MPdiaries Part 4....Khajuraho

We reached late evening at Khajuraho and checked into the hotel- Khajuraho Temple View. There was a beautiful view of lake outside the hotel and on the other side of the lake were the Khajuraho temples.

Early morning we set out to visit the temples. Day was spent visiting the monuments of Hindu and Jain temples.

First we headed towards Jain temple. The sadhvi dressed in white, with a peacock feather whisk, a metal water pot and scripture roamed barefoot around the campus.

There were hymn playing in the temples and you could hear them loud even if you did not enter the temples. All temples had high steps with no railing support to climb up. I needed help each time I wished to climb those steps

These temples are considered as the UNESCO World Heritage site.  There are about 22 temples in the campus. These are built of sandstones and are famous for their nagara architectural symbolism and their erotic sculptures. There were about 84 postures of  erotic sculptures. We were asked to listen to the guide to understand the legends and the stories hidden behind these sculptures. There were beautiful carvings around the walls of the temples and I stood there admiring the art and workmanship of the artist. .. some sculptures depict the tantric activity in sex, some the lifestyles and the cultural history of the people that lived in that era. They told the story of how people spend their time,, men hunting and travelling, women grooming and entertaining.  There were apsaras elegantly dressed in finery and jewels, with mirror in their hand, applying kohl in their eyes or henna in their hair.

It tells the story of how people tried to keep the balance between their worldly pleasure and their spiritual life. Then there are sculptures of musicians, painters, army, animals, instruments used for different purpose, arm weapons, vehicles, transport and also flowers mainly lotus. Every God had their own vehicle. Just like Ganesha has mouse as its vehicle,  Kaam God (the God of passion) has parrot as vehicle Goddess Laxmi..wife of Vishnu has owl as her vehicle, Goddess Saraswati has a swan.

You can see the Artists' imagination in carving out the figures with profound expressions, such that, they actually speak to you. . I would have loved to go through all 22 temples but I needed help to climb those large stone steps. I wish they would install strong railings for support or maybe an escalator?

We stopped to have coffee at the café in the park and then went for shopping. Had a relaxing afternoon playing cards in the common room. 

In the evening we went to see the light and sound show narrated by Amitabh Bacchan.

MPdiaries Part 3..Orchha

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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 17^th 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………..

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….