Faces of India – 351 Travel Guide Chanderi
Faces of India,
Faces of India is a series through which I intend to portray the various characters of my country whom I met during my travels. I bring back souvenirs, frozen moments from my travels, why not some memories of people I have met and interacted during the travels. Faces of India is a weekly series in my blog since MARCH 2011. See more here…
Travel Guide of Chanderi
During our tour of Chanderi Times Passion Trail team had arranged for guide services of Mr. Muzaffar Ansari. Popularly known as Kalley Bhai, he has rich knowledge about history of Chanderi.
Our tour of Archaeological Museum of Chanderi turned out very interesting and a good learning experience because of him. He explained the stories of the several sculpted images of Hindu Gods and Goddesses on display there. His explanations are meaty, peppered with humor that kept us interested throughout the tour.
Mr Ansari is an approved guide of Madhya Pradesh Tourism and member of prestigious INTACH group. Do reach out to him if you wish to have a fruitful tour of Chanderi.
He has contributed several of his own personal collection of old coins to this museum. Besides being a travel guide he is an expert in weaving too.
During 2010 National Games, winners were gifted with angavastram (a kind of stole) instead of the traditional bouquet of flowers. 100 weavers from the villages of Pranpur and Chanderi in MP were involved in making these. Mr Ansari claims he too was a part of this weavers’ group.
I love this idea of featuring people that you’ve met while traveling! It’s impressive how you’ve kept this series up for almost a decade as well! Mr. Ansari sounds like an amazing tour guide. It’s easy to clearly remember the best guides even years later. It’s very interesting that he’s a weaver as well!
A tour guide with a sense of humor is what I like. Of course a good knowledge about the places. And Mr. Ansari is one of them. Sounds like a great person!
I would love to just sit there and listen to all of Mr Ansari stories. I bet he has sooooo many full of historical gold.
Love tour guides that sprinkle some humor into it. I’m also impressed that he even donated some of his own coins. It really shows his dedication and love!!
I love when you find an amazing guide for a particular town or region. It totally enriches the experience. I love that Kalley is so passionate about his work. I’ve definitely had guides similar to this and it is really nice.