Ek Mahal Ho Sapnon Ka

🕕6 mins. read

Itni shiddat se maine tumhe paane ki koshish ki hai, ke har zarre ne mujhe tumse milaane ki saazish ki hai!

Kehte hain ki…agar kisi cheez ko dil se chaaho toh puri kaayanat usey tumse milane ki koshish mein lag jaati hai.

Gaur se dekhiye is chehre ko! Yeh uncle ek aisi hi saazish ke shikaar hue the! Aaiye sunte hain is vaardaat ko anjaam kaise diya gaya! (Zyada der tak Sansani dekhna sehat ke liye haanikaarak ho sakta hai!)

Sunne walon…suno aisi bhi hota hai… Daastaan hai yeh ki ek tha naujavaan jo France ke ek gaon ka postman tha!

Baat hai April 1879 ki, when a 43-year old Ferdinand Cheval ( an extraordinary individual!), roz ki tarah apne free time mein, apni daily walk pe nikle the! (Just an 18 miles long walk! Extraordinary, told ya!)

Aur tabhi chalte chalte yunhi kuch toh mil gaya tha…yunhi kuch toh mil gaya tha…sare-raah chalte chalte…par kya?

Jis tarah thokar khaakar log sahi raaste par aa jaate hain, is patthar ki thokar ne Monsieur Cheval ko apne ek bhule hue sapne ki raah dikha di! Fifteen years later, his foot and the stone had reminded him of his long forgotten dream! (See the saazish?) That strange-shaped stone had piqued his interest and with that stone in his pocket, he returned to the same spot and found several similar stones.

And that set him on the path to turn his dreams into reality with the belief: “since Nature is willing to do the sculpture, I will do the masonry and the architecture”

During his daily mail round, he picked up stones and carried them home…pocket se basket, basket se wheelbarrow badalte gaye, but the one thing that remained constant was his perseverance…aur yeh silsila chalta raha, 33 saalon tak! Like all great people, he often worked at night, by the light of an oil lamp!

He spent the first 21 years, building just the outer walls! Built using stones bound together with lime, mortar and cement, the Ideal Palace, combines different styles with inspirations from Christianity to Hinduism!

Out of the numerous iconic phrases hand-carved by Cheval on the palace walls, the most iconic phrase he inscribed on the wall reads “1879-1912: 10,000 days, 93,000 hours, 33 years of struggle. Let those who think they can do better try.” (Could he BE more savage?)

The most remarkable feature of this palace is that, unlike other famous works of art, the architect of Le Palais Idéal had no formal training in masonry or architecture! Based on a couple of reference pictures he had seen on postcards and using his imagination, he built pieces of art that resembled those famous works of art that he had never actually seen! And after 33 years of hard work, he hand carved the following words on one of the palace walls- “The Work of One Man”

So if you ever feel ki akela insaan kya kar sakta hai….remember, binod toh akele hi nikla tha apna naam comments me likhne, log spam karte gaye, #binod trend karta gaya! #binod, also the work of one man (that went viral!)

Jokes aside, my takeaway from this story was- Poori shiddat se sapne dekho yaar, naa jaane kab aapka konsa bhula hua sapna sach ho jaaye! Gaane me kahun toh,

Chal bulleya chalna teri fitrat, rukna nahin tu raahon mein, Khud manzilein tujhe dhundhan aaye, itna asar ho aahon mein!

P.S. It’s the World Tourism Day! Is saal toh nahin jaa paaye, par ek din is jagah ko zarur dekhne jaisa hai! (Adding it to my bucket list now, are you?)