“myself Malkhan Singh Yadav”.
25/12/2007
12:51:00
“Good morning sir, myself Malkhan Singh Yadav. I am your guide for the
day. We will go through the wildlife sanctuary and will be able to see
some animals, you should have come a bit early to see them. Still if we
are lucky enough we will spot few of them”.
That’s how my conversation started with Malkhan Singh Yadav our guide
in Ken Ghariyal Sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh.
On my asking about the possibility of spotting a alligator I got a curt
answer
Sir, no guarantee…
Got a bit disappointed on getting the answer. Firstly the waterfall was all
dry as there had been no rainfall in the last few years. Secondly the
animals are generally not out in the open at this time of the day. To top it
all no guarantee of alligator spotting. All this made me a bit doubtfull
about our so called guide.
This time I was wrong maybe all that went wrong was actually for our
own benefit. What we saw was much beyond our expectations.
Thanks to Malkhan Singh Yadav.
Well he took position in the back seat of our car. Sambit sitting next to
me. And me enjoying doing a off-road with my sedan. As our drive
progressed we were able to see some spotted deers and neelgais. And a
running commentary about all those other animals which are residents of
the jungle but probably feeling a bit shy to show up.
Well Malkhan Singh Yadav was nicely compensating for the loss we made
in reaching late to the sanctuary. Told us enough to visualize how the
place may look in it’s full glory. The drive was pleasant, specially because
we seldom get to wear t-shirts in the middle december and here we were
almost sweating.
Malkhan Singh is a native of a nearby village, done his basic education in
a school in Khajuraho. Seeing the condition here I’m sure basic education
is not so basic in that part of our country. And our man had to struggle
hard to achieve the basics.
No matter what the condition of the jungle may be, he has a pride in
everything related to the jungle and the fact that he is the official guide of
the jungle, the river, etc…
There was joy on his face when he could finally spot an alligator for us.
Though he had not guaranteed us success still he made it happen. Just
before we would have turned back towards our car he and the mallah
spotted the 10 feet long alligator. Though from a distance, but surely we
saw the reptile. With full satisfaction we turned back towards the point
where we started from - A waterfall without any water.
Once again Malkhan surprised us. By showing the rock formations in the
river bed, he made us feel lucky that we came in a dry season or else we
would have missed out on seeing the five different rocks that the
depression in the river bed consists of, well by all means it was probably
much better than seeing just another waterfall. Or else I would have
never believed him with the story of the extinct volcanic eruption which
had melted five different types of rocks in a single big mass around the
dead crater.
What lies beneath is generally a myth. Somehow Malkhan Singh is person
who doesn’t make stories rather show evidences. Or else I wouldn’t have
believed that alligators existed in this sanctuary or five different rocks
have fused into one or there is a crater below the water surface.
I got a bit inquisitive and asked him what made him get to the job of a
guide in the sanctuary. Once again the answer was all about showing
evidences. This was story helped me understand his approach towards his
job and maybe life. How he takes pride in what he does. How he believes
in proving things than just telling tales.
Malkhan Singh as a student left his village and went to Khajuraho for his
schooling. As I had stated earlier it’s not so easy to get basic education in
a village like this. Malkhan was not one of the privileged kids to get easy
education. He had to earn his living since the school days. He had to do
part time jobs to earn a stay in Khajuraho. In a tourist destination like
Khajuraho, it must have been not so difficult for Malkhan to help out
tourist showing around the town. Telling them little of whatever he knew
about the place and earn a buck or two. In return he would not just ask
for money but an entry in his diary about their experience with the
amateur guide. This was the certificate he carried along for years with
him. And one fine day when a Wildlife Sanctuary was being opened in a
nearby jungle. Malkan Singh got his way through as one of the first
recruits as an official guide. He had no formal education as a forest
guide. And on being asked for a reason for them to hire Malkhan. He
didn’t waste anybodies time with stories, but provided evidence that he
had collected over the years. Evidence about what lie beneath the surface
of being a simple village school boy. Evidence of a guide called “Malkhan
Singh Yadav”.
25/12/2007 12:51:00
6 o’clock, Friday the 22nd of December 2007.
i and sambit started driving towards NH-2. It took us a few hours to reach agra and
leave it far behind in a jiffy as we headed for gwalior. near dholpur we got stuck as
an entire little village had gathered on the highway to performing the namaaz as it
was the Eid-ul-Zuha. spend almost an hour relaxing in the sun. as it was a bit
warmer than delhi and much pleasant. kept driving down the NH-3 as we moved
towards gwalior which must be around 130kms from agra, and the roads were
excellent and hardly any traffic. no constructions on the sides of the road, no
traffic signals, no jams just the road to be cruised on. The farms we were passing
were mostly of mustard. as we neared gwalior the terrain started changing it was
no more flat as near agra but small hills started appearing. we could see a small
railway track by the side of the road. yet to see a smaller track, must have been
the personal railways of the king of gwalior at some point of time. we had no plans
of entering the gwalior city, preferred to take the by-pass instead. jhansi must be
another 90kms drive, roads were narrowing down, so was the traffic becoming
sparse. It was more than an hour past noon, hunger pangs had started interfering
with the pleasure of driving. We knew about an MP Tourism’s tourist motel in
datiya. stopped there almost for an hour had an excellent lunch of dal-roti, along
with our lunch we constantly kept admiring the datiya fort next to a moat.
as time was running past we gave a short visit to the pitambari mandir in datiya,
grabbed some laddu from the shop outside the mandir and back on the road to
orchha via jhansi.
From a distance one could see orchha approaching as the spires of the temple are
way too tall for anything else to hide them. never seen a place like this, straight
out of some book which I must have read as a child. As sambit states “the temples
of orchha are straight out of the amarchitra katha”.
reached orchha at around 3 o’clock, looked around for a hotel and checked-in in
the Betwa Retreat run by the MP tourism people. we got a decent tent for around
1000 rupees/night inclusive of breakfast. It had attached loo and a/c fitted (that
was a bit too much to my mind). We dumped our bags and took a short walk
towards the tikamgarh forest across the river betwa next to our lodge.
The water level was extremely low and we could very well see the river bed at
places. on crossing the bridge one can see a mirror reflection of the cenotaphs
near the river. luckily the water level was low and very static, betwa served as a
perfect mirror for the beautiful cenotaphs to flaunt themselves. we were in awe of
the sight. It seemed to have taken us back a couple of centuries a the least.
People were mostly wearing dhoti and kurta’s, cycle still being their main mode of
transport. Well surely my father had lived that kind of a childhood. But for me it
was something out of 50’s movie. As we walked back the naked bridge (it didn’t
have any kind of railings or anything) we could see the setting sun giving an
orange glow to the medieval architecture. We paid a short visit to the Ram Raja
Mandir, walked around the mandir complex full of life, the locals worship Rama as
their King and not just a mythical God. Had a hot glass of milk in the nearby
market. It seemed to be a nice mix of a small village market and a tourist
attraction. One can easily find out shops selling Korean, Lebanese, Chinese and
Italian food. In the same complex you can get the halwai i.e. the original Indian
sweetshop selling some of the best peddas and laddus, the peddas in orchha are
far better than the over hyped mathura ka pedda.
Its was around 8 in the evening by now, we thought of returning to the mandir and
have a look at the arti. All we could see was a crowd gathered in the mandir
courtyard and shouting-God knows what! Hope God does know what they were
shouting. There was no point wasting in the temple. We pushed of to take another
walk and back to our hotel. Time to start a drinking session and intellectualise
about the state of Indian villages and small towns. As expected the conversation
drifted towards the plight of value system in todays society. By now we were a
couple of drinks down and wondering what these bunch of villagers doing on our
hotel terrace sitting on the ground in one corner all equipped with harmonium,
ektara and another couple of basic musical instruments. In a while we realized
they were here to perform some folksongs for the hotel guest in the open air
restaurant. We got the privilege to be their sole audience for a while, and get a
closer look at their music and dance. We came to know that they are the “bards of
bundelkhand” and that’s the way history had been kept alive, a word of mouth
phenomenon from guru to shishya. It was an interesting evening as they sung in the
local dialect, one of the guys kept translating things into hindi from time to time.
Atleast gave us enough dope to talk about.
Nothing to do the town had gone to sleep longtime back I guess. High time we
retire too.
As planned we go out for an early morning walk in the Tikamgarh Forest Reserve
area. It looks as if the forest is in a perpetual autumn state. No water from the
last 3 years or so had lest the entire forest dry.
After a while we decided to walk back to our hotel for a the complimentary
breakfast. After the breakfast we walk up to the laxmi mandir. That’s the highest
structure to be seen around, and an undoubted beauty. Inside we met the keeper
or maybe the cleaner, whosoever he was, was a great help as he showed us around
the temple and took us up the spires showing us some awesome views of the town.
this temple must be one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen from outside as
well from inside. Not much too see inside but lot to remember.
A short walk takes us through the market and to the palace. The palace is in two
parts, one is the “Jehangir Mahal”. Built by Raja Bir Singh Ju Deo in the 17th
century in honour of the visit of Emperor Jehangir to Orchha. The other part was
built earlier by Madhukar Shah and known as the “Raj Mahal”.
The view from the terrace of Jehangir Mahal is stunning, a 360 degree view of the
town can be seen. Surely that’s the way the king used to keep a watch on his
state. The Laxmi Temple can be seen from the terrace. And one cant miss out the
single axis on which the two structures had been constructed i.e a line runs
through the exact centre of the Jehangir Mahal and the Laxni Temple. Well that’s
not all to be seen in the mahal, in the lower floors there are some beautiful
paintings on the walls (Indian frescoes). The rooms are generally kept closed to
preserve the frescoes (but the guards are nice and helpful). We were bound to go
back to the hotel and check-out as we planned to leave for Khajuraho in a while.
Time was short so we could not spend much time in the Raj Mahal, just had a
general look around the palace, a part of which had been converted into a hotel.
Back to the hotel. A quick shower. Packing up our bags. Paying the hotel bills.
Tipping the bell boy. All this in a jiffy. And a start our journey to Khajuraho. No, its
not so easy to leave the town without paying our homage to Munna Acharya, we
halt at Munna Acharya’s shop to have our early lunch as we have a long drive ahead
of us. Plump old Munna Acharya is happy playing with his grandson as his
subordinates keep filling the doona’s (bowls made of leaves of sal tree, extremely
eco-friendly). We have loads of poori’s, aalo sabzi and raita. The treat is
bottomless quantity of food just for 10 bucks. Are they kidding, how can they
survive is it a social service. Hat’s off to Munna Acharya, we head towards
Khajuraho with a happy tummy.
A nice drive, a narrow road almost no traffic at all, a few bottles of water, a hot
winter, dry forests and the narrow road takes us to Khajuraho. Before entering the
small town one is hit by road signs pointing towards a list of five-star hotels, an
airport. No doubt that you are entering a tourist hot-spot. We cross all the big
hotels and start looking for a cheaper accommodation. At around 2:30 we checkin
at Hotel Payal managed by M.P. Tourism. Nice clean rooms for a decent price, but
available only for a night. Dumped our bags and took a short walk to the temple
complex. It was a pleasure to know that the main temple complex also known as
the Western Temple Complex is so close to our hotel, later we figured out
everything was so close to each other in the town. Basically the town is built
around temple complexes. I think its over hyped about the erotic art, but talk
about art and architecture it’s a marvel. It’s not a piece of art but an inspiration in
itself. Few of the good old healthy temples are more than a thousand years old, its
hard to believe but true. Who knows why the Chandela Rajputs picked up this site
and built more than 80 great temples over a span of around century. But they did
and thousand year later here am I admiring them.
what amused me the most was not just the execution of such temples but how did
someone dare to conceptualise such a vision. It looks to be a dream which can’t be
fulfilled, but someone did dare to dream it and fulfill it.
we spent the next few hours wandering in the western complex, till we got tired
of walking. Took a break in a nearby restaurant had an extra late lunch. And back
to our hotel. Come evening and we were ready for our second innings, another
short walk to the western temple complex, and soon we will be sitting and
enjoying the light and sound show narrating the history on bundela rajputs leading
to the stoty of the temples. The lawns of the western complex were booming with
the voice of amitabh bachchan as he narrated the story of the bundelas. The
marriage of the lights and sound system seemed perfect as one could see the light
traveling through the bushes in sync with the galloping of the horses. Almost an
hour of commentary gave us a fair enough idea of why? What? How? Of khajuraho
temples. A short walk around the town lead us to a local fair, where we found a
sardar serving makke ki roti with sarsoon ka saag. No clue why we took fancy of
having Punjabi food in MP, none the less the preparation was authentic. We left
the fair. On our way back to the hotel we passed through some tourist offices,
where we came to know about a nearby crocodile sanctuary. Well that’s where we
should be tomorrow morning. Picked up a bottle of whisky and finished it along
with our dinner at the hotel…
got up at 6:30 had to wait till 7:30 to get our complimentary breakfast of aloo-
puri in the restaurant of our hotel. An hours drive through some villages to the ken
ghariyal sanctuary. The forest was as dry as it could be so was the waterfall, just a
little bit of water was trickling here and there. A bit disheartened were we, but
things changed we got a good guide to show us around the sanctuary where deers
and nilgaiys crossed our path several times. We were lucky to spot a ghariyal
basking in the sun. well that was not the end our guide showed us something most
unexpected. And surely that’s something we would have missed if the waterfall
would have been overflowing. The rocky formation of the waterfall housed an
extinct crater which must have erupted long long ago. The rocks around the crater
where of five different varieties (it’s been a while and I have forgotten the names)
and looked amazing under the blazing sun. leaving behind Ken Ghariyal Sanctuary
we headed back to Khajuraho. Had to be there by lunch and shift out of the hotel.
We were there on time. checked out of Payal Hotel, from there we moved to some
stupid hotel which offered us the worlds worst service. We did not have much
choice as most of the places were booked. And this was a cheap place to stay. The
good part was that we where spending most of the time on the roads. Once again
we dumped our stuff and back to the road using our guide books (we bought the
previous day), we started our walk from the museum run by ASI, the museum was
right across the road opposite the western complex and housed some sculptures
which would have been a part of some of the temples in the past. Once again we
walked back to the western complex spend a couple of hours, tried to hit on some
pretty woman (managed to spend sometime walking around with her, and that’s all
we could manage). Escaped the overfriendly American photographer. Time to have
our lunch. A beer followed by some spicy and greasy Indian food.
Time is running out as its our last day in Khajuraho. Drove around the town looking
at other temple complexes. The last one we visited was a solitary temple standing
against a beautiful mauve sky. Its looked more like a painting. The silhouette of
the temple stood brilliantly against the sky. There couldn’t have been a better way
to end our visit to the temples. The scene was such I may never forget. Absolutely
unreal it was, I guess I won’t be able to see something such again in my life. Drove
back to the market near the western complex. Parked our car outside the hotel
and walked around for a while. Trying to see and encapture as much as we can in
the last few moment of the trip. Standing below an old banyan tree we could hear
nothing but the chirping of hundreds of parrots, we couldn’t hear each other as
the chirping of the birds coming back home was so loud. For almost fifteen
minutes we stood there the sun had gone down by now the birds could not be
seen, but the sound still as sharp as it was. A cup of tea at a nearby stall. A short
walk here and there. A bit of window shopping. The rented bicycles being towed
back on a trailer fitted to a scooter by the owner of the bicyle shop. Lots of things
which we had never seen and may not see again. A small pizzeria on the terrace
with a wood oven pizza. WOW! Such a thing would have been such a talked about
restaurant in delhi social circuit. In khajuraho its just another eatery. Soon these
little things ended up the beautiful day to start a new one. Early next morning
before day-break we were on the highway. Breakfast in Orchha at Munna Acharya’s
shop. Packed some peda’s and laddos for our long drive home.
bards of bundelkhand 25/12/2007 12:51:00
The stories of the victorious Rajput generals can still be heard in Orchha.
Just that the folklores have been pushed to one of the corners of an open
air terrace restaurant. It takes you some while to understand what a
group of villagers are doing in your restaurant terrace. And it takes you a
lot more time to understand their importance in history.
After ordering an Old Monk with warm water Me & Sambit decided to sit
in the open to finish our drinks. We were the only people in the terrace
that evening and lucky enough to get the sole attention of our
entertainers.
That was
Sarju – the teacher, Sarju a man who is still trying to pass on the tradition
of singing to the next generation. The skills and stories which had trickled
down generations (or simply guru-shishya parampara).
Moolchand – the follower, Moolchand a man in his 50’s or maybe 60’s who
is still trying to learn as much as possible from Sarju.
Moolchand knows the fact that the bardic tradition in Bundelkhand is on
its verge of extinction. Still his defenses are strong and he’s trying to
inherit every bit of the stories and tunes from his teacher. Sitting in a
corner of a restaurant Moolchand tries hard to sing and impress his
audience. The audience who’s clueless about the tradition, isn’t bothered
about much beyond his glass of beer or whisky. The only thing that
interests the audience is the cross-dresser sitting in the middle of the
singers. And once in a while he gets up and does a little dance number for
amusement. Atleast that keeps the audience intrigued in the show.
Moolchand had been keeping the fort by singing one song after the other.
The audience who had been exposed to Bollywood songs and can’t find a
meaning to this evening. But surely he’s happy that he can go home and
boost about the traditional songs and music he had appreciated in
Bundelkhand.
Alla and Udal the Rajput generals had been alive over the last few
centuries in the songs of the Bards of Bundelkhand.
The Bards may have been minimised to the bar of a small hotel, or an
evening gathering at local politicians lawn, but the Bards bring in fire to
the stories of Alla and Udal by dancing and singing in this December
night. When Sarju sings in Bundelkhandi Moolchand does a quick
translation in Hindi telling us about the valour of Alla and Udal.
Soon the cross-dressed dancer leaves the stage maybe there’s some
more important things to do. Some more dances to perform. Who cares.
Some more uninterested audience enter the theatre. Moolchand at this
age showing his agility by performing what he must have learnt as boy
from Sarju. Sarju is still singing what he had learnt maybe half a century
ago from his guru. When one of the audience gets up to ask more about
there trade, there is a joy of success in theIR camp. And with this
Moolchand does his last number as Sarju sings at the top of his voice.
And Bundelkhand rocks to the sound of victory.
Sarju and Moolchand are no less brave in defending the dying tradition of
Allakhand and along with it the Bards of Bundelkhand than the Generals
themselves.
One day when you visit Bundelkhand make sure you give them another
chance of victory and come back home with the stories of Alla and Udal.
-the audience