Travelogue -Basar

Reference: http://www.oyewiki.com/travel/travelogue-basar-27-5-2017

We travel to whole lot of new places mostly metropolitians, cities full of pompous skyscrapers boasting of high class and diverse ethnicity. I happened to travel to this very small village, some 250 kms away from Hyderabad in december 2012, unexpectedly for an overnight stay over there. It was a spiritual bliss! Wary about how I would adjust there, the prejudice of it being a village was killing me! Ok , somehow I boarded the train that went there and the six hour journey with the locals taught me so much in life. Those conversations in their dialect showed genuinty, concern and the truest form of happiness heavily contrasted by the city life!

Sitting besides the window, awestruck by the nature's beauty and richness, I wondered how these villagers managed to keep the environment protected, free from greed and their lifestyle, void of luxuries, did indicate their devotion towards the mother Earth. Those hours of journey in the train might be the best hours where I breathe the purest form of air!

The locals crowded in the train for short distance travel amidst stations, all were so co-operative with each other, I could see six sharing a single birth! There was something mystic or pious about the rural life that gave you a sense of immense pleasure, maybe euphoria! I don't know, it was so exotic and intoxicating that you could simply make out the difference from the busy urban lifestyle! It was one of the best way to destress you.

So, I reached Basar that evening, the village so simple amidst lush green forests, a hoard full of tempo drivers had come in to take their passengers to the hotels, each one immersed in their job happily. When travelling you could see so little construction and villagers happily chatting! Oh, how much I hated the corporate lifestyle and the conjusted cities ,and those people made me feel jealous!

I checked into a dharamshala (a word there used ,for many tourists to stay together) to get an experience of it. You must simply live once there in your lifetime. It did represent a chawl like in mumbai, though scared of how I would spend my night in that single room, but there was a sense of security there. The dharamshala had all the rooms surrounded around a big verandah were kids were playing with their mothers gossiping! The typical village scenario was played in front of my eyes. Geysers were not present there, hot water there was given daily only at 4 in the morning, then you had no option but rise early, though the musquitos troubled you all night! The hotelkeepers were so friendly and helpful,they had treated me like a god!

That morning the visit to the temple was amazing ,villagers had come in large groups, irrespective of caste or creed you could here the divine music from the shrine. The inner peace it gave you was unbounded. Describing the architecture was a must. The temple was made fully of granite, it too had a dome structure with beautiful carving of many gods and goddesses. The garden in center of the temple had a huge garden well maintained and the best part of it were the hundreds of steps that had to climbed to reach the inner shrine. I got to talk with many villagers, shopkeepers there, made friends with different kinds of people from all over India, with varying economic strata. When you mix with such kind of people you get a sense of belonging. Maybe they had much to offer us, how small we were in front of them is the only realization.

I could say that, given a chance I would love to visit such a place again, an experience unforgettable with loads of memory to cherish and an important lesson learnt: Money can't buy you happiness, nor can it buy you peace. It was important to respect your traditions and maintain your culture, especially your environment and ultimately, Simplicity was the only sophistication!