Another reason to visit UP

Because no one has yet built a functioning time machine..

In UP, there happily co-exist several different eras. Cities like Bareilly and Kanpur are everyday urban areas with motorcycles, malls, multiplexes and mayhem. Travel a little beyond them though, and the visitor can pick and choose what decade s/he wants to experience.
Let's begin with movies. The latest Bollywood release being shown in Badaun was Damini, and doing pretty well, I expect. Only ..it was released in 1993. The last decade-and-a-half apparently never happened in UP.

And then, an astonishing amount of travel is carried out with muscle power-either human or animal.  You have met Basant earlier, and the only taxi-service available in Badaun were the cycle-rickshaws. I loved the way they were decorated.

I of course, photographed one that appealed to the romantic in me, but the predominant theme was macho-gun-wielding-hero. Here is an example.

This road that I traveled on from Soron to Lahare..

I took it to be one of those many ephemeral paths that get created one year to disappear the other. Till I saw these buildings, and realised that I was travelling on an old, old, important highway.

 The structure  in the photo is a rather handsomely built well that's part of a caravanserai. This particular caravanserai was only one of many such along the road, showing how important this route was. This is achingly Ozymandian, considering that I had never before heard of either village

On a happier note, I came across a horse-fair!

 The picture above is the only one I had that gives some idea of the bustle and fair-like atmosphere. But I initially hated it because of that motorbike smack front and centre. What was I thinking? Now however, I think it fits in well with the theme of this post, don't you?

I spoke with the owner of these horses. He had come from the West, he told me..from across punjab and Haryana. Well, in a scene from Kim, it is only fitting that I speak to Mahbub Ali!