Jan 8-12: The story till 12th! (part 1 of 8)

I'm changing my writing style here. Instead of writing a daily story,
I'm giving a bunch update. Why? Sometimes, I believe this makes more
sense. For instance if nothing interesting happened or seen. Many a
time, reading a daily story(and writing it too!) becomes a boring
exercise. So here goes...

Left Khajuraho early in the morning on Jan 8. On the road from
Khajuraho to Bhopal, the one significant place to see is Sanchi. For
this day, my goal was to travel as farther as possible while riding as
less as possible. In case you are wondering how that is possible, the
answer is : taking shortcuts. Shortcuts make for long delays, goes the
saying. And so it happened. The off-beat roads turned out to range
from slightly worse to extremely bad. The hills of Madhya Pradesh had
started too. The hills are gentle and no big climbs anywhere, but
undulating road surfaces do take time. But there was a hidden reward
behind the shortcut: watching the hills at leisure and getting a
better look at rural life. I ended the day at Shahgadh at evening. The
road after this passes through jungles with reduced human activity, so
local advice prevailed. I had to sleep outside the local hotel on a
bench, since the IB was full.

The people in MP have a different way of treating travellers like me.
' chai peeke jaaiye' (come have tea), somebody will call out. 99% of
the time I oblige. Why 99%? I haven't got 100 free teas yet, but I
haven't left any, except yesterday! I've received considerable help in
terms of arranging for overnight stay.

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Jan 8-12: The story till 12th! (part 2 of 8)

The dacoits of MP around these areas seem to have banded together
around one fellow(whose name escapes me). In case he asks, in Gabbar
Singh's style 'kitna inaam rakhi hai re sarkaar ham par', then he will
end up receiving a not-so-flattering reply 'huzoor, poore teen lakh'.
Minor change, if you consider that these guys got a ransom of 8 lakh
in exchange for the son of a local rich man. These robbers seem to be
a fairly sophisticated lot. Not for them small jobs like looting
villagers!

The area I've crossed today is supposed to mark the end of the
territory of operation of these dacoits. But people here in Shahgadh,
especially the important people, carry around large rifles visibly.
Some protection is provided to people building roads, for reasons that
eascape me.

The new Sulabh Shouchalaya complex turned out to be my best friend in
the morning. But the road after that till Sagar wasn't in the best of
shape. Two gentle 1km climbs along the road here, called 'ghats' by
the locals! And they have a hard time believing that I can climb these
'ghats' sitting on my bicycle. Not much to see in terms of scenary,
with a few distant hills and wheat, mustard, channa fields for
company. So I struggle on the road at 10km/hr to reach Sagar(district
HQ) by 2:00 PM. Sagar turns out to be a sizeable city, starting with
about 4km to go to the city center. A change in the menu for the
better, with curd showing up in the menu: kadhi chawal.

After Sagar, the next town of significance is Rahatgadh, 40km away.
Madhya Pradesh is one place which, it is safe to say, overflows with
forts. If the name of any place ends in 'gadh', then it is safe to
assume that it does have a fort with a few bits and pieces in good
shape atleast. Not all of them may be interesting to visit, but who
knows what you may find. I'm actually tempted to do a full scale ride
of complete Madhya Pradesh some day, but who knows when I'll get the
time for it at all.

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Jan 8-12: The story till 12th! (part 3 of 8)

I manage to reach Rahatgadh in two-and-a-half hours, but it's close to
evening by then. Staying in a hotel/lodge in Rahatgadh seems to be one
option. But I'm more interested in a rural stop. That means I need to
continue on the road. Locals inform me that there is a jungle till a
distance of about 7 kms, and it's best to find a village after that to
stay.

Two travellers meet: After about 3km or so, I see this foreigner with
a hat pushing a trolley in the opposite direction. It doesn't take us
both more than a few seconds to recognize the traveller in each other
and start talking. This French-Canadian gentleman, Jean, has been
walking for 8 years around the world! He walks 'for the children'. And
no, you can't help his cause by contributing to any charity. His is a
philosophical cause! He started in 2000 and intends to stop in 2012,
after covering 70000kms across 70 countries. His trolley has what he
needs – his clothes, tent, some medicines and food. At 52 years of
age, he is a grandpa, going strong and has seen a fair part of the
world! Please read more about him at http://www.wwwalk.org/.

The incident of our meeting also makes way for the opportunity for
rural stay. I want a photo with Jean, and try stopping a local
cyclist. He doesn't stop, and instead, rides on, looking afraid. It is
close to dark by this time. Next I try stopping a motorcyle. From
afar, the terrified cyclist is crying hoarse : 'rokna mat' (don't
stop). I'm both surprised and amused at this. Next attempt gives me
success, with a local cyclist obliging us. The local also invites us
to stay at his village. Smiling inside myself, I agree to this. Jean
continues on the way – he intended to stop in Rahatgadh.

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Jan 8-12: The story till 12th! (part 4 of 8)

This lad, Manmohan Lal Patel, and me ride in the dark to his village.
This village, Daabri is 3kms away from the highway. Turning away from
the highway is good. The highway is under construction, which means
that it is a mass of stones. This makes riding hell, and turning away
to the rural mud roads provides the sore butt some relief.

We soon reach his house. They are Khushwahas, which seems to indicate
that their job is growing vegetables, pulses, and farming in general.
Manmohan's father is a small farmer and owns about 5-6 acres of land.
The big house(hut) is shared by four families – they are all his
brothers. He grows wheat, channa, mooli, sugarcane, potatoes, brinjal,
chillies, etc. He is a simple man, and leads a simple life, right from
brushing his teeth using neem twigs to eating food at night after a
prayer. He keeps abreast of what goes on in the outside world by means
of the small black and white TV. He has two sons and a daughter, and
he is making it a point to educate his kids. This is heartening to see
in Daabri village, where only 5 kids goto school out of a 100 or so
families!

Our meal at night is simple, but filling: wheat chappaties, tomato and
brinjal curry and papad. I love the mango pickle! The papad is extra
due to the presence of me as the guest. He calls this 'gareeb ka
kaccha khana'. I had observed that a hotel in Sagar had advertised
'kaccha aur pakka khana milta hai' and had wondered what 'kaccha
khana' meant! Turns out that 'kaccha khana' means the regular means
without anything fancy! 'pakka khana' is the goodies like samosa,
kachori, jilebis, etc. I sleep in my sleeping bag on the mat, not
wanting to trouble these guys. They seem to have extra blankets, but
why trouble them to wash it ?

--
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Jan 8-12: The story till 12th! (part 5 of 8)

Getting up at 6 AM is not a problem at all – beacuse everybody else is
up before me. The source of water is the well. Fields are irrigated
using small electric pumps. Electricity supply is from 8 PM to 5 AM,
and anything else is a bonus. They've built a new toilet (at the cost
of 25 thousand rupees), but it's not operational yet! So, an early
morning visit to the fields for daily ablutions.

It's hard to be timely while leaving anything other than a lodge.
Taking snaps, and extended observation generally ends up taking more
time. Also contributing to the delay is the fact that you can't do
anything become the light of the sun takes over. Exchanging addresses,
saying no to breakfast also takes time.

I'm finally out of the village by 9. Getting back to the highway turns
out to be a matter of asking all people 'where is aeran?', where aeran
is the village on the highway. The highway is good for about 16km or
so. After that comes 35km of pure offroading pleasure, that takes all
the time till 3:30 to be done with. Next 20km of good road leads me to
Vidisha.

I am not fast enough, and reach Vidisha only by 5:15 or so! Reach out
for my 'guide book', the Lonely Planet 'India' book, and find that
Udaigiri Caves are 5km away. Somehow, I wasn't particularly
interested in either the caves or the heliodorous pillar. So off to
Sanchi, 10kms away. It's too late to see the Stupa at Sanchi. So
reaching Sanchi means rest at Jaiswal Lodge,and sightseeing tomorrow.
A clean room for a good 110 bucks.

--
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Jan 8-12: The story till 12th! (part 6 of 8)

Sanchi is a small town by the highway, plus a few dozen shops
clustered around the bus stand.

The Stupa is the above the hill close-by. Walking distance from the
hotel, and turns out to be open from Sunrise to Sunset. All it needs
is a 10 rupee ticket and a walk to the top of the hill to sight the
Stupa. Metal Detector at the entrance! I am the first to enter the
stupa on this day, so no crowds to disturb.

I take a guide to help me understand the story behind the stupa. The
most important monument is the Great Stupa. It supposedly contains
Gautham Buddha's ashes, and was initially built by Ashoka. Later kings
added the railing-like wall surrounding it, and the pillars which are
the 'identifying mark' of this monument. There are other stupas in the
same complex as well, plus a monastery, and a broken temple. No fun
describing these monuments without pictures, see, so let me defer this
job till I return. Next Stop: Bhopal.

Meanwhile, I have been in telephone contact with my childhood buddy
Ananth Swagath. We had seen each other when we finished class 7, and
hadn't been in touch till Orkut put us in touch through another
classmate. I had figured that my visit to Bhopal would be the best
chance to meet this long-lost buddy. I used to be a regular visitor to
his house in class 7, and his parents also remembered me. Swagath was
away in Indore, but said that he would be back at night. So a stay in
his house made imminent sense.

This stop at Bhopal meant that I couldn't ride further than Bhopal,
about 50km away. So I start from Sanchi after seeing the Stupas at a
leisurely 10, and reach Swagath's house after after asking directions
from a lot of people at 4 PM.

--
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Jan 8-12: The story till 12th! (part 7 of 8)

The breakfast scene is changing slightly. Added to the menu now is
'poha' (beaten rice/avalakki). Poha is kept hot all day by keeping a
vessel with hot water right underneath the vessel containing poha. The
water is heated as needed. Also, masale-kadle (read that in kannada.
It's masala coated peanuts) has made an appearence is stores. People
like to munch on papad all day, it looks like. Large rice papads sell
for 1 rupee. Also on the menu is a longish variant of the papad, the
papdi. Papdi is also slightly thicker. Most of the time, the hotels in
the small towns don't serve anything other than snacks. So for
lunch/dinner, the only option is to visit a dhaba outside any town.

Coming back, I've had a gala time at Swagath's house. Feasting on
proper south indian food, you see! Washed all clothes too. Lots of
chit chat. All along, I had been ignorant of the fact that they belong
to the same community as me. Wondering why caste/community should
matter to an atheist ? Our community, the Havyaka Brahmins, speaks
another dialect of kannada called 'havyaka'. There are actually two
variants of Havyaka, with one being spoken in Uttara Kannada district
of Karnataka, and the other used by people in the Dakshina Kannada
district of Karnataka(my father's place) and Kasaragod district of
Kerala (my mother's place). So, us belonging to the same community
means only one thing: one more language to talk in!

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