Ironically I am an engineer by profession. However, a hunt for ancient history and mythology is some thing that gives me eternal peace and satisfies my spiritual hunger. And the best part is, India is a land of spirituality and highly rich in ancient history. The deeper you get into it, the more layers of mysteries get solved. On any given day, be it any day, and when i say, i mean it, you just walk by to my room and say 'Hey Satya, lets go trekking to the ancient temple up the hill, and i will be ready in the blink of an eye ?
Ancient monuments, temples, churches, buildings and places related to mythology and the inspiring stories that have held them for so many years, some facts, some myths, tingle my brain and leave me pondering for hours. Some of them i love to pen down. Some just stay in my head to further share those stories to some one who might be interested. May be one day i will have a collection of such stories that can be shared with grandchildren and their children.
Google maps has been my companion ever since i found myself interested in this. As a google local guide, i take pictures, share them on the map, write a small introduction about it, so that i can come back later to refer it. If i don’t find enough information or the place is not marked in google maps, I create one. That adds to the fun.
One such story that inspired me for a long time was the story of Mary Reed (1854-1943), who was born in Lowell, Ohio, and was detected with leprosy in 1891. She traveled all the way from U.S. to India, and setup a leprosy hospital in the Pithoragarh district of Uttarakhand. She struggled a lot with the local and government authorities and finally managed to setup a hospital and a Church for the lepers where she would treat them free of cost.
The total area of the hospital, Church and her home was more than 100 acres. She became so famous for her work that she was awarded with Kaiser-e-hind medal by the Government of India in 1917. After her demise in 1943 due to leprosy, her children and grand children fought over property disputes with the local authorities, an issue which still remains unsolved.
The entire building now stands as a ruin. The broken roof and cracked walls will tell you the story of how famous the hospital was at one time. The only things that remains intact is the Church that some Christian families continue to maintain. A shopkeeper whose father and forefathers have been there for generations will tell you many such interesting stories about the rise and fall of the place.
Amazed, I stood beside the leftovers for hours, gazing at the beautiful landscape that holds the monument, so calm, so peaceful, a cool breeze gushing through my hair tries to tell me that this place was more than just a picnic spot for young couples at one time.
Google maps lets me be me. While I try to discover the unknown world, i discover a part of myself, our human race, and how we have evolved over time. Today we live in a compete material world, we build cobwebs around us, and then struggle to get out of it, but life has not always been the same. Decades back, people used to spend life in a much peaceful way.
