The city is bustling with activity, business mostly and then there is the farming as you slowly make your way towards the outskirts. As you keep going further the landscape gets a bit wild and the old relics suddenly pop out of nowhere!
It happens once then twice and well once again! Coincidences are there but most than twice well that's just planned... What are these old remnants of forts temples and fortified villages doing so far from civilisation?
This reflections make you want to take a trip to the past in search of the answer and also the little excitement you get when you are prying into the life of the thakurs, owners and rajahs.
I head past the few remaining splendours of architecture to the abandoned fortified village of lakhpat. Situated at the very edge of the great rann of kutch, the village lies abandoned within fortified walls...
While reading the asterix comics you read about fortified villages. The concept in itself is very familiar but none of that would prepare you for the sheer magnitude of an actual fortified village. The huge walls actually encompass a whole village, in today's age it would be like building a wall around any of our cities. Crazy as it may sound it actually is the fact! The intricate designs and ornately designed windows hold you spell bound at first and then a moment late you thank the people who made it such an impossible feat to pry out, hence leaving it to remain for you to glimpse at it. As you walk along the dusty street that was once a bustling market you secretly wish that you were in the period when the town flourished...
Admiring and visualising I make my way to an imposing house, kind of like a billionaires hous of today. This house is massive because it houses five huge houses within it. Again the intricate design on the windows reflect the taste and the opulence of the owner... But leave it be the one that really caught my fancy was the drainage... The drains were just an engineering marvel in itself. You don't actually see the waste flowing out but you instead see an incredibly awesome design in stone that hides the path the waste takes.
Before you start thinking I am a plumber I better move on. There are the government offices that collected tax, the parliament that settled disputes, the guard posts and other administrative building that fight for a perfectly symmetrical stand with the various places of worship.
India has always proved itself as a very religious country and the evidence is everywhere. Be it our folk lore, history or just stories, religion has played a major part. Here too the fortified walls encompass a mosque, a temple and a gurdwara.
As the sun begins its descent I stand on the fort walls looking into the distance and think back on why such a glorious place has fallen to ruins. The religious me look to the heavens and wonder why he had made it possible for the people to build such a magnificent place only to let it go to ruins and a centuries time....
