10th on the List - Embark
At last, I got a seemingly disinterested nod from my boss for my leave approval, but only after three and a half hours of extended working on the previous day, and the day before.
The place for which I am embarking on, is Khajuraho. A frantic Internet search has already been made for it and rims of paper has been printed with gigabytes of information, including 13 road maps for navigation. I am going by road and learnt that Khajuraho is 230 km through shortest route, from my current nest at Kanpur. We are a gang of four and a half people : Me; my wife; Daughter and Son-in-law of my Kanpur 'local guardian', with whom I stayed as PG for my initial two years at Kanpur; and off-course my seven years old son, whom I have considered here as "half".
The ignition of our car was switched on at 7.30 in the morning. The route on which we are, is through Ghatampur-Hamirpur-Mahoba. The significant part of our road will traverse through Kanpur Dehat district, considered to be one of the poorest district in India, in terms of per capita income. The district is really still miles away from congregation of urbanity. I have seen villages where water wells are demarcated for upper caste only. Even there are pavements which are banned for lower caste to foot on. The ravines also forms the larger part of this district. I once visited the village where Phoolan Devi, is alleged to have made those upper caste lords who were said to have once tortured, raped and paraded her naked; stand in a row and sprayed bullets on them.
The road can easily pass off as practice track for a Himalayan Rally. Roads caved in, pebbled, burrowed and excavated. Manoeuvring the road is not enough, one has to manoeuvre countless of goat, sheep, duck, chicken, cow and buffalo. Harm any one of them and you will be looked upon as an avatar of Adolf Hitler.
After a four and a half hour of roller coaster ride we finally reached Khajuraho when the watch struck exactly one in the afternoon. An intense hysterical engineering of the spine followed after getting off the car. We proceeded towards the reception desk of Hotel Ramada , welcoming us by a bland orange drink in four inch glass neatly placed on silver tray. The gracious ladies on the front office completed the formalities quite fast and we proceeded towards our room, longing for a good bath and a hearty meal.
The place for which I am embarking on, is Khajuraho. A frantic Internet search has already been made for it and rims of paper has been printed with gigabytes of information, including 13 road maps for navigation. I am going by road and learnt that Khajuraho is 230 km through shortest route, from my current nest at Kanpur. We are a gang of four and a half people : Me; my wife; Daughter and Son-in-law of my Kanpur 'local guardian', with whom I stayed as PG for my initial two years at Kanpur; and off-course my seven years old son, whom I have considered here as "half".
The ignition of our car was switched on at 7.30 in the morning. The route on which we are, is through Ghatampur-Hamirpur-Mahoba. The significant part of our road will traverse through Kanpur Dehat district, considered to be one of the poorest district in India, in terms of per capita income. The district is really still miles away from congregation of urbanity. I have seen villages where water wells are demarcated for upper caste only. Even there are pavements which are banned for lower caste to foot on. The ravines also forms the larger part of this district. I once visited the village where Phoolan Devi, is alleged to have made those upper caste lords who were said to have once tortured, raped and paraded her naked; stand in a row and sprayed bullets on them.
The road can easily pass off as practice track for a Himalayan Rally. Roads caved in, pebbled, burrowed and excavated. Manoeuvring the road is not enough, one has to manoeuvre countless of goat, sheep, duck, chicken, cow and buffalo. Harm any one of them and you will be looked upon as an avatar of Adolf Hitler.
After a four and a half hour of roller coaster ride we finally reached Khajuraho when the watch struck exactly one in the afternoon. An intense hysterical engineering of the spine followed after getting off the car. We proceeded towards the reception desk of Hotel Ramada , welcoming us by a bland orange drink in four inch glass neatly placed on silver tray. The gracious ladies on the front office completed the formalities quite fast and we proceeded towards our room, longing for a good bath and a hearty meal.
Comments