Jaipur; the other shades (Day 2)

There is no simpler pleasure than to sleep in tucked thick blankets through cold nights, and chilly mornings. Mobile phone alarms have little say against such comfort. It takes odious pounding on the door to bestir you, and take you to waking life. And, so roused by the guy who brought our tea, the second day began with a mild headache. The tea was very good, though.

Nitin had brought postcards to write home; he apparently always does when he is out on a vacation. I thought it pretty cool, and on my part wrote to Ajay how it was too cold to hold the pen. Not winning any approval from either Niraj or Nikil, we all waited for the cab to pick us up. Initially, we planned to vacate the guest house, dump our luggage in the cloak room (Railway Station), arrange a to-and-fro cab to Jaigarh and Nahargarh fort, and walk through the pink city through the evening. Thanks to Nikil’s contact, we got a cab for a fair price to do all that, without having to go to the cloak room, and without having to find the various places for ourselves.

He didn’t know where the Research Station was. Situated right on the highway, close by the airport, not someplace many people wouldn’t know, I guided the local cab driver to our Guest House. And 12:30, we started, booked for 8 hours; we had no thought but to plunge into the city. On the way, we stopped by Birla Temple, which was closed for the afternoon (something that our guide didn’t know, either). From the hillock that was concealed by the marble temple, peeked what looked like the remnants of a small fort/palace (Moti Dungri). We soon learned, the snake god visited the palace once an year, on which day thousands of worshipers gather to offer their prayers. The beautifully carved marble temple (standing sternly concentrated upon its meaning, or so it seemed) was open through the morning and evening. But, not afternoon.

Next, we asked him to take us to a not-so-busy-bazaar so that Niraj and Aditya could buy gloves and skull caps. Promising a local bazaar, of which he knew only the name (Neelkanth), we had a good 45 minutes of clueless driving, U-turns, enquiries, wrong lane driving (Another very interesting Jaipur observation – You can drive any side of the road, people there are very tolerant, you wouldn’t even earn a scowl), mobile phone calls, and on our part checking the meter. When we finally arrived to this place, we found a 2 storey building with random bed sheets and pillow cover merchandise. Having wasted our money and time, we were very surprised to find that his mood, and not ours, got foul. One would expect an apologetic and/or subservient behaviour, given the circumstance, but clearly this man was unique.

What started with sycophancy slowly turned out to be dictatorship! We had clearly told him that we wanted to visit Jaigarh and/or Nahargarh fort (He said the route to Nahargarh was under construction, and thus ruled it out) first and later the Jaipur Palace. He didn’t repudiate, in fact he didn’t say a word; He just took us straight to Jaipur Palace. Peremptorily told us why this was the better option, and gave us an hour and half to go about it.





So, well, City Palace or Chandra Mahal, it was to be. As it is the official residence of the regal clan, only a part of it is open for tourist activity. The Architecture here was more intricate than that at Amer fort. And, both Mughal and traditional Rajasthani influence were clearly seen. Otherwise, There wasn’t much to see, and we soon walked to Jantar Mantar which is right adjacent to the Palace.

Random structures, random forms, and colors. Steps, Pigeons, and sign-boards crying “Under Renovation”. In short, the observer is choked with observations. The audio guides are not helpful. And, the local guides, like school teachers re-worded the audio guide, or in some cases, as one could overhear, made up random explanations and details. But, you couldn’t blame them, not many people came there to understand and appreciate. They had the serious nod to everything that was said, and clearly nothing was clear. It’s all staged; both parties know the other is faking. But, yet, there is the discerning nod, and the pedant guide. We initially tried. And, tried hard, to understand. But we were lacking both in time and expertise. We decided to look up the internet, instead.











Jaigarh fort closes by 5. There was no way we were going to make it on time. Yet we asked our driver to take us there. Visibly, not in any better disposition since he left us, he sped past the city. Swerving through hair pin curves of the ghat section, he made sure we never forgot his bad temper. With leafless trees, and swallowing fog; the hillside was a poignant view – one could taste the sweetness of death in effigy. Far away, sat Jaigarh Fort, breathtaking! As we got closer, beautiful blue colored peacocks, could be seen in hundreds, seemingly entertaining the fort. We never got to get into the fort, we had indeed arrived late, but it was worth the trouble.







As we descended, we could see the Jal Mahal gloriously floating on its reflections on a huge man made lake. The evening was setting in, and the last of the sun-rays bathed themselves on that lake. We stopped at the banks of the lake, took a few snaps, and were headed back.





Dinner was much welcomed, we hadn’t had anything after we had left the Guest House; and we were hungry. After the gloves and skull caps were bought, we stopped by Rawat Sweet shop. Had amazing Kachoris (very different from the ones you get here. These are simply huge, with slightly sour inner potato filling, and with absolutely no sauce/achar to go with) and a random assortment of sweets. It was 8:30, and our train was at 9:10. We made a dash to the Railway Station, situated not far away.

Thus, we bid Farewell to Jaipur. Two days weren’t enough.





Note: 2 megapixel mobile camera.