Bye-Bye Bharatpur

The mustard fields of Bharatpur

This update is long overdue.

It has finally come to the time when I had to leave the gorgeous wonderland of Bharatpur with its horde of birds and beasts, and mosquitoes, and my friendly smartass managers; and yeah, a few friends.

…That was more than a month ago. Since then, I’ve been back to my nomadic lifestyle, jumping from place to place, from the dust fields of Rajasthan to the green valleys of Assam, from the traffic jams of New Delhi to the traffic jams of Kuala Lumpur, from the Malaysian High Commission in India to the Indian High Commission in Malaysia, from the Ipoh Immigration Department to the UAE Embassy in KL, from Wisma Putra (in Putrajaya) to Butterworth, from Genting Highlands to Pangkor Island, from Ipoh back to the desert, and this time a real sandy one, in the Arabian Fantasy World called Dubai… Bloody expensive place! Let’s leave it at that for the time being since I’ve just started work, don’t wanna give my new employer the impression that I use company’s time and resources to surf and blog. Anyway here’re some pictures of Bharatpur… just to show case how ‘nice’ a place Bharatpur can be… cameras, they can do wonders huh?


Entrance to Bharatpur's Keoladeo Ghana Bird Sanctuary (aka our jogging ground prior to bloody winter freezing over) - entrance is free before 6am


In the grounds of Bharatpur's King's palace at Deeg village


Our landlord and his wife at the house during the Karva Chauth festival - dunno the significance of the festival, but it's supposed to bring good fortune and blessings to the husband. The wife has to fast for a whole day (which should be quite a feat for our landlady), wait for the moon to rise (hard luck if there're heavy clouds but luckily this was Rajasthan, bloody dry Rajasthan), see husband's face indirectly (i.e. from the reflection in the water, or through a sieve), touch husband's feet, ...pray for husband I suppose, and then she can eat. The husband in return, just needs to hang around doing nothing, great festival ...if you're male huh?

The Lost City of Akbar

This is Fatehpur Sikri, a city commissioned and built by Akbar, one of the greatest kings of the Mughal Dynasty – the dynasty that built the Taj Mahal and ruled most of India until the British kicked them out. Fatehpur Sikri sits smack within our Agra to Bharatpur Highway Project, so there’s no chance not visiting it.

Fatehpur Sikri was for a short time, the capital of Mughal India until Akbar found it near impossible to channel water to it despite the engineering marvels of the time. He promptly moved the capital back to Agra (about 40km away), and abandoned the city to the ravages of time – No, it was not a folly, he knew from the start that it’d become a tourist attraction in about err... 400 years time and then the foreign tourists would have to cough up about 20 times the amount that a local would have to pay, and generate loads of revenue for his country, apart from generating job opportunities for the local boys (as tourist guides), who would generally bug the shit out of you, and tell all how great Akbar was, how he was very respectful and tolerant of all religions, so much so that he had a Hindu wife, a Muslim wife and a Christian wife all at the same time, living in the same place ...i.e. this place. Now, that’s what you call, a king.


Anu's sister Manju, and her son, Kunal at Fatehpur Sikri


Anu glaring at the countless guides, touts and you name it at the Buland Darwaza (literally Huge bloody Gate - ...my translation)