In the Land of Love and Lust- Khajuraho!

Khajuraho is the name that tilitates, invigorates, and regenerates thoughts to the weirdest of corners of the mind that is humanly possible and going by the graphic details there...sometimes perhaps even not. My weekend trip to Khajuraho was much looked forward to for this very reason-to bask in the glory of being inane and downright dirty(for lack of a better word) in contemplation and deeds and blame it on the poor city.

While I went there with the gates of my mind open to newer visual stimulations...my dearly beloved had a horde of other ‘openness’ that he desired to experiment with. Although knowing his ‘undercover’ tendencies, well wishers had already cautioned him against attempting the nasty and some had even proposed pre-empted orthopaedic appointments. Thankfully we whisked past any such tragedies that may have struck... yup, thank god for small mercies!

The moment you enter the boundaries of the city, you are jolted by an unexplained electric charge in the environment. The serenity of the plush natural greenery and the haunting stillness of the carved figures of the temples, almost beckon you in a sexy way. It’s as if these sculptures which have been witnessing stuff from centuries...are oozing with stories to tell but confined by the limitations. Nevertheless, in their own way they hollo in a voice that is at once alluringly sweet as well as poisonously evil- a challenge that says come, witness and dare...

So after checking into the hotel, the butterflies in my stomach began to spread out their wings and flutter...I was aching to get out...to explore...to empathize and to experience...and so I had to literally and physically pull out the men to venture out of the rooms...oho...don’t get me wrong by the usage of the term ‘men’ used solely here...yaar unke biwiyan bhi saath the...no full bloodied married man would dare to come to khajuraho minus his better half...for obvious reasons!

So along with corporal pressure, I also reasoned with them... ‘Oye bahar niklo yaar....some adventures should materialize out of the bedroom too...’
Although it was wholeheartedly and with a fanatic fervour debated upon by my dearly beloved. Here...confession time...purely for your ears my dear readers...my hubby is most unnerving in such situations, for he comes up with thoroughly testing queries at these crucial moments like.... “Yaar holiday ka kya fayda hain phir?” Or “Yaar maine shaadi kyon ki hain phir?” And all I can do at such enduring requests is to gape with astonishment at him...and give him a murderous look of the eye that says.... ‘Get that cute butt out of the bed right this moment or you won’t be getting ‘it’ even after returning....”. So there dearly beloved has no choice but to oblige. Like I said...thank god for small mercies!

Anyways, the temple sight is beautiful in all its majestic splendour, with acres of sprawling green gardens interspersed with these stones and architectural marvels. At the very onset, we hired a guide. It seemed as the most sensible thing to do as we hoped he would have a better idea of what exactly was happening in those postures and what was the arm and what was it not...although we thought it should be...being positioned so strategically!
From one sculpture to another we moved about with intense concentration that could put even a thesis student to shame...we didn’t want to miss the commentary or the glimpse of gravity defying stunts so blatantly displayed.
Along with those, were our own whacky takes on what we were seeing and the dumb giggles we could not control and also that saliva drooping down the men’s mouths...for here was something better than porn...finally! And as a dear friend of mine so profoundly observed... “The sculpting seems dubious...they have made certain things way too large as per proportions and some others way too small as per the expected size”. Now please show mercy on me for this and don’t demand an explanation.

And in this way the mystery unfolded... The guide dabbed in a bit of history as to how khajuraho received its name...meaning ‘khojo apne raah’ – to look for your own path....How truly befitting! The temples were built by the Chandela dynasty and depicted the lives of the royals and the yogis...the Kamasutra was just a miniscule part of it. But their depiction on the walls of these temples has rendered the dynasty immortal.

The guide lost most of us in between, in his translations of the war descriptions or the household activities. When we reached the Kama sutra bit...all eyes were wide open and alert again....and I had to literally push up the chin of one of the guys in the fear that the mouth wide open, might devour more than it’s intended to.

The guide spoke of how the royals were men of great influence and to please them would be the ultimate goal of any full bloodied and bodied female of the kingdom. So while He took one ahead of him with his manhood, another two stood on each side being stroked and yet another one behind him with her hands wrapped around his torso in a fulfilling embrace. ‘Phew’ went our reactions...While most of us were wondering about their flexibility...some brainy ones marvelled at their stamina and insatiable quench for physical pleasures. We were barely out of gasping when just below that sculpture was another carving that pretty much pulled the ground from under our feet. It was a man with a horse doing what the figurines seemed best at!

The fact that the guide mouthed the activities in such explicit details in Hindi, it added the spice to the flavour, invoking child-like guffaws followed by smug hushing from all of us. A seven year old kid in our troop was hushed too and taken aside by the wary mother, to keep her suitably out of curious questions that the little one might breathe out later and god knows in whose presence!

There were women with women and leaving behind the concept of threesomes as outdated were five-somes and much more. The arms and legs were twisted in such complex amalgamation, that the guide had to warn us not to attempt any of those. Yup I retorted....after a bit of attempt to resist.... ‘Please do not try at home without adult supervision...and if no adult around...call me...I’d be happy to watch and advice...’
Hmmm...not really...on second thoughts!

So there...my sojourn of the land of love and lust...it is quite a place...marred in patches due to lack of maintenance...nevertheless...stimulating enough to raise many questions in the mind of the traveller who passes by them. Such questions that perhaps have no answers...such questions that attempt to make you question your premise...such questions that take you on a road to self discovery within your own interpretations! You leave back the land to return to your base but the hangover persists for a long, long time!