our throat and then tried to sing classical like Tansen...we still couldn't match his talent...but at least we tried....

Cross posted from my Facebook profile.

We came to the hotel for lunch (cooked for the group) and then left again the evening to Jal Vilas Palace

The huge Jai Vilas palace had 423 rooms..how they kept it sparkling clean is anybody's guess but for fitness freak, just walking inside the palace can cover 10,000 steps. I saw only 25 rooms that had branded furniture and women wore gold embroidered clothes that we now see successful ppl wearing during weddings. There was a big indoor swimming pool with diving board, a big banquet hall with silver train that carried hard drinks for the guest and 2 huge crystal chandlers that are supposed be the biggest in the world.. it is the 19th century residence cum museum, it has splendid architecture and beautiful curios that belonged to Mughal Emperors and legendary Laxmibai of Jhansi. Unfortunately there was no lift in such a huge palace and climbing up and down to visit different rooms was quite challenging for me. 

Cross posted from Facebook timeline

We were back by 7pm, but I was quite tired. I came back to the room to read a book, while my friends went to explore the city, to do some shopping and some went to see Jain temple of the city.

MPdiaries Part 1..The Trip

Of all the places in India, Madhya Pradesh is not so popular as a holiday destination..I.mean, the number of trips that I have done in India in the North South East West, visiting places for scenic beauty or for food or for pleasure, or even to visit a relative, never have I planned MP until now...out of curiosity, I decided to join my seven friends to tour around MP with Kesari tours, I have travelled three times before with these tour operators and have been quite satisfied with their services. They take care of us, put us up in a reasonably good hotels, serve a comfortable trip and more over, they have travelling-in-house-cooks, who promptly prepare breakfast, lunch and dinner at what ever venue we are reaching, so we get good freshly cooked food and snacks.

And I have not been disappointed. I was totally surprised that there is so much to explore in MP, fortunately, they are in the process of building some smart cities, so there was lot of constructions going on..we were warned about bad roads and long delays on road trips, but there has been improvement and the trips were satisfactory.

The tour was of 15 days,  we travelled a total of 2300kms by road plus 2 days of railway travel. Our tour started from Gwalior and ended at Indore, we covered Jhansi, Orchha, Khajuraho, Bhandavghar, Jabalpur, Pachmarhi, Bhojpur, Bhimbetkar, Sanchi, Bhopal, Ujjain , Omkeshwar, Maheshwar, Mundu, Indore.

I enjoyed my road journey cause I had a front seat where I could watch the road and enjoy the view and the sun sets that filtered through the glass panes. My seat was very comfortable with extra cushions tucked aways behind my back and a shawl covering my legs. My friends at the back seat occupied themselves with game of cards or chit chat, but I mostly dozed or spend my time reading or writing while I enjoyed the view from my front seat.

While I was travelling, I used to post a small description of the places that I visited plus posted about 10 pictures everyday, but on social media, they get buried, so I have decided to post  them all on my blog, although its repetition, but at least I have them all at one spot. Starting a series of MPdiaries of all the places that I visited.

Stay connected…….. if interested….

Relationship

Few weeks ago I received my personal copy of “A Hundred little flames” autographed by Preeti Shenoy. It’s a fast paced book and quite enjoyable too (specially the second half of the book where you learn about the life of grandpa through his diary entries). A book on relationship, sacrifices, courage, pure love and comfort. Story of young Ayan who comes to live with his Grandfather, Gopal, to take care of him in a small village in Kerala. Preeti Shenoy has touched the chords of all kinds of relationship and as the story unfolds, true loves shines on.

Some relations we take for granted, specially those who live close to us. Our family. 

Parents, siblings, relatives, they are around us all the time, whether we need them or not. Sometimes we have family disputes, we part ways and cousins grow up as strangers. We have discussions, sometime heated arguments, but many times we are back together at the end of the day. Whenever there is celebrations, festivals or an occasion to meet, we get opportunity to rebuild the friendship. Sometimes the bond is created and some times not. But family remains there until lifetime.

With free Watsapp video and phone calls, the bond has become even stronger. The distances don’t separate us any more. Whom ever we remember, they are just a phone call away. I feel blessed to be connected to my family- aunts, uncles, niece, nephews, cousins. We have family groups, cousins groups, close friends groups, it keeps the conversations going, and the news is updated regularly in-between 'Goodmorning' , 'greetings' and forward messages. Since my family is scattered all around the world, its fun travelling and visiting them. We have our favourites, we plan vacations together and meet regularly in some or other part of the world.

Friends on other hand, last only as long as the bond is strong. 

A mild misunderstanding, or temporary separation and the relationship fades away.  I have been fortunate to develop close relationship with many friends. Some have lasted lifetime, many have parted ways. When I meet them after many years, I cannot remember their name. Its very embarrassing. I am short of conversation. Where do I begin the dialogue? How freely can I ask about their private life. I don’t wish to be nosy but still I want to know the details of the missing years. Where does that love disappear? How have their priorities changed?  Where do we draw a line? I have short memory, what is past is best forgotten. I only enjoy the present moment. 

The same kind of relationship cannot be built with same person after a gap of many years. Or can they??

You can never control whom you fall in love with. Be it man or woman, love just happens. We don’t fall in love with people because they are fun, pretty, influential,  it just happens.

Relationship that is based on give-and-take is always short lived. Expectations are large and disappointments even larger. We can give love but cannot expect the people to love us back. love can only be earned, it cannot be forced. I have realised that I don't have to change to make people like me. Love is built on respect, adjustment and selflessness, where the comfort level is high. I just have to be myself and people must love the real me. Silence and anger is never a solution, ego built up , ruins relationship. Communication is important. If we have spirit of understanding everything in positive way, there will never be any level of pressure.

Greatest pain is when death do us apart -be it a close friend or a family member. You feel the void, the emptiness. We try to evaluate whether we could have been a little bit more kind, more adjusting, more caring, but then its too late.

As we age, we will see more separations from our loved ones. The older we get, the more lonely we will get. We can built relationship with younger people half our age, but it will never be the same.

Life will go on. Time does not stop for anybody. Tomorrow will be another day….

#AHundredLittleFlames story!

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Erotic Stories For Punjabi Widows- Book Review

Bali Kaur Jaswal has done an excellent job of engaging the reader’s attention with a story that involves Punjabi widows.

Nikki, a young law-student drop-out, takes up the job of English tutor at the Indian Community Centre at Southhall gurudwara, where widows enroll. The women don’t know to read or write but they have bold fantasies and stories beneath their white garment. The English workshop turns into erotic story-telling club.

Nikki encourages women to share their dark secrets of longings and womanhood, The widow have great fun. Only one woman writes the stories while others relate.  The thrill begins when the stories leak out of the classroom, and are passed through emails and photocopies to the whole of Indian community in London.

At first, I was stunned to read about the erotic detail of the older women of Indian community. Such topics are taboo in our culture and we hardly hear such intimate stories. (not even amongst our close friends). I even hid the book, when I had visitors at home, fearing judgement for a single person like me seeking pleasures on a sly. 

But as the story progressed, I found Ms Jaswal cleverly weave the story of sex, murder and mystery into most interesting plot that captivated me till the last page.

A hilarious book, enjoyed reading it.