To conduct a field survey I was required to go to Sabalgarh, a small town, 70km from Morena town, of Morena district in Madhya Pradesh. It was quite different from the fast life of Delhi and was a pleasant break from it :-). My good friend, Amit Bansal is from this town, so I stayed with his family. They have a very nice house and an electronics item shop by the name Janhit Enterprises (If you happen to visit there and buy something, I can get you some good discount ;-)).
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| Janhit Enterprises and its very friendly owner: Manish Bansal. |
I was surprised to see the lifestyle of people there, if you want to have a glimpse of how people lived in medieval India, you should visit rural areas of Sabalgarh. Almost every person has a tika/tilak on his forehead. All men over 50 wear dhoti and keep moustache. I was surprised because I have not seen people wearing dhoti since I was five and even then I could count them. The rural folks, still, are highly religious, their lives revolves around religion. Big gatherings happen on religious events. An even I witnessed was a community lunch and the menu was sugarless rice pudding (kheer), guldana (sweet bundi/or just a sweet) and potato curry (alloo ki sabji) and that's it! no puri, roti or anything. It was very funny but eat sabji alone with your fingers and if you find it too spicy start eating kheer and guldana together. The combination of sugarless kheer and very sweet guldana, I only found in this region. It was revealed later that a new temple was built and it was inaugurated by reciting Bhagwat Geeta. Though it was crowded but it was a pleasant experience including the taste of food!
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| A Bhandara (community lunch) near Atar village in Sabalgarh Tehsil |
I then went on to see the Chambal river, there is a ghat (river bank), near a village called Rahoo so it is know as Rahoo ka ghat. It was a tumultous journey to the ghat but the scene was breathtaking and very soothing. Few people were catching fish and I took bath in the cold water of Chambal (I do not recommend the bath, it is treacherous and can be fatal). Geomorphologically, there were potholes and worth a notice (see in the video below). It was amazing! All in all, sabalgarh is a small town with its indigenous way of life and my journey to this town was memorable. In a sentence it was worth it!
Rahoo ka ghat
