” it was awesome”

” it was awesome”

A Tea @ Dadhikar Fort

It was the Sunday morning, all the mountain range turned green. I always love to see the rising Sun when it rise from those virgin hills of Aravali. Few years back, watching Sunrise or Sunset was bliss from my roof top. But now all the materialistic things started happening in the smaller city. People have lifted tall building around my home and now it is impossible to see the beautiful virgin Sun .I woke up early and planned to reach the highest point of the city.the one name came to mind was Bala Kila (a fort on the highest peak of Alwar city ) .

I am always eager to reach, when it comes to mountain wherever they are. I reached in 15 min to Bala kila. It was closed as usual and one has to have prior permission from the local police.But as I am frequent to this place, I got the entry.ASI and its sister concern are involved to ruin all of our forts and palaces. Their renovation work is snatching the beauty of monuments. Well,I took few photographs from the roof (do not try to click because it is prohibited). While coming back from the fort,I saw a board “The Dadhikar Fort”. I was surprised to see it, being from Alwar,first time I saw the name. Anyways,I decided to see this monument.

One has to take the left from the entrance from the forest office (On the gate, where the road inclined to Bala Kila ). After half an kilometre I met with some people, they owned hundreds of camels. Having Mountains, ruined fort, a lake and camel at one place was a amazing experience, I clicked few of the pictures in return of 10 INR. One kilometre ahead on this road,there is a temple on the right side “Ramayani Hanuman Ji”. This is a nice temple but do not have any history attached with it .Being situated in the Aravali Valley, It has its own glory. One can stay and have a cold water with spiritual chanting. Two kilometre from here you will see a diversion,and again a board written on “Dadhikar Hotel”. The terrain was so pleasing, Farmers, the ladies on well ,kids, mud houses, all can make you feel so close to nature. After taking diversion,you have to go around 2 kilometer and again the same board.This time it’s a mud road.This road goes between a small village called ”Hazipur Dadhikar”.

When you take that mud road you can view the Hotel or Resort or Fort,For my soul ,I called it as fort. If you are just visiting it, you have to pay 200 or 100 (depends on season) bucks. I called up the manager, introduced myself. He asked the gatekeeper to allow me without any entry fee. Well , on the first eye,It is a great place. Basically, it was a ruined fort and the current owner is renovating it with amazing skills.The texture are the same which one can found in old monuments ,very antique. Archaeological survey of India should learn something from these young Entrepreneurs.Mr. Kaushik was waiting with an awesome Indian tea for me.

Mr Kaushik, is a great gentleman, very kind and very informative too.He told me everything ,from where the Idea came, how they reconstruct the building, the terrain, about the villagers, the cave paintings. Hotel has plenty of rooms and with affordable prices. They server very good Rajasthani food, arrange folk dances and other culture program for their guest.

The fort is situated on the hill top (not exactly), the view from the fort is really amazing.There is a large range of caves,where once can found paintings. It is said that the paintings suggested very strong “material evidence” that the region evolved the calculation of the calendar from the “vegetational propagation cycle” .Well,I did not get the time to visit the caves.”The Dadhikar Hotel” provides safari and Cycle tour to the caves.

Overall, a interesting and peaceful weekend destination to stay, If you are exhausted with metro life.There are many beautiful places nearby i.e. Bala Kila,City palace, Museum, Vijay Mandir,Siliserh Lake, Jai Samand,Sariska etc. I was not prepared with my pen, might be my camera can do the work.

For any further contact details,you can directly contact to Mr Kaushik @ +91-9950449900 or visit @ http://www.dadhikar.com .

कैसे लिखूं ?

बंद कांच में बैठे
जेठ की दुपहरी
नंगे पाव , सड़क पर चलते उस जिस्म
को देखकर
कोई तो इंसान है
जो चीखता है मेरे भीतर

सोचता हूँ कुछ लिख दूँ

पर
कैसे लिखूं ?
उसकी मुस्कराहट को
जिसे बचपन ने रोना ही सिखाया है
और फिर
हँसते चेहरे पर
कोई भीख भी तो नहीं देता

कैसे लिखूं ?
उसके घर को
जो चौराहे पर
किसी पेड़ के नीचे
शायद आज है
कल नहीं होगा

कैसे लिखूं ?
उस ठंडी बयार को
जो गाडी के शीशे खुलने पर
उसके बदन से टकरा
उसकी आँखों में चमकती है

कैसे लिखूं ?
वो एक या दो रूपये का सुख
जो वो अब सीधे जाकर
अपने बाप को देगी
वो खरीद लेगा
एक बोतल
और कुछ बीडी के बण्डल

अब हम भीख नहीं देते
बुद्दिजीवी हो गए है
देंगे तो ये लोग और बढेंगे
और फिर बहुत सारे और तर्क

फिर क्या करे ?
तड़पने दे बचपन को
वही जेठ की दुपहरी
नंगे पैर
अधनंगे बदन में ……..

आज फिर यूँ वो

आज फिर यूँ वो ,दिल को याद आएँ है
बेशाख्ता अश्क़ आँखों से,उतर जाएँ है

मेरी धड़कन में है,तेरी यादों का हिसाब
बेगारी-ऐ-दिल,यूँ ही धडकता जाए है

दीन-ऐ-दिल का ख्याल भी दिल को हो
बेवफाई उसकी हो,जिस से वफ़ा पाए है

मुश्किल भी नहीं है,इश्क की राह ‘शादाब’
गर कदम जो उसके,मेरा साथ निभाए है

दुःख

तुमसे दूर होने का दुःख
सच कहूँ तो
उदास नहीं होता मैं
बस सवाल सा पूछ लेता हूँ
कि इन सीली किताबो में
गुलाब की पत्तियाँ
जो मेरी हर ग़ज़ल पर
तुम छुपा गयी
क्या इसलिए
कि जब तुम न हो
तो ये खुशबु
आंसुओ का सबब बन
इन पन्नो को और नुमाया कर दे

कुछ पुरानी है ग़ज़ल …

कुछ पुरानी है ग़ज़ल,कुछ मैं नया नया सा हूँ
आशिकी के मर्म का,इक हर्फ़,बयां बयां सा हूँ

मुझसे मेरी बेरुखी, का सबब मत पूछिए
कुछ तो पी ली है मगर,कुछ मैं गया गया सा हूँ

जानता हूँ मैं हकीक़त,दौर-ऐ-दुनिया की मगर
कुछ तो मैं खामोश हूँ,कुछ अंदाज़-ऐ-हया सा हूँ

उम्मीद मुझसे बेवफाई की, न कर मेरे रकीब
कुछ तो मैं दिल हूँ अगर ,कुछ मैं रया रया सा हूँ

हर्फ़ = word,रया = sincere,रकीब =enemy

Trip to Auli

Auli , Yes it’s a place. The place which made me to write on it. I am not a travel blogger and really I don’t know how to describe the journey as I don’t believe in past, I prefer to forget which I left or which have passed. But Auli is the destination, on which I want to write. Don’t know how to start …. Let me give it a shot but believe me, you will not get any important information about terrain and the place.
Travelling is my passion as so Biking. There were some reasons why I did not pick my Bike, the major one that I am staying very close to my family and they do not want me to ride on it. So I preferred car (I told them that I am going by train, sometimes lies are sweet). Auli is around 500 km from Delhi. So you can reach there in a one stretch (we also thought the same).terrain is very scenic, If you really want to see the landslides, Indian roads (don’t know If they really exists), Indian culture go for it. Well we started our journey on 24 January, damn to that music player which took 2 hours to speak up. Music is very important gadget which keeps your mind cool and also you can ignore the rubbish gossip which all your friends doing when you are driving.

So we started at 4 PM and reached Mujjaffar Nagar at 7 (It was heavy traffic from Gaziabad to Mohan Nagar so try to avoid it, start in early morning).We halted near to Mujjaffar Nagar and had Aloo Paratha at Ganapati Dhaba (the same which one can get at Sukhdev Dhaba, Murthal).We had a chap, who belongs to IIT Roorkee so thought to visit the college, It was a nice college but I liked that Punjabi Dhabha near to that college, they serve very good non veg (If u really a foodie go for it).So now we were full tummy and put the foot on accelerator and in 20 min we were in Haridwar.Got a nice hotel “Tayal Dharamshala”,don’t go for the name, It’s a nice cheap hotel which you can find around Haridwar (on Rishikesh Road).you can find a bedroom in 200 bucks (cheap na).We always have cards in our luggage, Cards are good time pass and the my favorite game, So we shuffle around 7 hours and found that it was 4 AM. Slept for an hour and packed myself with my camera and tripod and reached Har ki Podi, the sacred Ghat of Haridwar.The holy water was burning chilled, took dip and clicked few shots.

Returned to the hotel,got ready, had breakfast and started at 10 AM,the worst is waiting and we too.Totally ruined hilly roads,In 2 hours we reached DevPrayag (you will find many prayag on the way which basically means origin).Dev Prayag is a place where river Alaknanda and Bhagirathi meats and then we call it River Ganga.Again I dipped myself here and had a Sulfa with a Baba who is staying near to river .I had a good time with that dhooni Baba as I introduced myself that I belongs to Mathura . he was very curious to know more about Mathura. Spiritualism is the nature.

After spending two hours and having some local sweets (they are really not good),we started at 2 PM and reached NanadPrayag (we crossed Srinagar,Rudraprayag,karanprayag),we stayed at GVNL hotel in the NandPrayag (a cheap and decent hotel to stay for a night),had a camp fire and again indulge ourselves with cards. Hotel manager and caretaker were nice chaps. They told us about all the destinations which we should visit near Auli. Well, we again started at 10 AM and reached Joshitmath in 3 hours.Joshitmath is not the real name.Jyotirmath is the one,you will not get it, until you have not heard it from the Holy man sitting in the Sankhracharya temple.Near Joshimath you will find many places to visit like,Tapovan (the hot water spring),Sankryacharya temple,Narsingh temple.

Auli is very close to Joshimath,There are only two hotels in Auli (GVNL and Clifftop),So before reaching Auli you must have a chat with them and book something there.GVNL is cheap one compare to Clifftop,they charge around 2200 bucks for 2 bedroom and Clifftop charges around 7500 per day.There are two options to reach Auli from Joshimath.One is like heaven and other one hell (if u scared from height).if it is not snowing, take the road and If you love height ,take Ropeway (some says it Asia’s longest one).We didn’t have this option because Ropeway was not working. So It was forced to us to take 4*4 or chained coupled tyre vehicle. They charge about 1500 bucks.People of Devbhoomi are really cooperative and nice (might be they pretend to).
So at last we reached Auli and it was around 7 PM. No, it does not take 6 hours from Joshimath to Auli.Gaurav was the culprit (The manager from Clifftop).

And from here the story starts  ….wait for the next post …surely I will write it!!