My cousin from Patna was to visit me in Hyderabad on the new year eve (2009) but ditched me at the last moment. Having nothing better to do i thought of going somewhere outstation. So i opened up the India page on Wikipedia and the first thing that i saw was Ajanta & Ellora in the Aurangabad district of Maharashtra.
Instantly images of my schooling in Mussoorie and Mr. Rajeev Rautela teaching us history flashed. There was an opportunity to visit, feel, and touch history (i guess i was confusing it with Khajuraho somewhere) as against reading it in boring textbooks.
I quickly booked my tickets on the last available passenger train shown by IRCTC. Printed the tickets, and the information on Aurangabad district (including some maps) and rushed home from my office (Deloitte). Packed my Samsonite backpack and ran to the local Serilingampally railway station.
I got up by seven in the morning and started looking at the papers after having my tea. I realized that Aurangabad has seen history like no other state. Several years ago a meteor fell in this area and created a big crater - i guess atleast 60-80 feet deep, and more than half a kilometer in diameter. This was one of the four unique places in the world.
Lonar was the name of the place but visiting this piece of geographical history would require me to get down at an unknown small town - this was Partur. I didn't go to Aurangabad.
Well Partur is much smaller a town than my home town Ara (Bihar) i guess. Outside the station i was becoming the center of attraction though i can assure you am not that great to look at. :) Not many people go to Lonar.....and for sure they don't go for that crater.....they go there only if they live there.
I had a Sony camera with me but that was not good enough to capture the huge crater (and lake) .....whatever got captured is seen below :)
I used a mix of shared autos, and local buses to reach here. Though this site is now being promoted as a tourism spot do not expect great food and facilities. The local people, however are good and friendly and i guess it is a trait of the west-India.
You know what; even today i have to think if i actually found the Lonar site beautiful.....in fact i didn't. It appeared to me like a big ditch.....and so what. But i still feel the awe when i think of the time when a huge meteor fell........the sound, the speed, the impact....... and it's funny but it also reminds me of dinosaurs (some say they were killed by meteors :))
Today the Lonar lake has become religious. According to my auto-driver-guide there are temples on all its sides which are worshiped at different points in time. I didn't trek down the crater to visit all the temples but i really loved one adjacent to the crater. It had a perennial source of fresh water which was very relieving after the day long travel.
