Ajanta Ellora-A Rendezvous with History (Part 2)

Ellora – Poetry in Stone
Nestled deep in the lush green Sahyadri hills, Ellora caves are one of the finest examples of rock cut sculptures and architecture in the world. Intricately carved using just a hammer and chisel, these caves are truly an epitome of indian architecture.Build between the 5th and 10th century, the Ellora caves represent the three main religions of that time - Buddhism, Hinduism and Jainism.
One of the most important things when you visit a historical site is to get a good guide. We were extremely lucky in this case. Rao Sahib, as we called our Guide was a delightful man of over 60, stooped and bent like a weather beaten tree but seeped in the history and lore of Ellora.
We started off from Vishwakarma cave; the most popular Buddhist cave with a magnificent 11 feet high Buddha statue. The Buddha statue is at the far end of the cave and is flanked by rows of pillars on both sides. The panels between the pillars and the roof are very intricately carved from scenes out of Buddha’s life. The most amazing part of the Vishwakarma cave is its roof.The huge dome like ribbed roof seems to be made up of wooden beamS, but has infact been cut out of solid rock to represent beams. This high vault like ceiling is the reason why this cave has the best acoustics. We had people right from guides to fellow tourists shouting and screaming at the top of their voices to prove the power of acoustics in the cave!
Rao Sahib was fantastic right from the beginning. He had in depth knowledge about the caves and took us to each panel and pillar to show us the carvings as well as explain the tales that they depicted. In between the knowledge sharing he also acted as our official portrait and photograph taker by obligingly taking our snaps. It was a job that he did with great enthusiasm shouting “Ok ready smile” as we posed before the many sculptures. Surrounded by the many sculptures of gods and goddesses,Rao Sahib also discovered his own mortal apsara amongst one of us !
A beautiful carving that caught eye at most of the caves was a Lotus carved not on the panels or walls but on the roof of the cave. Its amazing how the artisans managed to sculpt such a perfect design and that too on the roof. Most of the pillars had intricate designs on them and the most amazing part was that the design was different on each and every pillar. A few pillars inscriptions in an ancient script, most probably prayers.
The other Buddhist caves we saw were viharas or monasteries. One thing that struck me was the stark simplicity of these monasteries. Unlike the Vishwakarma cave, here there is no clutter of carvings or sculptures. They are totally Spartan and bare as befitting the lives of the monks who resided there. But what really makes the monasteries stand apart is that they are 3 stories high and have been cut out of the sheer mountain face by human hands using only a hammer and chisel. The pillars and the corridors inside the monasteries run in precise mathematical symmetry. They are truly a masterpiece of architectural skill. The first two floors consist of living quarters for the monks. But as we wandered up to the third floor we saw a huge Buddha statue flanked by rows of seated Buddhas in various mudras. Here also, there is no other carvings or sculptures except the Buddha statues that seem to be gazing out onto the hills. The whole ambiance was that of total peace and serenity.In the silence that surrounded us, all I had to do was close my eyes and I was instantly transported back hundreds of years. I could almost feel the monks swishing past in their robes murmuring their prayers.

To Be Continued........

Ajanta Ellora-A Rendezvous with History (Part 1)

The beginning
In the second week of December, 8 women, most of them strangers to each other meet up in Aurangabad for a rendezvous with History. Two Linguists, a Dietician, a Fashion Designer, a Professional Trainer, a Dubai Diva, a very suave and well travelled Housewife, a retired Principal and a child of ten - We have nothing in common but our love for travel and adventure. The catalyst – a trip to Ajanta Ellora and Lonar crater organized by the amazing Piya Bose of Girls on the Go Travel Club.
Our Adventure began at 4.30 a.m on a cold winter morning, when three very sleepy women and a child wide awake with excitement boarded the early morning JetLite flight to Aurangabad from Delhi. Jet Lite flights; believe me live up to their name of being “lite”. The plane was so small that I finished walking the entire length and breath of it in two and a half strides. And when I decided to visit the loo, I had to sit hunched up with my knees almost sticking out of the door. Reminded me of those capsule hotels in Japan!
We landed at Aurangabad bright and early and were whisked away to the hotel where we met the extremely gentle and soft-spoken Piya Bose and the rest of the gang. After exchanging the preliminary pleasantries we got down to the serious task of deciding what to eat for breakfast. A few of us stuck to the boring cornflakes and bread – butter but a few more adventurous of us decided to order fruit salad without bananas and tea with no sugar. The poor waiter had a very had time, having never had encountered a group of vociferous women who demanded their tea without sugar and refused to eat bananas with breakfast ! After breakfast we were all ready for our adventure but had to wait for Navneet, one of the girls coming from Hyderabad. Her train was supposed to arrive at 4 in the morning but in typical Indian railways style was stuck at a non-descript station outside Aurangabad for the last few hours. After waiting for an hour or so for our elusive group member, we cruelly decided to abandon the poor girl to her fate and went on keep our tryst with history !
To Be Continued........

Autumn Twilight - A poem and a Picture

( pic clicked by me at Ellora)

Autumn Twilight and Lonliness

Do they always

Go Hand in Hand ?

All is well !

To everyone wondering if I have decided to hibernate for the winter- no I have not ! Its just that I managed to get all the sundry stomach and throat viruses floating around. X-mas came and went in a spate of illness, New year was rung in not with a glass of sparkling champagne but rather a yuck tasting cough syrup.Then came my Birthday on the 6th which I spent coughing and sneezing and wheezing like an old woman. Now I am snowed under an avalanche of work but promise to resurface soon with new travelogues on Ajanta Ellora.
So to everyone who was kind enough to ask -Thank you and yes Aaal izz Well !

In which we shop till we drop at the bangkok airport and almost miss the flight

I went to Tokyo in November. I haven’t posted about this trip because frankly it just went by in a daze. It was a whirlwind of a trip where I worked like a maniac and came back totally exhausted. When I was not working I was taking my two ‘visiting- Japan-for the –first –time colleagues’ sightseeing. One of the disadvantages of knowing a city intimately is that you are expected to take first time visitors around. Not that I mind that but these two guys were a little bit too enthusiastic for my liking. So enthusiastic that they didn’t mind sightseeing at night after a hard days toil even when it was bitterly cold and raining. Tokyo is one city I love but walking the streets of Tokyo in freezing rain with two camera happy guys does not make a very cheerful me. They were so camera happy and so narcissistic that they wanted their snap clicked every damn second. Since I was not too keen on posing for photographs I was assigned the task of clicking them. So I stood there trembling with hands turning almost blue with cold as they preened themselves before posing in front of whatever they chose to be photographed with. Some of the interesting places they posed at besides posing in front of every temple, monument and high rise in Tokyo were:

• At the office reception area - at 8.55 in the morning when a whole lot of people were rushing in to punch in their cards before 9 a.m. People had to dodge past them as they posed right in the middle of the rather narrow reception area. Finally the guard told them politely to move off.
• In the conference room – They tried a variety of poses here such as sitting in the conference room chair,next to the white board pretending to give a presentation,next to the huge glass windows as the view outside is quite spectacular(you can see Tokyo bay and all). All this while the next team that was to occupy the conference room stood outside holding on to their laptops and notebooks and quietly cursing under their breaths.
• Next to the cycles in the cycle stand at Tokyo Station- hey may be they like cycles!
• Next to an old lady selling fish-much to her irritation as they were just holding up customers.
• On top of the directions pole while trying to balance on its railing with one foot. (Please don’t even ask why)
• At every restaurant they asked the waitresses to take photographs of every single thing that they ate, re taking shots till they were satisfied while we sat there holding our chopsticks and trying to smile as the food got progressively cold.

Any how one good thing that came out of this trip was that I got to drink star bucks coffee by the gallon and eat a lot of my favorite Japanese food. I also met a dear friend after almost a year although I could only spend a few hours with her.These things things compensated for a lot of other discomforts. :-)
But I digress, what I really want to talk about is the return journey. While returning,we had a stop over at Bangkok for four hours.This is where I said a not too sorrowful goodbye to my colleagues who were headed towards Mumbai and devoted myself to some serious shopping.
Now, I am not a compulsive shopper and shopping does not feature under my favorite activities but I felt I needed a treat after enduring a lot of work related things and people in Tokyo.My first stop was at the perfumes area. I love perfumes and I walked about as if in a trance my nose quivering in anticipation of sniffing all sort of exotic fragrances. Buy only 1 or 2 perfumes I strictly told myself, because I have many at home that are still unused or unfinished. But I was like a women possessed and ended up buying 3 – Chanel, Estée Lauder and Christian Dior. Then I took myself to Boots body products and bought half the shop much to the delight of the salespeople.The sales lady actually asked me which airlines I was boarding as she was worried if I would be allowed to carry so much liquid stuff inside. Next stop was at a shop selling Thai herbal products and here I went totally berserk.I am a sucker for creams and lotions and didn’t know what to leave and what to buy. And everything seemed so so cheap and reasonable as I was converting from Japanese Yen to Baht.I bought enough stuff to last me two lifetimes. I was feeling very smug and satisfied till I came home and converted from baht to rupees. Thing didn’t look so rosy then ! Anyhow after spending a few happy hours scouring through the shops I decided to end my duty free adventure by buying chocolates. I was busy filling the shopping cart with celebrations and after eights when I happened to glance at my watch. It was 7.10 p.m.The boarding time of my flight was 6.45 p.m.Immediately I went into panic mode and started fluttering about like a chicken with its head cut off. Thankfully I knew where the boarding gate was but it was about 10 minutes away from where I was so I made a mad dash towards it leaving everyone in the vicinity to stare behind me with their mouths agape. The mad dash was in no way easy as I was weighted down by huge shopping bags. I had to go down at least 3 escalators and I think if there is ever a contest of running down escalators carrying a lot of baggage in hand I would win it hands down. I reached the gate and as I stood their panting I realized that there was no one is sight. I mean not a single soul. I was filled with panic at the thought that the flight had already left when I saw a notice saying that my flight was now shifted to gate C1 which was actually on the floor I was originally on. So everyone at the Bangkok airport was once again treated to the riveting sight of a woman laden with shopping bags tearing across floors as if a hound of dogs were after her. Another mad dash and sprint over the escalators and running cross entire floors I reached gate C1 and almost collapsed at the feet of the Thai airways staff. Needless to say I was the last passenger to get in. In retrospection I think all the panic was really uncalled for as obviously they would have announced my name and looked around for me at the departure area had I not reached on time. But all in all the people at the Bangkok airport got a free bit of entertainment. The sight me running crazily across the airport with hair and bags flying in all directions is something they will not forget in a hurry !