Under the fiery red sun, drenched in sweat eight of us come
out of barracks to tour the city of lakes, Bhopal. Stalked and pestered by
autorickshaw-walas, we finally agree to reserve two three-wheeler vehicles,
auto-rickshaw, and get stuffed in a seat meant for three with fervent aim of
visiting Taj-ul Masjid, one of the largest mosques in India (second after Jama
masjid, initially a madarasa). Braving the death-dance of mid-day traffic, the
two rickshaws reach Taj-ul masjid in a nick of time and one of our friends,
Syed Parvez, agrees to lead and guide us into one of the oldest, largest
treasures India possesses. Awed by its huge spaced blocks and tall minarets, we
gaze open-mouthed at the splendid arabesque architecture while Syed enlightening
us on the five times they read namaz and that they face the holy Mecca while
reading it and many other hallowed things they perform in this huge red-bricked
old but strong Mosque. We explored the shops, madarasa and all parts of mosque
with inquisitiveness of an infant laying his gooey eyes on everything new and reached
where we left the rickshaws, making our way through swaddled children in
kurtas-pyjamas playing cricket and volley-ball and veiled women with their
beautiful playful eyes looking at the world to leave the abode of Allah and
head towards the artificial lakes in auto-rickshaws.
Driving
past a group of women gossiping and laughing, a band of boys just like us toddling
in the streets tucked between rows of old buildings, roadside shops with
glistening metal doors and finally reaching the next destination- a man-made
Dam, whose name my neurons seems to have not registered, built in 1060 AD.
Around 1000 years ago. Getting our face flashed by the cameras we got, to save
still memories behind the lenses we walk towards a part of Raja Bhoj’s palace
that survived the English invasion and rule and later towards the huge lake –
“bada lake” as the localites called it. Strolling along the boundary of lake we
reach a boat, a dongi. The best part about our group was that none of us knew
each other existed two days before that day, it was the sweet serendipity that
33 SSB, Bhopal bestowed upon us that we were together. Six of eight were from Delhi, the capital of
India, and two (including me) from Visakhapatnam and the amusing part that none
of them, except one, as far as I know, had seen such a huge water-body in their
life. One of them suggested we go boating in the lake and come back. Since the
two of us (from visakhaptnam) who belonged to a naval background had spent
entire life boating, canoeing, yachting, swimming etc it wasn’t a great deal
for us, but for them (especially Syed) it was an unsafe venture. Rakesh, our boatman and a resident
of Bhopal, oared the boat into the open lake and showed us a huge statue of
Raja Bhoj on one of the sides of lake. With the deftness of expertise in
swimming, I braved to stand at the edge of the front of boat to pose like a
captain and my friends snapped my photograph, again to capture the moment behind
lenses. As we were rowed to the place we started from, everybody gathered
courage to one by one stand at that place and get a photograph snapped, which
truly is appreciable for first timers and for those who have no knowledge of
swimming. On reaching the hard ground, a
new freshness runs across everybody’s face, like a flashing light hit us from
heaven. While we walked towards the place where our loyal but annoying
rickshaw-walas waited patiently for us we spotted an ice-cream seller. With
thirst parching our throats and heat melting us away, appreciating the beauty
of Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s “water, water everywhere. Not a single drop to
drink!” we unanimously decided to savour the delicious ice-cream, our water in
the desert! With canary-yellow, crimson-red, rainbow-coloured, chocolate,
mango, litchi – flavoured ice-creams filling our empty hands and quenching our
thirst, we resumed our walk towards the auto-rickshaws and thanked them to
patiently wait for us. With loud reverberating noise of soundtracks – till the
world ends, teri meri prem kahani, I LOVE You – rocking the autos and filling
music inside us, we reached the barracks. Still intoxicated yet looking
well-groomed and disciplined we walked in, waiting for our next day at SSB and
thinking over how uncertain our future is.
