Bijapur (4th Jan 2009) (photos at orkut)
Bijapur is unlike any other medivial indian town I have visited so far. Thought that crossed the mind was, "God!!! I haven't been to such a place before - so unique it was".

Unlike Srirangapattanam, which the British took care of destroying with such vengeance, that almost no structure of Tipu's era survive, plus - it being located in the city of Mysore, capital city of a flourishing royalty and subsequently a thriving city, grew up with times - so that there is not many things medivial about today's Srirangapattanam.

Unlike Delhi, which was never sacked and left unattended - the winners usually occupied it and kept building new cities on top of the previous ones ... Rahi sahi qasar Lutyen ne poori kar di :), so that in todays' delhi is dominated by Lutyens' structures - plus, this being capital of India saw more modernization than perhaps any other indian city (except bombay). So, though a lot of medivial structures exist - they don't dominate it, and it being capital - these structures are, mostly, well maintained.

Unlike Hyderabad where Nizamshahi outlasted even British Raj - resulting domination of more modern buildings than medieval.

Then what Bijapur is like?
It is like a medieval Pompeii, except that there was no volcano. After the Adilshahs were defeated in 1686 - it was (like Pompeii) left to itself (it seems), none of its subsequent rulers, Nizams, Marathas, British showing any major interest in it ...

The end result is, once there, one not just feels in space to it, but also in time - from 21 century to medivial age :). A classic example of what Obama was refering to when he mentioned forgotten corners of the world" :). Well, itna bhi nahi :).

Anyway, here is the diary:

• Boarded the train at Ypur (3 Jan, Sat, eve): Kausar bhai asked Sukanta to bring Mishti, and took the responsibility of getting food, chicken and all the other mouth watering stuff, so that Sukanta's expectations were set sky high. Once the train started moving, he asked Sukanta, Dada u brought mishti or not ... how many varieties, three, then OK, cause I forgot to get chicken. Anwar interrupted, sssala har kaam gadbad-sadbad rahta hai ... Kausar bhai countered back: sssale, marein bhi hameeen, qabr bhi ham hi khodein, kafan bhi ham hi silein, aur ja kar let jayein??? And their humorous noke-jhonk went on - in the process making me and our other co passengers laugh, and making Sukanta equally angry and frustrated. Khair, after nok-jhonk, Kausar bhai asked Sukanta, dada mishti nikalo, bhook lagi hai ... and we all served ourselves with a couple of pieces each, and then only realized that Sukanta was still firing on all cylinders :) ... consuming mishti (and alu burji) like there is no tomorrow :) ... and stopped only when he had exhausted the supply :) .. apprently Sukanta had taken the joke of Kausar bhai not having brought food too seriously - and in the process forgotten that in train as well as stations one can buy food at runtime :) and failing that, one can skip a dinner w/o much problem :).
• Got up in Solapur (Sun morning): K was already up and running (literally) as full of energy as he always is while on a trip. He got all of us vada-pao, to which I developed immense liking, and have been since then wondering why is it not available in bangalore. After solapur the train was almost empty, till a baba ji came with his flute and started singing. He had only one arm. We gave him some money, and started talking to him. He sat with us, and shared his story. He was a truck driver, and in an accident had lost his right arm. Then he learnt how to play a flute, and memorized (well, to some extent) songs, and began to make a living this way. He claimed to be 80 plus - and said ki he did not shed even one tear when the doc told him about amputation of his arm. "Har haal mein khush rahne ka", he said. (Meeting and talking to him was an experience - people managing to remain happy, even in the face of impossible odds). We were joined by another person shortly - it was a enuch - and he may have been familiar with the old singer - so when he saw him talking to us, he came and joined the talk. For the first time in my life i realized that enuchsare capable of talking just like other human beings. Upon being asked what we were doing in the train - Kausar bhai told that we are from govt and writing a book about people :), and that we'll mention them as well in the book. The old man was visibly happy - but the enuch started looking worried. Then he said, saab, "mera naam mat likhna please - mere rozi roti chali jaye gi" ... Even when train reached Bijapur and we paid them some more money and went out of train the enuch was still shouting - "saab please naam mat dena mera" :)

In Bijapur: Booked a tonga (cab, as Sherlock Holmes would call it :)) for full day. It would be a package-tour, i thought. we had seen Gol Gumbaj when we were in the train itself. Its boundary almost touches the station. Anyway, the gate is about 1 km from station gate, where the tonga-vala first took us. Once you climb up inside the tomb - and get out on the inside balcony just below the inverted half-globe, the feeling is amazing ... just amazing. Sound echos, it is said, 11 times here. And anything one speaks, its like speaking in a microphone / loud-speaker set. Real good experience. Later he took us to other tourist attractions - details of which can be looked over the net :).

Things interesting:

• We happened to meet a young goggle seller, who from his appearance, his light colored skin and height, gave the impression of not being a local. When asked, he told ki "their family had come from Iran along with the badshaahs". While we were talking, a brother / cousin joined him - and they talked to each other, the language they used caught my attention. Later I asked him, was it persian - and lo, it was indeed persian :). Man!!! centuries later, the language is still preserved - so much so that it is their primary language :) ... though he was speaking hindi / urdu also with equal ease. It was then that I realized that during our small conversation, when he had to address somebody with honour, he used "Aga" - the word I know as the one used by Persian speaking characters in Khaled Hossaini's books :) ... Wasn't it astonishing :).
• The tallest structure of medivial times - Hyder Burj, from where city and outsides could be watched - we were told, has 72 steps. Kausar bhai pointed out a possible relation with number people in Karbala. The biggest cannon of the medivial world, Malik-e-Maidan, also has names of Ahl-al-bayt carved on it.
• For the first time in our (4 of us) lives, we got both forward and return reservation for the same coach, same set of berths :). We were chatting over this co-incidence when we boarded the train on return jouney - and was almost shocked to find the same uncle sleeping on the berth next to ours, in the same pose as he was when we left the train in the morning - we were shocked and grew apprehensive about him - but then perhaps seeing us he got up and sat :) ... Hfff ...