Mandu on my mind

HORSE-RIDING, CYCLE TOURS, CONCERTS AND MUCH MORE... THE THREE-DAY MANDU FESTIVAL SHOWCASED A SLICE OF THE BEST THIS ANCIENT CITY OFFERS. THROW IN ITS RICH ARCHITECTURAL SPLENDOUR AND YOU KNOW THIS IS A DON'T MISS HOLIDAY DESTINATION

- Anasuya Basu

#MANDUAAO,

#mandumekhojao. These hashtags kept doing rounds in my mind as I stepped out of the airport into a waiting car to take me to the ancient city of Mandu in Madhya Pradesh, also known as the City of Joy. I was part of a group invited to experience the Mandu Festival, organised by the government of Madhya Pradesh.

A two-hour drive from Indore and some sugary tea later at a roadside dhaba, the car finally entered the sleepy town of Mandu, about 29km in area with a single lane going through the town. After a bumpy ride and some confusion as to where exactly our experience of the festival would begin, we are all taken to a very rustic set up by the Sagar Talao or lake.

Here, under a giant banyan tree, lunch had been organised of local delicacies — crab soup, green lentil curry, local pilaf, country chicken curry (karaknath chicken), maize flour cakes roasted on open fire of dried cowpat and paddy stalks, corn and spinach curry, millet flatbreads and some beer to beat the heat.

Savitri Bai, a local farmer, was supervising the making of maize flour cakes called paniya and flatbreads on the chulha (firewood oven) in the makeshift kitchen as her other women relatives expertly kept stacking the freshly-roasted paniyas and flatbreads on a plate. “I have never been to Delhi. I was told people are coming from Delhi to see how we live in a village. I grow maize and millet here and during festivals when city folks come here, I get some money for preparing local food and hosting guests,” Savitri said breaking into a smile and pointing to her low roofed mud hut and adding that the walls of her home and the courtyard had been freshly plastered with cow dung as is the custom before a householder receives guests for an occasion.