You see only what you want to see.
Someone must have said that for me only. Until last
Saturday, all I knew was that there was some college in my vicinity. Had not
there been that ad in the newspaper, I would have never got that it’s a college
of national repute for the study of History and Languages. I’m taking of Deccan
College, Pune. I was literally shocked to know that it was the third oldest
college in India and dates back to as old to 1821. By the afternoon, I was
almost flat after knowing its Alma Matar of the college. Sir R.G. Bhandarkar,
the celebrated Indologist, Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak, the great nationalist
leader, Gurudev R.D. Ranade, the eminent philosopher, G.G. Agarkar, the great
social reformer, V.K. Rajawade, the famous historian and Dr. Dwarkanath Kotnis,
the famous Indian medical practitioner.
I was laughing on me and there was only one line apt for me
“Bandar (Me) kya jane adrakh ka swad” J
It all started by yet another weekend I had nothing to do.
Turtling over the newspaper, I found that there is some lecture on “Forts
across Sahyadri” in Deccan College. Things sound promising and more so I didn’t
have to go anywhere. Things itself is coming to me. What better a lazy person
like me expect. Plan Set.
The college campus as much the same as you can expect an old
institution to be. Old building, lots a lots of trees with love birds here and
there, never ending landscape and big hoarding guiding you to different
determents at every nook and corner. I followed the arrows to auditorium.
The crowd in there couldn’t be counted more than 30 and most
of them were students of history. I was probably the only “mulla” in
this “begani shadi”. It started at time. The presenter started to talk
about various forts in Sahyadri Ranges. He them jumped into who build it, who
won it who lost it. I was getting bored. But as soon as I was about to
concluded it as a bad choice and move out, came a voice from the dais which
said “Now we will be looking into some of the technologies that went into
making these forts and some of them are unique to this region only”.
Now that interesting. I have been to some of them but never
have looked it with this eye. All attention gathered and thrown to dais.
Some of the information was already known to me. Rest all
was a new addition to my knowledge. Here are some which I can remember
now.
·
The main gate of the fort generally used to be a
false gate which opened into a dead end which is open from above. If the
enemies break this gate they will only end up finding themselves trapped and
soldiers attacking them from above. The real gate used to be one small beside
the actual gate.
·
The steps used to be of uneven shape and uneven
count. Some of them used to be long and some really short. The height of the
steps also varied a lot. Anyone who is not accustomed to them will have move on
them carefully. (Yes, this I too have experienced. Half the time of my trek I
have to see if I’m gripping the right step )
·
The turns
within fort used to be short and sharp. In case the enemy enters the compound
with huge animals like elephant, it would be hard to manage them in such short twist and turns.
·
The way to main palace in the fort generally
included five to six underway and all this had some three inlet with only one being
correct (This sounded me exactly the same way we have in some of the video games)
Next time whenever I will trek any of these fort, I will
surely remember to appreciate these facts of our ancient technical
advancements.
And one more thing, never leave any lecture in between. You
never know what must be in store as soon as you leave J
