Sivasagar: The Maze To Architectural Excellence

Culture is lifestyle, the preservation of it is known as tradition. What does our mind think when the word 'culture' is uttered? Some would say food, art, attire or maybe many things. I wish supporting love would also have been a tradition of humans someday. It is something more than just materialistic things. Carrying the breakfast in our bellies, we had headed towards the main road of Sivasagar to explore the places and probabilities we had previously heard of. RIP my failed alliteration! The rain was still coming down reluctantly, like a shy bride smiles at the deeper-than-ocean eyes of her groom while finding the lost ring in the rose-petal covered milk of the wedding game. Up in the cloud-filled sky stood up our purple umbrella, strong enough to protect us. We had to take a tempo from the ASTC area to The Rang Ghar that costed us 30 rupees per person. We often have had heard the saying- time expands with work. The same way goes around when it comes to adjustments during trips.

Adjustment expands with ability to have fun.

We did not have the facility of booking a cab, or were unaware if they even had it there. But that roaming around in the local transport system had set the perfect vibe for exploration energy dynamics. We had been complaining a lot lately because of the hotel scam that had taken place. The first impression was not very good. But again first impression should never be considered as the last impression. That is not how it works nowadays. As the real friends were once not liked. The people who leave were once loved madly. So when we saw the first glimpse of The Rang Ghar all those complaints had gone away. It felt different. The entry fee was 25 rupees per person. The gate had been jeweled with two golden dragons on the sides. The Amphitheatre was massive and had a very rich architectural vision. At first we were unable to find the way to go upstairs. The stairs were made in such a way that nobody would notice them because they would be too distracted by the greatness of the main building. We had to take a whole round around the structure to find the way up and finally had success dropped into our hands. We went up and could not stop admiring the architectural intelligence of the people of that era. It was a true undefinable art. There were two fountains which were not functioning at the time of our visit, but added a ton of beauty to the whole view from above. There was a tiny bridge across a small water lane with lots of zooplanktons which I think would be great for the photogenic guys.

While admiring the whole plot of wonder, my partner had my mouth open due to temporary shock that he had never seen water hyacinth flowers. I mean they are everywhere. Even The Rang Ghar could not make it to NCERT books but the water hyacinth plants could. So there was a whole pond outside The Rang Ghar property where he could lose his senses to the beauty of the cluster of purple flowers of those foreign water plants. While reading the information carved on the marble boards by Archeological Survey Of India (ASI), we had come to know that the king had enjoyed the animal fights and other shows in the amphitheatre. There were structures demonstrating bull fights in front of the structure. The literal meaning of Rang Ghar is house of entertainment, which justifies the demonstrations standing on the front yard. While we had been taking a lot of pictures in the same pose, seeing the wonders by our own eyes had added some out-of-the-box unexplainable essence to the experience. The toilets were hygienic and the property was maintained beautifully.

The eyes do not see what the mind doesn't know.

There was a structure looking like a dead tree. When we went near to see what purpose it had served to be deserved to get preserved, we actually were mind-blown. The tree was not real. It was made of rod and cement; the algae and lichens which had grown over time made it look like a real dead tree. There was proper explanation provided by ASI about the description of every notable feature of the structure. It is better to read it first so as to be able to see it.

While most of the population among our batch had always chosen Shillong for an escape from the exhausting life, we had randomly planned to visit Sivasagar. The plan had the motive for some exposure to variants of our culture, for some enhancement of the capability to be happy with whatever life has to offer, for some escape from limitless availability of options- for we strongly had believed the heart knows where it goes.

We had walked out of The Rang Ghar premises to move to the next destination. The raindrops were now bouncing like ping-pong balls. We had to pull our pants up above our knees. I had a plastic sandal on my feet so had not much worry in my bucket. My partner was wearing shoes and they were wet and damp like anything. Even after all these discomforting factors we had no plan to give up. The excitement and the undefeatable eagerness to see and learn more had certainly got our back. Holding hands, we had entered the way to The Talatal Ghar. While we were happy to bless our eyes with the not-so-famous Gola Ghar, we were disappointed to see the huge lock on its entry gate. Here is a picture we had clicked from between the rods of the gate.

We had finally reached The Talatal Ghar after a long walk along the roads covered with green dense vegetation. We had been delighted with the way the red petals of Krishnachura flowers had covered the ground near the parking area. The entry fee was again 25 rupees per person. The first thing we had noticed that the entry and exit paths were similar to Taj Mahal. An additional information for the noobs like me- The Talatal Ghar and Kareng Ghar are the same, but Google Maps shows their locations to be different. So do not get confused with such pieces of false information. There was a long narrow shallow water body in between the two ways. We went at the top of the structure to feel the fresh air and the openness of the place. Nobody had been allowed to go to the ground floor as there had been stories of people going there and never be able to come back. It is more like a maze as had been built for the enemies to stay confused. One unique detail we had noticed that all the structures of historical importance in Sivasagar seemed to be symmetrical but actually were not. There was also a temple which had minimalistic carvings on it. While roaming around inside The Kareng Ghar, we could spot a pond behind the building. It was relaxing to stare at it and bow down to your own breathing pattern. The security however had been pretty annoying as he would blow his whistle for no reason. Also this monument deserves more maintenance and attention.

We had completed our Talatal Ghar tour with some photos to cater for memory folders. My partner had bought some cute puppy keychains for his sisters as gifts from Sivsagar. We then had headed towards the Uttaran Museum which was a small walk away from Talatal Ghar. There was not a big crowd and therefore was able to maintain peace inside. The entry fee was 20 rupees per person. They had maintained it beautifully, we must say. The interior was clean and beautiful. Every piece of the museum was an art. There is a huge collection of different dead reptiles as well as avians preserved inside formalin jars. The wooden sculptures, if someone sits to curate their meanings out, can spend their whole life justifying the perfection of every little detail carved on it. Many things were exhibited but the one incredible thing that had blown my mind was the real python skin. Photography was strictly prohibited inside, but one should never miss The Uttaran Museum in the checklist of Sivsagar trip.

We had finally decided to conclude our first half of the first day with a good lunch at the same restaurant we had visited in the morning. We had ordered chicken masala and naan, and were waiting for it. While waiting for the food, my eyes caught an uncle staring at us. At first I had to let it be, but then he had made me a little uncomfortable. I started staring back at him and finally he had started to act normal; he took his eyesight somewhere else. Our food had arrived after 30 minutes and it was pretty good. We had our lunch and decided to finally implement our plan for that creepy hotel and bring back my pair of spectacles. We went there again; this time with the aim to notice everything like aunties had been doing in our locality since time immemorial. Even the exterior of the building had looked completely different. We had tried to click as many pictures as possible, however I refrain from including them in my blogs so as to avoid negativity towards the place and its tourism business. Me and my partner had contacted the caretaker boy for the specs. It was nice of them that they had kept them safely. Even though we were not going to stay in that hotel, we had asked them again about our room. Not surprised, another couple was using that room while we were away. This time the manager had taken it seriously and finally had started cleaning the room- that had been fun to watch. They had changed the bedsheet and cleaned the bathroom. In fact they could set the trend by recording ASMR videos of cleaning the dirtiest rooms on the planet. The room was not even near to what it had looked like in Google photos. They had somehow managed to upload pictures of a lavish bathroom- fully equipped with a bathtub, clean toilet seat- which was nothing like the real one. They would also have included a jacuzzi if the internet had one.

However we had received an important lesson worth 1200 rupees. This is the reason we should not rely completely upon the internet and book such places beforehand. I also wanted to add my opinion here. Since Sivsagar had been considered a major tourist attraction of Assam, the locals are equally responsible for maintaining the integrity of the industry so as to promote the place even more. Please do file complaints about such shady places and save the image of your place. We finally ran from that place after enjoying the funny cleaning show performed by those two idiots, as we were done with the drama for that day.