ITS LEGAL

India has innovative methods to tackle paradoxes. It doesn't. I have seen such deep seated contradictions in the hearts and minds of people who inhabit this country, that it scares me. People here have some sort of mental condition as best as I can understand. I will of course elucidate with an example….
In many countries, prostitution is legal, in many other countries its there and recognized though it might not be encouraged. In India prostitution exists rampantly (You dont know how rampant till you finish reading this). Prostitution exists uniformly in every state and the condition of women in such an institution is pathetic to say the least. I don’t have any personal knowledge as I dont encourage such a practice, to lust and lust only is a very boring and ‘love’ less existence. I believe in love, but there are many who are into this business across the country, and its just an unrespected and dishonourable existence… and this is because of the societal attitudes and perceptions regarding this business, I am sure people are aware that prostitutes exist in India; but most of us, would never ever think about it in any kind of positive light. We would be horrified if we were anyways associated or perceived to be associated with it. We think the women to be animals or whores and the men to be perverts and bastards. This is I guess a very general basic explanation of the perception regarding this activity in India. Though its rampant; and truly one of the oldest professions in India, still there is no respect, security or care given to people surrounding it.
Now I will tell you another story about India, which is kind of similar to the one above, though we would completely willing to associate with it (unlike the reality above).
Its called the great Indian arranged marriage. Many people across the world, might not understand what I just said, but they would have heard about it (mainly cause Indians have populated the entire world by now). An arranged marriage is one in which the parents of the bride and groom meet first, they sit down and exchange notes about their kids, then they see whether this will work out. In many parts of the country this might be done by the fathers…men and not the women (these are the more backward parts of this country… where women continue to be second rate citizens mostly), so if the parents conclude they should meet the kids up, then a meeting is arranged. Now the funny part starts.
The arranged meetings could be once, twice or in more single numerals before both the ‘parties’ (the man and woman) make up their minds and either accept the ‘invitation’ to marry or continue looking around. If the ‘castes’ (caste means either the rank/merit of the person as decided on birth or by location or both. Caste is inherent in most of the religions present in India- inclusive of muslims, christians, Sikhs, Hindus etc) are the same, then its the only criteria required for the go ahead for an entire lifetime of matrimony, its kind of strange isn’t it. Many would say no there are more criteria, but in reality the caste and religious compatibility is the only thing seen as a cut-off criteria.
So if the green light is given, an engagement followed by a mighty marriage in true grand indian style follows leading to the night where the man and woman would be able to consummate in a safe protected and most importantly respect environment.
This is bliss, marriage and binding to mate as decided by elders of a family is what generally an average Indian man or woman dreams of. To be settled with a woman who would be his life partner (vice versa), but true to Indian standards, there is no way to approach but through elders and a network to get the perfect life partner. And believe me, the network to get you a legal mate is very intricate and extensive in India.
So you can go ahead and get a girl or a man, through a website (refer shaadi.com and so forth) or through priests and other elderly people- who want also to get their children united etc). Through the ages this has persistently felt like to me to be the same as the first story about prostitution in India, this practice is rampant and it basically secures one a fuck at the end of the night,
So why such great stigma against one practice while the other also aims for the same. Why do we imagine that prostitution is a grizzly act whereas an arranged marriage where there is not even enough time given to a couple to start loving each other is considered to be made in heaven. Where the couple are met up so they can live with each other and fuck to give a child (and let me not even get started about the great Indian expectations regarding delivering a child in record time for showing everyone their virility lol).
You can tell me a marriage is a holy pact and its where a couple meet up to support each other and what not. But my counter argument is very simple, human needs are the same, if a man wants to get wed or wants to goto a prostitute is because of his need to be with another body. to be united and be one and not feel lonely. This goes the same for a woman, though a woman would want to be loved and spend a lot nire time before she commits with her body to a man, and this is where I find arranged marriages to be even more like prostitution. Because I through personal hard learned experience have seen people who I cared for and loved to go away to have arranged marriages. And I have been left baffled and at complete loss to explain how people who once have known the joy of loving with choice would go ahead to accept someone to live with forever even without knowing them completely. So I just smile and acknowledge that I am living in probably the weirdest ‘country’ or area in the entire cosmos. This is true India, where legal prostitution – blind mating takes place with absolute reverence and at the same time dark and dingy corners of this ancient land still hide the true martyrs- the women who have either been forced into or have taken up prostitution as a means of livelihood. The women who spend eons trapped in their bodies, alone and pained at times knowing only the cruelty of human lust. These prostitutes exist at the periphery of Indian civilization, and can never ever be respected or even loved. This is the weird state of the country, where if someone by choice wanted to prostitute themselves, they would not be able to; they would be plain and simple ostracised by everyone they would ever know- even their parents, but on the other side of the coin is the great Indian arranged marriage, where parents become the pimps (dallas) and deal their children to forward their family name or lineage in some sort of sad hope of reaching immortality. This whoring act is respected and adored, where two people might actually be in a relationship without the true blossoming of love between them. Some times it might be perfect and others it might be just the starting of the deaths of the inner fire which we humans were built to burn higher and higher. 
I believe and follow my heart. I love and live free. I dont judge arranged marriages nor prostitutes, I dont encourage either of these. Because they both are the fruits of love-lessness. They exist because we have chosen at some time in this land, to give away the spontaneity of love and freedom for some sort of fake blanket cover of security and gene protection. It is truly extremely out of the world weird. My parents have wed through it, I see my former lovers wed by it, I see my friends wed by it too…. and its feels kind of weird to me at times, is it me who is incorrect when it comes to keeping such a view? Is prostitution really different from the traditional Indian arranged marriage? It probably has a lot of arguments for and against, but I am a simple person and I see the glory of something as exciting as love stemming free and every which way and I am easily swayed. I would rather find my love, in body and flesh even if it took me an entire lifetime than go for some sort of easy fix cause its the norm which everyone around us supposedly follow. So you may say that its harder implemented than talked, and I would laugh and sway my head to convey a nod; and say ‘ I have learned the hard way that love is an act of faith and fate in this country’  I really have learned the extremely hard way, of losing a part of myself and my love to understand the complexities and stupidities of routines of eras past.
But thats not the center of the problem, Whereas the daily pimping by our own parents is not considered to be a cruel act, the act of prostitution remains to be banished and treated like shit, result being the women involved in this business remain victims, targets and go unnoticed and in extreme pain. Why such biased feeling by this society? Are we not mature to acknowledge the truth when we see it, feel it, maybe even experience it. So if tomorrow I have an arranged marriage, I would honestly acknowledge that I was looking for company and the act if considered legal prostitution would be correct. I also see that an activity like prostitution exists because its in demand, and to demerit it while abusing it is something which only the maturity levels of a society when high, could stop. 
Please think about what you do in your life. Don’t label it, or shelve it unless you want to remain blind to the truth. Its your life, try to accept and experience love and everything will be cheered. Don’t think of yourself to be on a pedestal while others squirm in the mud. We all are one, let’s undergo a smooth transformation towards acceptance and joy. 
Peace

The Failed Trek…. (subramanya)

I generally am enthusiastic about any trek or wandering in wilderness, however improbable or dangerous or ill timed but there has been but one trek which my friends and I haven’t been able to complete till the destination….
This was during my undergraduate college done in MIT, manipal… which is located in the west coast of India in the state of Karnataka. We had heard about the second highest peak in Karnataka as a place called ‘subramanya’ located at a distance of over 6 hours from the nearest town- Mangalore (Mangalore is around 40 km from manipal on the western coast). We had heard of the place from our seniors (vignesh and arvind khelkar)- who had spent 3 days in trekking and camping in that area. The peak is a part of the western ghats, and they did not at any time inform us that the trek would be difficult or require a overnight haul.
My friends (Sandeep, Alap, Joydeep, Gurwinder) decided impromptu and spontaneously to visit the area over a weekend in which we were free. We packed the basics in duffle bags, and a change over. We expected to be back in couple of days and as such guys don’t require much (we did carry our fair share of liquor and all to spice up our senses before the trek- something which was a fatal mistake for the cause, and cost us our journey’s end goal).
The bus journey from Mangalore to subramanya is hectic uncomfortable and sheer agony (the roads were just potholes so big that even the bus had to travel at low speeds). Subramanya- is the name of the son of shiva- he is also called kartikeya, he is the human son of shiva (the other being ganesha- who had his human head replaced with an elephants). Subramanya is a child who is an ascetic, and a saint. He haunts only mountain tops, and his temples are all located over hillocks (In south india – there are six such places of significance- like panani, swamimalai etc- six places where subramanya spends his time in meditation eons since and still).
Subramanya is located at the base of the western ghats, there is an old and very famous temple located in this vicinity; and the entire area has the feel of a temple town- pilgrimage homes, ashrams etc. The location is hilly and the time we reached – which was late late night, there was nothing open anywhere… we checked out the town; and it was raining and drizzling intermittently which added to the beauty of this small isolated quaint town immersed in sheer peace indeed.

We found a lodging at an ashram- a room for all of us, where we unpacked freshened up and had just enough time to enjoy some high spirits. We relaxed and thought up when we would start in the morning, and before any of us knew it… we all were asleep (due to extreme tiredness of the bus journey- a real back killer).
The morning was sunny and the rain water had started evaporating which meant that it would be extremely hot and humid soon, making the trek up difficult ( I for one sweat profusely which adds to my minute to minute burden). We didn’t bother for a good breakfast and DID NOT take anything to eat or water to drink before we found our trail starting to the peak. We were all on a pretty dazed hangover which added to our brains being temporarily affected. I also believe that as none of us sought the blessing of the saint on the hill, or visit the temple… this made our minds temporarily veiled; so we could not gather what all was needed for our trek, we did not even bother to find out the terrain, time and other details (something which I myself generally don’t fail to do before starting up inside wilderness area).
The trek was extremely difficult, the way up was strenuous to all of us, and as we all realized after a period of 4 hours of gruelling trekking is that we were not climbing the mountain subramanya, rather we were climbing the base hills of the western ghats to reach the base camp from where the actual trek to the mountain was to start- which would be easily another 8 hours of non stop upward haul.
I cannot tell you the awe and expression on each one of our faces when we saw reaching upon the base, the humongous mountain still in front of us, we were left with only one thought… “thats the highest thing anywhere close to here, that means we haven’t reached the top, we are nowhere near the top”
We had more whiskey on us than water, we had more smokes on us than food(all each one of us was carrying in the namesake of food- was one chocolate bar!). We braved leaches on the house with salt, some sucking a lot of our blood and had to be removed with hands. We braved inebriation, hangover and dehydration to finally reach the base area (the top of the western ghats)- we were on our edges, totally lost and tired. We were able to find a hutment with caretaker living in it, The kind gentleman acted as an awesome host, providing us with water and some space to cool off. He also proceeded to tell us details of the trek which still lied in front of us. This really brought us down for we knew that we were not carrying anything remotely required for camping or staying in the jungle. We left our mood behind and carried forward in cheer. This is a jungle reserve and the forest post high up checked our belongings and promptly kept all of our leftover booze and smokes. We were at least less burdened; we took some time to take a couple of photos and explore the area at our leisure. we decided not to trek further as we saw dark clouds coming and this meant that any crazy wacko idea we had to push on further had to be discarded. My first and only failed trek, and as we started downwards, the powerful fury of the clouds above us burst to let out endless rain….. We had a a very tough time coming down, with every trek trail starting to fill with water and quick.
We somehow managed to come back and freshen up, It was a trek which was extremely tough (because we underestimated the route, and overestimated our preparedness) and leave the place. Before leaving though, I decided to make amends and see the temple dedicated to the mountain loving god; the son of Shiva…. subramanya.
Our journey back was uneventful and we all slept intermittently through the broken pot holed roads till we reached back to the peace of our hostel rooms to reminisce our forsaken and perhaps forbidden trip to the sacred mountain.
I myself was very disappointed that we could not get the view from the top, and mentally made a note to re-visit this place in the future and to climb till the top. I also learnt from the mistakes which we made in this trip so that I could avoid it in any further journey. But overall the place and atmosphere surrounding the holy town and hill of Subramanya are divine. The clouds envelop the ghats perpetually and the ever dense greenery is a sight for sour eyes (especially eyes which are more prone to looking at commercial city jungles than the real ones!)
Happy Travelling and ensure that you do plan a journey all the way to the top in advance!
Peace

The Mythical Churning & Eternal Suffering

The time is three thousand years ago, the place is the island of Dravid, floating in the milky pacific sea. The jungles roam with intricate life; and man has evolved to use his thumb. It is the beginning of civilization as we would see it but to those who live three thousand years back, its the epitome of evolution, the break through point in animal kingdom (to which even man believes himself a part of at that time!), where the paradigm shift is taking place in consciousness. This is the story of the original Bhola.
The skies change a thousand colors, the love of the sky towards the green faunae, everywhere there is subtle movement. Of life and energy, though endless days pass, the scenery and scenario remains eternally same. This is the start of the evolution of our first kind.
The forests are dense and only the ice turned into rivers can flow between these contraptions of nature, dravid holds mountains high as it hits the old Pangaea continent with force and energy from the earth comes up as himalayas, the snow converts the regions bare and white. The presence of truth and love. Peace and acceptance. Bhola comes forth and walks higher up the hills, slower and stronger, with patience and calm and without an inner turmoil such as a monologue or a dialogue, he walks up north into the ice.
Bhola feels the earth’s energy within him self as well. It is a violent overtaking uprising of power, heat or even rage. He sets himself onto the kind of mood he desires, He dances in sheer ecstasy. Caressing the wind more, He overturns the great barrier which holds one to sobriety. Bhola begins the mythical churning within and every which where. Its inside us all you see; its easy when you see, much more difficult to express in plain words….
The intent here is immortality, for a certain bunch of entities, you call them good and evil. I call them 0 and 1. It makes no such difference in absolutes… again much easier to see than explain in simple words….
The indian mythology reeks of an event at the beginning of our time. Where good gods (devas) and the demonic entitites (asuras) work together for perhaps the first and last time, where they meet to ask the great lord snake Vasuki, to come and act as a rope so they may churn the great ocean. The ocean here is the null and void, it is the universes present everywhere, From the null and void the supposed good and the bad (though they both have the same motive) forces work in unison to create many other fascinating products, the esoteric churning of the ocean is the work of the mind of Bhola, His spine is the meru mountain (against which the snake vasuki starts churning), from the null and void the serpentine force of the self, The great devi kundalini starts moving and creating friction; at the base of the spine, is where the serpent resides in solemn and sleeping mood, until she wakes and starts creating the energies latent in every living organisam in this state. The product which comes first is the Hala!Ahala! The eternal and existent poison of the universe, something so toxic that it shall remove the state of maya which sustains this universe. The toxin so powerful which will end all this play of delusion and enlightenment,

Lord Bhola ever so kind, sits and takes the poison and sips it like wine, I will take what others here shall not partake, This is bliss! ever so ripe, the soma and nectar of eternal life, Bhola so innocent cannot see toxin where there is none, His energy comes to rescue converting toxin to honey to nectar for all….
The churning so long, produces obstacle so many, each god and demon fighting for so the crumbling so little, Something like within each and every one of us, We a sum of good and not so good instincts (subjectively) churning our inner self to see what life holds for us, Its our creation and our intent which creates the type of life we lead. There is the wish giving cow, kamedhun, the wish fulfilling tree, kalpa vrisksha, there is lakshmi- or utter prosperity which lord narayana beholds dear. There is everything produced infinitely from this tension within bhola’s body and soul. The snake turning around the spine, the snake turning around the mountain. The purpose immortality.amrit is the result. You find eternal life, like the devas(the ‘bad’ dudes-asuras are tricked into not drinking the eternal drink- perhaps added in mythology to signify some sort of victory of good over evil).
Bhola is going to die, for the world we hold dear; He gives his existence so we may live on and still never ever look upon our lives as a blessing. that we are here today; because the innocent lover bhola natha took upon himself everything which was destructive, evil and malignant.
Devi Parvati comes to the fore, she cannot see her lover squirm any more. She makes her hand a hammer; razes through the crowd to find him sitting on the tail of vasuki, turning blue…. eternal suffering always has been ever new.
She presses his neck, His neck turns blue, its a color which has another significance, he has taken within him all the evil, so that he could destroy it. For you do know, he is the destroyer of evil and the king of death. He commands who dies, he commands who shall live. Lord Bhola, I sing in his praise, why were you born ever so merciful!
There is no time like now to sit tight and pray to his grace, his innocence will captivate you, his love for you as yours for his shall be sincere, his touch will liberate misery and his glance will annihilate all that has ever been wrong. For you see, while you churn this mythical ocean with the snake of yours (kundalini energy is the energy of I- of you. ) Lord bhola silently takes in the poison which destroys, he takes it in quietly weeping so that you may know of him. His grace and his presence. His love and his wisdom. His existence and his absolute-ness.
Who shall love thee oh flesh and bone, like the lord who meditates in love. The lord who liberates your inner toxin so that you may taste sweet amrit- the nectar of ever new and eternal life!
Peace ~!~

The Unordinary (out of the world-IV)

I realized what it is about me that is hypocritical, I have been endowed in this world with the tools and means/resources/finances etc to do as I wish, as I choose and as I feel. There are many in this world (or most) who do not have such resources. I also realized that as a “have”(myself), I will do anything in my power to protect my resources against the have nots. But this was not the end of my realization (I am slow I admit!), I realized that I would not be satisfied or happy if others also possessed what I did, to realize themselves and be happy. This is what humanity calls envy, stemming out of a possibility in each individual to possess something only unique to himself/herself in this experience of life. We creatures to some extent (or the entire extent) want to perhaps remember our experience during life as unique, individual… Perhaps this is the deepest instict of this thing called existence/life/Universe whatever. This instinct is god realizing something about itself new. (not the first time, cause time is non existent) – perhaps new is something experienced as first time, without the existence of time (maybe).
This is what the zen master atop the green mountain side residing in a cave where clear blue water flows down on his head to cool his introspection says about the entire affair, This is zen so mostly there is nothing in here related to what we call as ‘sense’.
“ This individual is a deceiver, he thinks shadow as his own, trying forever in a narcissistic rage to discover himself. He is a fool and a deceiver.
This instinctual individual is headed towards the illusion of doom. Trying to find path and goal, his unique stamp to mark his life. Like a dog pissing to mark its territory. This is mine! This is mine! This is mine!
I know this is yours for it stinks foul.
The life less ordinary in this circumstance is the most convincing deception one can pull. The life masked in the mundane, in whichever role you are placed in this world, if you can play this part with the most bored expression, trying not to see something, feel something, know something, or be something is the most unique individual cunning space one can find here.
You are life itself! You are the pulse trying to discover the new, the complete, the void. You cannot discover yourself. You are the undiscoverable. You cannot know it. You cannot be it. You are it!
You will shake firm in your path and place wherever that may be, you will not piss like a dog once now and again and try to make something unique to you. Your soul crown is the plain. It is the entirety expressing itself !

You will undo what you know, You will unlearn what you thought you know. There is no passion, neti neti (not this, not this) the universe screams through your life. This is zen.
Zen is freedom, it is cunning deception to leave whatever may bind you to only that. You are nothing and everything and yes there is no you, as there is no I.”
The zen master opens his mouth and this time he sips in the cool water flowing from the top. His eyes are elsewhere and his energetic pose is forever firm. He is the ordinary, His wisdom are not these words, His existence screams of nothing extraordinary, but of complete-ness, and yes this existence is truly unique in its own way, some of the many dilemmas and dichotomies that zen incorporates and elucidates!
Zen master has silenced his inner envy, his inner desire to possess anything. Even if you are equal and satisfied with everyone and everything possessing the same as you. Then you must understand that this is the same as possession of nothing. The zen master laughs, echoing resounding through the cave to the inner sanctums of the glorious hill. It truly is!
Peace

Spirit Dance

The days past winter that spelt liberation; a special reprieve for everyone indeed, when the days pick their spell. the night holds the lunatic captive, You and I and everyone endowed pick up the pieces every day and move on with life. For the fear that if we dont keep pace with what we think as change, then we would become obsolete.
We have been obsolete living without active listening and thinking. We become the dead rotting spirit cages for something and someone who could be greater. Where and why do we choose to abandon our dream and spirit for a mediocre and numbing existence.
Taking the forbidden, and feeling an ounce of satisfaction, with the peace which the inner self generates, we become calm and firm. Our power multiplies and makes life not take its so called random turns. This is our future and our true destiny, and the ones amongst us who are not willing to undergo this paradigm change, are the ones who will become obsolete.
There must be some kind of way out of here, echoes dylan’s song in every schizophrenic normal active person, when they see that their dimension changes and yields at the end only ashes to be strewn into the sea. Why o why did we choose to leave grandeur for the pocket full of leaves (mulah)
Ending the dance and the dancer disappears into the null and void. Banishing teh spirit to keep the body alive, what sense shall that make? You and I are space creators, we break the frame and build around it too. There is no stopping the true inspiration which our lives is and has always been. This is the truth; is it not?

When I sit up and watch myself, Breaking down the barriers, and accessing that which I could not be (or so I thought it to be). Wearing no masks, the path becomes glorious leading to self discovery; encompassing everything which is /has been/ ever will be.
This is our true destiny and our entitlements as the creators and actors of power. Whether we choose this to be (or not). In this never ending circle of existence, the only reality we choose is whether we want to be still or revolve endlessly.
True nirvana is that which does not pose and impose. It is lively and brings active powers which may be illusions or reality. The true intent becomes but the blessing to just be… So we sit with our bottles of elixir, waiting for the moment when it will all end.. instead of dancing on our graves if only a moment earlier… the dance and the dancer will coincide a magnificent death par reality!

The Sign is the Cross

Look at Jesus; on the mount giving the sermon, His aura outshines the sun above. He breaks the bread and feeds the hungry; He kisses the lepers cures the sick. He walks on water as he is lighter than air; then how or why did he on the cross despair?

The sign is the cross, the vision comes to me in a dream, jesus calls out to the father with faltering faith and asks them to forgive these sinners one last time. God the father does one better, he remains on the throne and quiet to the bone. He watches the death of our saviour for no joy of his own.
The mystery gnaws at me over and over, of why the lover of god was left alone at his moment of reckoning. He was calling out to the father and the holy ghost for redemption for all; all this while… and in the end he could not even fathom the turmoil his life would entail. To no avail?
He speaks every so softly; master Yesua, when we look into his eyes. He now sees that his bearing the cross was the sign that the people required (to see). They could not fathom god until it was shown first by the master indeed!
The master became god in the moment and the sign was the cross; the sign which became god was the union of man unto god; a sign of love and grace. A sign god sent unto every doubting man and woman’s face. Look at the mortal who believed for ever more in me, shouldering his life and death without hesitation or fear so I may take care of him on earth or heaven believe!
To believe in god entails the effort of being god. Yesua the kind master on the day of his judgement took upon the doubts and fears of entire jeresulam, his path paved the way for future faith in the father divine, his sincerity and love carried forth became the greatest symbol (the cross) of our time!
My master comes to me in dreams deeper than the deep blue sea; where I am not myself but a lowly devotee at the feet of a mortal who showed that life is what it ought to be. To make it such, one must become the sign on the cross one bears towards entirety.
Peace and Love

The cursed city

An awesome place to visit near delhi, is Bangarh. It is near sariska forest sanctuary in Rajasthan and hardly half a days drive from the city. Bangarh and the close by ajabgarh (which I wasn’t fortunate enough to visit) are old archaeological sites discovered by the ASI, Bangarh is a whole city by itself, with a king’s castle, two temples (one dedicated to Krishna and the other to Shiva), a whole town- and many more delights. The entire spread has a magical tint to it, as most of the structures are without roofs (and possibly renovated by the ASI from rubbles).
The city has a haunted touch to it by itself, over and above that many people believe that after dark; the entire city comes alive of the inhabitants of the days when the city was thriving. The reason being the instant death of the whole city supposedly by a tantric (in some cases the tantric was a lover to the queen, and other stories suppose that the tantric was the queen herself), who went ahead to curse the city causing instant death to the entire set of inhabitants there. The souls perhaps are still not at peace, and many people (whom I talked with-locals) there still believed that after dark, it was not a place to be taken lightly.
One of the guards animatedly and point of fact also told me that the ghosts are not souls and are ‘djinns’ and they meet every Saturday in the temple area. While I also met local shepherds (one of the shepherds who I could speak with was an old man smoking his hookah and tending his animals)- he said that after dark there were wild animals in the vicinity who come to drink the water from the central Jharna/Fountain area – formed between the city.
The palace of the king is on the side of a mountain and built on it as well, the inner city (for the king or the prestige of the time) is surrounded on all sides behind by beautiful mountains- perhaps a strategic move to build the city in such a location- where attack was least possible. There is also the highest point which would have acted as the watch point/tower for seeing the land beyond- located way above the palace’s height on the same hill. I could not reach till there for I had time constraints but I could explore the palace in length and also get some photos of the scenery and landscape of the expanse- very pretty indeed.
The location of bangarh is not close to any major cities of Rajasthan- it is in the pretty rural portrait of the royal land and the mighty aura of the desert envelops everything in its path in this region and the entire location looks haunted by day and most certainly by night and also enchanting or bewitched. An entire ruined abandoned city in the middle of such a landscape is pretty and eye catching to say the least.
I went during a local state conflict and hence found reaching this location harder than usual, had to change roads and even take the village roads to reach this place which otherwise is very well linked by major roads- but the ongoing gujjar reservation or Arakshan as its called had caused major standstill during this time, we found even getting petrol to be an almost impossible task as all the major roads were blocked and hence no sort of road or rail movement was taking place inter/intra state.
The Shiva temple built near the central city fountain is very peaceful and inspiring, I don’t know how it would look after dark but the central linga- made most probably in marble (white color) looked somewhat powerful, though it was almost an abandoned temple with little or no worship taking place.
The place is a cool and relaxing visit; if you choose to live within the sariska sanctuary with many resorts offering the lap of luxury, also alwar is another good option as the nearest biggest town with its own set of tourist locales to visit (i chose to stay in alwar as I am accoustmed to the place- and wanted to visit the location again)
Hope everyone has a happy travelling year ahead, exploring uninhibitedly and with awe.
Peace