Taking a break from all the Rajasthan trip postings to talk about a recent trip to Sinhagad.
I have been having this urge to visit Shinhagad and enjoy its famous 'Zunka-Bhakri' and KandaBhaji and so we planned a half day trip to Sinhagad yesterday. Aim was simple : food. Ah well, I had also planned to try out my hand at some manual controls of my camera, while Mandar was going to spend time with the monk.
I will write separately about Sinhagad and its history, today is all about what happened.
The climb from the car park to the main yard is not too difficult and we made our way up steadily, with me clicking away to glory. Some school kids were running up and down the stairs, shouting 'gaD jinkala' meaning 'we have conquered the fort'. When they saw me clicking the pictures they promptly demanded that I take their pictures too. :) They jumped up and down looking at the images. Watching them happy with such a small thing made me realise once again, how simple it is to find joy. Whenever they bumped into me on the fort one of them said 'Hey aren't you the one who clicked our photos' ...So cute.
After a good climb always comes a good meal, and we had a yummy one. Tasty Zunka with hot bhakri, with the best dahi from mud pots. Its so wonderful to have lunch with your shoes off, sitting under the cool shade of tree, with a strong, pleasant breeze fanning the sweat of the climb off you. It was simply great.
Post meal Mandy pulled out his book and I got my Olympus for taking some pics. As the 'Mausi' who gave us our meal was clearing the plates away, Mandy suggested that I go ahead to walk around th place. Hehehe ..Mausi was stunned .. wondering how I was going around alone. Ah well ...I started roaming around clicking here and then there ... and soon enough I had a bunch of 'fans' wondering what I was doing. The men stared at me wondering what a lone female was doing walking around the place with a camera in hand. Did no one tell them that we are in the 21st century for god sake. There were the inevitable eve teasers who managed to slow their pace as soon as they saw a single female. As every female learns, I have mastered the art of ignoring such people.
The best one was yet to come though ... A small boy ... not more than 7 approached me and started questioning me. Yes questioning! The first bullet was 'What are you doing here ?'. I didnt know whether to be amused or angry. He wasnt convinced when I told him that I was just roaming around. He further grilled me as to where I was from, why I was taking the pictures, what would I do with them and back to the first bullet. This time around I shot back 'What's your problem' .. the fellow so very innocently replied 'Nothing..but tell me why are you here ?'. I just sent him on his way.
It been a long time since I did something so independently and despite my 'fans', I loved every moment of it.
But the question keeps coming back to me. What is it about a single female that makes people so curious ? What do you think ? Please share your experiences, thoughts , comments
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