Stone and Moss

16th September 2025, Ajinkyatara Fort, Satara

For the imaginative, it is a sure-shot attention trap. At the edges of most older cities now overflowing with billboards and honks, far away on a hilltop looms a fort. Looms is the right way to describe it because flashiness was never its calling card. Through lashing monsoons and splitting heat, the stones stayed put. It was there, whenever the need arose, to absorb all shelter-seekers from the rapid enemy advance, its ramparts manned by archers and its gates locked shut. The occasions for which it was designed are now long gone but it continues to draw the faithful - some for their exercise, some to dangle their legs off the edge and some simply there to gaze out on the city king-like.