It was all by chance that we, my daughter and I explored Jhansi, a small city of Uttar pradesh. We had planned to visit Madhya Pradesh, another exotic state of India, from Uttar Pradesh to view the world famous Khajuraho Temples. Since we took a cab from Allahabad, we had to halt in between and significantly Jhansi falled in place. Although we were supposed to reach the place by 2:30 p.m, but due to heavy traffic we landed at 6:30. Since, it was evening, we avoided travelling, with in the city, taking all the precaution a discerning traveler should take while in his/ her tour.

Next morning, we got up early, and were ready by 8 am in the morning. Since we were hungury (My daughter, cab driver and me offcourse), the first thing that we did was to head towards the city center. Unexpectedly, Jhansi is a very small city and it has nothing like city centre....all you have is clumsy set of shops. Any ways, while having our breakfast, I came across a person named Anand. To me he appeared like anyother person, but as I spoke to him, I was impressed. He was a travel writer. He told me the various tourist destination in Jhansi like Jhansi Fort, Rani Mahal, Maha Lakshmi Temple, Ganesh Mandir and many more.

Since we had very less time, we planned to cover the major tourist attraction of Jhansi . The first one on the list was Jhansi Fort. The fort of Maharani Jhansi has strategic importance since the earliest of times. It was built by Raja Bir Singh Ju Deo (1606-27) of Orchha on a rocky hill called Bangra in the town of Balwantnagar (presently known as Jhansi). The fort has ten gates ( Darwaza) .Some of these are Khandero Gate, Datia Darwaza, Unnao gate, Jharna Gate, Laxmi Gate, Sagar Gate, Orcha Gate, Sainyar Gate, Chand gate. The Jhansi fort, a living testimony of ancient glamor and valour, also has a fine collection of sculptures which provide an excellent inside into the eventful history of Bundelkhand.

The next was Rani Mahal. It was once a palace of Rani Lakshmi Bai, a great queen and a warrior. Adorned with multi colored art and painting on its walls and ceilings. Presently this palace is converted into a museum. The mahal showcases massive collection of Sculptures of the period between the 9th and 12th Centuries AD, housed here by the Archaeologral Survey of India.