Arindam: - He he he…this fort is an excursion spot for the little school children. See there, all the little students of a local school of Warangal are enjoying themselves. The two young lady teachers, who are leading those little students, look very sweet, but their skin is dusky.
Prady: - Ha ha ha…in this hot climatic conditions of Andhra Pradesh, are you expecting a fair-skinned beautiful lady? How funny!
Arindam: - Hey Prady, do we need to go to that point by walking on this steep staircase? My goodness, the main fort is at the top of this hillock.
Prady: - Yes, we need to go to that top only. See those little school students. They are just running on the staircases.
Arindam: - aah…we are now getting old. We don’t have that much stamina and enthusiasm, which we used to have when we were school children. Anyway, let us go to the top.
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Arindam: - Baah…the architecture of this Warangal is really cool and good. By the way, who was the ruler of Warangal? I mean, who used to stay in this Warangal fort?
Prady: - Actually, Warangal was the main city for the Kakatiya tribe of India. The strong ruler of Kakatiyas was the King Ganapati Deva Raya. This was his fort only.
Arindam: - Kakatiyas? Oho! Now, I understand why the ITC Hotel of Hyderabad has been renamed as ITC Kakatiya. The ancestors of majority of the Andhra people belonged to Kakatiya tribe only.
Prady: - Yes, you are right. As far my knowledge, these Kakatiyas used to rule in this Andhra region till 1300 AD or so. After that, the Kakatiya rulers lost their own power, because the Mughal Empire was expanding rapidly at that time.
Arindam: - Hmm…this Warangal fort looks like a deserted place now. Who devastated this fort?
Prady: - The No.1 cruel King of Mughal Empire destroyed the Warangal fort.
Arindam: - Oho! Akbar has done that…hmm…
Prady: - Dhaath…Akbar was a very liberal ruler. At least in later part of his life, he brought unity of peace and harmony among the Hindus, the Muslims and the people of other religions. The No.1 cruel Mughal ruler was Aurangzeb. He completely destroyed this Warangal fort. At that time, Aurangzeb was ruling this region, while staying in his Golconda fort.
Arindam: - Nevertheless, this Warangal fort was a planned fort. There is temple at this hillock. This building was the watch tower for soldiers. On the northern side of this fort, there was a talaab (lake). On the western side, there was a Gulaab bagh or ghalicha (garden). On the eastern side, there was a courtyard, where meetings were held with the ministers. All the soldiers used to live with their family members on the southern side of this fort. Now, those areas have become slum areas. You can have a nice view of the Warangal town from the top of this watch tower. On the north-western part, I can see some constructions of buildings are going on. Maybe, those areas will become an industrial zone very soon.
Prady: - The Andhra Pradesh government has failed to maintain this Warangal fort as a historical fort. It has now become a lovers’ spot. Look there, the love birds are singing a romantic Telugu song together while sitting inside that temple and that too in this morning hours. There are also bats inside this watch tower. Be careful. I can smell the urine of bats. It is not feasible to enter inside this watch tower too often.
Arindam: - Hey, boss, it is already 10.45 AM now. Don’t forget that we have to catch the train at 1.30 PM today. We need to go to our lodge to freshen ourselves. It will take some time. Come on, let us go now.
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Auto Driver: - Where will you go, Sir?
Arindam: - Warangal market. Is it a shared auto?
Auto Driver: - Yes, Sir. It’s a shared auto to Warangal market.
Prady: - Then, we will give you only 15 bucks. Now, speed up the auto.
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