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| Gwalior Fort |
In
the early 1940s Gwalior was small town though it was the capital of the Gwalior
State, one of the bigger states – in the same league as Mysore and Hyderabad
with the Maharaja getting a 21-gun salute. A rich state, Gwalior was ruled by
the Scindias, the collaborators of the Marathas who ruled over Delhi, albeit
for a short while. Descendents of the legendary Mahadji Scindia who happened to
have sacked Bengal, the Scindias ruled over a pretty big area that covered not
only Baghelkhand, Bundelkhand but also parts of Malwa. Mahadji’s loot of Bengal
was reportedly stacked up in the Gorkhi palace that later became a school run
by the State where my three elder brothers studied up to the secondary level. Legends
had it that shovelling off a little bit of earth in the palace grounds would
occasionally yield precious stones.
Like
Gorkhi, another palace was converted into an educational institution, this time
it was a degree college for women. Next to it was an adjunct to the Palace
which too was converted into a girls’ school where education used to be free.
My sister did matriculation from this school. The Scindias were progressive and
had placed emphasis on education, especially girls’ education. Madhav Rao Scindia,
the great grandfather of Jyotiraditya, was a forward-looking prince who ran a
kind of administration that came in for praise by bureaucrats who served much
later in the government of Madhya Bharat and, on its merger with it, of Madhya
Pradesh. Madhav Rao built some magnificent structures in the town and elsewhere
in his kingdom. It was he who had the
Tighara dam, as indeed several others, built to provide water-security to his
people in the capital. After a hundred years the citizens of Gwalior even now
are making use of it.
Like
Gorkhi, another palace was converted into an educational institution, this time
it was a degree college for women. Next to it was an adjunct to the Palace
which too was converted into a girls’ school where education used to be free.
My sister did matriculation from this school. The Scindias were progressive and
had placed emphasis on education, especially girls’ education. Madhav Rao Scindia,
the great grandfather of Jyotiraditya, was a forward-looking prince who ran a
kind of administration that came in for praise by bureaucrats who served much
later in the government of Madhya Bharat and, on its merger with it, of Madhya
Pradesh. Madhav Rao built some magnificent structures in the town and elsewhere
in his kingdom. It was he who had the
Tighara dam, as indeed several others, built to provide water-security to his
people in the capital. After a hundred years the citizens of Gwalior even now
are making use of it.
***
A
recent pullout of a national daily on property matters mentioned the Special
Development Area that is colonizing Tighara near Gwalior to create a
“counter-magnet” for the National Capital Region. Reading about it launched me
on a nostalgic trip down the proverbial memory lane. Images from the childhood in
Gwalior jostled around and prompted me to record them for whatever they are
worth.
Tighara
is a few kilometres out of Gwalior, Tighara was way out of town those days,
beyond the low hills in the west behind which the sun would go down every
evening. It was mysterious for us children as we were told that the place was
infested with tigers. In fact, reports of tiger-sightings on way to the place
and at Tighara itself used to be common. I could see from our terrace over the
second floor on summer nights occasional lights of vehicles climbing down that
lonely road. I still wonder whether they were the lights of vehicles of shikaries who went that side and beyond
looking for big game.
It
had a huge body of water created by damming of a small river by the name Sank. A BOAC sea-plane that used to fly
between London and Sydney would regularly land on the Tighara waters in the
early ‘40s. Among other places that it used to touch in India were Karachi,
Allahabad and Calcutta. Our house used to be in its flight-path and, hence, it
was an object of much curiosity as it flew past. I was still a very small child
when the family was taken once in some acquaintance’s vehicle to the Tighara
Dam. We walked on top of the dam from where we could see virtually an endless
expanse of water. As there was a very strong breeze blowing, I recall, holding
on to my mother. A little later, lo and behold, the sea-plane came in to land,
touched down with what appeared to be a massive splash and taxied for some
distance before coming to a halt. Boats went out to fetch the passengers, crew
and the cargo. It was exciting for us children to have watched a plane land on
water – perhaps a rare sight in India even today.
Nonetheless,
the latest reports suggest that Nitin Gadkari, a minister at the Centre has
plans to introduce sea-planes again to connect places that have remained
unconnected so far. It seems to be a good proposal as many of our important and interesting towns would then be opened out to the world
Photo from internet
(To be continued)
Photo from internet
(To be continued)
***
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