Ahilyabai, feisty queen of Maheshwar
It was when I first came to Bombay in 1990 to work, I got to know of Ahilyabai Holkar. Not much beyond a simple fact she was a queen and that Churchgate junction was named after her, Ahilyabai Holkar chowk. Today there is a marble bust of hers at the junction, with a tacky modern pedestal. Later that decade I got a chance to visit Maheshwar, and I forgot all about Holkar though it was at Ahilyabai ghat that I fell in love with Narmada. Narmada overpowered me so much, that neither the ghat, nor the structures around mattered. But, Maheshwar stood in my mind and heart, as one of the places I most loved in this land. Once again I got an opportunity to visit Maheshwar, in the rainy shravan. I want to see Narmada my dad wished and so a plan was made. We stayed on the banks of Narmada at the new Madhya Pradesh Tourism lodging it was comfortble to do so. We decided to take the boat that evening to the Ahilyabai ghat from where we stayed and told our driver to come and pick u...