Wonders Of Wanderlust

‘Protecting the green Savannah, you stand,/Oh, the valiant Pulaski, elegant and grand.’Fort Pulaski was mere a name to me, which I found in my history book, until the day, I visited Pulaski on the last day of our trip to Savannah.We started off from our motel in South Carolina, crossed the Georgia-South Carolina border, and finally arrived at our destination on 17th July,2011. Walking through the green meadow, we were greeted by a deep narrow canal. Stepping on the stone hanging bridge like the wandering princess,I entered through the square stone door. The apparent brick-stone fortification occurred to have other elements, which gave the fort, the puissance it needed to protect itself and its dwellers. The circular fort had the ground level and roof, accessed through the spiral stone stairs. The main fort looked like two concentric circles, the perimeter of the smaller circle being the performance ground.Rest was occupied by the arc shaped roasted brown corridors and rooms. I went to Colonel Omsted’s room.The next room was the jail. The brick windowpane faced the blue canal and the green meadow, letting the rays of hope enter the otherwise denigrated room. Finally, I arrived at one of the rooms, converted into a store. It was filled with merchandise related to Civil War and American history. Cathy, the genial shop-attendant delineated the ‘Pulaski-culture’. At 3pm we gathered around the performance area to witness the celebration of 150 years of Civil War. It started with a clarion call of bells; soldiers, dressed in deep blue coats and teal trousers, started with a round of gunfire, and then came the final blast of the cannon, covering us in a thick smoke, conjuring the lost era upon us. Slowly, the smoke left us in broad daylight, and it seemed,I have survived through a century. I witnessed history in front of my eyes. Then, I came to the open roof with a 2 feet boundary wall, from where I could see the lush green meadow and the seaming azure Atlantic shore.Soon, I had to bid farewell.It is not the futility of the war that Pulaski preserves; it is the victory of the human race that makes Pulaski bask in eternal glory. Pulaski remains on the shore of Savannah as the epitome of peace, welcoming everyone.I realized, I too have been integrated in the history of Fort Pulaski. Even if my passport claimed my identity to be a ‘visitor’, I knew, there are some things which exist beyond the written records and are preserved in a traveler’s memory.