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Imposing gates hide the white sprawl of Fort Unchagaon. White, spacious, full of flavour of the days gone by - a true retreat, tucked-away just a few kilometers short of the Ganges at Garh Mukteshwar.
 Last Saturday, saw a group of friends from office pile into cars and leave Delhi on the NH-24 route early at 6am. A quick stop for tea at the Noida Mor petrol pump chaiwala (highly recommended) we were on the road again. Ghaziabad border was at its chaotic best, trucks had narrowed the road down to one crawling lane, but that was OK. The workweek was behind us, the promise of a new place ahead – music, jokes and yes, some snores just melted the distances away. About 120km and 3 hours later, we passed the just-waking village of Sayana and turned into the driveway of Fort Unchagaon.
The Fort at Unchagaon (I really don’t know why its called that, its hardly an ‘Uncha’ or a ‘highground’ and I explored this eccentricity, to no fruitful end), is a classical large Zamindaar house. The buttress on the walls, the cannons at the gate, the stables at the entrance and the tall turrets, though, do lend it the aura of a Fort. It’s a well run property– the main building is painted a sparkling white, the grounds are clean, all the facilities work and importantly the staff is both curteous and eager to please.
We trooped into our very spacious rooms, and soon got together again for racuous games of badminton, carrom and evergreen gossip over tea. Fort Unchagaon is truly a getaway from Delhi - a quiet place to go to with friends, or family with the sole objective of winding down and relaxing. Though the place lacks a pool, there are well kept grounds for catching the Sun or long overdue snooze. A whole host of things to just walk into and discover - the many rooms and aisleways done up with pictures of hunts or portraits, little corners to flop into and yes the main room with its hunting trophies.
 Late afternoon, saw us lying around like crocs, full wih the wonderful food the kitchen rustled up for lunch, then, and everytime forward. The food was Indian, but refreshingly light and tasty and the eating area had a charm of its own. Evening slipped through into the cricket-punctuated silence of the night with us getting into some brainstorming, more games and then just letting our hair down and soaking in some alchohol unbuttoned banter.
 Long conversations, relaxing down to the bone and directionless strolls on the grounds and terraces, would be the hallmarks our trip to Fort Unchagaon. It’s a simple, unpretentious place and really helped us unwind, life hit a slower tempo - it was good for the weekend that we spent there. The village outside is just another small village of UP, busy, dusty and noisy – nothing special there, except some marvellously fresh farm
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