At peace with history

Orchha

Images of the fort / palace complex had had me keen on visiting Orchha since few years. My increasingly falling belief in long-term and detailed planning enabled me to land up at Orchha finally. As the tempo took me (and 10 others) from Jhansi, I noticed a board stating, ‘Welcome to the town of Ram Raja’. This is a place where the Lord is the King.

Image Credit: Kumar Radhakrishnan

Fort / palace complex

At the fort / palace complex guides appeared like at other tourist places. What came to fore, what informed me of Orchha, was a question to a security personnel. Your small question has a longish answer he warned and gauging from my body language, went on. A guide or a scholar would have found it difficult to match the emotion and connect he brought in. It was his story as well. He also made me re-realize that small towns in my country are way different from its cities. A large proportion of people in these towns have their moorings and identities clear and secure, unlike the English 

speaking workshop attending urban elite of the cities.

I put in time walking languorously in and around the complex amidst stones and silences. I listened to my feet brush history as I walked. Spotting a cenotaph I sat under its shade while the Betwa flowing nearby enticed me to jump in. Amidst the structures I walked past one stood out by reason of its name, the ‘Palace of 3 daasis’. A couple of other structures are being used for cattle! How does this use, by locals, measure with the (clichéd!) lousy renovation by authorities or apathetic defacing by others?

The sound and light show has little to talk about. My choosing the English over the Hindi version could also have been an issue. The text was in binaries, in black and white, reminding me of Amar Chitra Katha. Very good humans, very bad humans – no humans.

Image Credit: Kumar Radhakrishnan

Temples

The ‘main’ temple had a pleasant feel to it. Surrounded by not few but many sweet shops. One morning after the arati I saw a group of aunties sing, sitting in a circle, one or two of them played music equipments as well. This kind of singing I had experienced during childhood; yet another of the practices which have disappeared from the urban areas. This feeling hit me multiple times at Orchha. As the singing continued an announcement on the audio system had some of us, listening to the aunties, break into a smile – ‘do not click images using phones or cameras’, it said.

At the Laxmi temple, on the way out, I heard the person guarding, call out loudly. It was time to lock the gates and he wanted to ensure no one was left on the other side of the door. ‘How many people have you locked in’, I asked. ‘None in about 5 years of duty’, he responded. As I soaked in the view from the temple I wondered how differently beautiful Orchha would feel in different seasons!

Image Credit: Kumar Radhakrishnan

And else

In the town, with not too many shops, I came across a Bisleri shop. The star attraction here was a bottle of mineral bottle in new and strange shape. As I stood near the shop, a family of 10 brought 2 for children in the group; apparently for the shape. Chances are high that in few days one of the local children will inhale its fumes or encounter it in the Betwa. A rally by a chief minister, in the neighbouring state, some days earlier, had people get Bisleri bottles from Orchha. The shop owner said he had taken some bottles to Noida a month ago. I was lost on what to make out of all this.

Notices across Orchha had my attention. One at the Kanchana Ghat said ‘Ghat is deep and 3 people have died here during 2018’; succinct and effective! Another, and this at multiple locations, ‘Drive slowly. Take care of children, dogs and cows’; clear order of priorities. Lastly one which possibly will be absent from elsewhere in the country, ‘Do not throw stones at Vultures’.

The owner of the restaurant I had food at said he had been running it since 22 years and it was only during past 10 odd years that the business had picked up. He was proud of the menu he offered and appeared to have the only coffee machine in town. Given my current fetish for coffee I could not resist asking where he sourced beans from! It was not very different from small eateries in small towns frequented by westerners. Besides serving authentic western dishes they serve westernized versions of Indian dishes; Nutella Naan for example.

Image Credit: Kumar Radhakrishnan

There is a sense of scale and proportion in Orchha. Here, history touches all your senses and yet allows you to be at peace with it; does not overwhelm. Added to this is absence of excesses by neither the tourists nor the tourists – each of whom bear a tenacity to leave their mark. A place to walk alone or accompanied by silences.

One of the places I would like to re-visit and do nothing in particular.