Daunting Daulatabad

Dalutabad was a day trip from Aurangabad. We went to the central bus stand to take a bus to the Daulatabad Fort which is merely about 14 Kms away from the town of Aurangabad. We inquired some people and the information we got that none of the buses ply to Daulatabad. When were feeling a bit clueless, one of the bus conductors advised us to get into a bus headed for Kannad. Daulatabad would be on the way and we would have to explicitly tell the conductor of the bus to alert us when the bus reaches Daulatabad. We had to struggle a bit to get into the bus and while the others were busy acquiring seats, Santu stayed at the gate to talk to the bus conductor. After around three quarters of an hour, we reached Daulatabad. On the way, the bus stopped for a while at Khuldabad, where the tomb of Mughal Emperor Aurangazeb is situated.



The giant and imposing fort built on a 200 metre high canonical hill was founded by the Yadavas in the 12th century and the place was originally known as Devagiri (The hill of Gods). After various attacks, the fort was annexed by Alauddin Khilji and in 1328, Muhammad bin Tughluq, the then Sultan of Delhi, shifted his capital here and renamed the place as Daulatabad (The Abode of Wealth). The Daulatabad Fort has a long history after that and it changed hands in quick succession. It was controlled by the Bahamani rulers for a while before it was captured by the Nizam Shahis of Ahmednagar who made Daulatabad their capital. Mughal Emperor Akbar captured the fort in 16th century but it was surrendered again to Ahmed Nizam Shah of Ahmednagar and remained with them until 1607 when after the fall of the Nizam Shahi dynasty, the fort passed into the hands of Malik Amber but his successors were overthrown by Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan in 1633. After the death of Emperor Aurangazeb, the Nizam of Hyderabad too control over Daulatabad in 1724.



Just after the entrance, near the Aam Khas gate, quite a number of cannons of different makes and sizes, made of both iron and bronze were displayed. A notice put up by the Archeological Survey of India mentioned that apart from the indigenous ones, a couple of cannons cast in Amsterdam were also found here.

The Daulatabad Fort comprising a rare combination of a land fort and a hill fort has a complex defense system. It has two moats, one dry around the fort and another wet around the citadel. The fort also boasts of three walls of fortification. The first, Amberkot, surrounding the old town was planned for the common people. Mahakot, the second line of defense, with four lines of enclosure walls and innumerous bastions and ramparts, served as the residential area of the higher class of the society. The gates were strategically built so that they were not opposite each other and hence the practice of breaking doors open by elephants would not work here. Kalakot, the third line of defense with double line of fortification, zigzag gateways and strategic positions of gun-turrets, was the royal residential area with a huge palace complex.



After walking a few minutes we came across a 110 feet high victory tower known as the Chand Minar. The pillar was constructed to commemorate the victory over Gujrat by Alauddin Bahamani in 1435. It served both as a watch tower and a place of call for prayer. Sadly, people are not allowed to climb the pillar any more.



Just after the Chand Minar was a large open courtyard with a temple dedicated to Bharat Mata.



Further up the way is located a double storied building called Chini Mahal. Once it was laid with blue and yellow enamelled tiles but now it is in a dilapidated state. The palace was used as a royal prison and it was here that Abdul Hasan Tanashah, the last and powerful ruler of Golkonda was imprisoned till his death by Emperor Aurangazeb.



We were moving more or less effortlessly up to this point but after some more time I was experiencing a little breathlessness and the legs seemed to be suddenly heavier. We came across a small bridge over the wet moat, which had become green with moss. It was disheartening to see the plastic waste thrown rampant into the water. We also noticed a cave like structure where a medieval saint Swami Janardhana Swami attained Samadhi.



On our way we passed through a dim lit passage infested with bats and emitting a strangely bad odour. There was yet another passage known as Andheri (Dark Passage) which was pitch dark and one could only step in with the help of a guide carrying a “mashal” (a crude kerosene-lighted torch). The labyrinthine passage couple with darkness was set as a trap for the enemy intruders and was virtually impassable.

After some more time I was breathing more heavily and decided to take rest for a while after every few steps. A group of local school children were merrily running around and I felt ashamed panting with exhaustion. The citadel at the top of the hill was visible from there and that helped me not to give up my pursuit. But none the less I was having serious thoughts about my fitness level. Hunger and dearth of drinking water was adding to the woes.



Finally, we reached the palace at the top and had the few packs of biscuits we were carrying. The drinking water had also finished by that time. The gentle breeze blowing at such a height was soothing our weary bodies and we rested there for a while. A group of squirrels were wandering around us in search of some food. It was surprising to see how close they came in contact with the human beings, since in the city or the campus of my alma mater college, where there were many squirrels, they always run away in fear whenever they see any human approaching. Perhaps, so far up in the hills they are still innocent and ignorant about the evil intensions of humans.



When I thought I had at last climbed to the top of the fort, we found that there was a flight of steps going further up. And when we reached that terrace above we found another narrow stairway going still further up. It seemed there was no end of going upwards in the massive fort. Given that we had come that far, we decided to go the last mile as well though our bodies were totally worn out by then. The steps were so narrow that only one person could use it at a time. Finally we were at the topmost point of the fort. It was probably the last strategic rampart adorned with huge cannon. We remained seated there for a while enjoying the magnificent view of the town from there until our hunger got better of us and we started climbing down (which was much easier) hoping to feast on a good meal when we reach the town.

Amiable Aurangabad

Aurangabad was the second destination in our Maharashtra cave tour and the gateway for Ajanta and Ellora. We boarded the Tapovan Express from Nasik Road station around ten o’clock in the morning and reached Aurangabad just after one in the afternoon. There was a huge crowd at the station and we had to literally elbow our way out. We took an auto and proceeded to our hotel. The magnitude of tourists justified why there had been a paucity of hotels. The tourism hotels were already booked when we tried back in Kolkata. On the internet, a few private hotels were available but at exorbitant prices. On my persistence Santu had booked two rooms at the Gymkhana Club hotel at Rs. 2400 per room per night for the first night only. He was confident that we will find an alternative accommodation on the spot for the next two days, but I was a bit jittery.

In the end, it turned out to be a good decision that we did not book the Gymkhana Club for all the three days that we were scheduled to stay in Aurangabad. When we entered the hotel (located on the way to the airport), it looked awesome from the exterior. But when we checked in, our assessment was completely shattered. The were all kind of things in the corridors, there were dirt and loose ends of hairs everywhere inside the rooms, the couches and chairs were stained, there was no soap in the bathroom and I was even not sure if the toilet had been cleaned and disinfected before we checked in. I called up the room service to complain and their excuse was that the entire floor was booked the previous day for a wedding and hence the mess up. A couple of men arrived, a short while later, to clean up the rooms yet again but it did not improve the room condition by a great extent. We had breakfast in Nasik in the morning and did not have much to eat afterwards, so we were almost starving. It was distressing to know that lunch would not be served at that hour. All that we could have was some snacks and tea; that too was not very tasteful.

At four o’clock we left the hotel, took an auto and headed towards the Bibi Ka Maqbara. Aurangabad flourished under Malik Ambar, the Prime Minister of Murtaza Nizam Shah of Ahmednagar, who made it his capital in 1610. Before that it was a small place named Khadki. Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb made it the Deccan capital in 1653. Our auto driver was an eccentric one who kept making wisecracks on the city and its people. He was entertaining us with his terrible singing and we felt as if we were in a karaoke show. He was wandering around in all directions and it even appeared to us that he was taking a lengthy route than required (though he did not charge much). Santu was giving him some competition with his equally bad singing. The dreadful part was that he was passing all kinds of comments to the female pedestrians and motor cyclists and was coming up with impromptu Bollywood songs on them. We feared that he might end up being beaten up for eve teasing and we were contemplating how we should escape in that case. Thankfully we reached our destination without any untoward incident. I can not help but mention the amusing photos he had put up inside his auto. In one of them he was standing smartly in between the two superstars Shahrukh Khan (in a stylish suit) and Salman Khan (in his signature topless avatar). The photograph was superimposed of course. The second one was more hilarious. It showed him in the middle blessing two other images of him on the two sides. It was proof enough of how much weird and crazy a man he was.




Bibi Ka Maqbara is the beautiful mausoleum believed to be constructed by Emperor Aurangzeb’s son, Prince Azam Shah, in memory of his mother Rabia-ul Durrani alias Dilras Banu Begum between 1651 and 1661. The mausoleum, designed and constructed by Ata-Ulla, an architect and Hanspat Rai, an engineer, is built at the centre of a high platform with four minarets at the corners and resembles the Taj Mahal of Agra. But unlike Taj Mahal, only the dome and lower body are made of pure marble and though there is some intricate ornamentation, it is no match for the majestic Taj Mahal in terms of artistic splendour. The pavement, pool and kiosk leading to the mausoleum also remind one of the Taj Mahal. The Mughal Garden was not preserved well and the mausoleum was undergoing some maintenance work and the rear side and the dome were enveloped with iron bars. The grave inside was simple, with a flight of stairs going down from the base platform to the grave (the entrance being guarded by a locked iron gate), and some people were throwing money inside.





We spent some more time in backyard watching the sun go down behind the walls of the complex before we bid good bye to the Taj of Deccan.



Now we were left with the big task of searching down a hotel accommodation for the next two days of our stay at Aurangabad. We took an auto from outside the Bibi Ka Maqbara and told the driver to show us some decent hotels in the heart of the city. We were prepared for enduring a tough time but the experience turned out to be more excruciating than we perceived. The first couple of hotels had rooms available but neither the rooms were good nor the room rents were acceptable. In another hotel, the reception clerk showed us a room which was already occupied by some people (who were not present at that time) and their things were scattered all over the place. We rejected that hotel primarily because of security concerns. After visiting a couple of more hotels we found one which was quite nice. It was located near the Anjali Talkies and there was a fine temple of Khadakeshwar (dedicated to Lord Shiva) in the vicinity (that we visited on a later day). Actually Santu inquired some local people in the streets and someone recommended this hotel. The manager of the hotel told us that he would confirm availability of rooms over phone in an hour. Perhaps he was trying to evade paying the auto driver money for bringing customers. However, he did not call up that day and when he finally called on the next day it was too late.



By this time the tout was showing to come out of our auto driver and he was desperate to book some hotel or other for us and he even admitted that he would end up making some extra money that way. The issue was that he was inclined to take us only to the hotels of his choice where probably he would make more money. And even in some circumstances when we asked him to wait outside, he would end up accompanying us into the hotel. I remember one hotel where there was a notice board in the reception area proclaiming that they do not indulge in bargaining like other hotels because they are confident that their services are much more superior to others. Later when we checked the rooms they were so poor that we could only laugh at their boasting of providing unparallel amenities. Shortly we paid off the auto driver who had started to nag and started on a wayward mission on foot. We came across some good hotels but there were no rooms available. Santu was primarily entrusted with the task of finding a decent hotel since it was he who was of the idea that we could book any hotel on the spot very easily. He and Srimanta knocked on all the hotels that we came across on our way while Anirban and I simply followed suit and even we lost them after some time. But no agreeable hotel, not even the star rated ones had any room available. By then our hunt for hotels had completed nearly three hours and it was taking its toll on us. We were physically exhausted apart from being terribly frustrated. Finally we booked two rooms at Hotel Venkateshwara at Rs 1200 per room per night. It was not very good to be honest but we were tired of searching any more and did not believe that we could get hold of any better room even if we continued our search. We had a pathetic dinner in a nearby restaurant and returned to the Gymkhana Club for a good night’s sleep after an arduous exercise which was no less than an exploration.

After breakfast we came back again to the hotel, checked into our rooms and started for the Aurangabad caves. Aurangabad has its own group of Buddhist caves which were curved out of the hills in the 6th and 7th century A.D. They are situated further away from Bibi Ka Maqbara but we could not visit them the previous day due to lack of time. The road leading to the caves bifurcates at a place with 5 caves on the left and the rest on the right side. The two groups of caves are almost half a km apart. We first visited caves numbered 1 to 5 which are located on the left side.






Although nothing much was mentioned in the tourism website about these caves, we were much impressed with their spectacular artwork. Our cave experience was getting better place by place and we were very excited about what Ajanta and Ellora would have in store for us. We were the only tourists who visited the caves at that hour so it was very peaceful. Even our auto driver bought his own ticket and accompanied us to the caves. Later he confessed that though he had lived in Aurangabad for some years he had not visited the caves up till then. One of the caves (probably Cave 3) is a Chaitya Griha (prayer hall) with the usual apse surrounded by the octagonal pillars.



In the second group, Cave 7 is the most elaborate and famous. In fact it is the only cave about which some information was put up by the Archeological Survey of India. The monastery has a pillared verandah and cells circumambulating the square sanctum in the centre. The immaculate sculptural panels include images of Avalokiteshvara and Padmapani and some dancing deities.

In one of the other caves (probably Cave 6) it was interesting to notice a Ganesh idol beside a Buddha figure.






We came out of the caves and spent a few moments capturing the barren beauty that surrounded the hills. On the other hand the hills themselves were not devoid of vegetation and we even noticed some cows roaming on the steep slopes of the hills and eating grass. It astonished us how they walked up to that height and how they were balancing themselves. A few more tourists were turning up and it was time for us to move on. The breakfast we had had a couple of hours earlier had been digested by then and we planned to have lunch first and then set out for Daulatabad.

Numinous Nasik

Christmas always provides a good time for vacation, since there is less work pressure, at least till I have clients based in the US (I sincerely hope to have the same opportunity next year also :-)). Srimanta and I went to a lovely trip of Gwalior, Orchha and Varanasi during the same time, the previous year and decided to visit the caves of Ajanta and Ellora this time round. To spend a few more days out, we expanded our itinerary and included Nasik as the starting place of our tour. I must admit, Savi and Madhu’s travel blog, 10yearitch.com, provided some wonderful inputs for this tour and following their posts, I became interested about Nasik which is otherwise not a very happening tourist spot.

The tour planning was not without any worry or initial hiccups. Firstly, there was a question mark on Srimanta’s availability as he was outside the country. However, he confirmed that he will return home a week before Christmas. Santu and Anirban became the other members of the tour gang and there were issues with them as well like whether Santu would be joining us from Mumbai and Anirban who was serving his notice period would be granted the leave. Thankfully, all of us could ultimately make the trip and the trip became more interesting and enjoyable this time with more people.

However, due to the indecision about who would be really going and who may miss out due to unavoidable circumstances, we could not book any hotel until about a week before the trip and at that time we felt the heat as we found a real scarcity of hotel rooms (at least the MTDC ones which we initially planned to book). Santu suggested looking for hotels on the spot, but I was apprehensive due to the fact that it was peak tourist season in Maharashtra. The Diamond Tours & Travels whose office we visited for booking MTDC hotels could not even book any private hotel for us in Nasik. Luckily I got a good deal on cleartrip.com and booked Hotel Rama Heritage and it turned out to be the best hotel in our entire trip.

We boarded the HWH CSTM Express in the afternoon of Friday, the 24th of December and we spent most of the journey playing cards. Anirban was carrying a deck of cards and just like hostel days we were so much engrossed playing 29 that we stopped in between long hours of play only for taking meals and toilet breaks. The train was right on time. We reached Nasik Road station in the evening of the following day and took an auto to Hotel Rama Heritage. It was a really good value for money experience. I booked two rooms at Rs. 1500 per room per night and even got near 30% money back from cleartrip.com later on. Just after we checked in, the hotel staff brought us some complimentary Christmas pastries and it set the tone of our pleasant stay at the hotel for the next couple of days.

The next morning, after the complimentary breakfast at the hotel, we took an auto to the Pandavleni caves. The auto left us at the foot of the Trivashmi hills, about 8 Kms from the city of Nasik and we climbed some steep steps to reach the caves. There were in total 24 caves dating back to 1st century B.C. and 2nd century A.D. The tourism website mentioned that the caves were home to Jain saints like Tirthankara Vrishabdeo, Veer Manibhadraji and Ambikadevi, but we found many Buddhist sculptures as well and one of them seemed to be the Mahanirvana of Buddha. A notice board put up by the Archeological Survey of India which maintains the place mentioned about inscriptions in the caves belonging to the period of Satavahanas and Kshatrapas but most of them except for a few caves had been eroded away.

Cave 13, an important cave in this group is the earliest of the caves and is a Chaitya Griha (prayer hall). All others are Viharas (monasteries). Caves numbered 3,8,10 and 23 are the other important caves. We had anticipated that we would be mesmerized by the caves of Ajanta and Ellora in this trip, but we thoroughly enjoyed these caves as well and it marked a good start of the tour. They reminded me of the Elephanta and Karla caves that I visited during my brief stint in Mumbai in 2006. The Chaitya Griha comprised the usual nave, apse and octagonal pillars and wood-like carvings over the doorway. Many of the sculptures were in good condition but undoubtedly many more had been looted away or vandalized with the passage of time.













Now as we were walking along the caves we stopped from time to time taking pictures of the sculptures as well as ourselves and with four cameras you can well imagine the time we spent on the photo session. And then people were taking snaps with and without sunglasses (I was the only one who had no choice but to stick to my pair of spectacles) and Santu was busy showing off his newly gym-acquired biceps and Srimanta kept bringing out his collection of caps (throughout the tour). In the midst of all this Santu suddenly realized that he had lost his camera bag somewhere in the caves and that brought the sleuths out of us. We checked the photos in each of our cameras and were certain that he left the bag at a stone carving of one of the caves while some one else was taking his photo and forgot to take it back. Now the question was which cave was it. After consulting some more photos which were taken just after that photo we could finally identify the cave and revisited it. The bag was lying peacefully at the very place that we anticipated along with our tickets and we made Santu promise to treat us to celebrate the discovery of the lost bag. The fact that Santu actually treated us later on (though he at first tried to play it down) and that the bill was far more than the cost of the bag would help us remember the incident for a long time :-)













After visiting the last of the caves, we rested for a while and watched the beautiful tableland across the hill that housed the caves, before we went down and visited the stupa styled Buddha Vihar located just at the bottom of the hills. It was a bit confusing to figure out the entrance of the Vihar. It has quite a massive dome in the centre and contains a huge golden statue of Buddha in the middle of a large meditation hall. The fascinating thing about the hall was that it created echo of the slightest of sounds, even of tapping of fingers. A photographer (who might be someone associated with the Buddha Vihar) was requesting people to maintain peace and not to make noise. However, quite a few people seemed to amuse themselves by the reverberations of the little sounds they were making and some of them were even coughing deliberately. At first I was wondering who would be paying that guy to take pictures at this kind of a place but to my amusement I found many groups (some of them being quite big to be an entire neighbourhood) assembling together to take group photos. After spending some time there, we moved on to the Dadasaheb Phalke memorial, which was located right next to the Buddha Vihar.



Dhundiraj Govind Phalke better known as Dadsaheb Phalke is known as the pioneer of Indian cinema. His debut film Raja Harishchandra (1913) is India’s first full length feature film. In his career span of 19 years he made 95 movies and 26 short films, mainly based on mythological stories of India. Today his name is associated with the prestigious Dadasaheb Phalke Award, instituted in 1969, the birth centenary year of Dadasaheb Phalke by the Government of India for lifetime contribution to Indian cinema, and is considered the highest award one can achieve in Indian cinema.



The memorial hall displays posters of Indian cinema right from the time of Raja Harishchandra to the most recent ones, like Lagaan, Swades and even Koi… Mil gaya.

Actually we had a tough time to locate the memorial hall. We first inquired about it from the local security men and they told us that it was closed as it was a Sunday. But when they pointed out the hall and suggested that we could still peek through the window panes, we found out that it was some other exhibition hall displaying archeological artifacts. Then when we mentioned that we were actually looking for the hall that consists of cinema posters, they realized the mix up and showed us the right hall. All the time it was extremely difficult to converse with them since they were speaking mainly in Marathi with a little bit of Hindi in between.

One can circumambulate the hall and see the posters in a chronological order starting from the earliest films and slowly moving on to the later ones. We could recognize the films and the artists only when we came to the period of Raj Kapoors and Dilip Kumars and Dev Anands. The posters of the major films of that era that I remember comprises Kabuliwala, Saheb Biwi aur Ghulam, Hum Dono, Naya Daur, Do Bigha Zameen, Bandini, Shree 420, Mother India and many more. Then were the posters of late 60s and 70s like Dev Anand’s Guide, Amitabh Bachchan’s Deewar and Kabhi Kabhie, Rajesh Khanna’s Aradhana and Anand and Sanveev Kumar’s Koshish. There was a section for the parallel cinema movement as well with posters of films like Paar and Ardh Satya. On the other end, posters from the movies of nineties and the new millennium were displayed. Though there were many standout films of recent times, still I would say that the selection of newer movies could have been a little bit more careful since there were a few forgettable movies finding their way in the hall.

















At the centre of the hall, a section was dedicated to the three blockbusters of three generations considered to be the milestones of Indian cinema, namely Mughal-E-Azam, Sholay and Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge.







After we completed our tour of the Dadasaheb Phalke memorial, we had our lunch in a nearby hotel. The bearer who served us turned out to be a Bengali and it was nice to order in our native tongue in a place far away from our home. Our next destination was the pilgrimage spot at the heart of the old city of Nasik and we asked him for directions. He advised us to take a local bus to Panchvati. So we came back to the main road, had a paan each from a nearby paan shop and waited for the bus which arrived shortly. The surprising thing I noticed was that the bus conductors in Maharashtra gives out custom printed tickets from a small portable printing machine they carry which are not like the bundle of pre-printed tickets that we are accustomed to with bus conductors in Kolkata.

Panchvati is a significant holy place in Nasik and the legend goes that Lord Rama stayed there for some time with his wife Sita and brother Laxman during their 14 year exile. After reaching the place and inquiring with a few locals we realized that the whole area in general and not any specific spot is known as Panchvati.

We decided to visit the Ramkund first, where it is believed that Rama and Sita used to bathe. A holy tank was built at the place in 1696 by Chitrarao Khatakar and even today innumerous pilgrims gather there to take a holy dip. We even noticed some people to drink the holy water though it did not seem to be hygienic as the tank water was not very clean with people bathing all over and offerings of the devout scattered every where. Hindus, even today, immerse the ashes of a dead person in the holy tank so that the dead person attains moksha or liberation. The ashes of eminent personalities like Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi have been immersed here.





I took a walk around the tank and through the middle of the vegetable market that is situated just beside the tank. There were countless small temples along the ghats and a few larger ones in the vicinity. A group of elderly men in typical Marathi attire were chatting around one of the temples. Beside another, a few middle aged women were singing bhajans. I stopped there for a few minutes to listen to them. Though I could not follow most of the words, the music was very appealing and created an impact together with the surroundings. Some women were washing clothes in another part of the tank and the already washed ones were spread out for drying on the steps of the ghats. And some young men were flying kites which is fast becoming a rare sport in the cities. I think I had spent more time than I anticipated wandering about the ghats and my friends began to call me up and asked to return to the place where I left them.





From the Ramkund, we took a narrow road to the Kalaram Temple which was built in 1794 by Gopikabai Peshwa. The word Kalaram literally means black Rama. The idol of Lord Rama was built with black stone from the mines of Ramsej hills and hence the name. Unfortunately photography was not allowed inside the temple. En route, we visited another temple called the Goreram Temple. Here the idol of Lord Rama is made of white stone which alludes to the name which literally means fair or white complexioned Rama.

Next in our itinerary was the Tapovan. The name suggests a place for meditation. We skipped the Sita Gumpha, a cave like structure from where it is believed Ravana kidnapped Sita. It was not easy to get any conveyance to the Tapovan from the Kalaram temple complex. The autos were charging an exorbitant amount not appropriate for the meagre distance and we decided to walk. It would not have been possible to walk the entire distance but luckily we got an auto after walking only for a few minutes at a much cheaper rate. The place comprises lush greeneries with the Godavari flowing by its side and offers a tranquil spot to the religious minded people, but like all the holy places it too has opened up to shops selling all kinds of merchandise associated with religion. At the top a very trendy statue of the trio of Rama, Sita and Laxman has been built and it was forming a pleasant silhouette against the setting sun.



The next day we went to visit the Trimbakeshwar Temple which is more than 30 Kms away from the town of Nasik. We took a bus for the journey and the ride was peaceful. Trimbakeshwar is one of the 12 jyotirlingas dedicated to Lord Shiva. Legend has it that Gautam rishi performed a rigorous ritual here and being pleased with his devotion Lord Shiva brought down to earth the sacred rivers of Ganga, Gautami and Godavari. Right behind the temple, rises the Brahmagiri hills and one can trek up to the source of river Godavari.

There was a long zigzag queue with iron pillars in between at the entrance of the temple. Srimanta and Santu decided against standing in the queue, so only Anirban and I went ahead after depositing our cameras and mobile phones with the others. It was only after about two hours we could enter the temple complex. The ordeal of standing in the long queue turned out to be more painful than we had anticipated and the bright sun and bare feet were making it worse. But the bigger discomfort was the fellow devotees many of whom were rampantly breaking lines or making the place more dirty throwing off residues of foods. We were relieved when we could ultimately enter the premises but were equally disappointed when we noticed that the queue continued right till the main temple structure. Suddenly there was a rush of urgency as someone cried out that the temple doors would be closed soon and it actually happened a few minutes later. There was an announcement that the temple had been closed for Tantrik Shivarchan. We inquired a few people in the queue about how long the ritual would take and there were diverse answers; someone mentioned it could actually go on for hours. Many of the devotees had taken seats on the ground and started chanting devotional songs. Thankfully there was a shade at that place but by then we had suffered enough agony and wanted to go out. To add to our woes there was an exceedingly irritating man right behind us in the queue and his conversations with Anirban was fast snowballing into a verbal spat. But even if we wished to break away from the queue, it was extremely difficult to do so. At the end we could come out of the queue by jumping more than a couple of iron bars. At first the others considered our acrobatics as part of the plan to move ahead in the queue (the man I just talked about passed the most lewd comments) but when they realized that we were actually trying to break free, they became quiet. So now we came in close proximity to the hundreds of years old temple structure and we regretted that we were not carrying any camera. We admired the work on the outer walls of the temple and looked for a way out of the complex. But wait, we were again outwitted since there was no way out and the entire compound was surrounded with iron barricades. Finally, we approached a police constable and pleaded to him that we were not feeling well and do not wish to wait till the temple doors were opened again. He moved one of the barricades and we squeak in and left the temple complex much to our relief.





From the outside of the temple complex we took and auto to the Coin Museum, which is located about 10 Kms from Trimbakeshwar, near the Anjeri hills and on the way to Nasik. I had read in the tourism website that the Indian Institute of Numismatic Studies was established here in 1980. However, we found that it is not being run by any Government body but a private trust under the chairmanship of K.G. Maheshwari. I was always interested in coins and have a numismatic collection myself, so I made it a point to visit the museum especially as it is only one of its kind in Asia. The museum has a well documented record of Indian numismatics (with articles and photographs) staring from the prehistoric times to different ruling dynasties of various parts of India, coins from the times of Delhi Sultanate and British India and even post-independence coins. It was a little disappointing to see more replicas than real coins but then most of the collection was formed by private donation (majority coming from Mr. Maheshwari himself). Mr. Maheshwari is also an accomplished photographer and has donated many photos taken by him which comprises an entire section. We were granted permission for taking a few snaps for ourselves but ended up taking innumerous.







The auto driver who drove us to the museum had advised to take a bus from there back to Nasik. He mentioned that though most of the buses were non-stop, they would stop if we indicate to stop them by waving our hands. We were waiting at the nearest bus stop and observed that buses plying on the opposite route were actually stopping when someone waved his or her hands. That bolstered our confidence. But to our bewilderment, none of the buses on the way to Nasik stopped even though we were waving our hands vigorously. There was no option of auto or taxi as well, as we were stranded in the middle of a highway. Suddenly Santu waved his hand to stop a small truck and it actually stopped and the driver asked us to hop in. We were astonished at first but later on we understood that it is a common alternative form of transportation (as some more men boarded and alighted in between) and the truck driver was not doing us any great favour but actually charged us for the journey. It was a bit awkward in the beginning but after a while we started enjoying the experience and we would remember the near 20 Km unusual ride for a long time to come.



We came back to Nasik in the afternoon and after having lunch from a restaurant near the bus stand, we started for the Sula Winery. A number of winery has grown up around Nasik giving it the name of the wine capital of India. Sula is the oldest of the lot and the most renowned. We were looking for an auto to take us to the winery and after tough bargaining (mostly done by Santu who was our leader for monetary negotiations) we settled to pay Rs. 400 for taking us to the winery, waiting for a couple of hours and bringing us back to the city. The winery located in the outskirts of Nasik (about 20 Kms away from the city), comprises a vineyard and wine factory started by Rajeev Samant back in 1996. First harvesting was carried out in 1999 and the first wine hit the market in 2000. We booked a tour of the winery at Rs. 150 per head and the tour started at 4:30 PM sharp. Such a tour takes place every hour starting from 11:30 AM and the last tour of the day starts at 5:30 PM. Our guide Akshay gave us a brief introduction of the winery and started the tour from the vineyard that stretched out in front of the office building. They have large acres of vineyard at a distant place as well. We noticed rose plants in front of the vineyard and found out that their purpose is to detect any disease that may affect the grape plants, since rose plants are more susceptible to such diseases. The wine grapes are smaller and sourer than table grapes and there are separate vineyards for red and white wines. The crushing machines are also separate for the two varieties of grapes. Akshay enlightened us that in red wine the skin of the grapes are also used and hence the colour. Next he showed us the cellar where huge steel drums are used for fermentation. Maturation of wines is done by storing them in French oak barrels but Akshay revealed that the wines produced by Sula are mainly “young wines” matured at most for a couple of years unlike the aged wines of abroad. The tour ended in the testing room from where we could observe the bottling facility behind large glass windows. As a part of the tour we were invited to taste 5 of Sula’s popular wines (a very small quantity although) of varieties sparkling, white, rose and red. Later on we spent some time in the balcony adjoining the tasting room on the first floor looking over the vineyard and the sun setting behind the adjoining hills created a wonderful impact. One can buy a few bottles of wines from the winery itself as gift items. There is a restaurant as well attached to the winery and I had read many good things about it, but we could not wait for dinner and returned to our hotel in the evening.













The satisfying stay at Nasik had come to an end and the next day we were scheduled to start for Aurangabad. We enjoyed the beginning of the tour more than we expected and hoped that we would come to see more delightful places in the days to come.