Monday, April 12, 2010

.....In Love, War and (inside) Monuments


The penultimate day of my trip to Delhi was my day of freedom, heat and photographs. I had a whole car (yes, the boot and the engine included) at my disposal, and even 50 packs of Gutkha...and a person to chew it all. Oh, he also drove the car I was riding in !

I started early. Well, 11 am is early enough if you wake up at 10.15 ! I told the man behind the wheels, henceforth to be referred to as "G" (for Gutkha) that I wanted to cover these places before sundown - Tughlaqabad, Humayun's Tomb, the Red Fort and Jantar Mantar. I left it to G to figure out the sequence.
First came Tughlaqabad. Oh, before that G needed to call 10 people to find out where it was. Only the last one knew, and so we arrived. Its not too often that you find a 4 lane road ploughing through a Fort, bisecting it perfectly. That makes the place interesting though, 'cause when you get down from the car and you're standing amongst honking vehicles, you see remains (ruins) of an ancient fort on both sides. I picked the one on the left to start with. I managed to buy the ticket only after I managed to find the guy who was supposed to sell it to me. The best part is that one ticket gets you an entry to both the sides., and the ticket costs 10 bucks only. No wonder the Ruins continue to be ruined. So, I started with the left.

 A long pathway led me to a flight of very steep stairs. I entered the Fort, and beyond the gate there was a striking sense of emptiness....

I treaded along, braving the beating sun. But after a while my backpack seemed too heavy. Its then that I decided to find a  place in the shade and I wanted a smoke badly. As I put my backpack down, and sat on a rock, I heard voices ! While I am certainly not the bravest man on earth, it was way too bright and sunny for ghosts, I was sure. So I looked around, and voila ! There they were..... Love Birds (in human form), inseparable, happily chatting away to glory. There were momentary pauses too, but let me not get into the details here ! I walked away from them, but here's a picture to show their location. They were somewhere here :


I had to walk "around" them, and cost me 15 more minutes to cover the area. This part was the bigger one, and it was like history crumbling right in front of your eyes, and it hurt. Yes, one cannot expect the entire Fort to stay the way it was built, after passing through time, but there can surely be better ways of seeing the area than walking through bushes, and loose rocks, at the risk of twisting your ankles. Over and above, carrying a big enough camera and a backpack can be quite cumbersome.

I continued, without really caring about the directions. After all, the place is nothing but a huge mess, and its upto you to chose your favourite part, and start clicking. Some samples :




After another 30 minutes in the intolerable sun, I realized that I have had enough of this part. Drained and exhausted, I traced my steps back to the entrance. I had the other half to cover, but I desperately needed more water. As I reached the entrance, I looked back. I thought of that brave couple who were already there before I arrived, and would probably be still there when I'm long gone. After all, everything's possible in Love, War and..... god knows what !

To be continued.............

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Really A Nice Post. Trying to understand how much time and care have u taken to prepare this..

Cheers,
Surobinda