LalMahal

  The word LalMahal explodes emotions within me. The first headquarters of the Swaraj (Liberated land). This is the palace Shivaji came to when he returned back from Bangalore to run the Pune jahagir. This is the place that he knew well.  So well that he could enter it 30 years later for a Mission Impossible to assassinate an invader called Shahiste Khan who ha destroyed thousands of temple in Pune and was using Lal Mahal as his base camp.

LalMahal is literally a stone’s throw from Shanivawada. I went in there with the same expectation that I have gone to forts in the Sahadri: To be able to trace the steps of Shivaji. To be in the same 3 of the 4 cordinates as him…

The building looks promising from the outside.

The inside is hollow. Nothing remains.

The busy kitchen Shivai entered one evening disguised as a guest of a passing marriage march. Gone.

The staircase that he cautiously climbed unsheathing his sword. Gone.

The hallways he tiptoed looking for the sleeping giant. Gone

The door he threw open. The bed he rushed to. The startled monstrou silhouette. The flash of the Bhawani at the window. The bloody sill with the decapicated finger. Gone.

Just gone.