i decided to travel into interior maharashtra, accompanying my husband (who was traveling on work), more out of curiosity than with any agenda. i have grown up in pune, but never really gone around maharashtra, except for a couple of visits to nasik, nagpur, mahableshwar and of course mumbai… he needed to go to beed, latur and parbhani, all small towns in the interiors of a dry and arid part of the state! i traipsed along, with my camera and eyes waiting to see what comes up!

at Beed, a small town with a 1.6 mn population, i wandered along the roads trying to find out what was there to ‘see and do’, but there isn’t much, it’s just one big dusty road – all that remains of a once pretty town from the mughal period! with a busy husband and lots of time to kill, i wondered what to do… so asked the local rickshaw-walla to tell me whats nice in his town. he recommended this temple.

we bumped along a kaccha road away from the town centre to this small but scenic k temple – probably built in the 13^th century (but no clear understanding of that). an old building standing in the middle of a pond, in an otherwise dusty and dirty town. it seemed to be a place where people came not only to pray but also to just catch up. there were local boys sitting by the pond, with feet dangling in and sharing stories from the day, a woman worshipper who walked in quietly, prayed and went away… and some old men lounging around and watching the evening grow.

it wasn’t thronging with people the way most temples seem to be today – almost a centre for business & deals rather than peace & prayer. far from the hustle-bustle of the main roads, this was an oasis of calm, a quiet pause in the mad hustle around!

for a traveler, this was a wonderful place to chance upon. a beautiful spot in an unexpected place, almost hidden from the roving tourist’s eye, but a place that has stood through time and probably will for much longer than us.

as beed grows up into this big, noisy and ‘furnished’ with big glass-faces building, this temple remains the same – a quiet and restive spot. while i might not visit beed for this temple, I will always carry the sights and sounds with me. forever.