Ennui

It happens once a while. Extreme boredom. Nothing helps. Rather, nothing you do seems to drive away your boredom. Visiting friends does not help. Visiting relatives is doubly taxing. Routine tasks and jobs are tedious and shackling.

It's an overall feeling of dullness and low esteem. And obviously, the reason is unknown.

I am trying to think of some remedies: shopping, movies, pizza party, (re)newed exercise regime, two-days trip, or best, going underground. Let me see if any (or all) might work.

Visiting Daulatabad

The first stop that you can take when you visit Aurangabad is the Daulatabad fort. This fort is around 15 kms from Aurangabad on the Ellora road.

Courtyard of the Daulatabad Fort

A massive land fort, it served as the capital of the Yadav dynasty. Daulatabad is also known as Deogiri and was once considered as invincible. Devgiri is a 12th century fort that was built by the Yadava king Bhillama V. He established the Yadava stronghold in Deccan by making Deogiri as his capital.

Deogiri is a strong land fort and has seven lines of defence. The fort has never seen battles and has seen a change of power only once, and that too through treachery.

High fortified walls with watch towers

On the road to Ellora, when you see the massive Daulatabad fort on your left, you can immediately feel the strength and power of the fort. As you enter the first darwaza, you come across a courtyard

 You cross the courtyard and the second darwaza, and you are met with high fortified walls.

Victory Pillar

As you start walking in towards the fort, you can see the Victory Pillar on your right, also known as Chand Minar. This pillar was raised in 1445 by Ala-ud-din Bahamani to mark his capture of the fort. Chand Minar is 210 ft. (64 m.) high and 70 ft. (21 m.) in circumference at the base, and was originally covered with beautiful Persian glazed tiles.

Opposite the Minar is the Jumma masjid, whose pillars originally belonged to a temple.  Now it has a Devi's mandir. Close by is a large masonry tank, the common bath.  The Chini Mahal lies in ruins and was the place where Abdul Hasan Tana Shah, the last king of Golconda, was confined by Aurangzeb in 1687 AD.

Beyond the main entrance, lie the wet and dry moats, a narrow bridge to cross the wet moat, and the famous Andheri.

The wet moat has small openings from the Andheri, the dark passages. Enemies were thrown directly into the water 30 feet below from the Andheri. It was sheer impossible to cross the wet moat from the narrow bridge and then cross the Andheri.

Andheri

After you cross the narrow bridge, you are led to the dark, dangerous passages that are designed to befuddle, entrap, and finally kill the enemy. The Andheri is a series of secret, quizzical, subterranean passages coiled like a python amidst the fort. In these passages, flaring torches were thrust upon an unwary enemy. Or hot oil poured down his path, as he deliberated in the labyrinth. Heat from a brazier was blown into the passage by a process of suction suffocating the entire garrison within.

Once you are successful in crossing the Andheri with the help of a local guide, you reach the first level of the fort. I suggest that you take the help of the local to cross the Andheri. Not only is it really dark and scary, and you might get lost, but it is also worth listening to the story he tells you as you cross the Andheri. It's chilling and exciting to listen and see the places in the Andheri where the soldiers would be hiding, waiting for the enemy, and the means they would use to destroy the enemy.

In the Andheri, at some places, stone hedges are built so that the enemy walks in the darkness and gets hurt on the knees. The enemy would logically turn to a side with hurt knees only to be banged upon solid stone wall and breaking their heads.

View after coming out of the Andheri

Even with these injuries, if some brave ones are able to move ahead in the labrynth, the hidden soldiers do their work of pouring hot oil on the enemy, or shooting arrows from hidden crevices.

At one point, you can feel the blast of cool air coming and are automatically attracted to it, thinking it's an opening out of the Andheri. But you are mistaken, because that outlet opens directly to the wet moat outside. One step through the opening and you are down the drain, in the water. Fortunately, it is all closed and barricaded now. Can you imagine how many men must have lost their lives in hope of cool, fresh air?

Victory Pillar and the way out seen after coming out of Andheri

After the Andheri, you can keep climbing right up till the top of the fort. We skipped that and returned to the base, because we wanted to cover Ellora too. But the fort was absolutely mesmerizing. It is a standing example of the power, cunning, intelligence, architechtural elegance and excellence that the great Yadav rulers had.


If you plan to visit Aurangabad, do keep time to visit this formidable fort.

Bibi-Ka-Maqbara

Built in the late 17th century, known as the Taj of Deccan, this mausoleum is a tribute to Aurangazeb's (loving?) wife, Rabia Duram alias Dilras Banu Begum. It was built by her son Prince Azam Shah.

Bibi-Ka-Maqbara in Aurangabad, the Taj of Deccan

Bibi-Ka-Maqbara now stands in the Begumpura area of the Aurangabad city. The area resembles a lot like the Ravivar Peth area in Pune.

Bibi-Ka-Maqbara is another example of the typical muslim architecture. Truly speaking, if you have seen one Muslim architectural building, there's nothing new to see in any of the others. They are just the same...similar outlines, structures, all with minarets, and towers.

With Bibi-Ka-Maqbara, you can start your tour of Aurangabad. Make sure that you reach before sunset. Although the place is open till ten in the night, it is rather dull to look at the huge sturcture in the night because of the lack of proper lightning. With good lights around, the structure should have dazzled and looked beautiful. But with minimum lights, it could be a disappointment in the night.

And after having a look at this, you might decide that after all, it's really not necessary to visit the Taj.

Visiting Aurangabad

After thinking and researching, and then thinking and discussing, and then again thinking and planning, Sanjeev and I finally decided to visit Aurangabad for our short four-day trip. While researching and discussing, one thing was certain, it was going to be hot, perhaps hotter than Pune. We had chosen such a characteristic hot month to travel to an arid area, that it was bound to be intensely hot and unbearable. Yet, I, more than Sanjeev steeled myself against the harsh heat and set forth to Aurangabad.

Aurangabad lies around 245 kms from Pune in the north-east. On the way to Aurangabad lies Ahmednagar, more popularly called as Nagar. The road through Nagar to Aurangabad is a really very good and is well-maintained. Mostly arid, the landscape is dry and looks parched.

Aurangabad boasts of a rich past. It was ruled by Satvahanas, Yadavas, Tughluqs, Nizams, and Mughals. The amalgamation of all rulers has led to a curious culture in Aurangabad, but it seems predominantly Muslim. Muslim rulers have left their imprints on the city and it is still apparent in the architecture. You will find the famous Taj of Deccan, Bibi-Ka-Maqbara right in the middle of the city.

Aurangabad also has several "Gates" in various parts of the city. You can find the Delhi Gate, Bhadkal Gate, Paithan Gate, and a few others. No wonder it is called the City of Gates.

Daulatabad fort, which should rightly be called the Deogiri fort lies around 17 kms from Aurangabad. And what an awesome fort it is! It was considered impregnable. It was won over by besieging it and not by fighting. That's the greatness of the fort.

Around 10-12 kms ahead of Daulatabad lies Ellora, the world heritage site of Buddhist-Hindu-Jain caves. Beautiful, huge, awe-inspiring sculptures carved out of rocks! Inspite of their hugeness, every minute detail is captured on the sculptures. Each sculpture has a story to tell. Each shows a different emotion.

After Ellora, there's still one place to visit-one of the twelve Jyotirlingas in India-Shri Grhishneshwar. It is a small temple that has a confusing entrance to the main "gabhara." But all in all, it's worth a visit.

Ajanta, another world heritage site lies around 106 kms away from Aurangabad. It's more famous for the paintings in the Buddhist caves than the sculptures. But it is really a wonder of the world that is now slowly fading in the wheel of time.

With Daulatabad, Grhishneshwar, Ellora, and Ajanta, Aurangabad offers sites that can be covered in a three-day visit. But otherwise, the city itself has nothing else to offer. It is a rather poorly-lit city. We were staying in a hotel on the Station Road. After dusk, the city seemed to be lost in darkness. Although pretty crowded, there were no bright street lamps to light the roads. It felt like being in a small town that had nothing much to do.

If you are planning to visit Aurangabad, you can plan your trip for three days. The day you reach, you can cover Bibi-Ka-Maqbara, Panchakki, and local sights in Aurangabad. Use the entire next day for Daulatabad, followed by Ellora, ending with Grishneshwar. Keep at least 5 hours for Ellora and make sure you complete all 34 caves before 5.30 p.m. The third day should be all for Ajanta. You need at least 2.5 hours to reach Ajanta. From the bus base, you are taken to the caves 4 kms inside the mountainous terrain by CNG buses. Again, for the caves, keep aside at least 4-5 hours.

Otherwise, Aurangabad is a pretty sleepy city. Nothing much happening around. Make sure that you take a really good, bright torch with you. Keep enough cash as ATMs might be few. Keep some indoor games like playing cards or board games with you. You can also think of taking your laptop and movies along with you for entertainment in the evening after you have returned from sight-seeng. If you have these tools handy, you should have a pleasant stay in Aurangabad.

Happy Visiting!

See also:

• Bibi-Ka-Maqbara
• Visiting Daulatabad
• Ellora
• Ajanta 

Peths And Sectors

Quite a difference. Seriously!

There I was moving through different gallis and emerging in different peths. And now here I am lost in sectors and numbers.

I am going to try if I can find my way by referring to a sector as Shaniwar Peth and then referring to another sector, say sector number 27 as Sadashiv Peth.

Really muddled!

Candy Desk In US Senate

This piece of "Did You Know" on Wikipedia set me laughing:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candy_desk

The article says that there's a tradition in the United States Senate to keep a desk full of candies!

Isn't that awesome? I would love to keep such sweets in my office desk and have a go whenever I want.

Imagine having that in our Lok Sabha or Rajya Sabha. Firstly, free candies would not last more than a minute. If we do assume that they would...there would be a huge hulla-bulla about it from the Opposition Party. They would claim that such candies were kept to defame the MPs, that the government was responsible for answering why such candies were kept there, and why only a particular kind of candies were kept.

For the TV reporters, it would be a field day with "breaking news" about candies in the desk...Who Dunnit? Why? What is the motive? And the news report would be full of pictures of the desk with candies, how those candies are devoured by the MPs, how it's a kind of bribery. There would be late-night or even prime-time shows that discuss the candies in the desk!

I can't stop laughing. Bless the soul who came up with such an idea!

Interestingly, I read this news on the April Fool's Day! More reason to enjoy the candies, I mean the news article.

Nights 20 Kms Apart

It's night time and I just peeked out of our window. It's calm and quiet outside. Not everyday do I find it like this here.

Nights at Shaniwar Peth are so different than the nights at Nigdi, in all aspects.

At Shaniwar Peth, I always experience some things that are totally absent here. Being in the rear wing of a building really does a make a huge difference. It's calmer, more sooothing there. Only occassionally will you hear a car zoom past on the road with a loud, blaring horn. Sometimes you'll hear an ambulance or police van siren and you wonder who's ill or who's being chased. If you are lucky, on a silent winter night, you'll hear the chugging of a train and enjoy the rhythmic passage of the carrier-on-wheels.

There's a cowshed just below my house and you can't miss the bells tinkling in the necks of the cows. Whenever I hear that, I imagine those cows chewing their cud, nodding away silently. It's funny how I then remember the chapter from my second or third standard science book about how and why cows chew cud, and the four parts of their stomach (can't remember now what those are, though.) Science as a subject has given me quite a few nightmares. But it also provides some lighter moments.

As I write, I can visualise the Shaniwar Peth square with all its happenings. There must be a few young men from the Mutheshwar Mandal chatting round the corner. Night walkers, people who like their night walk before they go off to bed, would be taking their night strolls. A lone dog-walker would be making his dog move over, while the dog adamantly keeps on sniffing at a car and refuses to budge.

In Nigdi, I have rearely come across dog-walkers. But night walkers, there are a-plenty. You will also find a bunch of youngsters gathered for their nightly gupshup.

The one difference here is that my home is directly on the road, which is a huge disadvantage, at least at night. All sorts of vehicles go past making a big noise, magnified by the silence of the night. Trucks, lorries, cars, bikers with their hideous horns, all go past. It's not that there's a continuous flow. But that one truck is more than enough to wake you up from your slumber.

Nothwithstanding this minor disturbance, I can enjoy the coolness of the night when I go up to the terrace. And if it's a full-moon, the beauty of the night is incomparable.

If you go up on the terrace and look around, you'll see all bungalows around you, interspersed with trees, swaying gently in the night breeze. Some of the households would still have a light or two on and you wonder what's happenening there so late at night. Suddenly a light is switched off somewhere reminding you of the lateness of the hour.

The Modern High School behind my house looms large at night. Standing dark and quiet in the night, it's hard to imagine that in another ten hours, it will be overflowing with chattering children livening up the building.

As is always the case, it's taken time for me to adjust to my new environment. But it is my new home now.

And when I miss being in Shaniwar Peth, I recall that there is at least one similarity between the two places: invisible dogs barking their heads off as if the world's about to end. And I feel at home again!