Trip To Sariska and Bhangarh

ELong long time. My system just went for a toss and i never dared to touch it all these days. Was quite busy with work. So much happened and just never got time to jott these moments. 2 weeks back i went to a place called Sariska. Its a palace in Rajsthan.

That was an official trip(offsite). We started at 6.00 in the morning. Covered the distance in seven hrs which generally is covered in 4 hrs. Thanks to our super fast driver. Reached the venue @1.00 where as we were supposed to start the event at 11.30 a.m., checked in the palace cum hotel. On the arrival, they put tilak on our foreheads, part of rajasthani custom i guess. We had our meals and headed to the conference room for presentation. Long day there, got a break for 10 mins for tea/coffee. Presentation started by Head of the Dept and followed by couple of new comers on their working style and strategies. Good to know about others style. Boss shared the facts and figure of the revenues.

After the presentation boss took over again and then came the final moment. Most awaited one. There were two prizes. One was the "best X" award and other was "best debut X" award. Then he shared as who has done what and on what basis he has arrived on who will get the awards. I was nominated for both the awards and finally won the debut award. One of the happiest moment of my life. Its not the amount that excites..its the recognition. Thereafter we went to our rooms. freshened up and headed for dinner. After dinner we were in a room and played games.

Me and Rits shared one room. We chatted till 3.00 a.m. And next morning got up at 7.00. We had our breakfast and then headed for Bhangarh, also known as haunted village. It wasnt all that far. We reached the place and saw the deserted monument and the broken walls of ancient palace. We hired an amateur guide and he did cook some story which wasnt all that interesting and exciting. I guess i was better than him in story telling we cud have saved 300 bucks:P

Here it goes...

Bhangarh..Haunted Village

Description

Bhangarh is a place on way from Jaipur to Alwar city in Rajasthan state of India. Today Bhangarh is known for its ruins where nobody dares to stay after sunset. Looking through history we find that this town was established by Madho Singh, younger brother of King Akbar’s General Raja Man Singh, in 1631. But the city seems to have been abandoned in a hurry some centuries later.

Bhangarh ruins

The local folks say that due to a curse the whole town was vacated overnight. According to the story of the curse, if the town was ever rediscovered the township would not be found, but only temples would show up.

True to the story only temples dot the landscape and even far up on the mountains only shrines can be seen. It is said that nobody returns from there who stays after dark.

By the Government of India rules there has to be an office of Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) beside every historical structure in India. But even government authorities did not dare to open an office there. They opened their office about one kilometer away from the ruins of Bhangarh. Even this office is close to a temple because of this myth. ASI has put a signboard at Bhangarh saying, "Staying after sunset is strictly prohibited in this area."

Story

People who visit this place out of tourist interest say that there is a strange feeling in the atmosphere of Bhangarh, which causes sort of anxiety and restlessness.

The story of this restlessness goes as the following. The charm of princess of Bhangarh Ratnawati was said to be matchless in entire Rajasthan. Being merely eighteen years old, the princess started getting wedding offers from other states. In the same region there also lived a tantrik, a magician using black magic, named Singhia who was desperately in love with the princess and who also knew that king would never even allow him to see the princess.

Once he saw princess's maid in the market buying scented oil for princess. Seeing this he got a wicked idea of getting the princess. He used his black magic and put a spell on the oil which would hypnotise the princess by her mere touching the oil and she would immedialely walk towards the tantrik to satisfy him sexually. But as soon as the princess got the oil she threw it on the block of a stone as she had seen the tantrik eying the oil. As soon as the oil touched the stone, the stone started rolling towards the wicked tantrik Singhia and crushed him. While dying Singhia cursed the palace that there will be such an incident that everybody in the palace would die and their souls will stay there for centuries without rebirth. The very next year there was a battle between Bhangarh-Ajabgarh and no one survived in the battle nor in the palace, not even the princess Ratnawati.

Visitors

This is still the reason people are fearful and restlessness after sunset. People even hear strange sounds of music and dancing in the night despite no one being there.

The place is still open to all those tourists who want to experience the spooky thrill, but one still needs permission from ASI to go there and with ones own risk.

Bhangarh was more of a disappointment. I mean there was nothing haunted as such. Sariska palace was also an disappointment coz it cud have been managed better. The carpets were stained and the bedsheets looked old. The Food was cold in winters and was quite oily. We found it oily; don’t know how it was for foreigners who were eating the same food on adjacent tables. It was chilly in the night.

The trip was fun coz of the games that we played in the journey. The dumsharads, the antakshris and jokes.

Memorable trip for a life time.