Escape to Reality – Part I

It was never meant to be this great. Actually, even in my dreams i never expected today to be this good.
Sometime yesterday night, Venky (we call him BABA, an amicable lad from CTS and a genuine product of TN) came to my room and woke me up from a deep slumber only to ask me whether i would be interested in coming to a tourist place ending with ‘da’ on the next day. With bleary eyes and half senses, i told him to put my name on hold as i might be having other commitments for the day. Finally sometime at 10:30 i knew that i will be free for the day. so i told him that i am game for this thing.

Even after saying YES, i wasnt totally ready for the trip. One thing I dont want to waste the one holiday we have with trivial things like laundry, browsing city, academic work or visiting tourist places. I would rather spend my day with higher level stuff like sleep and … (duh!, i cant even imagine a better option than that).

After a late nights sleep, i woke up at something like 7:30. Still not very sure whether i want to spend my day on trip. After a reluctant 1 hour spent on ablutions and getting ready, i was down at the mess to meet my friends. Stumochful of upma and coffee and lo, i am ready for the trip infront of the qualis.

There were 12 of us. Venky, Nirmal, JAM, GOVAR, Apna(Prakash), Senthil, Srickant, Arun, Partner(Pradip), krishnan, Sudhir and myself. I asked somebody what is the exact place we are going to. he said it is ‘Mandu’. Aah!

9:00
The qualises started drifting down the ghat road.

9:30
Stopover at one of the Tea shops in Dewas to get a cuppa. after buying waterbottles and some choclates we started again.

10:30
We have entered into a road where only path finder can walk. actually I can say that it is the worst road i have ever seen. Suddenly we have started talking about roads. Arun told us his experiences of good and better roads in Dubai.

10:50
We have entered the Fort premises. One of the first gates we have crossed is KAMANI GATE. Then only i have realised that it is not Mandu, but it is MANDWA FORT.

11:00
Brief stopover at Delhi Gate. Actually it was meant to be a brief stopover. But it turned out to be a 40 min hiking trip for us. we have climbed the gate and walked on the fort walls (much later we came to know that it is one of the outer walls, there were several such layers). the view from that place is simply awesome.

11:45
Finally we came back to the qualises. The driver told us that we still have a 20 min ride ahead of us.

12:00
We have reached a place called JAMA MOSQUE. Opposite to it is a place called GOLD COIN PALACE. Next to both of these there is a RAM MANDIR too. We have a hired a guide namde JAGADISH PAL. He gave us a brief intro about the entire MANDWA and its history. The we talked about the mosque and the opposite palace. All the while we couldnt help but wonder about their operations and planning. The accoustics planning inside the mosque is just too much.

Contd. in Part 2.

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