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The Elephanta Caves

The Elephanta Caves , located on Elephanta Island, or Gharapuri, about 11 Km off the coast of the Gateway of India, Mumbai, are a UNESCO World Heritage Site. A visit to these caves, excavated probably in the 6 th century CE, is awe-inspiring, and also thought-provoking. Over the years, I have visited the caves a number of times, and also attended a number of talks by experts in the fields of art, history and archaeology on the caves. Together, they help me understand these caves, their art, and the people they were created for, just a little bit better. Every new visit, every new talk, every new article I read about the caves, fleshes out the image of what the island and the caves would have been like, at their peak. I last wrote about the caves on this blog, in 2011, almost exactly 11 years ago. Since then, my understanding of the caves has, I would like to think, marginally improved. Hence this attempt to write a new and updated post, trying to bring to life, the caves of Elephan
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Magic!

On our recent visit to Mount Abu, we walked to the lake to spend the evening. As we were awaiting our turn for the boat ride, a young boy came up to Shankar and said that he would show us some magic tricks. These days, I  don't have much patience with young chaps who accost us at tourist destinations, and would have ignored the chap, but Shankar said, "Come on, let's see what he does."
So off we went, towards a slightly less crowded section of the park, and proceeded to see just what is meant by 'sleight of hand'! Yes, that was a new term that Samhith learned that day. The young boy was so good with it, that we happily paid him more than we had thought of. But a bigger surprise was to come. As we left, I was telling Shankar that I should have taken a video, and suddenly, the boy turned to us and said, "Koi baat nahin, madam, main youtube par hoon. Aap Fateh Khan Jaadugar search kijiye... mil jayega! (Its ok, madam,I am on you tube.Just search for Fateh Khan Jaadugar, and you will find it!). Of course, I came back and looked for the video, and here it is. Unfortunately, it isnt all that clear and seeing his performance live was a hundred times better, but its still worth a look....


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  1. Prateek_bplJanuary 16, 2012 at 2:13 AM

    i had also seen his magic,it was awesome.........the boy is really good with his magic......hope best for him.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anu ShankarJanuary 16, 2012 at 1:29 PM

    Absolutely!!

    ReplyDelete

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