Murshidabad, a name that brings back memories of long forgotten history classes in school, of Nawabs, their lavish lifestyles, of treachery and debauchery is in fact today a pleasant and quaint town on the banks of the river Bhagirathi. Unfortunately, though a historian's delight, it does not figure prominently on the normal tourist map of most people. In fact, couple of my friends in Kolkata were surprised that we are taking a multi-day trip to a place which could be covered in a day's tour. Nothing is farther from truth. We thought of giving it a try when my parents did not somehow endorse our idea of going to the hills for a vacation during the last Diwali. Adventure being out of question and now nature also shown a thumbs down, we looked at Murshidabad, which is just 5 hours from Kolkata, for a 3 day trip.
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| The serene Bhagirathi |
After having done quite a bit of research, we took the Teesta Torsha train till Khagraghat Road. However, a better and more convenient train would have been the Hazarduari Express which leaves Kolkata at around 6 in the morning. We reached Khagraghat, on the same day at around 7 in the evening and we moved straight to Hotel Manjusha in Lalbagh, which is a calm and quite lodge, just near the Imambara and Hazarduari. The hotel, which also figured in the Lonely Planet is a very budget hotel with no luxuries to talk about. The place is good for touring places in and around Lalbagh, though hotels in Murshidabad town and Berhampur are more preferred by tourists. The hotel staff were very helpful and the owner, Mr Utpal Sarkar is a nice gentlemen. He happens to be a hobby botanist and has some rare plants/trees to show. We particularly liked the Rudraksha tree which somehow has borne fruit in such a hot environ. He also has got some Sweta Chandan [White Sandal] trees. The hotel though could have done better in terms of hygiene and hence, having your own bedsheets/linens would be better.
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| Hazarduari |
We commenced with our site-seeing the next day starting with the area around Hazarduari. Our first stop was the Palace itself. The Hazarduari Palace. As the name suggests, it is
supposed to have some 1000 doors. But in reality only 100 of them are
real and the remaining 900 are false and their primary purpose was to confuse any possible
intruders. The palace has now been converted into a Museum and houses a
lot of paintings, furniture and glassware from the Nawab's reign. The
most popular among them is the chandelier gifted to the him by the
British and set of looking mirrors. The mirrrors are placed in such a way that
one cannot see ones face but others looking at the same
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| The Imambara, in front of Hazarduari |
mirror can see
them. This was placed in the palace in some strategic location as a
safety measure. We then took a Tonga to go around the city spots. Unfortunately, our horse seemed to in its last stages of his functional life and we moved at a very slow pace. So the lesson learnt was, "look before you jump....on a tonga". Still, the one who enjoyed the trip most was our 3 year old daughter who found it amusing to be driven by a horse. At this slow pace, we visited the Jafargunj Kabarstan, Mosque of Azimunnisa, the Rajbari, Kathgola Bagan, Parasnath Temple and lastly the Jafar palace. We found the story of Azim-u-nissa very intriguing and we all thought, not about the princess but the doctor who prescribed her that medicine of eating human livers. At the Kabarstan, I just prayed for peace for her departed soul. We moved next to the Kathgola Palace, which would easily take around 2 hours if you want to move around leisurely. In fact, you should not try to finish this in a hurry. We took around an hour and a half and were struck by the beauty of the place. We all were also engrossed in visualizing what would have been that place at the peak of its glory. The sad part is that a lot of the art collections have been stolen. In one such incident some 20 odd paintings which could not be taken away because of their size were simply destroyed by the thieves. Still, the place has an aura around it and the the Parshvanath temple inside the complex is a nice tranquil place and is a nice place to catch a few breaths after the long stroll.
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| Parsvanath Temple |
We returned to the hotel to have dinner and take some rest as the youngest and the eldest of the team were very tired. And fact is.....so was I. We took a long siesta and the cool breeze from the Bhagirathi made the sleep almost dream like and slowly calming our tired bodies. It was not that we walked or moved a lot, but the hot and humid weather made the day very tiresome. We finally woke in the afternoon and took a unique rickshaw to take all of us to MotiJheel. Motijheel, means the 'Lake of pearls'. The Lake has on one side the ruins of a palace. The palace was supposed to have been built by the son-in-law of Alivardi Khan for his beloved wife, Ghaseti Begum. On one side of the palace, lies a mysterious mound of brick and mortar which is rumored to conceal a big treasure. However, repeated attempts to break it have led to disastrous results. A lot of them have been reported to have died vomiting blood. A small tomb also mentions the name of an Englishman who died there, apparently having suffered the same fate trying to break the structure. This however was not scripted anywhere and was told to us by the guide only.
The next day we moved to see the Char Bangla Mandir on our way to Azimganj. This is also a temple which one should not miss for its unique terracotta based murals. The temple complex consists of 4 such small temples and each with its unique terracotta based artistry. Its a must see if you visit that place. I am sure very few would have seen such a beauty. Apparently it was gifted by Rani Bhabani of Natore, kingdom in erstwhile Bangladesh. The other charm of this trip was that the visit was done via a boat which took us through various ghats and over the Bhagirathi. The boatman, a local chap named Suman, thrilled us with stories revolving around the river and showed usremnants of what were once palatial houses of the kingdom's ministers, generals and bankers.
Our overall trip was a success and the place somehow continued to capture our imagination. Our plan was to return to Kolkata from Azimganj the same day but decided to stay back and return by the Hazarduari express to Kolkata, the next day.
This was one of those trips from where none of us wanted to return and everybody was enjoying the peace that surprisingly engulfs the whole city. We promised to return to this place, to have another 'tryst with an important chapter of Indian history'.
We took the morning train from Delhi and reached Jaipur * at around noon. We checked into a small yet cozy hotel by the name of HR Palace. In fact, it happened to be one of most value for money hotels during our whole stay. We checked-in and after freshening up we took a hired cab to take us sightseeing. Our first spot was the Albert Museum, which is a very good museum designed by Sir Samuel Swindon Jacob built for the purpose of a town hall but later converted to a museum. It has a very rich collection of paintings, ivory work, glassware, tableware, musical instruments from the bygone era, scriptures and weaponry. The ticketing counter also gives you the option of taking a recorder tour of the place using a device with an attached headset. Each artifact is numbered and you need to key in that number in the headset device to know more about it. The place is worth a visit. Children will also love the periphery of the place with activities like horse-rides, camel rides and a lots of 
small eateries-on-wheels. The zoo is also on the opposite side of the road and is worth a visit in case you are traveling with kids. It would also be a nice break for them as well as for yourself, before you start off exploring the forts and palaces.
