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The glitzy world of Indian film-making, especially of the Bollywood variety is far removed from the Mughal empire. No, never mind the peculiar portrayals of emperors and their lives in movies, but the real thing.

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When I first visited the Morena region nearly fifteen years ago, with a focus on the sites of Mitaoli, Padhawali, Bateshwar and Kakanmath, those sites were little-known. Today, while those four see plenty of visitors,

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The first thing that comes to mind when one thinks of Morena is a picture of heavily armed dacoits galloping through the Chambal badlands. Given the area’s past history of dacoit infestation, that picture is

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It was in the monsoon of 2006 that I first made the journey to Mitaoli. Back then, the drive from Gwalior took longer, parts of the road’s last stretch resembled Balakot after an IAF visit,

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Readers may wonder how the heritage of Khandagiri and Udayagiri, a favoured family destination just outside Bhubaneshwar can qualify as ‘hidden’? Sadly, while hundreds of people converge on these stunning sites over a weekend, few

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The first time I saw Sreedhar, he made a peculiar gesture – of sniffing at me. When I asked him the reason, he said he was making sure that I was not wearing any ‘scent’,