A few months back I along with the 12 travel companions of Delhi Photography Club, went to a quiet town by the name of Garli which is about 420 km from Delhi along with to Monolithic Rock Cut Temple of Masroor and the Kangra Fort in a tempo driver. As per our schedule and itinerary which was decided by Mr. Virender Shekhawat, the owner of Delhi Photography Club (http://www.delhiphotographyclub.com).
We left at about 10.pm with the plan to reach Garli by early morning if the roads are in good condition. To our good luck, the roads were in excellent condition and we reached Garli well before time which gave us ample time to rest to meet the demands of our trip. On our journey to Garli, we also crossed the famous Nangal Dam on the Beas river.
Garli is situated in Himachal Pradesh and was a major business community for the Sood clan during the 19th century who came from Rajasthan with various professionals and established a trading township in various articles, with teak being the most prominent and established a very successful business community/center or a commercial hub. The richness and status of what may have been the commercial hub can be understood from the mansions which they built which are still existent today.
Apart from the mansions, another thing that attracted me was the greenery of the place which has become non-existent for urban dwellers. Another unique feature for me was the number of girl schools in this small place and after doing some research I came to know that the Sood Clan had specifically established not only boys school but girl schools early for promotion and education and those schools are still running. So Corporate Sociable Responsibility before the word was even discovered. For me was the most attractive was sitting in the verandah of an old guest house where we were staying (Naurang Yartri Niwas, an old private guest house turned into a hotel ) was just silence and remembering the words of Simon and Garfunkel " Hello darkness, my old friend, I've come to talk with you again.................". Not to forget the fireflies which made me remember Rabindranath Tagore Song which is one of my favorites "O jonaki, ki shukhe oi daana duti melecho (Little Firefly, how happily you open out those wings.)"
As you walk down the streets of Garli, you get a quintessential feel of a small town which is slowly disappearing away like a man reading a newspaper on a lazy afternoon or a lady making an embroidery.
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| Lazy Afternoon. |
For street photographers, it is a gold mine because the type of images and type of composition you can do you can hardly do it in a place in an urban place and not only that like a photographing a local bakery shop in the early morning hours or the local barbershop which the hub of news.
As you walk down the lanes of Garli, you will also feel a touch of melancholy on seeing the beautiful mansions which are in most cases inherited or the people residing in those houses left as the old business slowly gave way to the new modern business. With the advent of modern business and the destruction of old business the community slowly moved away from Garli and what was left was the brilliant and beautiful haunting architectural mansions.
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| Oh, what secrets I hold in these walls. |
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Do I need to say anything else?
With the advent of heritage tourism, the descendants of the Sood clan are again trying to build up the place as heritage village though a lot of work has to be done. The beautiful architectural mansions are at present being inherited by generations of caretakers. The main attractive features of Garli town as I said earlier are the beautiful architectural mansions and the beautiful silence of the town.
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Beas River,
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About twenty to twenty-five kilometers from Garli are the Ghats of the beautiful and destructive river Beas (one of the five rivers if Punjab which originates in Kullu and later joins Sutlej). As you reach the place, the antiquity of the place can be understood by the classical temples of which are still standing the test of time.
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| Carving inside the temple - when Urdu was not frowned upon |
The next day after having delicious and stomach filling breakfast we left for Monolithic Rock Cut Temple of Masroor which is about 35 - 40 km from Garli. The Monolithic Rock Cut Temple of Masroor is said to be built in the 8th Century C.E and built in the Nagar Temple Style of North India. Though most of the temple has been destroyed in the devastating Kangra earthquake of 1905, it has been partially restored but it is our tragedy that most of the temple complex has been destroyed. It is left for us to wonder that what majestic must have been these temples must have been in its time. As is the specialty of all the Classical Hindu Temples, is the intricate carvings or the detailing work which is present in the walls of the temples.
After our visit to the majestic Monolithic Rock Cut Temple of Masroor, we decided to proceed towards our last destination in the trip, the Kangra Fort which might be only of the few forts in India which were never captured. To say the truth the size of the fort intimidated me, it is massive. As per the information provided through the information provided in the Fort, Muhammed of Ghazni overpowered the Fort in 1009 CE. Given the strategic position of the Fort, various attempts were made by the Tuqhlaqs and Sher Shah Suri but no one could capture the Fort. Though Jahangir captured the Fort for a brief period of time, the Fort was ultimately captured by Ranjit Singh and then passed over to the British.
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View from the Kangra Fort.
Now that we had completed our trip we somehow forced ourselves in the bus to again move towards Delhi leaving the serene and beautiful sights and move towards Delhi but we all knew in our heart that though we are leaving the place we are taking back memories and which will remain with us forever and with the hope that we will come back to this place again.
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Apart from the mansions, another thing that attracted me was the greenery of the place which has become non-existent for urban dwellers. Another unique feature for me was the number of girl schools in this small place and after doing some research I came to know that the Sood Clan had specifically established not only boys school but girl schools early for promotion and education and those schools are still running. So Corporate Sociable Responsibility before the word was even discovered. For me was the most attractive was sitting in the verandah of an old guest house where we were staying (Naurang Yartri Niwas, an old private guest house turned into a hotel ) was just silence and remembering the words of Simon and Garfunkel " Hello darkness, my old friend, I've come to talk with you again.................". Not to forget the fireflies which made me remember Rabindranath Tagore Song which is one of my favorites "O jonaki, ki shukhe oi daana duti melecho (Little Firefly, how happily you open out those wings.)"
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