Trip to Khajuraho via Mathura Museum--
New Delhi to Khajuraho and back
Well one evening in New Delhi 1971 three
friends, two from Santiniketan, and one an engineer, decided they would
take three cars, my father took his black Fiat and go to Khajuraho and back.
Unfortunately, they chose the monsoons, just after it had cooled down but on
the other hand they all landed up with broken bridges over Jamuna and elsewhere
and got stuck in the evening on a bypass road filled with Indian trucks/lorrys
and of course the local being from Chambal, ‘robbed’ the poor truck drivers,
one ‘roti’/flat bread sold for Rs1 and ‘daal’/lentil soup. We did stay at Agra
on the way back and arrived a day late, I missed a day of school so had to go
to a friends/classmates’ house to get homework.
Now about the first leg of the trip, we
reached Agra and heard that a bridge was broken so better stay in Agra till it
was repaired. My father like a true army officer got us a huge ‘dak’ bungalow
in Agra so we were going to have a comfortable stay. Later, after the rain died
down a little us, father, mother, Shompa and me we drove to Mathura across the
Yamuna river and found they had a thing called Mathura Museum –so we went in
----to our surprise it had lots and lots of statues of Buddha in various stages
including his fasting period to attain ‘mokhsha’/enlightenment, where you could
see the ribs of his body.
The most funny statue was that of
Kanishka—now Kanishka were from the cold climes and in India you never see a
statue with bare feet, but Kanishka had his boots, and a sword, and the statue
did not have a head. Now in our history books after the Monhenjo Daro and
Harapan civilizations you see the Kanishka’s statue with his boots( we kids
fouund it funny).
Well so we chanced upon this museum and
wonder now how Modi’s government is dealing with so many Buddhas and a Kanishka
(furriner)!!!!
Well our trip was for 4 nights. So the next
day we were in Gwalior. Now Gwalior had a very rich private school named after
the rich family Scindhia’s. It was still summer so the students who were left
back in the dorms now took it upon themselves to earn a little money to tell us
about Sindhiya and hills nearby. Right after Gwalior we would be going through
a miniature of America’s /USAs Grand Canyon and their in the midst lived the
warrior queen, quite like Robin Hood of united Kingdom.
Well the next day we arrived at our hotel in
Khajuraho.
Now Khajuraho in our 5000 year old history
was in the Gupta period, a period of trade and wealth. The temple walls reflect
the prosperity of the Gupta period were ‘anything goes’ due to the wealth of
people. So nowadays repressed, robbed by 200 years of British Rule,
indans now find these temple walls carved out in intricate sexual
positions as ‘our ancestors never sculpted those!!!’---unfortunately yes it was,
and now Indians find it offensive but the already repressed ‘western’ audiences
find these Indian guides explaining all these carvings with mirth, and a wry
smile. I was twelve then, so was old enough to not stick with my parents, but
follow a guide paid for by these foreign visitors.
It is carvings worth seeing , so trip
was fulfilled for me having seen statues that I saw in history in my text books.
Well on the way back got stuck in the
Chambal valley so were frightened when the sun went down, usually people do not
stop in Chambal valley for fear of being robbed, but here there were lines and
lines of trucks stuck on the side of the highway, these are just a road, no
divider, no two or three lane slick highways you now see in the west and India.
[PRIYADARSHI DATTA]
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