Baliati Palace, Baliati, Manikganj, Bangladesh
17 March 2010
I was just thinking.... why I haven't written something about this short, but unusual tour...... I was just going through the blogging activities of Joe McNally and thought what do I do that keeps me from writing?....... well, busy schedules aren't gonna be an excuse for myself 10 years later..... thats the time I would ruin it for not managing the time to write this.... if the old man McNally can still do blogging even maintaining his busy schedules, may be I can too....... hats off for McNally!!..... you brought me back to writing!!
the tour was again organised by the hard-working Shudipto.... who can do it better?.... any TTL tour always means it has to be Shudipto...... this was the first time to Baliati for a lot of us..... the place is a bit away from the Dhaka-Aricha highway.... though within the district Manikganj, it is not really adjacent to the Manikganj town..... Manikganj usually takes less than 3 hours to reach, and it was supposed to be something like that for Baliati as well....
our journey was delayed a little because of the late arrival of some of the members....... we had a reserved bus, which probably gave too much comfort to some...... the main journey started from Farm Gate area, though I got picked from near Shyamoli....... it was around 8:30AM.....
the journey was smooth until we reached an intersection before Manikganj and took a right turn from the highway...... we were expecting to take the turn from the Manikganj town, but the driver was confident that he was taking a shortcut, which should cut the overall travel time...... major bummer!!....... we realised quite quickly that these people, the driver and the helper, had little idea about the way..... we soon discovered that the road there was inaccessible because of the breakdown of a small bridge just a day back..... these people were somehow not updated about this accident.... we had to take a detour......... and the detour ultimately ended up nowhere.... we were on a road that was more like a one-way path..... there was no way a vehicle like ours could take a U-turn..... there was a big truck in front of us and we had to step down...... after a lot of quarreling, we ultimately decided to walk....... the locals told us that the palace would be no more than 20 minutes' walking distance....... it was very warm.... but we were energetic and desperate enough to walk..... it was around 10:30AM when we began to trust our feet.....
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| From Baliati Palace, Manikganj, March 2010 |
through the green carpet of Nature....
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| From Baliati Palace, Manikganj, March 2010 |
betel-tunnel!!
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| From Baliati Palace, Manikganj, March 2010 |
oh ho..... I left my money in my other pocket!!
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| From Baliati Palace, Manikganj, March 2010 |
looking back to future?
the walk was pleasant actually..... we mostly walked through paved village roads shaded by greenery..... vast farmlands, rows of betel-nut trees and bamboo orchards provided us enough entertainment...... we walked slow, enjoying every bit of it....
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| From Baliati Palace, Manikganj, March 2010 |
enter the glorious past.......
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| From Baliati Palace, Manikganj, March 2010 |
pillar of evidence.......
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| From Baliati Palace, Manikganj, March 2010 |
don't cry for what you've lost.......
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| From Baliati Palace, Manikganj, March 2010 |
this is no time to forget your past.....
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| From Baliati Palace, Manikganj, March 2010 |
under the veil of tradition........
we all reached Baliati Palace between 11:00AM and 11:30PM...... the first time I stepped through the gates there, I got amazed.... I saw the pictures of the palace and imagined it to be big..... but seeing with own eyes makes a big difference.... the palace is divided into several distinctly separate sections.... as if the sections were made in separate times..... its quite obvious actually.... the designs are similar, but they do follow a pattern of similar choice.....
anyway, I spent some time on front of the palace...... most others were exploring the back of the palace...... till then I had little idea of what was behind the palace.... so, I kept looking for opportunities to have some interesting frames.... the light was bad to say the least..... it was harsh like anything..... I had a hard time keeping my eyes open..... after around 15 minutes, I slowly moved to find my friends at the back of the palace....
once I was there at the back, I found peace!!...... well, the place was in the shadows and the shadows were cool enough to make us feel all the comfort!!... after a hectic journey and walk, this shade provided us with a great relief!!.... and did the shade on provide us relief?..... definitely not!!...... the front side of the building was bathed in mid-day sunlight, whereas, the shadows at the back revealed all the marks of time....... all the designs and textures exposed themselves to make us crazy to do some photography!!....... and guess what, we all started portrait photography!!...... we went there to shoot archaeology and architecture, but we ended up making ourselves models!!...... we started to have all the fun!!
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| From Baliati Palace, Manikganj, March 2010 |
textures........01
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| From Baliati Palace, Manikganj, March 2010 |
textures........02
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| From Baliati Palace, Manikganj, March 2010 |
tunnel-vision......
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| From Baliati Palace, Manikganj, March 2010 |
stairs of darkness.....
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| From Baliati Palace, Manikganj, March 2010 |
its been long since they left.......
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| From Baliati Palace, Manikganj, March 2010 |
the lonely window......
we moved around and discovered different sections of the palace.... each section had its own beauty in design, texture and play of light and shadow.... we went crazy and a great photofest began!!...... as far as I can remember, this was the first time we really concentrated on shooting portraits of our own forgetting most other things.... it quickly became one of the most interesting photowalks ever arranged.....
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| From Baliati Palace, Manikganj, March 2010 |
intruders!!
we continued to shoot to our heart's content until we began to feel our empty stomach.... we took some great group shots and started to move out..... lunch was not too far from the palace..... though not very exotic, it sufficed to fulfill our stomach.....
we moved right after we finished our lunch..... the whole journey took us through enough hurdles to convince us that we should move early.... our bus took a circuitous route to arrive at the palace from another direction; the direction that we thought we would follow in the first place..... so, the route confirmed, we boarded our bus just before 4:00PM........ the return journey did take us that long.... we were at Dhaka by around 6:30PM.....
as said, this was one of the most interesting photowalks ever..... the place had all the surprises there to make us think differently!!...... I just can't wait to go there again!!
here are some of the portraiture from the tour..... all were available light shots...
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| From Baliati Palace, Manikganj, March 2010 |
model: biju
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| From Baliati Palace, Manikganj, March 2010 |
model: shudipto
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| From Baliati Palace, Manikganj, March 2010 |
model: shudipto
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| From Baliati Palace, Manikganj, March 2010 |
model: saud a faisal
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| From Baliati Palace, Manikganj, March 2010 |
model: muntasir
