This is my first blog where I am writing about a failed attempt to discover something new. Well not exactly new as it was already well investigated by a professor and also had been highlighted in some newspapers and online magazines. I wanted to pick up where the professor had left and waned to create a detailed blog about it.
The month of January gifted me with an opportunity for an extended holiday and I knew where I would like to spend it. With all bags packed I reached Ranchi on a very cold January morning. Five layers of clothing still wasn’t enough to keep out the cold, the last time I had so many layer of clothing was in the year 2014 when I was at Lachen – Lachung.
The first person that I call is Aftab, my good old trusted driver. He has by now understood my taste when it comes to a vacation and do not question much and on the contrary he gets pretty much excited to join the bandwagon in my search.
I was in search for the presence of Extra Terrestrial beings, I had been a fan of Erich Von Daniken right from my childhood when I was gifted a book called “Chariots of the Gods” by my father. I was in class three then and was sure that we were not alone in the universe and that much before our existence there were people or beings who had visited this planet. According to the books there were many cave painting which were centuries old where people in space suits and space crafts were clearly depicted.
I had read about such stone drawings around Ranchi in a place called Piska Nagri, there was a stone where two large footsteps were craved and next to it was a carving which resembled a person with wings. The locals believe that the Pandavas once roamed this place while some are convinced that these are the foot prints of Ram and Lakshman.
I wanted to look at this from the eye of Erich Von Daniken as to me the locals centuries ago had drawn these by seeing the Extra Terrestrial beings. There were also some geometric patterns on rocks nearby which had perfect geometric patterns which could not have been achieved without any expert knowhow.
I was also trying to get in touch with the professor who had initially reported this to the world couple of years back. Unfortunately, his responses were mono syllabic with “Yes”, “No” etc. I had requested him many a times over email to let me know about the exact location but somehow I did not receive any concrete response.
It was then I resorted to my own research sources and managed to narrow it down to a locality which lies in the outskirts of Ranchi some 30 – 40 Kilometres away from the main town.
On a bright blue Sunday morning I start my adventure with my wife Smita, daughter Rianna and Aftab the driver. Aftab was more excited me than him, the reason being that he had got many clients who got his mobile number from my blog and his business had flourished so much that he had a new bigger car now.
After driving around 45 minutes we reached a village called Piska Nagri, with no other details I had to use my old trick in my book, go to the tea shop and break into a conversation over a cup of tea. This way you don’t look authoritative and do not scare the villagers who are anyway always on the edge due to the heightened Naxalite problem.
After a cup of tea and few Barfis I finally take out the piece of paper with printed photographs of the location that I am trying to look. After few nods I finally get an old gent who confirms its presence some 2 kilometres left of the shop into the interiors of the village taking the dirt road.
At once we set to find the location, after driving on dirt road for around ten minutes we reach a concrete gate to a temple. According to the villagers the site is right up ahead in between the farm lands.
All around I could see sugarcane, mustard and peas growing, surprisingly this part of the state is extremely fertile. It is then my wife pointed out to the unique landscape. The farm land was in a valley and this was not actually a valley but a river which had dried up leaving behind the fertile soil.
Some of the villagers were working in the fields thus I approached them first, my Hindi is more from a city dweller thus most of them could not understand me that clearly. Seeing this my wife took over the situation, as she is from this state she is well accustomed to the accent and nuances of the local version of Hindi which is a mix of Sadri.
These villagers informed us that there were some stone structures around five meters away in between the fields but these don’t exist anymore now. I was stunned for a moment and re enquired and to my horror they repeated what they said first.
Apparently the stone structure has been removed and in its place now there is a well. The villagers have actually no issues about the stone structure going missing since they have a well which provides fresh drinking water for the villagers.
In disbelief we go towards the well where the stone structure once stood. It all now comes into place, there are lots of stone quarries all around the location and these are obviously owned by the strong men of the locality and they do not want to make this into a worship spot as this would harm their business.
This was the first time I had failed in something which I had planned and decided for so long, equal disappointment was seen in the eyes of Aftab as he is so accustomed to new discoveries that this failure was something which he refuse to believe.
Just to be double sure he took us deeper into the village and surprisingly these villagers were not even aware of its existence.
A good friend of mine told me that the motto of his life is to “See the world before its lost”, this is perfectly applicable here, we must see these before they turn to dust…and I mean real dust.
Final disclaimer, I am assuming that I have reached the right spot in my investigation, since I was not informed about the exact address thus this is not a closed chapter but … (It will continue someday).