Sunday, July 3, 2016, as usual, came for my travel expedition to unknown places, some of which I have never heard of and others of which people have never seen before.
I planned to capture some shots of ruined places this time, so I Googled the names of particular sites and was excited to find that there is an old fort near Hoshiarpur. I quickly planned a few things, packed my bag, started my vehicle, and throttled through the road with a thought of how it might feel in old decayed places.
According to my, Ruins are architectural places, which are now losing their identity day by day, the famous buildings are repaired continuously so that they can remain in their intact form, but the voices of less famous ones are just deserting in the barren air. Nobody is taking care of those buildings. According to the world, they don’t even exist.
Bajwara, A small village near Hoshiarpur, previously a fortified town, is a wonderful place to visit. It is also housing a fort named Bajwara fort.
The place Bajwara was discovered by Baiju Bawra, a renowned singer and immigrant from Ghazni. He gave the town its name “Bajwara”. While I was going I was hitting nature with my camera. The climate was excellent. The pure and invigorating air was blowing.
The fort here was built by Raja Sansar Chand in the early 19th century but was taken by Maharaja Ranjit Singh in 1825. The British also used it as a prison, but after some time, they dismantled it. Since then, this fort is degrading day by day into the despair of his own, and trying to figure out to spare some time for its debris to vanish completely.
As I was about to reach Bajwara, I found nice locations, with farmlands, greenery, horses, vegetation, and a grey-clouded sky.
Due to the extraordinary weather conditions, I choose to take a 3 km walk to reach Bajwara, rather than hiring a taxi, also I will be able to click a lot of pictures which might interest me as well as the viewers.
After walking a few meters, I saw a name post saying Bajwara which made me feel like it was calling me to share her sad story.
As I reached there, I saw nothing. I was a little disappointed as a picture of a big fort was already encrypted in my mind and my eyes were searching for that so-called virtual image. But my luck was no good. I asked a local about the fort, he then pointed toward a building. I saw a small structure, that’s the fort, but with only two small bastions.
I was able to listen to the silent weeping of the fort, saying continuously “Please save me, otherwise the time will kill me one day”. The walls were broken.
The vicinity of the fort was covered with only wild grass, about the height of my shoulders. At first, I thought to enter the fort through the long grasses, but I feared any reptiles or wild insects.
So I keep circling the fort to find any gateway which can let me in. In the meantime, I found a bird and tried to take a shot of it. It took me about an hour time to take a click because the birdie was very spry.
Anyhow, I met a boy named Vikram Kumar, who is an engineering student, who made it possible for me to reach a safer distance near the fort so that I can take some snaps of it.
He also provided me with the details of the fort which I had already expressed in the history section. I also came to know that the fort was previously been reconstructed by the Indian Government, but for the past few years, no maintenance work has been carried out.
The fort, which was a gem of the past is now transformed into a widow without any happiness and glow on her face.
I hope someday people will compel our Government and that it will listen to the calling of our heritage site one day that the progress lies in not merely running towards saving bigger rich monuments, but the old ones too need much care to be taken of.
India is a secular country where every person has a right to live, despite their wealth or caste. Our heritage sites, our past, our monuments, old buildings, and our shadow is the most important part of our lives. That’s why these precious things cannot be judged just by their age whether to be taken care of or not. This poor fort has now left nothing, but broken walls and that also is being vanished day by day, and I am damn sure that the day is not far away when this Bajwara fort will only be seen in a few lines of High School history books.
Bajwara is a nice countryside place to visit, with beautiful scenes to have a look at. Hope the voice of the fort will reach the world and remind them that with the growing technology they are just leaving behind something which has to have been taken care of anyhow, to answer our future generation.
