Ideally I should title this as
“Ajanta Ellora” sojourn, or something on those lines, but that would be unfair,
for it was the journey, with Aurangabad as it’s locus that constitutes the
experience narrated here.
After three hours of sleep and
some juggling between two CSTs (I reported at the wrong railway station), when
we finally got into the train it was pretty clear that the “chair car” would be
the worst possible place to complete the much needed sleep before the trip
begins. Little heads up for all my Northern friends, in Mumbai, chair car in a
train is equivalent to a local’s first class bogie. If I am not wrong, in the
row which should ideally seat eight people, seats were designated for twelve
and we were actually sixteen of us including an infant trying to fit in there.
Please make no mistakes, we all had reservation apparently.
What appeared at first to be a painful
seven hours at hand, actually turned out to be a very refreshing journey.
Thanks to the terrific weather and amazing families travelling with us, who
reminded us of our own beautiful childhood experiences (read embarrassments).
In those seven hours we witnessed the meticulous planning of a mother who had a
three course meal prepared for her family, followed by two cousins fighting it
out amongst themselves, then there was the two year old pampered daughter who
had a voluptuous appetite for her age, the love hate chemistry between a grand
dad and 6 month old grandson, two experienced mothers giving tips to their
young counterpart. The icing on the cake were the serene waterfalls that would
appear on the outside from time to time amidst the lush green surroundings.
Amongst all of it were the two of us connecting the dots and linking them to
memories from our childhood. Damn I felt
old while writing that line.
Aurangabad was a welcome change
from the daily Mumbai life comprising of the traffic and the traffic. A short
break and the motivation to get to Ellora before it closes was enough to get us
both going within an hours’ time of reaching the city. The initial plan was to
take a bus to Ellora, but destiny had different plans. Kabir ji insisted we
take an auto. Kabir is an auto driver at Aurangabad and he had been making
tourists’ lives easier in this city for the past 35 years. He recalls how he
moved out of college in Pune long back and moved to this city which has been
home to him and his family of four children. There was no mention of the wife,
neither did I ask. In the 35 years of showing tourists around he has in
parallel settled his daughters in well to do families and is very happy doing
what he does. I can bet the kind of energy he had would be more than 10 of me
put together. He was 65 and looked 45. Thanks to his heroic driving we made it in time to Ellora, post a short stop at Daulatabad. Kailash caves were good, the greenery surrounding it was even better. The white sky, green surroundings, the caves, mild breeze, the fragrance of rain – all of it out together could have made Yash Raj drool.
The next stop was the first of
the two things that made me actually write this blog. The burial place of the
great emperor Aurangzeb. Aurangzeb is known for his tyranny, for the wars with
the Marathas and for putting Shah Jahan behind bars. The last Mughal to hold
the empire at its maximum, lies in an unknown street on Aurangabad besides his
Guru, and that is not by fate but choice. The emperor sold some self-authored
manuscripts for a sum of 14.5 units (I am not sure of the currency) and asked
his son to use the same amount to build his tomb. Even the modest marble
flooring was an enhancement later by Lord Curzon. The aura of the place was
captivating. The feeling can be well described by the figurative meaning of the
word “spell bound”. Did he really believe in using wealth to serve the kingdom
and not to just exhibit love? Well his numerous failed wars shout out a
different story, but that’s for someone else to figure out. The next stop was
some special saree shopping and as a special note I would like to appreciate
the speed at which she made the final purchase, never knew girls can shop that
fast too.
A special mention for the Kebabs
we had for dinner at Kareems, they were so good that we not only returned the
next day for them but also managed to order twice of what we actually consumed.
Yes, they were that good.
Post some much needed sleep, the
next stop was Ajanta. The bus ride reminded me of the rough travels from
Haridwar to Hamirpur, just that this one was still so much better. Again the
weather Gods were kind on us and the ever blowing soothing breeze accompanied
by the scenic villages made the journey special. It’s that kind of a feeling
when you are travelling and you don’t even know but there is a constant smile
on your face. Ajanta was much different to Ellora. It was actually the caves
that had our attention this time around. 900 years of hard work has gone into
those 30 caves. Ellora was 200. Being in the 21st century you could
just not avoid thinking for once that, common, people were damn slow back then.
But taking into account the far fledged location, and tools available then, the
idea of even building something this grand commands a lot of respect. The caves
are a manuscript in themselves, depicting the entire Buddhist culture and illustrating
the lives of people back then. In an interesting observation, the guide
highlighted a painting where, I quote, the guy was wearing a blue colored
t-shirt and that’s how the world came to know of t-shirts as we know them J Jokes apart, the grandeur
of the entire thing coupled with small add-ons like the melodious sounds you
could hear by banging the walls at certain places made it an fascinating
experience. Experiences like these make you think if you will ever be able to
see all that this beautiful country of ours has to offer.
A special note for the hand-made idols
of Buddha which were being sold at Ajanta. They were made locally by the
villagers and were a fine display of handicraft in India, but what makes them
stand out was that they were available at dirt cheap prices, which I in a way
found insulting for the craftsman. You get a sense of duping the craftsman by
buying them for the price which was being asked.
The return journey from Ajanta was
more about sleeping than anything else but what awaited us once we got back to
Aurangabad is much more interesting. Thanks to my poor general knowledge, I
never knew a thing like mini Taj Mahal ever existed. With no expectation at all
we reached the place where Aurangzeb’s wife is buried. This is the second
reason, why I felt I should pen this entire thing down. The picture says it all
I guess. The world goes gaga about the Taj, and here lies the twin sister in anonymity.
Keeping aside the point that this defeats the ideology Aurangzeb stood for, but
now that we have such a marvel at hand, it is sad that the Indian Tourism
doesn’t leverage upon the marketability of this marvel. Although too tired for
pics and posing, the simple observations like a cloud moving in the backdrop
seemed so soothing. I guess that’s what we call ambience and its effects.
And when you have had such
blessed trip there is hardly anything that can spoil the mood, even the fact
that post an all-night bus journey, we would be headed to our offices for our
daily chores.
P.S. I have a bad habit not doing
a proof read, it’s too boring for me, so please ignore typos and anything else
which seems out of place J
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