North-east saga part 2 - unakoti - etched into history still a mystery

Talking with historians on another possible location for shoot I hear the mention of a very mythical site called unakoti. About 200kms from the state capital of Agartala, deep in the mountains is the site of unakoti. The mysticism of the site is strongly beckoning with each mention of the site. Each person has something to add to the site and each on totally different from the other. One site with so many tales it can't be true.

The route to unakoti takes you through not one but two wildlife sanctuaries, crossing over a dozen military, BSF and CRPF camps, it does make you wonder where am I going to. Today you are allowed to travel freely between 8am and 7pm, but there was a time not too long ago when you had to go in convoys and what is today 5 hour journey was then a days journey provided you timed your travel right. The threats of extremists were high, animals too had their share of terrorism... All this made unakoti earlier a distant dream for many.

The nearest town to unakoti is Kailashar, a town on the very border of India and Bangladesh. Unakoti is situated about 8kms into a thick forest previously trekked but now cleared and with roads laid out till the site. 

First impressions were wow. You stand there bathed in awe as you take in the sheer size of the site and statues. You think Mount Rushmore is amazing well we had this in the 9th century! Unakoti is the biggest bas-relief sculpture in Asia and it's supposedly to spread over a 10km radius. That's what's remaining of it after centuries of earthquakes, plundering and natural calamities.

Who built it, what's are these huge carving doing in the middle of nowhere? Well like you are thinking right now so are the historians. The only answers they are able to come up with are based on the style of the sculptures. The sculptures have a very Buddhist touch to it with longish ears and then there is the mongoloid eyes distinct to the region. The conclusion to that is that  over time when people, tribes from south east Asia were migrating to new grounds they were initially worshippers of nature. The trees, animals, the celestial objects... These slowly turned to figurines, the Indus Valley civilisations show the worship of the bull and also shiva. Shivism slowly became an accepted religion and the idols of shiva increased. Shiva is a god revered by the tribes as they believe he came up from similar roots. Study of shiva and his origins will lends some light to it. The tribes slowly took to shiva and hence the presence of his image throughout the valley. 

Shiva has three forms, out of which the phallic form is the most worshipped, in unakoti it's the anthropomorphic form that was worshipped. 

Well as in everything indian nothing is complete with just facts and findings. Mysticism play a great role and myths have their place in our history just as anything else. The most popular of myths is that lord shiva and a crore of other gods were travelling from Kailash to Varanasi and en route decided to stop at unakoti for the night. The deal was that all would wake up before dawn and resume journey. As the day dawned only shiva got up and resumed journey. He got angry and cursed the rest to turn into stone. Out of the whole crore of gods just one person less - shiva. Hence the name unakoti - One less than a crore.    

If that is to be believed then how is there so many images of shiva???

The second most important legend is that of kallu Kumar. A sculptor extraordinaire who did sculpt image one less that a crore and the final one he wanted to make of himself which angered the gods and he was struck down and turned to stone.

Another off-shoot of the kallu Kumar story is that he was an ardent shiva fan and Parvathi was so impressed with him that she wanted Shiva to turn kallu Kumar immortal. Shiva apprehensive agreed to do so if the sculptor could carve a crore images in Unakoti before the sunrise and the cock crows! Kallu Kumar gets to work and is almost in sight of winning with just one more sculpture when Shiva induces the cock to crow before the usual time and hence leading to Kallu Kumar to loose the bet. 

Unakoti with its stories and mysticism and beauty will remain with you long after you have returned, still urging you to ponder on the wonders of an age gone by...

The north east saga - part 1 - Tripura, a worthwhile past

Ever since my first visit to the northeastern state of Assam and Meghalaya, I have always had that fondness of travelling back there. The second visit provided itself in one of my closest friends birthday but that was a day only. It was not enough, it was just a hop-in hop-out trip.

Well as the saying goes if it's happened twice then definitely it will happen a third time. 

True enough I did get to travel to the northeast again. Although the trip was scheduled for just ten days and meant to be a recce, it soon turned out to be a trip in actual search of places, people and stories.

Gleefully excited at the fact I am going to the north east I even gave up the chance of the Andamans which was the others place in the offering. Many a friend has suggested I go to the Andamans as the scenic beauty is second to none, but my heart just wanted to go to the Northeast. 

The travel day started pretty early and by mid noon I was in the state of Tripura. First impressions of the state and I was baffled as I travelled by auto from the station to the hotel about 15kms away. All or most of the shops were closed. The northeast know for its political instability has many a traveller worried and I was no exception. Upon enquiring my auto driver says that they are shut because the owners are taking a siesta. Whew. Thankfully it wasn't a Hartal or a bandh. The same scene welcomed me when I reached the city and found shops shut. 

I meet up with a few people in the university, historians and enquire about the neer mahal palace in udaipur, Tripura. Yes it's not a typo, neer mahal palace, udaipur. The basic information on the palace is that the maharaja of Tripura was very fond of travelling and was impressed with the neer mahal palace in udaipur Rajasthan that he returned back and commissioned a British company to build him one on a lake in a city he renamed udaipur. The eccentricities of our maharajas!

The next day I travel to see the neer mahal palace and it sure must have been magnificent in its hey day but today lies in neglect and due to global warming the water levels are low. Still u get there by boat and on entry you truly feel like royalty. The white painted walls of the palace glimmers in the sun and gives you the effect of marble the wide arch ways welcomes you to a place once meant only for the king and his guests. 

What was once an opulent resort or vacation spot for the king today lies in ruins and desperate for care. The palace is being renovated by a South Indian company and hence was able to strike up a conversation with the engineer and learn more about the palace. This conversation also gave me a chance to see the cordoned off portion of the palaces royal quarters. The ball room for the king, the ball room for the queen, the royal entry, the royal rooms, the gardens, the servants quarters and also the royal bathroom. The palace was built in the early 20th century afforded the British architect to put in European style bathrooms with marble and inlays of precious stones.

Today all this is in ruins and the engineer responsible for the restoration explained the technology involved to make the palace earthquake proof. Being a water palace the existence of water is vital for the existence of the palace. The reason being the pressure exerted by the water and the pressure exerted by the building join together in being key factors for the building to remain as is. The absence of one pressure is enough to collapse.

Parts of the palace have already collapsed and efforts are being made for restricting further damage by modern technology. The kind of technology used then still amazes me. Every place I visit I always wonder the same question aloud, how? We today find it difficult to make buildings stay intact for 5 years and that too using too many machineries and advanced materials, while the old had just people and stones and the buildings last for ever!

Well I do hope that they are able to implement all the changes proposed and on my next trip to Tripura I am able to fully understand and appreciate the true workmanship and opulence of the erstwhile maharajas of India.

    

Fortified ruins...

Travelling to the parched, bushy outskirts of the kutch district heading to the very western most point of the Indian subcontinent you can't help but notice the change in scenery. 

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....

A hole in the wall

Right in the middle of the capital cit of Kerala, Thiruvananthapuram, is located the Thiruvananthapuram fort. The fort houses the wealthiest temple in the world and is also full of stories. 

The wall too tell of a wonderful story, one where the city was saved by the walls. Legend has it that Tipu Sultan the ruler of Mysore wanted to annex Thiruvananthapuram to his expanding empire after conquering the Malabar area. Catching wind of his plans to conquer the city the then ruler of Thiruvananthapuram asked his subjects to abandon the city taking with them all the food supply and water. The soldiers troop into the city and when the last of the soldiers marched in the king ordered the gates to be shut from the outside. 

So strong was the gates and the walls that the soldiers who went in were trapped in the fort with no means of food or water...

As the days go by their supplies dwindle and soon they are weak without having any food. At this opportune moment the ruler of the land make a hole in the wall and storm the enemy from outside. The weak soldiers of the conquering king gave up without a fight and thence the king restored peace in the region...

Today that hole has been made into a grand gate in memory of that victory. The fort walls, which originally had just four entrances today  houses five. 

Two states...

The dawn of Saturday was nothing out of the ordinary and yet it evolved to be an interesting start to an outstanding weekend. A weekend with cousins in coffee county, Coorg. With a normal day at the office and just an interview to go the day looked pretty much empty. After the interview was done, I took to the road, first filling gas and the disaster struck with the driver window not winding down. T a person the hills that's pretty mundane but to one in chennai it's grievous. Hot and dusty I had to cross ventilate the car by opening the rear right window and the front left window to let air.
Once I hit the road and just about crossed Poonamalle the second problem hit. A huge traffic jam. That block took over 2 hours to clear and what irritated the most was that the reason for the traffic jam is still unclear.... After that it was pretty much smooth sailing with the little difficulties cropping up once in a while.
Crossing the little hamlets that dot the smoothly laid out highways that stretch the length and breath of the state. Four hours later I found myself in the state capital of Karnataka, Bangalore. Bypassing Bangalore took about 30 minutes making the travel to Coorg all the more nearer. The usually wonderful drive to Mysore from Bangalore was spoilt with the unusually high number of speed breakers. Nearly all of them unmarked and virtually impossible to see in the dark. The speed reduced helped in watching several cars launching themselves from the speed breakers...  Bypassing Mysore and on the Coorg route the story was the same. The you hit the Hunsur to Gonikuppal route.
On this route you are actually struggling to find where the Tarmac is. Half the time you are driving in the dirt near the road looking at vestiges of what once was a proper road. The state and inter-state buses plying the road were having a field day while the cars that's flashed past them earlier on good road were hardly moving. Rocking from side to side, going into pot holes that is so big that the car is almost engulfed by the hole you wonder if the car will climb out. 30 Kms stretched to over 2 hours of driving. Speeds reduced from 80km/hr to hardly 10km/hr, ie; if you want my our car.
Reaching, Virajpet was a relief and all that remained of the journey was the final stretch to the estate. The road that I had least expected to be the worst turned out to be the best. Smooth as silk and with no traffic it was a fitting end to a hard days drive... Zipping past coffee plants, sleeping cows, the mist low on the wet road, sharp turns and virtually no potholes. Hmmm that last 20 minutes makes you miss driving in the hills...
Reaching home you reflect back on the roads traversed, two states, half a dozen toll booths, over 700kms, speed breakers and potholes, but nothing like reaching home safe. In one state the roads were a delight with straight smooth roads, the other was a horror for both the driver and the car. Testing everything from human endurance to machine tolerance.

Country roads take me home to the place I belong.

A race to beat boredom

Returning back from my native place, kanjirapally, a couple of days back I had this strange encounter.

The roads stretched like a never-ending black serpent, the traffic dotted the tarmac like the spots on a diamond back, the sun beginning it's descent, cast  a spectral glow over the landscape. The setting magnificent and yet the solitude still was ever omnipresent. The speedo read a 100kms an hour and nothing to beat the silence and the hum of the diesel engine than the occasional honk by the insensitive. just another lazy drive on one of the zillion roads stretching across the country. 

The radio was play country music and with no source of other entertainment I decided to play with the other drivers, racing. Not being a professional racer I guess the playing field was equally placed. Now, to find a willing participant is tough as not many want to take you up on it. Finally after 15 minutes I get a willing driver in a much smaller car, a santro.  It zipped, it overtook and kept on moving... Well very soon the whole thing got extremely competitive.  Both of us not willing to compromise and hence the race went on. 

The guttural lyrics of Leonard Cohen was suddenly broken by the wail of an ambulance in the distance. A peek at the rear view mirror showed the ambulance at quite a distance, but being the only vehicle in the country capable of covering vast differences quickly with the co-operation of any and all drivers, it was but moments that the ambulance was right behind me. Being the dutiful citizen and a member of the social strata I move to an empty lane and let the ambulance overtake me. 

The ambulance overtakes and with it a dozen ambulance chasers... These are people with the urge to reach a destination faster using the ambulance as a bulldozer to clear the way.  Along with the dozen cars go the santro I was racing with. 

That's unfair I say to myself and gun my car down the road, eating up kilometers and overtaking other cars with ease and very soon it's the ambulance, the santro and I. Well never one to give Ito cheaters I overtake the santro the ambulance and speed on. Well the roads of Kerala are also littered with cops and speed guns, not wanting to get caught and fined I decide to be an ambulance chaser myself. I did not have to wait long and soon settled into a groove behind the ambulance... The santro behind me. 

Well the pleasure was short lived and the ambulance turned off from the highway to the city and soon it was back to me and the santro jostling for position. I think to myself, god this fellow can be persistent, but the four lane highway soon came to an end and the old single lane started... With the number of car increased the road just wasn't enough and only the most adept have any chance for moving forward...

The santro well although good on the four lane was not as fast on the single lane, showing that it was driven by someone not very familiar to the highways of the old... Well it works to my benefit and well since the driving just got more challenging there was no need to race... I just had to move ahead and reach home before the sun set... Well a distant possibility but hey  no harm in trying and setting goals.... 

Floored by 4x4-ing

Working in the plantations of the winding and densely green environs of Coorg is any jeep enthusiasts dream environment. This dream kingdom do come with its little adventures every once in a while and if you are not very careful the everyday is just another accident waiting to happen.

Being from the city I was pretty confident behind the wheel of any automobile and to boost it pretty cocky about it too... But I must say with a pretty heavy heart that it was disappointing when I heard that I had to undo or unlearn everything I knew about city driving before I got behind the wheel of a jeep.

Stepping into the cockpit of my uncles sturdy yet rugged Mahindra pick-up I felt mighty proud and also felt like there was nothing really that difficult but well that was before I put it in gear. First gear and a little throttle and hey it was like driving bumper cars. The jeep had a mind of its own and thats when realised that what my uncle said was true... I had to learn to drive again!

Follow a few rules and the jeep is your best friend on Tarmac and off it!

1. Drive slowly. This is a torquey engine so the moment you think your feet are peddle friendly back off, ease the vehicle to a decent speed and you really get going.

2. When off the road never ever loose your concentration! Take your eyes off the road and you can guarantee yourself in a ditch! Trust me I know! But the fun part is taking it out of the ditch! Ha ha ha. ( look back and laugh, at that moment you are grabbing for any idea that will help you).

3. Never try to speed your way through slush, always ease your jeep through it. Nurse it and you will come out of it with flying colours. Rush it and again you can guarantee yourself eating dirt, grime and slush!

4. When on four wheel drive alway remember to never ride the clutch! The jeep, like I began has a mind of its own. Just steer and be amazed at the way you overcome obstacles... To know how cross the obstacle and look back at the way you crossed!

5. When carrying its maximum pay load always be sure to drive with care. Slowly and without too much sudden acceleration.

Follow the above simple rules and you will definitely enjoy the joys of going 4x4! Learning from my mistakes and with the patient tutoring from my uncle I must say I was definitely. Floored by 4x4-ing!