This is my take on an old essay topic “Visit to a historical place”. This piece has been floating in my mind in various versions since a long time – a few years at least.
We lived in Jodhpur during my 7th and 8th grade. Jodhpur is famous for its Umaid Bhavan palace and Mehrangarh Fort. The post is about one of my many visits to Mehrangarh fort. For anyone who wants to read the history and architecture, I suggest you google for it.
“Leaning with my back against the wall, I was listening to the guide describe the architecture to a group of foreigners nearby. As I had come here often, and knew much of the facts for myself, I realized that the guide was simply conning the group. It happens surprisingly often.
Just then, I heard a loud “What nonsense!” from my left. I turned my head, but there was no one nearby. I thought I dreamt that noise, so I turned my attention back to the group and silently laughed at the foreigners.
“The idiot doesn’t know what year the fort was built, and he’s telling it like he laid each stone brick himself!” This time I hadn’t dreamt it. Again I turned to the left and asked “who’s speaking? Is someone there?” As it was a blank wall, I didn’t really expect a reply.
“Can you hear me?”
I nearly jumped when I heard that! I asked back, “Yes, but who are you, and why can’t I see you?”
“You can see me, but you don’t know that I can talk. That’s always the case with people!”
Now I was scared. Hearing a disembodied voice is scary to anyone. But the voice didn’t sound scary. It was ancient, slightly wheezy, as if a very old man is lying on a charpoy and talking to a group of little kids.
“If I can see you where are you?”
“I’m right beside you. Embedded in the wall.”
“You mean you were buried in the wall? How are you still alive?”
“Not buried you idiot! I’m part of the wall! I’m a stone brick on your left, the one with a stupid heart graffiti.”
“Okay. The joke is over. Who is it? Who’s playing the prank on me?” How can a brick talk? I looked around to see if I could see someone was laughing at me. No one was.
“You fool, it’s not a prank. I can speak all the time. But people don’t have the ears to hear. I myself am surprised how you can hear me today.”
“You can talk all the time?”
“Yes. We bricks talk to each other all the time.”
“All the brick can talk?”
“You know it’d be much faster and easier for both of us, if you didn’t ask stupid questions, and repeat everything I say!” The brick seemed to be getting irritated.
“I’m sorry” I said. “But I’m still trying to come to terms with a talking brick. It just goes against everything I know and have learned so far.”
“Do you know everything? Is your learning over?”
“Umm…no!”
“A big fallacy of humans is that they refuse to believe anything that they haven’t been taught. You too are still refusing the possibility of a talking brick, and yet here we are talking to each other.”
“But you still haven’t answered my question, how can the bricks talk?”
“I can’t answer the question, as I don’t know the answer myself! What I do know is that all objects, living and so called non-living, can talk. The real mystery is why you can’t hear us. Beings of lesser intelligence can hear us better than you humans can. Perhaps it is your intelligence that inhibits you from hearing the voices of other objects in nature.”
“You mean like monkeys?”
“Monkeys, birds, ants, and many many more! Why do you think a bird will build its nest on a particular ledge only, when there are so many available? The bird can hear the sympathetic brick or stone calling it. Ants too will walk over stones that allow them. Nature is about collaborating, coordinating and coexisting. Humans on the other hand believe in control. That’s the reason why this or any other fort was built. Or any other house, or hut or dams or bridges are built. People think that the earth exists so that it can provide for them.”
The brick didn’t have very high regards for people.
“But people brought you here, and laid you here, made you part of the wall of this great fort.”
“Yes, but for their own purpose. Unlike birds, they didn’t care whether I wanted to be brought here, and chipped and broken into their idea of perfect shape and size. That was 500 years ago. Since then I’ve got accustomed to this place, and like it here. But there are some of us that still cry for the deep valley and jungle where they were put by nature herself.”
“500 years? So you are that old? You must be knowing so much about the fort and its rulers.”
“I’m much older. A couple of million years at least. But in my present brick shaped form, yes I’m 500 years old. We bricks do not have the complex intelligence to comprehend ideas, but we are extremely good timekeepers and memory preservers. So I do know everything about the fort and its rulers. There is a lot of truth in the saying ‘Even walls have ears’, but we seldom spill our secrets. We are not allowed to change the course of history with our knowledge, but merely remember it.”
“So what do you know about the fort?”
“I know the first stone that was installed by Rao Jodha. The first stone is always the most auspicious of all. The royal priest selected the stone from a quarry not far from here; even I’m from the same quarry. He said that the sun shone in the stone. The stone himself claims to have been blessed by Krishna.”
“You mean Lord Krishna?”
“Yes. But that’s not true. While he may have been more blessed than others, no Lord Krishna or Rama or anyone came close to our quarry in the million odd years that I’ve lived.”
“How do you know? Maybe you couldn’t recognize the god.” I wanted to believe that this fort was connected to Lord Krishna in some way.
“Son, we stones are much better judge of humans that humans themselves are. Since we live so long, we learn to recognize people and their personalities by the vibes they give. If any god or saint came near us, we’d immediately recognize the divinity.”
“So that stone is lying?”
“No, but he’s conceited. He was touched by a great saint, who worshipped Krishna.”
The conversation went on till closing time. I had sat down as my legs had started aching. The conversation was so absorbing, that I had forgotten about food and water for those few hours. The brick told me about the wars fought, the bravery of the soldiers, the love of the people for the kings, the intense rivalry of brothers. His descriptions were so life-like, that I was transported to the scene of action.
“Its late now”, the brick said. “Time for you to leave.”
“I’ll come again tomorrow”, I said. “We’ll continue this talk tomorrow.”
“We’ll see.”
The next day I got ready at 8 a.m. My parents were surprised, as usually I liked to stay in bed as long as I could. I rushed to the fort just in time when the gates and ticket windows were due to open. I bought the ticket, and rushed to the wall.
“Hi there. I’m back.”
Silence.
“Are you still sleeping?”
More silence.
“Come on, wake up. I came so early just to talk to you.”
Still no sound. Meanwhile, the morning guide was giving me strange looks.
I thought I’ll come again in 5 minutes. So I took a small stroll, and came back to the wall in 5 minutes.
“Come on, why are you silent today?”
I persisted with my efforts to get the brick to talk back. After about an hour I understood that today the brick will not talk. Maybe yesterday something happened to me that enabled me to hear and talk to the brick. Today I was no longer in that same state. Even though we spoke only for a day, I felt that I lost a dear friend.
I started to leave.
As I was walking back, I saw a girl near another wall, giggling by herself. She too was talking to someone invisible. I realized that today it was her day to hear the rich history from a different brick.
A small smile played on my lips, as I walked back to my home.”
