The Rajasthan Diaries - I
Rajasthan has been a land associated with deary deserts and dry plains where human habitation is few and far in between. I had never even dreamt of going there in my entire life ... though it
was more to do with my ignorance about the beauty of the place. It is said that beauty lies in
the eyes of the beholder. As I had never ventured beyond Delhi in the Northern part of India, I
had no idea about the beauty of the place. It was therefore a God sent oppurtunity when my
classmate from our IIT days, Mahesh Kumar Swami, or Swamiji as he was affectionately called,
announced that he was entering the holy state of wedlock and all of us were cordially invited for
the same. That put a seed of an idea in our fertile young minds to plan for a trip in and around
Rajasthan. As usual, we went about it with the customary negligence which can be associated with our generation of people, who seem to believe that everything would happen at the very last moment. After some frantic phone calls to decide who was coming and who was not, ultimately the list boiled down to five enthu guys, which included our 'colleague' Vasu also (Reasons for the qoutes later). The rest of the gang decided that they could not afford to spend so much time away from the workplace and so did not decide to accompany us.
Day 1: Departure from Bangalore
Despite repeated warnings from everyone around, we managed to become late when we left for the airport to catch the 7:30 pm flight from Bangalore airport. At one point of time, stuck in the
traffic jam at the Manipal hospital junction, hope was running out fast. Luckily for us, some
political bigwig had decided to make that very day as his day of travel and therefore there was a huge line at the airport entrance, which delayed every flight that evening. I sometimes feel that
politicians should not use the same airport as the civilians as they do not realise the hardships
that they cause to the common man, well it is the common man who keeps making the same mistakes and electing the same set of oldies to parliament, more on this later. After a really boring flight on IndiGo airways, where we became bored of watching the flight attendants and playing Sudoku, we finally landed in Delhi at 11:00 pm in the night. By that time, our patience was running thin and rats were running around in our stomachs, and we came out to be greeted by our classmate Yogesh, a resident of Delhi who had arranged for the cab to take us from the airport right upto Jaipur. All of us bundled in together and sped off towards Jaipur. The national highway between Gurgaon and Jaipur was an amazing road, which put all the roads in Bangalore to shame, though it was a national highway. After some initial attempts to find some food at some shady roadside eateries, we finally managed to find a decent place to eat, in the dead of the night, 2:00 a.m I think, but we were too hungry to think about sleep. After a decent meal, and a cup of piping hot tea, it was time to hit the road again. We reached Jaipur early in the morning, and landed at the guest house where our friend Swamiji had booked our stay in Jaipur. Avinash gave the orders to sleep and get up by 8:00 a.m so that we could look around before the marriage actually began. When we got up and got ready by 8:30 a.m, we were surprised to find the rest of the fellows, happily snoring away to glory. After a lot of coaxing and cajoling followed by some unprintable epithets in the vernacular langauage, we were ready for the tour of Jaipur.
Day 1: Jaipur
Jaipur is also called the pink city. Knowing this fact, we were eagerly looking around for
pink buildings and the lot. However, we were only later to realise that the city was pink coloured only in a certain area which is also walled on all sides. This was where the old Jaipur city of the kings and queens of yore was actually built. All the development which we saw later was built much later. Our first stop was the Albert Hall Museum. This museum was supposed to be famous for having among its artefacts an Egyptian Mummy. We however did not go in as we were not too keen on museums and history as such. Riding through the walled city, we had our first taste of local hospitality when our vehicle was hauled up by a traffic policeman as the driver and the front seat rider were not wearing the seatbelts. We went looking for a place to eat, and the only place which we found after a lot of searching was not serving any ethnic food. We were eager to eat only the ethnic food and not the same old artificial stuff which we get almost everyday without fail at our workplaces and outside our homes. Our first stop was the Amer Fort where we also had our breakfast. The local delicacy is the Kachori, which we tasted different types of, followed by a cup of hot and tasty tea.
The fort of Amer was an imposing structure, and was said to have been built a long way back
during the days of Akbar, when Raja Mansingh was the ruler of Jaipur. The ramparts of the fort
were built to withstand cannon attacks and this was also protected by an out
er wall which extended over a large distance with a lot of sentry towers at regular intervals. The maharajas of Jaipur were worshippers of the Mother Goddess and the fort had a temple right at the entrance of the fort. Even today, the ceremonial ruler of the princely state of Jaipur, comes to the temple in the fort to pay his respects to the deity. The insides of the fort were a beautiful demonstration of wall paintings and stone carvings.
When veiwed from a distance, one cannot make out the intricacies of the stone carvings, but on closer inspection it can be seen that the stone is hand polished and there has been perfection in the way the entire thing has been done. We had hired the services of a local guide who explained all the structures in detail and the history behind the structures. It was an interesting experience for someone who has not visited a fort which was built in this fashion and grandeur. Around 15 km from the Amer fort is the Jaigarh fort. It is built on a hill which overlooks the Amer fort. It is famous for the huge cannon 'Jaivana' which was built, but was fired only once. It is said that the person who lit the fuse of the cannon, died when the cannon was fired due to the shock generated during the recoil. We couldn't get the time to go till there as it was becoming late for the marriage. As we made our way back from the Amer fort, one lasting image was of the Sheesh Mahal or the Hall of Mirrors which was built in the inner courtyard of the fort. It was the housing quarters of the queens of the Maharajah and the entire wall was decorated by patterns created by placing small mirrors of different shapes and sizes. This was also memorable as at that very point of time, we managed to spot a bevy of beautiful girls, who had come there on a sightseeing trip like ours. After we had refreshed our minds with the beauty of the Sheesh Mahal, and the beauties who were present there, we made our way back to the guest house to get ready for the marriage.
the eyes of the beholder. As I had never ventured beyond Delhi in the Northern part of India, I
had no idea about the beauty of the place. It was therefore a God sent oppurtunity when my
classmate from our IIT days, Mahesh Kumar Swami, or Swamiji as he was affectionately called,
announced that he was entering the holy state of wedlock and all of us were cordially invited for
the same. That put a seed of an idea in our fertile young minds to plan for a trip in and around
Rajasthan. As usual, we went about it with the customary negligence which can be associated with our generation of people, who seem to believe that everything would happen at the very last moment. After some frantic phone calls to decide who was coming and who was not, ultimately the list boiled down to five enthu guys, which included our 'colleague' Vasu also (Reasons for the qoutes later). The rest of the gang decided that they could not afford to spend so much time away from the workplace and so did not decide to accompany us.
Day 1: Departure from Bangalore
Despite repeated warnings from everyone around, we managed to become late when we left for the airport to catch the 7:30 pm flight from Bangalore airport. At one point of time, stuck in the
traffic jam at the Manipal hospital junction, hope was running out fast. Luckily for us, some
political bigwig had decided to make that very day as his day of travel and therefore there was a huge line at the airport entrance, which delayed every flight that evening. I sometimes feel that
politicians should not use the same airport as the civilians as they do not realise the hardships
that they cause to the common man, well it is the common man who keeps making the same mistakes and electing the same set of oldies to parliament, more on this later. After a really boring flight on IndiGo airways, where we became bored of watching the flight attendants and playing Sudoku, we finally landed in Delhi at 11:00 pm in the night. By that time, our patience was running thin and rats were running around in our stomachs, and we came out to be greeted by our classmate Yogesh, a resident of Delhi who had arranged for the cab to take us from the airport right upto Jaipur. All of us bundled in together and sped off towards Jaipur. The national highway between Gurgaon and Jaipur was an amazing road, which put all the roads in Bangalore to shame, though it was a national highway. After some initial attempts to find some food at some shady roadside eateries, we finally managed to find a decent place to eat, in the dead of the night, 2:00 a.m I think, but we were too hungry to think about sleep. After a decent meal, and a cup of piping hot tea, it was time to hit the road again. We reached Jaipur early in the morning, and landed at the guest house where our friend Swamiji had booked our stay in Jaipur. Avinash gave the orders to sleep and get up by 8:00 a.m so that we could look around before the marriage actually began. When we got up and got ready by 8:30 a.m, we were surprised to find the rest of the fellows, happily snoring away to glory. After a lot of coaxing and cajoling followed by some unprintable epithets in the vernacular langauage, we were ready for the tour of Jaipur.
Day 1: Jaipur
Jaipur is also called the pink city. Knowing this fact, we were eagerly looking around for
pink buildings and the lot. However, we were only later to realise that the city was pink coloured only in a certain area which is also walled on all sides. This was where the old Jaipur city of the kings and queens of yore was actually built. All the development which we saw later was built much later. Our first stop was the Albert Hall Museum. This museum was supposed to be famous for having among its artefacts an Egyptian Mummy. We however did not go in as we were not too keen on museums and history as such. Riding through the walled city, we had our first taste of local hospitality when our vehicle was hauled up by a traffic policeman as the driver and the front seat rider were not wearing the seatbelts. We went looking for a place to eat, and the only place which we found after a lot of searching was not serving any ethnic food. We were eager to eat only the ethnic food and not the same old artificial stuff which we get almost everyday without fail at our workplaces and outside our homes. Our first stop was the Amer Fort where we also had our breakfast. The local delicacy is the Kachori, which we tasted different types of, followed by a cup of hot and tasty tea.
The fort of Amer was an imposing structure, and was said to have been built a long way back
during the days of Akbar, when Raja Mansingh was the ruler of Jaipur. The ramparts of the fort
were built to withstand cannon attacks and this was also protected by an out
er wall which extended over a large distance with a lot of sentry towers at regular intervals. The maharajas of Jaipur were worshippers of the Mother Goddess and the fort had a temple right at the entrance of the fort. Even today, the ceremonial ruler of the princely state of Jaipur, comes to the temple in the fort to pay his respects to the deity. The insides of the fort were a beautiful demonstration of wall paintings and stone carvings.When veiwed from a distance, one cannot make out the intricacies of the stone carvings, but on closer inspection it can be seen that the stone is hand polished and there has been perfection in the way the entire thing has been done. We had hired the services of a local guide who explained all the structures in detail and the history behind the structures. It was an interesting experience for someone who has not visited a fort which was built in this fashion and grandeur. Around 15 km from the Amer fort is the Jaigarh fort. It is built on a hill which overlooks the Amer fort. It is famous for the huge cannon 'Jaivana' which was built, but was fired only once. It is said that the person who lit the fuse of the cannon, died when the cannon was fired due to the shock generated during the recoil. We couldn't get the time to go till there as it was becoming late for the marriage. As we made our way back from the Amer fort, one lasting image was of the Sheesh Mahal or the Hall of Mirrors which was built in the inner courtyard of the fort. It was the housing quarters of the queens of the Maharajah and the entire wall was decorated by patterns created by placing small mirrors of different shapes and sizes. This was also memorable as at that very point of time, we managed to spot a bevy of beautiful girls, who had come there on a sightseeing trip like ours. After we had refreshed our minds with the beauty of the Sheesh Mahal, and the beauties who were present there, we made our way back to the guest house to get ready for the marriage.
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