The History Musical

What looks like a dilapidated structure here is a stage for the famous Light and Sound show in Udaipur. Conducted every evening at Moti Magri, this show has a pre-recorded voice&sound track and lights to capture the mood of the sound. And when it starts in the darks of evening, this dilapidated structure turns into something magical bringing the essence of Rajputana alive!

This show lasts for about an hour and you do not realize the absence of human actors till the very end. For the people who love excerpts from history and those who understand Hindi, I would surely recommend this one.

Go Green

This is Udaipur indeed. I really took a while to get over the preconceived notion of Udaipur is a Rajasthani desert city and hence it has to have miles of sand dunes all over!

Hardly a day I spent in this city and I think I loved it the most of all the cities I visited on my tour.

Hakim Khan Sur Pathan

Moti Magri also proudly hosts the statue of Hakim Khan Sur Pathan, one of the trusted men of Maharana Pratap. Hakim Khan was a descendant of Sher Shah Suri of the Afghan region and joined Pratap to avenge the fall of his forefathers by the mughals.

Mughals were destroying several Hindu temples among other anti-Hindu activities and Rajputs were fighting Mughals to save Hindu religion. I guess the blessing (or curse) of diversity to India dates really back in history. Where Hakim Khan Sur Pathan of Afghan region was accepted as ‘our man’, a mughal, Akbar was not accepted as a ruler of Hindusthan.

But wasn’t Akbar born and brought up in this very Hindusthan? How was he a less ‘our man’ than a Afghani? And why did Mughal rulers who wanted to rule a Hindusthan start anti-Hindu activities? History sure has some interesting puzzles for everyone.

Maharana Pratap

One of the most beloved names in the history of freedom struggles in India. This 16th century gentleman never approved Akbar – the ruling Mughal Emperor of that time as the Emperor of India. And hence there was no question of approving Akbar as the ruler of Rajputana. Maharana Pratap was probably the only Maharana who spent most of his life without an actual kingdom, fighting Akbar through the Aravali mountain ranges in Rajputana.

A raised front leg of Chetak – probably the only horse from the history whose name is remembered by generations suggests that Rana Pratap’s demise was due tot the injuries received in the battleground. Moti Magri is memorial to Maharana Pratap. If you dig a little deeper into history, you will realize why this man served as an inspiration to the leaders and freedom-lovers of the coming generations.

Descendants of the sun

Rajputs from Rajasthan belong to the Sun Dynasty and hence are proud of their forefathers listed in the history that dates back to many many centuries.

Every royal household usually houses a few decorative emblems of Sun. I shot this one at Moti Magri.

Royal Emblems

Carvings in the stone can be found all over Rajasthan. But if you expect them to be several centuries old then they have to be looked for in the palaces or the old haveli structures.

The one in the picture above, which is installed at Moti Magri, looks fresh. I am sure it is not older than a couple of decades and was carved when Rajasthan government probably developed the Moti Magri as a tourists' spot.

Climbing the past

These steps take you to Moti Magri - The memorial of Rana Pratap, probably the most beloved Maharana of Rajasthan. Situated on a small hill, this memorial gives you a fantastic view of Fateh Sagar surrounded with lush green greenery.

Climbing these few steps suddenly connect you with the pieces of glorious history of Rajasthan written in adventure, desires, persevarance and blood of course.

Enter Moti Magri

I have seen similar stone-works in Indonesia too. But what makes an Indonesian structures different than an Indian one are the details carved all over it. The lotus shaped and other common Hindu symbols, the angles of the carvings declare the Indian authenticity of the work aloud.

Also, the yellow flag you see on the left sets the Indian symbols apart from the Indonesian ones. Indonesians also use the yellows and reds in their flag-like objects which are more umbrella-shaped than what Indians use as the flags.

The Royal Touch

Rajasthan is synonymous to royal. Culture gets developed over many centuries and gets endorsed when the most common person adapts to it. Any average Rajasthani construction sure reflects this culture.

What you see here is what made our stay in Udaipur a pleasurable experience. It was not a heavy-starred palatial affair but the simplicity and yet that special Rajasthani touch all over made it very royal.

Faces, familiar!

If you see people in a picture so up, close and personnel, then you either have a very good zoom lense or you know the people in the picture well enough.

In my case it was the latter case. For the lack of good zoom lense I preferred capturing my travelling companions than getting beaten up in the streets of Udaipur clicking the locals.

Fateh Sagar

We checked into our hotel room with a big window at Udaipur and this was the scene outside. This huge manmade lake dug sometime in seventeenth century is called Fateh Sagar named after then Maharana of Udaipur, Fatehsinghji. And it's really huge.

To combat the scarcity of water in this so called desert city, Maharanas of Udaipur dug a few lakes like these which are interconnected to optimize the water operations. And trust me.. When the royals dig it, they dig it BIG!

Destination Rajasthan!

Green! was the only colour my sleepy eyes noticed when we were about to land in Udaipur. There has to be some mistake, I thought. Rajasthan is the desert state was what I was always taught in the school. And here I was, wondering if the pilot had taken some wrong turns up in the air to enter some jungle.

But it was Udaipur indeed. Equally sleepy cabin crew of our ATR flight almost yawned while warning us to tie the seat belts as the flight descended into the greenery of Udaipur.

Funniest part of that morning was when we were told to walk to the airport building after getting off the plane. We were on a vacation hoping it to be an exciting one. And this was not a bad start!

Yet another day break in jungle

Kanha trip was my most successful jungle trip ever.

On the last day, while saying goodbye to this jungle, I shot this picture at sunrise.

Somehow to me, this picture need not be of the sunrise as tries to paint the setting sun also. More than that it has captured the frozen time. The time that you savour forever.

Smoky waters

The smoke you see here is not the product of a fire.

Nor Kanha is a home for hot springs.

I shot this picture at 6.30 in the morning when the lakes try to bask in the morning sun shrugging off the freezing cold of the nights.

Dil Maange More..

The first time we saw the big cat it was for about 15-20 minutes. Then you get addicted so we naturally wanted more.

And the jungle god decided to be kind to us. So the second time we had the rendezvous with this Ms Tiger, it was for about 45-50 minutes. Ms Tiger walked about 2 kilometers in the grass parallel to the road, roaring for pleasure, scaring the shit out of deers, monkeys etc. Then she crossed the road where atleast 25 jeepful of people were thanking their luck. Reaching the other side Ms Tiger again wandred randomly before disappearing into the woods.

Thank you Her Royal Highness Tiger of bengal. (We were in MP, but this species is called Royal Bengal Tiger anywhere it is found.)

Sunset

The road that you see here had the most perfect curve. Perhaps the sunset we saw from here was the most enchanting. The green grass shining with the golden tinge never looked so beatiful.

Maybe the whole affair was not as good. But we were yet to recover from the ecstasy of experiencing the tiger and we were overwhelmed by the supreme presence by that Royal Bengal Tiger.

Yahooooooooo

No. I am not such a great admirer of brand Yahoo.

But after about 6 safaris when I finally finally saw the big royal cat I was extremely happy. Of course the tigress was some half a kilometer away my poor man's camera does not have great zoom. But this picture is not to be flaunted for the great aesthetics or composition of the frame. The black stripes that you see amongst the green, painted on the yellow-brown rich fur that shines golden in the sun is the living proof of I saw the TIGER!!!

And trust me, it's such a pleasure to watch a tiger in his own habitat!

The Jackal

I know it's a bad shot. Mr Jackal was running towards our jeep which itself was at good speed. I spotted him at quite some distance but my calculation on when would the two objects in motion travelling towards each other would meet went wrong and I still regret of having missed of what could have been a great capture.

By the way, after three jungle trips, I can authoritatively say that it is quite likely that you will miss so called great shots quite a few times. But always keep in mind that jungle is about the feel and the experience hence no regrets for not having captured something that I very well witnessed with my naked eyes.

What ya looking at, punk?

This member of the deer family we met while we were passing one of the jungle roads with some tall grass and short trees on the uneven surface on both sides. This dude was grazing on one rock with 'do-I-look-like-I-care-who-you-are' looks on his otherwise unemotional face.

On second thoughts, yeah, we were in his territory, wandering on random roads, messing up the whole of the peace in the area we were passing by. That one look of his made me realize it.

Housing Colony Ltd.

Termites aka white ants are sure hardworking fellas. These usual ant sized white ants build at times such 6-8 feet tall houses made of earth.

And it sure is some interesting piece of engineering. These houses are weather and temprature controlled. Hence white ants are seen seen waterproofing their houses before monsoon. Also, while the jungle is exposed to the scorching summer heat, termites are enjoy the coolness inside their house. Needless to say the houses are warm inside during winters.