I am 45 now, and as the winter chill settles in, a simple act—oiling my head after a shower—triggered a cascade of memories spanning three decades. When I was a boy in a small town in Uttar Pradesh, the ritual of a weekly, sometimes daily, head massage with oil was as common as breathing. My favorite was the potent, earthy scent of mustard oil . I remember visiting our local vaid ji (traditional practitioner), who stressed the importance of this practice, lamenting even then that fewer people were keeping it up. Fast forward to adulthood, and my simple habit met the sharp reality of changing cultural norms. My wife, from a different background, and her circle found the idea of oiled hair "un-stylish." Even when I switched to the fragrant, dark luster of amla oil, the gentle teasing and continuous pressure to conform chipped away at my resolve. Now, my cherished ritual is relegated to an occasional, quick application, washed out within hours. Where Did the Oil Go? As I drov...
Google is an amazing thing. It tells us things which we cannot know otherwise. My latest conquest of mine is a result of curiosity developed in me by Google baba. I was finally able to arrive at Kutlehar Fort near Una, Himachal Pradesh. This fort is better known or more famous as Solasingi Fort. But why it took me seven years to reach this place is in itself an interesting story. Please hold on with me. Somewhere in 2017, when I was working in an immigration company WWICS, and while on a break and at my wife accomodation at Shri Anandpur Sahib, I was searching happishly for a place that is near to our location and makes for an interesting historic place. Our location in this situation was Shri Keshgarh Sahib, Shri Anandpur Sahib. I fingered the historic places near me in the google chrome search on my mobile phone and it showed me a place called Kutlehar Fort somewhere around 40 - 50 kms from where I was. At that time we only had a motorcycle, Bajaj Platina and we could make a round tr...