Mera vala Pink
This has to be counted as one of my better decisions in a while. I had work in Delhi for a day on Friday, August 1st. As I booked my tickets, I realised that getting back to Bombay over the weekend would mean that I would be most probably stuck inside my house due to rains. And Jaipur was a city I had never been to. But, if I were to do the weekend trip to Jaipur it would have to be alone. I was ambivalent, but then rose to the challenge and realised that the only way to seal this decision was to buy a return ticket to Mumbai from Jaipur. So, no more excuses of not going :)
I finished my work by around 4.30 pm on Friday in Delhi and made a quick dash to Bikaner house, near India gate. Buses for Rajasthan start from here, every half hour. This small bit of precious knowledge I gleaned from one of my Delhi based colleague, who through his contact even booked a guest house for me for the weekend. I was all prepared to land up in Jaipur, middle of the night with a back pack and look for accommodation. A totally unplanned road trip. The only planning I had done was to check weather forecasts and I knew that it would be raining in Jaipur and hence I had an umbrella packed.
There is only so much Lonely Planet can tell you. The best is to take help of local knowledge. If I were to have followed Lonely Planet to the hilt, then I would have taken a bus to Jaipur from Inter State Bus terminus which would have been another 1 hr and 20 kms away from Delhi. And of course I wouldn't have known where to get the best 'Dal Bhatti Choor' or ' kadi kachori'. Lonely planet helped me prepare and plan the places to see, but the caretaker at the guest house was my mini guide.
As this was an impromptu trip, I did not have a camera and my mobile phone camera failed me at the last minute. So let me try recreating the picture through words :)
I reached Jaipur at 12 midnight and checked into the guest house by 12.30. I had a nice 3.5 hr sleep in the 5.5 hr bus ride. So by the time I slept on Friday night, it was 3 am. My plan was simple. I would tour the city at my pace. So if that meant seeing just one thing a day I was cool with it. I started my walk at around 8.30. The place where I stayed was almost 5 kms away from the old walled city. I stopped enroute at a road side place for some breakfast. Kadi - Kachori and kadak chai. Brillianto! and of course followed up with some piping hot and freshly made Jalebi-rabri. My mouth is watering as I type this. :)
I walked through the Khazane Walon ka Rasta through Mirza Ismail road following the Lonely planet route to the T. I stopped and searched for Ishwari Minar Swarga Sal- A minar which supposedly gives a panoramic view of Jaipur. The entrance is not on the main road, and there are absolutely no directions/ signboards etc. The guard at the entrance offered to give me a literal birds eye view -talk about Jaipur for ten bucks. The stairway to the top is long and winding. It is dark with little sunlight filtering through the narrow openings. There were pigeons who had made the tower their home. I was scared. Seriously. It was pitch dark and I could not see the next step. My mind was just thinking of what I would do if i confronted bats. I had my umbrella with ready to hit anything that would come within striking distance. And the winding staircase was not helping. It went round and round the tower and by the time I reached the top, my head was spinning and I was feeling weird. I sat there for a while and the guard caught up with me. The view was breathtaking. As I saw the Nahargarh standing guard to Jaipur over the hills at the distance, I knew that the view from Nahargarh of Jaipur would be breath taking. The guard quickly pointed to all the places of interest and when he found out that I had been to Bangalore, the topic quickly shifted to terror attacks and he pointed out the places where the bombs had gone off in Jaipur. He told me that the tower was built so that the king could sit and see the houses of the dancers who supposedly lived right across the street. The king had to be a really enthu character to climb this tower to see the dancers quarters, when all he needed to do was issue summons to those dancers. But what the heck, this story is definitely more spicier than the boring story in lonely planet of the tower being built in memory on a prince.
The Jantar Mantar, hawa Mahal and Jaipur palace were so-so. They did not live up to all the hype. Jaipur palace has an artists gallery where one can see artists (painters, wood sculptors etc) at work. One can even buy the displayed wares. A tad expensive. Some of the artists are national/international award winning artists and their work is seriously good. I was done by 1 pm. I Loafed the bazaars, scouting around for things to buy, enquiring prices and grabbed some good lunch in desi ghee :)
The inner city of Jaipur, around the market place area is around 10-12 squares big. The bazaars in the earlier days, and quite the same now, were demarcated basis the artisan group that lived there. So for e.g. Johari bazaar would be more famous for ornaments and jewels. There are many such bazaars - each known for its speciality. I was feeling weird, ( all 'cause of the spiral staircase, I think). I went back to my room, caught a quick siesta and was back in action walking the markets, exploring every gully.
Jaipur is a shoppers paradise.. When I told a friend of mine that I was going to be in Jaipur for two days, she retorted saying, if you are not going to shop, then what are you doing there for two days? I must admit that this is true, at least in part. You have to be there in the bazaars to see it. Footwear, trinkets, sarees, bags, purses, bright colours, glass embedded all glittering in the evening sun. I managed to do some shopping and a lot of bargaining. I am sure that the sellers still made a good cut, but I was happy with my skills, I brought down the prices by a decent amount. Or so I think.
Sunday morning, I woke up to hurting legs. I had made the mistake of not packing shoes and hence was walking in sandals. I had almost walked 10-12 kms through the previous day and had a small blister too :(. Damn, my plans of doing Amber fort and Nahargarh was gone for a toss and I could choose only one and obviously I chose Amber (Pronounced as Aa-mer meaning high). The first sight of the fort was stunning. Standing on hill, reddish-white-pink in colour.Its a ten minute climb by foot from the base to the main entrance. As I walked up, I figured that the pathway looked uncannily similar to the one which Hrithik Roshan takes in Jodha Akbar when he goes to Aishwarya Rai's home to bring her back. I am sure that the shooting of Jodha Akbar would have happened in Amber. I took the audio guide and walked around the fort. The audio guide is a new feature that is available in a lot of languages (English, Hindi, Tamil, Gujarati, French, German and Chinese). It allowed me to tour the fort at my own pace. I had minimal expectations from the guide, as the experience at Jaipur palace was not that great. There was content but no story. It was like reading one of those exam guide books with bullet points. History is not about facts alone. History is about people and about the ethos, about culture and about civilisations. One needs to tell a story. Not dole out facts and dates.
The one at Amber fort a story of the fort, its history, kings, queens (maharanis, pataranis, madhya raanis and choti raanis.. phew I didn’t know that you classifies raanis like this), concubines, conquests, alliances for political gains, queens scheming with one another - against one another etc. It takes you through a journey in time. The fort is regal. It has an ingenious system of water flow to keep the interiors cool during summer and intricate use of mirrors that would reflect light and heat from the lamps in winter to keep the chambers warm. There were some military concepts in the design too. Like all entrances into kings/ queens chambers or into the palace would be at right angles to previous entrance and slightly narrow. This would force the front column of the invading army (if it breached the wall) to turn at right angles leaving the middle/rear vulnerable to attack from guards standing high on columns and watchtowers. There are a lot of such interesting facts to learn in that fort. The architecture is a combination of Mughal and Indian and here too there is some Sherlock Holmes stuff also to do. The sculptors have hidden Hindu symbols like the Sshesh Nag in the motifs which predominantly look Mughal. The Sheesh Mahal or Glass Palace is very beautiful with intricate carvings on glass facades. For the period I was in the fort, I was lost. Lost in the story and history, in the beauty and literally lost in the maze of passages.
I came down the fort and looked back. It stood in all its majesty in the backdrop of the grey sky. Royal. As the couplet goes ' even the beautiful full moon shies away , seeing your beauty'. ( I know this is a very poor translation of the original Urdu couplet which is supremely romantic!). The Rajasthan tourism department, to promote Monsoon tourism was holding a musical concert in the fort at night. Oh what a setting, the fort lit at night (Which looks awe-inspiring, I have seen some pictures), classical music pervading the air, in the large courtyard under the starry sky and we sit on 'gaddas' (mattresses) on the floor. Oh what a setting! It is a pity I had to take a flight tonight.. Waaaaa !! :( I missed Nahargarh, but well, I need a reason to come back.. I have two. Nahargarh and Amber.
As I walked around the old city of Jaipur, I realised how religion centric the life in this city was. It was not even a prominent religious place. I mean Jaipur isn't exactly Pushkar or Banaras. There was a big procession of Bholenath (Lord Shiva) which had elephants, camels, horses, people dancing, women in carrying offerings and the deity on his chariot. The procession was almost half a km long. Not just the temples I saw were also full of devotees. The hoardings and bill boards in the city had ads about all the religious TV shows like Ramayan, Mahabharat, Devi Maa and the new Shani Devta on NDTV Imagine. I don't remember seeing too many ads of FMCG or durables. Yes there were some financial stuff like insurance but it was predominantly religion. I guess this is true of many of Indian towns. The Hindustan Times Jaipur Edition has astrology forecasts on page 2 for half a page. (Sunday edition). I have never seen this before.
The peak season runs from October to Feb/march where tourists descend in hordes. And hence this is preparatory time. So many places like Hawa Mahal, Jaipur Palace, Amber fort were undergoing renovation and were being given facelifts. Just in time for the tourists to arrive. At the fort, kids selling flowers, caps, carvings were hounding all the foreign tourists. Literally hounding. Far from being lured by the wares on display, they were irritated in the humid weather and I am sure, were cursing these pedlars in their own languages.
I think We Indian's are generally fascinated by white skin.( I know its a broad generalisation, but I'm sure you would agree with me at some level) The person next to me in the bus trip to Amber fort was asking quite a few annoying questions to two French travellers. He asked them if the two of them were husband wife, the guy replied no we are friends and are just classmates. This guy was taken aback and decided to keep quiet after that.
These foreigners too take to 'feeling' the indian experience very seriously. They quickly wear sari or salwars, flowers on their hair, bindis etc. Many of them look good but they are unable to carry it off well. But there was this French girl who looked absolutely stunning in a red top, blue bottom and a multi colour pagdi (turban) and bright shiny green earrings. I am sure, every single guy (and gal :)), paused and stared when they noticed her.
My flight will land in Bombay in next few minutes. I don't know if I am rejuvenated or not after this break, but I sure am glad that I made this trip. My legs ache, I have blisters but I am 'happy tired'. In these two days, I got no calls except one from my parents who asked me if I was doing fine. I am generally permanently online and supposedly 'in touch'. These two days showed me that otherwise is ok too. I didn’t have my camera, but I didn’t think I missed it that much. In fact, I now think, that I would have split my attention towards getting nice photographs and good angles that I may have missed enjoying the sights and sounds.
A cousin is getting married in end august down south and I plan to use that trip to make a dash to Kanyakumari. I have never been there. This trip if it happens would also be done alone. I hope to catch the sunrise and sunset over the same beach (unique to Kanyakumari only). Wish me luck!
I finished my work by around 4.30 pm on Friday in Delhi and made a quick dash to Bikaner house, near India gate. Buses for Rajasthan start from here, every half hour. This small bit of precious knowledge I gleaned from one of my Delhi based colleague, who through his contact even booked a guest house for me for the weekend. I was all prepared to land up in Jaipur, middle of the night with a back pack and look for accommodation. A totally unplanned road trip. The only planning I had done was to check weather forecasts and I knew that it would be raining in Jaipur and hence I had an umbrella packed.
There is only so much Lonely Planet can tell you. The best is to take help of local knowledge. If I were to have followed Lonely Planet to the hilt, then I would have taken a bus to Jaipur from Inter State Bus terminus which would have been another 1 hr and 20 kms away from Delhi. And of course I wouldn't have known where to get the best 'Dal Bhatti Choor' or ' kadi kachori'. Lonely planet helped me prepare and plan the places to see, but the caretaker at the guest house was my mini guide.
As this was an impromptu trip, I did not have a camera and my mobile phone camera failed me at the last minute. So let me try recreating the picture through words :)
I reached Jaipur at 12 midnight and checked into the guest house by 12.30. I had a nice 3.5 hr sleep in the 5.5 hr bus ride. So by the time I slept on Friday night, it was 3 am. My plan was simple. I would tour the city at my pace. So if that meant seeing just one thing a day I was cool with it. I started my walk at around 8.30. The place where I stayed was almost 5 kms away from the old walled city. I stopped enroute at a road side place for some breakfast. Kadi - Kachori and kadak chai. Brillianto! and of course followed up with some piping hot and freshly made Jalebi-rabri. My mouth is watering as I type this. :)
I walked through the Khazane Walon ka Rasta through Mirza Ismail road following the Lonely planet route to the T. I stopped and searched for Ishwari Minar Swarga Sal- A minar which supposedly gives a panoramic view of Jaipur. The entrance is not on the main road, and there are absolutely no directions/ signboards etc. The guard at the entrance offered to give me a literal birds eye view -talk about Jaipur for ten bucks. The stairway to the top is long and winding. It is dark with little sunlight filtering through the narrow openings. There were pigeons who had made the tower their home. I was scared. Seriously. It was pitch dark and I could not see the next step. My mind was just thinking of what I would do if i confronted bats. I had my umbrella with ready to hit anything that would come within striking distance. And the winding staircase was not helping. It went round and round the tower and by the time I reached the top, my head was spinning and I was feeling weird. I sat there for a while and the guard caught up with me. The view was breathtaking. As I saw the Nahargarh standing guard to Jaipur over the hills at the distance, I knew that the view from Nahargarh of Jaipur would be breath taking. The guard quickly pointed to all the places of interest and when he found out that I had been to Bangalore, the topic quickly shifted to terror attacks and he pointed out the places where the bombs had gone off in Jaipur. He told me that the tower was built so that the king could sit and see the houses of the dancers who supposedly lived right across the street. The king had to be a really enthu character to climb this tower to see the dancers quarters, when all he needed to do was issue summons to those dancers. But what the heck, this story is definitely more spicier than the boring story in lonely planet of the tower being built in memory on a prince.
The Jantar Mantar, hawa Mahal and Jaipur palace were so-so. They did not live up to all the hype. Jaipur palace has an artists gallery where one can see artists (painters, wood sculptors etc) at work. One can even buy the displayed wares. A tad expensive. Some of the artists are national/international award winning artists and their work is seriously good. I was done by 1 pm. I Loafed the bazaars, scouting around for things to buy, enquiring prices and grabbed some good lunch in desi ghee :)
The inner city of Jaipur, around the market place area is around 10-12 squares big. The bazaars in the earlier days, and quite the same now, were demarcated basis the artisan group that lived there. So for e.g. Johari bazaar would be more famous for ornaments and jewels. There are many such bazaars - each known for its speciality. I was feeling weird, ( all 'cause of the spiral staircase, I think). I went back to my room, caught a quick siesta and was back in action walking the markets, exploring every gully.
Jaipur is a shoppers paradise.. When I told a friend of mine that I was going to be in Jaipur for two days, she retorted saying, if you are not going to shop, then what are you doing there for two days? I must admit that this is true, at least in part. You have to be there in the bazaars to see it. Footwear, trinkets, sarees, bags, purses, bright colours, glass embedded all glittering in the evening sun. I managed to do some shopping and a lot of bargaining. I am sure that the sellers still made a good cut, but I was happy with my skills, I brought down the prices by a decent amount. Or so I think.
Sunday morning, I woke up to hurting legs. I had made the mistake of not packing shoes and hence was walking in sandals. I had almost walked 10-12 kms through the previous day and had a small blister too :(. Damn, my plans of doing Amber fort and Nahargarh was gone for a toss and I could choose only one and obviously I chose Amber (Pronounced as Aa-mer meaning high). The first sight of the fort was stunning. Standing on hill, reddish-white-pink in colour.Its a ten minute climb by foot from the base to the main entrance. As I walked up, I figured that the pathway looked uncannily similar to the one which Hrithik Roshan takes in Jodha Akbar when he goes to Aishwarya Rai's home to bring her back. I am sure that the shooting of Jodha Akbar would have happened in Amber. I took the audio guide and walked around the fort. The audio guide is a new feature that is available in a lot of languages (English, Hindi, Tamil, Gujarati, French, German and Chinese). It allowed me to tour the fort at my own pace. I had minimal expectations from the guide, as the experience at Jaipur palace was not that great. There was content but no story. It was like reading one of those exam guide books with bullet points. History is not about facts alone. History is about people and about the ethos, about culture and about civilisations. One needs to tell a story. Not dole out facts and dates.
The one at Amber fort a story of the fort, its history, kings, queens (maharanis, pataranis, madhya raanis and choti raanis.. phew I didn’t know that you classifies raanis like this), concubines, conquests, alliances for political gains, queens scheming with one another - against one another etc. It takes you through a journey in time. The fort is regal. It has an ingenious system of water flow to keep the interiors cool during summer and intricate use of mirrors that would reflect light and heat from the lamps in winter to keep the chambers warm. There were some military concepts in the design too. Like all entrances into kings/ queens chambers or into the palace would be at right angles to previous entrance and slightly narrow. This would force the front column of the invading army (if it breached the wall) to turn at right angles leaving the middle/rear vulnerable to attack from guards standing high on columns and watchtowers. There are a lot of such interesting facts to learn in that fort. The architecture is a combination of Mughal and Indian and here too there is some Sherlock Holmes stuff also to do. The sculptors have hidden Hindu symbols like the Sshesh Nag in the motifs which predominantly look Mughal. The Sheesh Mahal or Glass Palace is very beautiful with intricate carvings on glass facades. For the period I was in the fort, I was lost. Lost in the story and history, in the beauty and literally lost in the maze of passages.
I came down the fort and looked back. It stood in all its majesty in the backdrop of the grey sky. Royal. As the couplet goes ' even the beautiful full moon shies away , seeing your beauty'. ( I know this is a very poor translation of the original Urdu couplet which is supremely romantic!). The Rajasthan tourism department, to promote Monsoon tourism was holding a musical concert in the fort at night. Oh what a setting, the fort lit at night (Which looks awe-inspiring, I have seen some pictures), classical music pervading the air, in the large courtyard under the starry sky and we sit on 'gaddas' (mattresses) on the floor. Oh what a setting! It is a pity I had to take a flight tonight.. Waaaaa !! :( I missed Nahargarh, but well, I need a reason to come back.. I have two. Nahargarh and Amber.
As I walked around the old city of Jaipur, I realised how religion centric the life in this city was. It was not even a prominent religious place. I mean Jaipur isn't exactly Pushkar or Banaras. There was a big procession of Bholenath (Lord Shiva) which had elephants, camels, horses, people dancing, women in carrying offerings and the deity on his chariot. The procession was almost half a km long. Not just the temples I saw were also full of devotees. The hoardings and bill boards in the city had ads about all the religious TV shows like Ramayan, Mahabharat, Devi Maa and the new Shani Devta on NDTV Imagine. I don't remember seeing too many ads of FMCG or durables. Yes there were some financial stuff like insurance but it was predominantly religion. I guess this is true of many of Indian towns. The Hindustan Times Jaipur Edition has astrology forecasts on page 2 for half a page. (Sunday edition). I have never seen this before.
The peak season runs from October to Feb/march where tourists descend in hordes. And hence this is preparatory time. So many places like Hawa Mahal, Jaipur Palace, Amber fort were undergoing renovation and were being given facelifts. Just in time for the tourists to arrive. At the fort, kids selling flowers, caps, carvings were hounding all the foreign tourists. Literally hounding. Far from being lured by the wares on display, they were irritated in the humid weather and I am sure, were cursing these pedlars in their own languages.
I think We Indian's are generally fascinated by white skin.( I know its a broad generalisation, but I'm sure you would agree with me at some level) The person next to me in the bus trip to Amber fort was asking quite a few annoying questions to two French travellers. He asked them if the two of them were husband wife, the guy replied no we are friends and are just classmates. This guy was taken aback and decided to keep quiet after that.
These foreigners too take to 'feeling' the indian experience very seriously. They quickly wear sari or salwars, flowers on their hair, bindis etc. Many of them look good but they are unable to carry it off well. But there was this French girl who looked absolutely stunning in a red top, blue bottom and a multi colour pagdi (turban) and bright shiny green earrings. I am sure, every single guy (and gal :)), paused and stared when they noticed her.
My flight will land in Bombay in next few minutes. I don't know if I am rejuvenated or not after this break, but I sure am glad that I made this trip. My legs ache, I have blisters but I am 'happy tired'. In these two days, I got no calls except one from my parents who asked me if I was doing fine. I am generally permanently online and supposedly 'in touch'. These two days showed me that otherwise is ok too. I didn’t have my camera, but I didn’t think I missed it that much. In fact, I now think, that I would have split my attention towards getting nice photographs and good angles that I may have missed enjoying the sights and sounds.
A cousin is getting married in end august down south and I plan to use that trip to make a dash to Kanyakumari. I have never been there. This trip if it happens would also be done alone. I hope to catch the sunrise and sunset over the same beach (unique to Kanyakumari only). Wish me luck!
