Ruined Beauty - Dundlod, India

Traveling sure has a unique way of projecting light on different angles of life. Only yesterday I was living in a historical fort. Not lying! So I had a wonderful opportunity to learn about the conservation of historical monuments, standing tall till date. We, as in me along with my college mates, attended a workshop on the process of working with the architecture from the past.

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For this, we went to Dundlod, which is 150 km away from Jaipur (the place where I'm currently studying). It is a town in Jhunjhunu district that comes under the Shekhawati region of Rajasthan, India. The place is known for forts and havelis. The town was such a beauty. All the remains from the past were visible in the form of material and the life lived was left to the imagination.

So the Dundlod Fort built in the 17th century is a Rajputana Fort. Now it has been turned into a Hotel for people to experience the hint of how it felt to live in the grandness. Today, we live in the brick and cement homes which is far different from the stone and lime plaster, materials used to build the homes. It was an entirely different experience to stay there for a couple of days.

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Witnessed some beautiful sunsets :)

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The place had a very "beautiful & damned" aesthetic to it. The architecture and artifacts were evidence of the presence of the grand life that rulers once lived there. The remains take you back to imagine the life and the role architecture and space design had in unfolding the course of lifestyle the way it did. Experiencing the space made me realize the huge role that design plays in our lives. It is pretty difficult to explain how I felt there.