This tour of ours to the central part of India, the Madhya Pradesh, covering Gwalior, Orchha, Khajuraho happened by accident. Two weeks prior to the tour, we hardly knew of the places that we were to visit. But all accidents don’t turn out bad, some can even pleasantly surprise you. This was one such, which happened just as we were in a look out for something entirely different. And so, here we go.
Orchha is a small town sitting on the banks of the river Betwa in the region of Bundelkhand. It has a fort, it has mahals, it has temples, it has chhatris, it has small streets filled with numerous sweet stalls. It has a decorated history and many legends – most prominent among them is of the Ram Mandir where Lord Rama is seen as a king of the town instead of a deity, and one of only two such places in India, the other being Ayodhya. And in its entirety, Orchha is quiet and beautiful. There is also a light show at night inside the fort, which adds color to the spectacle.
As one sips a cup of tea on a cold wintry evening – overlooking the rich mahals which with age have turned pale beige yet radiate a warm yellow as the sun sets on their historic walls – one gets a taste of this beautiful town. Some places intrigue you for no specific reason. Orchha is one such, where a pleasant evening can transcend into a lovely night with just a cup of tea and a gentle cold breeze. Having your companion by the side makes it all the more special.
Orchha
Orchha leaves me with a beautiful image, of its streets and Mahals, and I can’t reason enough. Perhaps, there is no need to reason. This entire exercise is turning out to be a futile one. Some moments don’t necessarily demand a reasoning. Perhaps, I should just let it be. But I’m here, still trying to justify! We stayed at the Hotel Bundelkhand Riverside, which as the name says is by the side of the river, Betwa. The place is quite picturesque but as it is also rented for marriages and photo shoots there is some noise in terms of people moving around at awkward places. The balcony of our room oversaw the river. But even before we could set sight on the river, we could see a couple throwing poses with a few photographers circling them with their cameras. Well, we didn’t really pay for all the show, but it comes as a compliment I suppose just like the breakfast! As it is naturally the case that we can’t easily take our eyes off certain things that we don’t intend to look at, we kept staring at the couple for a time more than we otherwise would have, before finally settling our eyes at the serene river situated behind them.
Betwa River
Sandwiched between Gwalior and Orchha is a small city - Jhansi, of Rani Lakshmibai. There is a fort to visit and a history to be known, and a couple of hours time is all you would need. Around three hours of drive from Orchha is Khajuraho - a land of temples of both the Hindu and Jain religion. For nearly five centuries until the 18th century, these temples were overgrown with the jungle and that perhaps is the reason why they exist even today with little damage, as it thereby escaped the wrath of Mughal emperors. Notable among the many temples are Kandaria Mahadev temple, Lakshmana temple and Devi jagadamba temple, with each temple having intricate detailing of ancient Indian art on their walls. History states that people who lived in the hermitages nearby attained manhood by looking at the sculptures here that were the source of their Kamasutra education.
Khajuraho
After our visit to the numerous temples situated around, we engaged in some shopping and got hold of a couple of beautiful paintings which are hanging on our wall today.
We returned to Orccha in the evening and the next morning left for Gwalior from where we had started our tour.
As we were on the way back from Orchha, our cab driver, Shahzad, started to open up a bit more than he did on the previous days. He had earlier told us that he had got married to a police officer. But it was now that he mentioned that his was an inter religious Hindu-Muslim love marriage and that he has been an outcast in his home ever since and things are settling only just. On being asked, how the families agreed for the marriage, he sheepishly cracks a smile, as if he had committed a crime, which he is about to reveal in a moment’s time and says that he had married but never informed anyone and only after he had a kid that he eventually dared to speak to his family! At this rate he was unravelling pieces of his life at a rate faster than the wheels of his car were turning. It was as if he had completely forgotten to drive, and instead was speaking to us over a cup of tea in a Dhaba. I looked at Akshatha, and we mutually agreed to not build any further conversations since we had a flight to catch, and Shahzad was perhaps losing the sense of time.
On our visit to Gwalior, a couple of days back, we stayed at Neemrana’s Deobagh. It is situated at the heart of the city but doesn’t carry its dust and noise for the heritage stay is relatively greener, has a large garden overseeing the rooms and the place is big enough to hide the noisy characteristics of a bustling city. Food was great, hospitality even better and stay was a pleasant one. Deobagh is secluded and quiet, allowing us the luxury of space and time in equal measure. It goes without saying, we had a wonderful time here.
Neemrana’s Deobagh
In the wee hours of the morning, around a couple of joints in the city of Gwalior, masons come by on their own and stand next to the circles where roads intersect, to make themselves available for any sort of labor that is needed of them. So, anyone who needs the job done, can just come here, mutually agree on the contract and hire people for work. And there were hundreds of them. As we thought of it, we couldn’t help ourselves but ask what happens to those who are at last left behind. Well, they will sadly have to return having failed to make their mornings count!
Apart from the fort of which I will come to in a while, Gwalior is also known to have given birth to the very famous Hindustani classical musician Tansen, who is mostly known for his works in the court of Akbar. Tansen was born to a Hindu brahmin family and there are numerous legends around him, but what we know is that today there is a tomb of him in Gwalior built by Akbar, next to it is a neem tree, whose leaves Tansen is said to have eaten to improve his singing voice. Tansen Samaroh - a yearly musical event - takes place here in the month of December for a week, and in case you are planning to visit Gwalior, be advised that the fort will be mostly closed during this period.
Gwalior fort, called the “pearl among the fortresses of Hind”, by Babur, is magnificent in its own sense. One needs to spend close to half a day here to capture everything the fort has to offer.
Gwalior Fort
Man mandir palace built by Man Singh Tomar is the fort’s main attraction. Eventually around the 16th century Mughals took over the fort and continued to rule for several years. One of the tragic ironies is that the dance hall inside the palace where queens once used to immerse themselves in songs and dances and spend their leisurely time was the same place where years later Aurangzeb executed his brother and his nephew in his thirst for power. From art to murder!
The room where queens would take a bath in the pool of water along with their sakhis, in their hey days was the same place where they had to commit the Jauhar by jumping into a pyre of fire to save themselves from the invading Mughals.
From pleasure to sacrifice!
If ever history had a face, imagine it trying to explain what transpired here. History is cruel for what follows the surreal is mostly years of pain, loss and destruction. So is life in fact, the surreal doesn’t always seem to last for long.
Saas Bahu temple, Teli ka mandir are some of the notable places near the fort where one could easily spend some peaceful time and have the bird’s-eye view of the city below. Fort is also home to a Gurudwara, situated nearby. The evening light show at the fort is magnificent - brushing upon the history of Gwalior with music and a touch of magic.
Our guide at the fort was a skilled photographer who seemed to have a lot of experience making Instagram reels, and we got ourselves some cool pics with notable efforts from Akshatha and not so noteworthy contributions from me!
One of the most pleasing things from the entire trip was that the places we visited hardly had crowd in abundance. I mean there were people around, and in India you can’t really complain about that but the crowd was relatively lesser when compared to the other similar tourist places like Rajasthan I believe, or maybe we were just lucky. At certain spots we didn’t even need to wait for people to move to have a click, for instance the picture below, with none behind us!
Saas Bahu temple
At the top of the hill, next to the fort, is the Scindia boarding school, at a very enviable location. With all that it has to offer, I cant help but think the school must create some telling memories!
Having come to Gwalior, not speaking of the Scindias would be unfair. The Scindias have ruled this place since the 18th century. There is also a Jai Vilas palace to visit which was built by Madhav Rao Scindia. And coincidentally, we get to see India’s union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia departing the airport named after his grandmother – Rajmata Vijayaraje Scindia - thronged by people around.
As we are about to leave for the airport, we collect some Gajaks - MP’s most famous GI-tagged crispy sweet made of sesame seeds, peanuts and jaggery. And on our return, we fall short of it. We could have got ourselves a bit more of Gajaks, just like how we could have let ourselves spend a couple of more days at Orchha perhaps.
After a day or two, we get a message from Shahzad, asking for the review that we had promised, bringing back some of the memories of the time we spent on his wheels.