#TravellogGolconda

Beyond biriyani, Karachi biscuits and various other nizami cuisine the city has a lot more to say. I had always wanted to become a lone traveller. End of the tryst for quite a few years I succeeded  in visiting the Golconda Fort this Sunday.

I happened to visit the city for a short professional trip. Being a Quality Analyst in a growing Start up, food industry is my arena. I happen to visit various kitchens and give quite a lot of wisdom for which my company pays me. Now let not get into more details of what I do generally. Let's talk more of what I did this Sunday.

Tales at Golconda Fort:

Visiting Hyderabad for the first time, I ended up booking a cab who dropped me at the Golconda Fort entrance. Before that, he had asked me to get down at the first entrance of the Golconda fort premises. The reason when enquired he said the entrance gate is too small. And eventually on the way we faced traffic. After jostling for fifteen minutes or so, cab driver dropped me.

Now first note is, Foreigners-200, Indians- 15. Felt privileged being Indian. Perhaps at this archaeological heritage I wont face any new rule for entry. Now putting hands into my pocket I pulled out 100 rupees note and a 10 rupees. The national crisis of currency is doing rampant. To curb black money 500 & 1000 are out of stock. What about 5 rupees coin. The entry ticket cost me 20 due to lack of coins.

After the entrance met a middle aged man. Now this is another funny man of India who claimed himself to be guide. "Madam ji diwaron ki kaan hain iss Killein mein" ( Madam, this fort has ears in its walls) I got little convinced. In his next sentence he won me over, "madam ji itihas, kissen iss khandar mein hain, agar itihas aur kissen na jaan payi toh iss khandar ka kya hoga"... I checked how much can I pay him. At the entrance of the Fort entry a number of guides are standing. The middle aged man who caught me was one of the sales commanders who hunted upon me. Asked from me Rs.750 for the whole Fort demonstration. I can't afford, I felt. Then came Ashfaq Miya. He said only one word, "paise aap ke pass hain, kissa mere pass, agar aap ko achha laga toh dam dijiye ga... warna Banda khud nahi mange ga kuch" (money is with you, story is with me, if you like it pay me, or else I wont ask you for money) What a marketing strategy I wondered. Money is power.

Coming down to story, Ashfaq Miya started... this is the entrance. The strategic entrance has guards, the hole in the wall was used to drop hot oil if anyone wanted to break in.

Entry point is very fascinating, Ashfaq Miya took me to the middle of the arch. Started clapping. To my bewilderment, echos. Such echos I never heard. Ashfaq elaborated, how the codes of sounds used to keep the security of the Fort. I felt only one thing, physics is such an old subject. Unless someone understand how things happen, till then it's all magic to the commoners, method to the operators, and astonishment to a visitor.

This is the load which a soldier at the Sultan's army had to lift. it weighs 250Kg, if they can weigh it they enter the regime. I am not one of them.  

We went ahead, the entry of the Fort was so fascinating. The entrance is made in such a way that the visitors enter bowing down to the majestic guards of the Fort. Names and dates did not fascinate me much but the story of Bhagwati and the tale of the fake door. The Fake door on the fort is a camouflage for invaders who eyes to reach to the Queens. They reach upto the door and never returns. There used to be a deep hole (dal dal) where people used to fall and die.

Bhagawati used to be a common farmer's daughter. She used to be beautiful and the prince fell in love with her. The Sultan came to know, and asked him to choose among any one. Either the inheritance of the royalty or the girl. Prince chose his love. He left the royal riches and went to live along with his love. After realizing the sacrifices of the prince one day Bhagawati got converted to Islam. This news reached the Sultan and he brought the couple home back. This Bhagawati, later came to be know as Hyderi Begum, and thus the name Hyderabad. (The Story and the storyteller, both were so fascinating that I kept listening to him)

Walls do have Ears:

After reaching to the Queens mahal, Ashfaq made me stand at one corner of the room and then he went to the other corner. And suddenly, "madam ji, Rani log jab baat karni thi raja ko sab sunai parti thi. Raja ka kamra upar mein hi tha" (Madam, when the queens used to talk among them selves the sultan could hear from the room above)... felt so weird about the Sultan. These females were always heard. There were no secrets to be kept hidden from the Sultan. They were also a part of his royal property.

The Great Ramdas prison:

This prison is a totally blocked room where Ramdas the collector was imprisoned. Ramdas was the tax collector of the Sultan. So, one day he went to the villages, collected taxes, and on the way back he met village people. It was plague that time. Several people died of the epidemic. The goddess of epidemic came in vision of one Hindu pandit and asked him to make a temple. But there was no money. So, they approached collector Ramdas. Ramdas being a Hindu got convinced. He asked he villagers to keep it secret. But after some time when the temple was already made Sultan came to know about it. On further enquiry it was discovered that Ramdas had given money from the same. He was captured and imprisoned. Twelve long years of improvement in a dark room. One night Sultan got a dream of Goddess of Epidemic. She asked Sultan to scot Ramdas free.

After all these fascinating stories and his handsome smile. I realised, this broken architecture has some much life in them still. Hundreds of people visit this place. Such a good market, money is flying in air.

A guide is not just a story teller, but an actor, a joker, and a great sales man. Ashfaq Miya sold me moments, imageries and it costs me not less than 500INR.

When the dead ruins rise,

A misty mystic phantom grow,

It dances, it sings, it cries,

Aloft in the listeners eyebrow...

Eyebrow rises, contracts, and awe.

Its not story, its alive what I saw.

#travelloggolconda

(Click Here) To see Golconda Fort Photographs.

Survived Pup

OPen-2

It's almost middle of the night, Prema switched off the laptop and the table lamp. She stretched back on the fluffy chair. "You are a girl after all, who has the treasure of the world," she recollected the chuckle on his face.

"If I am a girl, and with treasure, why do I always face such weird fuss?" She thought. Prema is in her early twenties. A graduate engineer placed on-Campus with a huge lump sum package. Life was like those in movies. Everything was going on like that of a cinema until she came to the new city of Bangalore. The garden city, with more flowers-tree cover, less humidity and better opportunities.

But 'expectations are the source of disappointment' and that got proved when one by one all of her dreams started encountering with the reality. Prema closed her eyes and a bead of tear crawled out of her iris, and crawled down her cheek, and disappeared into the open dark hair.

She switched on the table lamp again and pulled the notebook.

She started scribbling.

"If things were to go worse then why the good time had come. I feel like hitting the bastard like the way how the girl had kicked her boss in the blog. I also want to kick him hard. How dare he touch me!....."

To be continued...

(stories are happening here and there, why don't you tell it all)

Survived Pup

OPen-1

When the bitch was in labour pain no one came to help her out. Fellow brother dogs were loitering in tension perhaps when a deeper cry brought a pup out of her womb. Another pup came out in a second, and another in another second..and it continued...

But the story is not about these puppies... it's about the one who will be dying soon in various ailments. The mother will cry, lick the body till she smells the warmth of her pieces of flesh, then sleep by the side of the corpse. Soon swarms of ants will come and dine upon her piece of love and she will see that dead child of her vanish in front of her eyes. 

Few more will die... and the strongest one will survive.

I never believed that I will survive the torture that the manager was doing to me from past four months. I could never get rid of the trauma of how he insulted me in the global meets of the managers. But that night was the night when I made my almost dead body come back to life when I implanted a zestful slap on his glowing greedy face. I threw my resignation on his face and kicked on his protruding tummy, aiming at the meat piece some inches below. Huh! " 

Prema was ogling at the laptop screen, she read the blog again and again. She smiled in between changing lines. A strong urge to survive lurked in her mind. She can survive the tensions that were on from past few months. If the puppies survive, if the woman can kick her managers tummy. Why can't she!

To Be Continued...

(stories are happening here and there, why don't you tell it all)

Beyond the Boundary: Eternal Bliss

After nine months of exile I joined in with my mother to stay along with her. She happened to have been sent far away from her previous work area to a remote area in Tamil Nadu. But to my amazement I found her to be more energetic and lively like my childhood days. I discovered she has grown young in her looks and energy. When I asked about the reason behind, she took me along with her for a long walk. What I discovered is the "God's own Country".

While strolling along the meadows, they grabbed my attention. They are love birds, bond with the eternal relationship to unite and procreate. The elegance was more captivating since the instinct of love has united them when I found them mounted like the love God sitting atop of a lampost, maybe 13 ft high from the ground level. I thanked the almighty for letting me click the shutter in the correct time.

The road took us right through the unkempt meadows to the blue and beyond the edge of the horizon, I found solace succumbing my pains within itself. A cooler breeze was making our hairs dishevelled to make us perceive how much civilised we have been all throughout our life in the city. Life is more to be natural than to be articulated with bindings. This road was making way for me to reach eternity.

The unkempt grasses had something hidden as treasure, and what I saw made me overwhelmed with awe, and bewilderment. It was a peacock, walking along with us some yards away. I could only click him along with me. The feel of having an evening walk with a peacock is just beyond my thoughts. I could never forget the walk in my entire life. Real beauty is tresured in nature. I felt the harmony of equality in nature.

Perhaps we walked 3kms when we were greeted by a huge nimbus cloud. The rain was approaching, slowly, and with a devouring enchantment, got us drenched. We took shelter in a small hut nearby, probably made for passers-by. After a while, the rain stopped. We had no other option than to take the route back to our quarters. 

The after shower sky was such marvellous picturesque. After every bad time, good hope lurks behind...like 'every cloud has a silver lining'. I saw such a cloud, so, I clicked it home to share with you all.

When I was back home, I found many such visitors waiting for a flight back to home. I call them my friends. They were waiting for the right time to go home, and I waited fror then to take their flight. Such amazing experience I shall  cherish life long.

*** 

A distant Celebration- A video Dedication

With your Birthday, I start my YouTube Channel "Wildfire Production"

Jonmodin (Dr.Kamalendu's 66th Birthday, 2015) 

Many happy returns of the Day Dr. Kamalendu Chakrabarti I can never express what you are to me. I can never write in words who you are in my life. If there is God, then I thank him for giving me his incarnation in you. If there is destiny I thank her for making me meet you. May your pains get healed. Bless me so that I can carry your education in myself. I may carry your words to the world, that's the challenge of my life.

  

About the Micro Film:

Based on an old uncle who is ageing, and promptly in his late sixties. He is the narrator's best friend and Godfather. On the eve of his birthday the narrator misses him a lot. So, she sends a birthday message to him. (Bengali Microfilm)

This is my first video story telling experiment. To see more videos stay tuned to my YouTube Channel.  

 (Click Here) to subscribe to the channel. If you like my video, press the Like button, Comment below it, and share the video.

Peter, Pattar Rain Drops

It started raining all of a sudden when the taxi was stuck in the traffic near the four point crossing of EM Bypass. The durga puja festival clogs the traffic like clusters of polythene in drain. I had no other way than to close the window glass. I helped myself with a better lean on the back. An started capturing the perspiration on the taxi window glasses. 

The rolling beads of the complex compound made me feel relieved of the sultry heat of the city. I felt hopeful for the upcoming days. Hope larked when I could take out the camera from the untidy backpack, and started clicking anything and everything.

Click One

When the rain fell on the glasses, I looked through the hazy. The hot air from my mouth made vapour on the glass. I felt like child. The unputdownable spirit of drawing a smiley on the vapour made me ecstatic. I remembered my childhood days, when I had tried hard to keep the vapours on the dressing table glass. I used to press my nose on the glass and breath heavily, and kept doing till I used to get a good area of vapour on the glass. I drew smileys on it.

Today in my almost mid twenties I felt the curious spirit of that old happy child. I drew the smiley.

Click Two

Click Three

BITCH ! - A short story

I was caught up in the sudden October shower on Thursday evening when I happened to meet Sanjay and his friend near the Elite Bar cum restaurant. I had a pile of newly bought clothes for my children in both hands. So I blurted a loud ‘Hi’ to Sanjay from the pavement of the shop.

---“Hello Gita, how are you?” Sanjay hugged me in ecstasies.

---“Sexy and beautiful as ever”, I shouted in my excitement. We were best friends from college and met like the thunder and lightning of an October shower.

---“Meet my friend Rana” Sanjay introduced me with his friend. I said a dry ‘Hello’ just the way I behave with stranger men. Rana shook hand courteously.

---“Gita you know you are my Goddess and you got to help us out and you are not going anywhere, but coming with me.”

Sanjay pulled the bags from my hands and almost dragged me by my hand inside the bar. “I will be late Sanjay, my kids are waiting.”

He did not listen to anything. We sat on a corner table, when the drinks were served he raised a toast, “This lady is my hi-school best friend, and I cherish those fond memories”, his words made me feel so warm and loved after years. After a drink was over I said, “ Sanjay I will make a move, my kids are waiting for me and their festival presents”.

“No…Gita, I will drop you home. We have a car. Don’t go now please”.

---But my kids are waiting for me dear.

---Give them a call, they are not kids anymore. They will understand. Just for your best friend, one evening you can’t?

---“Okay! Okay! Okay!” and I agreed.

I gave a call to my home landline nobody picked the call. I called in the emergency mobile thrice and on the fourth time, my Daughter picked the phone.

---“Yes Maa, when will you be back? I returned home just 10 minutes back, was caught up in the rain on the way back from school”, her words were like peace notes to me.

---“I shall be a little late beta, I happen to meet my old friend from college. You ask Sandhya Mashi for some noodles for you and your brother. I will get something special in my way back from the takeaway”.

She disconnected.

---“Done Madam?” asked Sanjay in his old Karaoke tone. I nodded a “yes”.

Sanjay grabbed me by my hands and said, “You got to help this man out”.

I was startled. “How on earth I can help him?” I asked looking bewildered at Rana.

---“See Rana had a different plan in his mind until yesterday evening when Maya proposed him a divorce”, Sanjay narrated. “Maya wants a divorce on petty grounds of inattentiveness of Rana, he is in a great distress. I am his friend I cannot help him. His wife is a very strict lady.”

---“Well, well, wait,” I asked for a pause, I looked at Rana “do you love your wife?”

---"Yes…" Rana almost whispered and broke down like a child, as if he was deprived of his favorite doll.

I felt envious of Rana’s wife. She is blessed to have a husband who cries for her. But alas! She wants to get rid of him.

---“Ok Sanjay, I can only take the case if my client speaks to me everything”. I declared professionally.

Rana was still sobbing hiding his face.

---“But he doesn’t want to take a divorce. Can you help?”

---“Then how can I help him if it’s not a legal matter ” I just blurted out, as I saw 8:30 pm in my watch.

Rana was drunk by then, Sanjay understood the urgency of the hour. He pooled Rana out of his couch to the exit and asked me to hold him for a while till he brings the car. In a while, my ordered Kababs and pulao were delivered at the takeaway counter. I turned to pay for the food, Rana fell down on the floor, I had no other option than to pull him up. I wondered if husbands really felt so broken before the divorce.

---“Maya, you are the only woman I ever loved, cared for. For whom all these wealth I have amassed?” blabbered the drunk Rana. Sanjay pulled him into the car, but Rana was holding my hand. I felt pity for the middle aged broken man. I moved in with the back seats of the car with Rana.

Sanjay was embarrassed, humiliated and confused. I looked at him through the rearview mirror. His frown was conveying his helplessness. I saw the drunk man lying on my lap, holding my hand like my son. I was drowning in a deluge of past memories. Rishi left me like this, a sudden divorce with a girl too small to understand the meaning of separation, always crying… I did not get the scope even to aggrieve my divorce. In a few days, I discovered I was pregnant.

Krichkkkkk…. Sanjay applied the brakes hard, and I was back to the reality.

---“Sorry, Gita. I gave you much trouble”.

---“Sanjay, don’t get so articulate. I know your troubles. Thanks for dropping me” I was about to go out of the car when Rana held my hand again, “Maya, you are the only woman I ever loved, cared for, don’t go, please… Please, Maya…”

I was trapped in the situation.

---“Sanjay bring him in. Park the car in the parking lot and bring him in”.

The watchman was startled to see two men with me. He gave me weird looks. I hid my eyes in embarrassment. A divorced Lawyer is also looked upon with questions if she is out of her routine world.

Sanjay pulled Rana into the lift. He was still holding my hand in a firm grip.

The lift walls were choking and making me weak for the man who has been holding my hand for past forty-five minutes. I was unprepared to face my children. My adolescent daughter would be misinterpreting the situation, my son would be demanding my time. Maid Sandhya would be expecting a bonus for the Durga puja. Beads of perspiration were soaking and dripping off confident lawyer in me.

---“It’s okay buddy, you are not here for the semesters”, Sanjay tried to loosen the tight air around us.

The lift reached to the fourth floor and opened. I rang the doorbell when Sandhya mashi opened the door.

---“Sandhya, they are my friends, they will rest here for some time,” I told and took Rana to the sofa.

---“ Maya, you are the only woman I ever loved, cared for, please don’t leave me”, Rana said again.

---“Okay! Okay! I won’t leave you…please leave my hand.

He ultimately left my hand. Rehan, my son came and grabbed me by my waist, “Mamma you are back”. I pulled him inside the bedroom and showed fingers on the lips. “Come we will have some Kabab for dinner”.

---“Maa, who are those drunkards in the drawing room?” asked my daughter in a cajoling tone.

---“Mimi they are friends, don’t talk weirdly” I did not appear like Mimi’s always friendly obedient mother.

---“You are changed so fast Maa”, she got angry and went, like a typical single parent’s daughter.

---“Didi, I gave coffee to them”, maid Sandhya was here to report me the current situation. “I think the drunk man is sick now, you come and see once”, she reported and departed.

Rehan looked confused and stared at me.

---“You are mamma’s good boy, you will not come out until I call you. Come on, play with the mobile, and mamma will be back”

Rana was sick with over drinking. “Sandhya di, give some lime water fast”, I hurried. Sanjay was looking like a helplessly lost child. Suddenly Rana was on the verge to puke. After the worldly ejection, when he settled down with his half perishing body I saw a known shadow in him.

---“Sanjay, just update in Facebook about this boozing evening. Don’t forget to tag me and Rana in it”

---“ But? Why?” He looked bewildered with my reaction.

---“Just do it” I commanded and left to the kitchen.

---“Sandhya Di serve the dinner, the kids must be hungry”, I ordered. “Open the guest room for them they will be staying tonight”.

I was risking my reputation in the social media. Sanjay hesitated to post such an update like youngsters. He again asked me on the dinner table, “Are you sure that we should update?” I nodded in affirmation. “Are you helping us out?” I giggled like my college days. So he updated, “Chilling with special friends and celebrating a negative day, with a new positive start”-feeling loved with Rana and Gita.

Rana was made to sleep in the guest room when we were dining. Rehan and Sanjay good well with each other. Sandhya’s doubts were off after a small conversation with Sanjay. The only rebel of the house had shut herself in the room and has revolted with a hunger strike. Sanjay went up to her door, knocked.

---“I am your mom’s childhood friend. Won’t you talk to me, young lady?” Sanjay called in the most alluring tone of his. After some time, Mimi opened the door.

---“Who are you and that drunkard? Why are you here?” I felt so exasperated by her overt behavior.

---“He is a friend and he is sad and sick. Please forgive us mamma”, we won’t drink again.

Sanjay made friends with Mimi too.

They went to sleep one by one. I took to my chamber. Sat down on my chair and leaned back, contemplating my mistakes. Gust of thoughts came in and out of my mind. I was living a ruined, loveless, deprived life within myself, I conclude myself to be a loser. When suddenly Sanjay rushes into the chamber.

---“Its Maya in the phone, she is calling me”, Sanjay informed in an awe.

---“I am a psychology manipulator Sanjay. Forgot about my counseling classes?” I replied in a confident grin. “Take the call”. I observed the clock, it was 1:30 am.

---“Hello”, said Sanjay putting the phone in the loudspeaker.

---“Where is Rana? He has not returned home”, Maya sounded tremendously anxious. “I saw your Facebook update Sanjay”… she continued.

---“Tell, I don’t know”, I whispered from behind. “Tell, hasn’t he returned?”

---“I don’t know Maya, hasn’t he returned?” Sanjay reiterated the same as I spoke.

---“From where he should return Sanjay?” She asked in an interrogative manner.

---“Well, he went to the lawyer for your divorce”, Sanjay took the lead, now he concocted his own story. “He must be there”.

---“Give me the address, I will go and bring him back now.”

---“Well, it's near Ruby Park Towers in the Eastern Bypass area, don’t risk at this wee hour Maya” Sanjay cautioned.

---“I will see how he is getting a divorce from me I am going right now”, Maya was shouting over the phone and disconnected.

---“She will call back again”, I told Sanjay.

---“Tell me your address”, asked Sanjay.

---“25/B Parimal Sarkar Street, Ruby Park, Kolkata-84”, I dictated as Sanjay jotted it down in a piece of paper.

In a while the mobile rang again, Maya called again, “Tell me the name and address of the lawyer now”.

Sanjay just told the direction, my name and address to the hysteric wife of Rana for whom he was holding my hand and confessing his love for her. “Maya I am also coming, don’t worry,” he said and disconnected.

I asked Sanjay to go to the reception and sit in the sofa, I knew she will again call him. She called him again after fifteen minutes. “What does that bitch think of herself? I won’t give him a divorce. Tell me where are you? Are you coming?” Sanjay replied a “Yes”.

---“Sanjay go, she can be here in no time” I hurried. He got out, went down. Sat on the sofa waiting for Maya. 

I was standing on the open lobby and went till the first floor just to see the reactions of the wife. I peeped from behind a pillar. Maya drove in fifteen minutes. The guard room asked for the appointment token, the night watchman called me and asked if I know anyone named Maya Mohanty. I asked them to keep her in the reception while I was watching the entire game from just a floor above, and could hear her quite loud and clear. I had asked Sanjay to keep his mobile recorder on so that her words could act as evidence later.

What the hell is going on between my husband and that bitch?' Maya's patience was at its lowest ebb and she was ready to burst.

Sanjay knew that she was serious. 'Look, Maya. There is nothing going on between the two of them. Just a little bit of healthy flirting, I'd say.'

'Flirting? Healthy flirting? Really Sanjay . . .' she rolled her eyes in disgust. 'That's what you men call it? There is nothing healthy about flirting, Sanjay, not for a married man.

Healthy flirting is a term introduced by perverted men who want to lend legitimacy to their extramarital dalliances. Flirting invariably has a sexual connotation to it.' She got up from her seat and walked around the room gesticulating and muttering something to herself. Suddenly she stopped, turned back, looked at Sanjay and asked, 'Did my husband sleep with her? You are his friend. Did he ever tell you anything about it?'

---“Now come on Maya! You asked for a divorce!” Sanjay exclaimed

---“So? He will sleep with that bitch lawyer?” She shouted.

I could only recall a night similar like this some six years back. Rishi slapped me hard on my ear. I asked him if he was dating someone! I had asked for the reason of Divorce. His slap was an awakening to me, from the soft subtle slumber of dependence. Since then my soul has not slept. But Rana was sleeping in the guest room snoring. His wife was hysteric about her loss. She screamed loudly when the watchman, guardroom people all came out and started hurly burly.

I reached the spot immediately.

“Mrs. Mohanty calm down please, it’s a residential complex, and it's 2:30 in the morning”, I calmed the situation.

“You bitch”, she was about to attack me when Sanjay and the guards stopped her. “You slept with my husband and now behaving like a pious woman?”

“Shall I call the police Mrs. Mohanty? Please calm down, or I will have to call the Police”. I spoke in a commanding tone.

She stopped, startled with my robust words.

---“Come up through the stairs, and take your Husband back home”.

Maya and Sanjay came to my flat in a while, I guided them to the guest room. Rana jumped up from the bed when he heard Maya’s voice. He was so happy to see Maya.

---“Come back home, I don’t want divorce”, Maya broke into tears on seeing Rana’s smile. The quivering load of saline was full in Rana’s eyes too. They hugged each other when I came out of the room. Sanjay followed me.

I heard Maya whispering to Rana in her, “Don’t leave me for this Bitch. I love you more than my own self”.

***