Culture Waali: 2017

26 December, 2017

25 December, 2017

03 December, 2017

29 November, 2017

20 November, 2017

13 November, 2017

04 November, 2017

03 November, 2017

02 November, 2017

31 October, 2017

30 October, 2017

22 October, 2017

17 October, 2017

11 September, 2017

02 September, 2017

21 August, 2017

08 August, 2017

03 August, 2017

30 July, 2017

18 July, 2017

17 July, 2017

14 July, 2017

12 July, 2017

Corom Night

| It's a Carom night for some |
Saw this site at CR Park today.
As my #culturewaali self wants to know the origin of anything and everything,

🤔 so I searched for it.

🤓
Interestingly The game of carrom is believed to have originated from the Indian subcontinent.

🙀 There are other historians who also believe that the game has Burmese or Portuguese origin.
Carrom has been played for nearly two hundred years, although games of a very similar nature have been played for thousands of years under a variety of names.
Although no concrete evidence is available, it is believed that carrom was invented by the Indian Maharajas.

🤴🏾
One Carrom Board with its surface made of glass is still available in one of the palaces in Patiala, India.

👀
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I am a Phillumenist.

Phillumeny (also known as Phillumenism) is the hobby of collecting different match-related items: matchboxes, matchbox labels, matchbooks, matchcovers, matchsafes, etc.
So since My secret collection of Matchboxes is not a secret anymore. I would like to share some of these beautiful boxes with you all.

You will ask What’s so hot about matchboxes?
Well, for one thing, they’re an expression of popular art. And for another, they commemorate events that will eventually go down in history.

19 June, 2017

Tughlaqabad, A must visit space.

Tughlaqabad Fort is a Must Visit Heritage/Historical Place in Delhi.
Its a beautiful space where you can leave the crowded city and enter a zone of solitude. You can become a child and run up and down the fort ramps where once royal Sultans live. I imagine richly decorated Elephants and horses and Sultans on their back on this land. You can walk amongst wild grass growing around the ruins, discover broken city walls, and walk over the mound and click pictures on the top of the mound over looking the neighboring area.

BEST TIMES TO VISIT: Morning 7:30 AM onwards

BEST WAY TO REACH: If you are coming from Gurgaon, take MB Rd and after crossing the intersection of Batra Hospital, drive on for another 2 Kms and on your left side you will see the massive walls of the Fort. Tughlaqabad Fort complex on MB Rd has adequate parking space for those in their cars.
Nearest Metro Stn is Govindpuri, on Violet Line (Badarpur Track) and a 5 Km Auto-rickshaw ride will bring you to the Fort. DTC buses ply on Mehrauli-Badarpur Road with regular frequency.

ESSENTIALS TO WEAR & CARRY:

1- Do wear a good pair of walking shoes since there is a fair amount of climbing up & down fort walls & bastions and rocky paths.
2- Sun-shades/Rain-shades depending upon weather

18 June, 2017

The Cursed Tughlaqabad

Tughlaqabad Fort was built by Ghiyas-ud-Din Tughlaq, the founder of Tughlaq Dynasty of Delhi Sultanate of India in1321. He established the third historic city of Delhi, which was later abandoned in 1327.

The historic city of Tughlaqabad and the Tughlaqabad Fort goes to the period of the Delhi Sultanate (AD 1191–1526). The Tughlaqs (AD 1321–1414) who followed the Khiljis (AD 1290–1321) were great builders and the city of Tughlaqabad and Tughlaqabad Fort were their first major architectural achievement.

The official signage at the entrance of the fort.

The Fortified wall of Tughlaqabad Fort

The story behind the foundation of Tughlaqabad is an interesting one. Ghazi Malik, the founder of the Tughlaq dynasty, was once a slave of Mubarak Khilji, the last Khilji sultan. One day, while walking by the area where the Tughlaqabad Fort is now located, Ghazi Malik suggested to his master that the rocky prominence would be an ideal site for building a fort. The Khilji sultan laughed at his slave and suggested that the slave build a fort there when he became a sultan. When Ghazi Malik, as Ghiyas-ud-din Tughlaq, founded the Tughlaq Dynasty in 1321, he did just that—Tughlaqabad is Delhi’s most colossal and awesome fort, even in its ruined state.

The fort of Tughlaqabad was completed rapidly in a short span of four years (1321–25). The fort’s massive battlements and bastions (some as high as 15–30 m, built of enormous blocks of stone and walls 10 m thick in places) do not look as if they are the handiwork of mortals. Within its sky-touching walls, double-storied bastions, and gigantic towers were housed grand palaces, splendid mosques, and audience halls. The city lay on the eastern outskirts of the massive fort.

Tughlaqabad is a formidable reminder of Delhi’s embattled past and the terror and valour associated with that period. It was a period of political unrest and the Delhi Sultanate had to face a number of attacks from hoards of marauding Mongols, who descended on it in waves from the north. Ghiyas-ud-din, in order to counter the Mongol threat, repeatedly routed them and raised pyramids of enemy’s heads and used elephants to crush the captives to death. The massive fortifications of Tughlaqabad, with immense circular bastions, were raised by Ghiyas-ud-din to protect his subjects.

The way leading inside Tughlaqabad City gate

Remains of Tughlaqabad City

Remains of Building from the Past

Remains of the Abandoned city

There are a number of legends associated with Tughlaqabad. It is often said that the skulls of the killed Mongol marauders were used in the construction material of this awesome fort.

The demise of Tughlaqabad was not brought about by any foreign invasion, but to the curse of a Sufi Saint Nizam-ud-din. The legendary quarrel between the two started when Ghiyas-ud-din Tughlaq did not allow his people to work for the saint on the construction of a Baoli (step well). This angered the saint. A protracted tiff followed, which offended the saint and led to his famous prophecy “Hunuz Dilli dur ast” (Delhi is yet far away), for the sultan was then out in Bengal. He made another ominous reference to the sultan’s fort when he remarked “Ya rahe usar, ya basé Gujjar” (Either it remains deserted or be peopled by men of the Gujjar tribe). Both these prophecies proved true. Ghiyas-ud-din was killed at a place near Delhi when a shamiana (canopy, marquee) collapsed over him during a reception arranged by his son. The sultan could not reach Delhi alive. His successor chose to build his own fort and deserted Tughlaqabad. It soon became a haunt for the Gujjars tending their cattle within the abandoned fort of Ghiyas-ud-din.

Ways Leading inside the Abandoned city

It is also believed that the death of Ghiyas-ud-din Tughlaq was engineered and plotted by his son. One story describes that Muhammad bin Tughlaq (Ghiyas-ud-din’s son and successor) killed his father by building a false wooden balcony, which collapsed and killed Ghiyas-ud-din. The son murdered and ascended the throne of Delhi, thus making the prophecies of Saint Nizam-ud-din come true.

Visitors at the Remains of the structures

Tomb of Ghiassuddin Tughlaq (View From the Top of a mound )

View from the top of the Mound.

Wanderlust