Mast in MP

The thing to do in this heartland circuit is a roundtrip of Bandavgarh national park to see tigers, Khajuraho to gawk at sexy temples and Maihar to pay homage to a famous crucible of contemporary Hindustani music, the home of Baba Allauddin Khan. It won8217;t hurt either to pay your respects at Sharada Mai8217;s temple in Maihar. She8217;s considered a powerful amsha of Devi. A couple of decades ago there was just one phal-phoolwala at the base of the hill. Now it8217;s a whole mandi selling mountains of religious kitsch 8212; some of it really cute, like brass objections d8217;art. Mind, I8217;m not complaining since I8217;m a bangle monster and Sharada Mai8217;s mandi has got to Bangle Central! It8217;s got that many pretty glass ones in the 8216;latest8217; designs as well as old faves like the bel-daari creeper pattern and disco deewane which I call 8216;petrol-slick8217; because of the rainbows in them. I got loads of mor-gala peacock neck ones to match my clothes of the day and picked up some funky bindis too. It8217;s best to invest in stout walking shoes, a sling bottle of H2O and a hat or topi-with-a-visor before you attack the 45-min uphill trek. Lazy Lola8217;s option: schmooze with local pollies-with-a-permit who8217;ll jeep you up in style. I can tell you other stuff about Maihar that I consider lifesaving information. It has the best chikki in the world. None of that itty-bitty, thinly-glued-by-weak-sugar stuff, with the gummy label refusing to come off. This is proper country chikki with huge bits of ash-roasted seengdana in a rich, dark layer of real gur. 8216;Scrumptious8217; doesn8217;t begin to describe it and 8216;peanut brittle8217; is a lexical insult.

The Maihar Festival happens around February, in a temporary pavilion across an empty maidan from Maihar Jail. On the other side is the Historic House. Baba Alauddin Khan8217;s kothi, in which musical history was made. A charming old-fashioned house with an aangan and a terrace meant for charpais, it is a museum in more ways than one. In a little green-painted room to the left of the door is Baba8217;s room. It8217;s plastered with Glaxo babies, cover girls of the 1940s, old travel pix, many portraits of Beethoven of whom Baba was a Big Fan. There8217;s the cot on which Baba would recline, with daughter Annapoorna Devi, son Ali Akbar and young Ravi Shankar on the ground beneath his feet. He8217;d teach them music, each on their own instrument and let fly with his foot at whoever behaved like a tubelight. I ran into Baba8217;s grandson, sarodiya Aashish Khan, and he told me how Baba and his entire khandaan adored Begum Akhtar. It was Baba who, at the Raja of Maihar8217;s request, created the famous Maihar Band, now upscaled into the Maihar Vaadya Vrind group. The only instruments available those days were British army band rejects, so Baba taught local orphan lads how to play the clarinet, sax and stuff, which not only kept the streets clear of vagabonds but also created a cultural asset. I heard the band play and they were great! Their xylophone was really ingenious, made of sawn-off gun barrels. I have to applaud the Madhya Pradeshis for their impeccable concert manners. People came from Jabalpur, Bhopal, Pachmarhi and Indore and boy, were they an example of civilised behaviour. Everybody sat tranquilly on dhurries, men and women separately which is a great idea in terms of comfort levels. The children sat wide-eyed or nodded off quietly. People came and went so quietly, with such minimal fuss, that I suddenly felt very ashamed of how inconsiderate and pushy we are in Delhi.

I skipped Bandavgarh, but the three-hour drive to Khajuraho from Maihar was special for a couple of things. One, the delicious khurchan reduced, thickened milk at Devendranagar and two, the green, beautiful woods and fields along the route. MP is really very pretty! The Ken River Lodge is en route and I recalled our lunch there on my last trip to Khaj.

The treetop dining room overlooking the peaceful river and the row on the river were very special. I8217;d have liked to lounge about reading all day and nodding off in one of the camp8217;s cosy tents at night, but alas8230; Khajuraho is simply breathtaking each time. It8217;s best to hire an English-speaking guide at the gate to the main temple complex Rs 400, because he can tell you so much stuff you8217;d never know otherwise. But, hah, I did spot something that only one other person I know has noticed my friend Rama Bijapurkar in Mumbai: one of the little handmaidens carved in stone carries a Prada bag. I mean, its shape is totally Prada and so startlingly contemporary that I couldn8217;t stop giggling at the thought. I8217;m not going to tell you which temple, what corner. Why should I spoil your fun, when you get to go? 8217;Nuff said that each time I hit Khaj I come away even more enchanted by our ancients8217; wicked humour. And hey, the pasta across the road is made in a real wood-fired furnace, installed by a now-departed Italian. It happens only in India!