Sardargarh - Evening Safari

Friday, 14 November 2014, Sardargar

At 4 pm, Pati and BeeBee climbed into the Gypsy Jeep once more (Gypsy is the model name). Their driver/guide was a man they had seen with other groups, but they had not interacted with him before. The purpose of this evening's safari was to visit local tribal villages. As they set off through Sardargarh on tbeir way to villages, every child they passed called out to them, whether "ta ta",  "hello", or "goodbye" (but not "money"), and waved, and many of them ran after the jeep, taking shortcuts to catch up on another street. The guide stopped to interact with local citizen in the town.  At one point, as he was driving up a local street, they came upon a group of women working on a huge pile of gravel at least 30 inches high, extending from curb to curb and and several feet across. Backing up was not an option. The women retreated to the sides of the street and the guide simply drove over the gravel, the tires leaving two grooves behind the jeep.

Once out of town, their guide went off-road, looking for wildlife, and pointed out antelope and birds. He had asked how their wildlife safari had been, and seemed to want to make up for any shortcomings there (Pati and BeeBee did 't think there were shortcomings). Returning to the road, such as it was, he stopped to point out some owls in a tree. His real purpose in stopping, however, was to introduce Pati and BeeBee to a local "holy man." This man had become disillusioned with his life and gave up everything to live by the side of the road, where he created two primitive shrines. He sleeps on a hammock in the trees. He has three large bells, which he rings , similar to a call for prayers. He has not talked for 25 years; the guide thinks he has lost the ability to speak. He wears only the traditional simple white clothing, if only because he would not be allowed to be naked and still live there. He invited Pati to sit down on his simple mat, and they communicated by words (Pati) and gestures, although he did not understand what Pati said. At one point, he retrieved a ragged bag from the side of his camp, opened it to retrieve a box, and opened the box to retrieve a pack of cigarettes and matches, which he offered to Pati. Of  course, Pati could not accept that, and tried to explain open heart surgery. BeeBee asked the guide to interpret, which he did, so the holy man then tried to offer water, which started a new round of explaining why it could not be accepted, either.  

The next stop was to visit a marble processing plant, where marble blocks are sliced and then shaped. Here, the cost for 6 marble tiles that are 1 foot square would be $1. It is so inexpensive here that it is commonly used to build dry-stacked walls around property to keep antelope and cows out. (That and lines of  tall cactus plants).   After that, it was off-road again through shrub and deep pools of water to reach a wall which forms one side of the man-made Lake Monohar Sagar. Pati took some beautiful pictures of the sun about to set above the fort, which was about 1 km away. They climbed to the top of the wall (a few feet above the road surface there) and walked to a section that rose 20 feet above the wall. There were steps on the side, to climb to a viewing area above. These steps were about two feet wide, with a stone wall to the left, no handrail or barrier on the right side, and water below. The guide urged them to climb these steps. BeeBee took some convincing. The guide went ahead and held BeeBee's hand all the way up. Pati bravely climbed with no hand-holding. The view was stunning. They got good pictures of the sun setting beside the fort. 

Pati then asked the guide how long he had been at the fort, and he said "I own it." He is the Maharaj. He also owns the place where they were sitting and everything between it and the fort. He is the 10th person in his family to own it; he and his wife have been renovating it for 10 years. He then served Pati and BeeBee juice bottled by Coca Cola ; he only buys Coke products, finding Pepsi too sweet. They watched swifts darting over the water and other birds coming home in waves to roost in trees on the other side of the lake. They discussed his plans to buy a boat so that guests could have dinner on the water and enjoy the sunset. Finally, as it was getting dark, they climbed down the stairs again and drove back to the fort, where Pati and BeeBee appear to be the only guests this evening.

Sunset over Sardargarh Fort

Holy Man with Bells