Delhi- Bikaner- Kalibangan- Bikaner- Deshnoke- Bikaner- Jaipur- Pushkar- Ajmer- Jaipur- Delhi Nov'11
This was gonna be my first first ever Diwali
outside home. Even while staying in Delhi, I had always made it a point to
spend my Diwali in Mumbai at home. This time I had an offer of spending my
Diwali in Rajasthan against going to Mumbai. The travel freak inside me didn’t
take very long to drop my plans for home and ask my friend to book my tickets
as well along with her to her hometown- Bikaner- famous for its bhujiya,
Junagarh fort, spicy food and most importantly the celebrated temple of rats!
And to top it, the joy of history buff inside me knew no bounds when I realised
the Harappan city of Kalibanganis just 200 km away from Bikaner!
Day1: It
was 25th of November 2011, time: around 2 pm and place: Old Delhi
rly station.
I, my friend and her brother who decided to
join us at the end moment were waiting for our train. Soon I realised we were
to board a train called ‘Avadh- Assam express’! Lord! A train coming
from Assam! Coming via Siliguri, Patna, Allahabad, Kanpur and numerous other
towns and villages of Assam, Bengal, Bihar, UP…. A train which had probably
left from its starting station a couple of days back :O.. Plus due to 11th
hour reservations, we could get only the sleeper coach tickets. By now I had
reli started worrying about the cleanliness of the train I was gonna spend the
night in..
Soon the train arrived.. To our surprise,
the train was not only empty, but also fairly clean! Wow!
After occupying seats, we started hogging
onto the Diwali sweets, snacks and dry fruits which we had got as Diwali gifts
earlier that day. The very next day was Diwali! Yey..! Our train was gonna
reach Lalgadh station of Bikaner early next morning!
Train started, and with extreme slow pace,
after an hour or so, it crossed the capital’s boundary and entered Haryana! The
train’s date with the 6th state!
By 9 in the night, we had and still were
crossing the Haryanvi towns of Bahadurgarh, Rohtak, Jind, etc etc… and by now we had grown extremely hungry. Having nothing
packed with us to eat, and not sure of having train’s stale looking food, my
friend n her bro came up with an extremely whacky idea. ‘To call one of their
long lost friends to get home made food for us when the train reaches Hanumangarh
town of Rajasthan at fuckin 2 am in the night! And to my surprise their friend
instantly agreed to do so! Looked like everyone around had gone mad!
After some chitchatting with fellow
passengers and forcefully eating aloosabji, pooris and bhujiyas from their
tiffin (:P), we slept off at 10 pm… only to wake up in another 3 hours when the
train would unnecessarily cross parts of Punjab and enter Rajasthan from its
northern boundary and reach Hanumangarh town.
It just felt like half an
hour when my friends woke me up and told me that our homemade food had been
delivered to them in the train :D Even this friend had got ajwainwala pooris and
alookisabji, achar and salad for us! In plenty! God bless this boy!
Eating such tasty pooris at 2am in the
night in an absolutely empty sleeper coach half asleep! Wow! I was doing this
first ever time in my life.. and I can’t imagine how their friend could stay
awake and get us all the food packed in sucha small town of Rajasthan where
probably no streetlights were working at such odd time and that too to meet his
friends and handover them the food during just a 2 minutes halt of the Bikaner
bound train! May God bless this boy even more!!
Day2:Around
5in the morning, we reached Lalgarh station- train’s last stop!
Everything around had suddenly started feeling much colder than it was in
Delhi. The station was crowded even at this time of the day or rather night as
it was pitch dark around. We exited on one side of the station in a large open
space which was maybe parking space but wore a deserted look that time. At the
end of the parking, a few rickshaws were waiting for their passengers. We being
the first to reach there, most of them pounced on us. Finally after sum
bargaining we took one to take us to Bikaner’s M.P. Colony.
Soon we reached; most of the houses in the
colony were lit up to welcome the festival of lights. It felt so amazing. I was
gonna experience a Diwali in small town for the first ever time. But before
that, I had to introduce myself to all the family members of my friend’s joint
family and then quickly take shower and get ready to leave for Kalibangan
and come back in the evening before the Laxmipoojan. The moment I had confirmed
that I would be going to Bikaner with her, my friend had already booked a car
to take me to Kalibangan and get back by 7 in evening from Delhi itself.
Presuming I would be travelling to a remote
place and would definitely not get a decent place to eat on the way, my
friend’s mom and aunties packed me a tiffin full of besanladdoos, besanmathris
and pooris and all other sorts of besan snacks. I wonder what would happen to
all Rajasthanis without Besan in their life!. I’m sure this thought itself is
more terrorising than a terrorist attack for Rajasthanis.
By 9 am, the car came n stood outside the
door. Promising everyone to return back before the pooja, I left for
Kalibangan. Later turned out that the driver was in even more hurry to return
back by 6. Total 400 km to be covered with a halt of atleast 2-3 hours was a
difficult task! We reli had to plan it tight!
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| on the way to Kalibangan |
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| on the way to Kalibangan
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| on the way to Kalibangan
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As we started travelling on the highway, I
couldn’t help but get surprised about the extreme good conditions of roads in
this part of Rajasthan. All of my life, I had never seen such good roads in
Maharashtra or Gujrat or any other part of the country except for Delhi.
Another thing that pleasantly shocked me was the fact that I had hired this car
in amazing condition just for 5rs/km whereas the rate in the rest of the
country is way above 8 and in metros its 10! This trip was gonna cost me a lot
cheaper than I had thought of!..
The landscape around while on the way to
Kalibangan seemed extremely arid, dry n dead…. It seemed like an endless long
long highway cutting through the brown desert with a few cacti plants cropping
up in between to add the third colour- green to the scene. Occasionally adding
more hues were the local Marwari women walking infinitely carrying either pots
filled with water.
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| on the way to Kalibangan
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| on the way to Kalibangan
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| on the way to Kalibangan
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| on the way to Kalibangan |
Having eaten my friends’ head the earlier
day about wanting to see a few camels in the trip, suddenly I was all surrounded
by them. Few roaming around like they give an F to the world around, few were
grazing and rest were busy pulling the carts filed with hay. An hour later, the
camels became so common in the area around that I actually stopped getting
excited about seeing any more of this humped animal.
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| Desi Roadrash! |
Soon – I guess at the midway- we stopped
for tea n samosa break at Suratgarh town- which was roughly the size of Miraj
or Dahanuin Maharashtra (or Baraut or Sonepat closer to Delhi). After
refreshing up, we quickly left for our destination. Another interesting as well
as frustrating thing while driving on this highway is that this road and the
railway track(probably Bikaner- Bhatinda rail route) keep playing hide and seek
throughout the journey, one crossing another at multiple locations more than 20
times till Kalibangan. Sometimes it’s fun to see the train running next to the
car and competing with its speed but at the other moment, it gets bugging when
the same train makes u halt at the rail crossing for 15 minutes every time
before it passes… and imagine this happening 20 times!!
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| Crossing Suratgarh |
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| Crossing Suratgarh
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| one of the many rail crossings!!!!! |
About 70 km later, we reached a town called
Pilibangan- meaning yellow bangles- a town which in appearance looked
like the elder sister city of Kalibangan. Taking a right turn off the highway
from Pilibangan and marching straight ahead for a couple of kilometres gets one
to the Harappan town of Kalibangan which is reduced to less than a hamlet
today.
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| Reaching Kalibangan |
First thing seen on the left is the Kalibangan
museum established by ‘Archaelogical survey of India’. This very small
museum built around several small courtyards; houses the best collection of
antiques, relics, toys, broken bangles, beads and seals belonging to people who
lived here approx. 7000 to 2000 years back- the best collection of Harappan
artefacts that India is left with after the partition when Harappa and
Mohenjodaro went inside the boundaries of Pakistan.
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| Kalibangan museum |
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| Kalibangan museum
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Like all the other ASI museums in India,
photography wasn’t allowed in the museum. I instead jotted down the kinds of
and number of different antiques displayed and the materials they were made in.
India’s negligence towards its past and
heritage could be seen here as well, as apart from me there were only 4 other
people present in the museum- all foreigners.
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| Kalibangan museum
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Just half a kilometre ahead of the museum
are the main remains of the ancient town marked inside the fencing. The
site instantly disappointed me. Having visited the Harappan towns of the same
era- Dholavira and Lothal in Gujarat a few years back (which are maintained at
their best), Kalibangan came as a big dissatisfaction to me. Most of this ancient
town is today covered with mounds of sand and dry soil thanks to the ill
maintenance. The whole site is for namesake given a guard to look after- who
was obviously not present anywhere around the site. The site is kept open to
anyone and everyone to come at whatever time and exploit it.
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| Kalibangan- Harappan mounds |
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| Kalibangan- Harappan mounds
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| Kalibangan- Harappan mounds
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Seeing no one around – even a villager to
probably guide me about which place lied where in the town map of ancient
Kalibangan or anything that could help me relate with what I had studied in my
history class of 3rd year Architecture bachelors- I started
exploring it on my own. According to my best knowledge the town was planned in
2 parts, the citadel- for elites and kings and the lower town for the folks. Kalibangan
is considered the most important town in Harappan history after
ofcourseMohenjodaro and Harappa because of 3 special reasons- First- the first
ever proof of a developing concept of religion- Excavation of this town showed
the presence of circular fire altars which in turn proved that by the
Kalibangan era, the Harappans had developed a concept called religion
and the rituals for the same. The terracotta seal of ‘Pashupati’ God–
which was later accepted as God Shiva in Hinduism; was also found in
Kalibangan. Second- This ancient town showed presence of burial pits for
the first time. The burial pits located on the outskirts of the town showed the
presence of Human as well as animal bones buried in terracotta pots and Third- arguably
the most important one- first proof of a ploughed field in the world. That’s
where the farming started and hence Human became civilized in real terms.
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| Kalibangan- broken pottery |
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| Kalibangan- broken pottery
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| Kalibangan- broken pottery
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| Kalibangan- broken pottery
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But today’s Kalibangan looked so much in
bad shape that none of the above can be witnessed. All one can see are two
mounds of soil, one higher than the other which was the citadel placed on
the higher plinth than the rest of the town as taught in the books. And an
area marked by small columns as the ploughed field which doesn’t in any
way look different than the land around.
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| Kalibangan- drainage pipes |
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| Kalibangan |
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| Kalibangan- broken pottery
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| Kalibangan- mounds |
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| Kalibangan- the ploughed field |
The only visible proofs of the ancient
civilization in today’s Kalibangan are the terracotta drainage pipes
jutting out of the mounds and broken pottery, toys, painted terracotta ware,
animal bones and if lucky enough the beads of the jewellery our
forefathers living here used. In the central area one can even spot circular
pits made of wedge shaped burnt bricks if looked closely. Most of
such pits are today covered with bushes and hence making them not visible at
the first glance. The randomly grown weeds over the most of Kalibangan and huge
cracks formed due to heavy rainfall (as told by one of the locals who met me
and guided me later and also gave me one of his findings as a souvenir which
meant a lot to me knowing its importance) prove how the Indian govt, ASI and
other related authorities are so careless about our glorious past. Sad! I
offered a few hundred bucks to the villager who came and roamed with me for a
while and obviously gave me one of my most prized possessions today.
By now my car driver was sitting on the
edge of his seat wanting me to come back quickly so that he could zoooom his
car away all the way back to Bikaner.
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| Kalibangan- mounds
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Roaming in the
scorching sun of Rajasthan had taken toll on me. Harappans had also for free
gifted me a bad bad tan to take back home. Feeling weak coz of the heat, I
quickly ate the snacks and shared some with the driver uncle. Going back was
gonna take atleast another 3 hours. I guess the thought itself provoked me to
sleep automatically.
Reaching back on time around 5 pm, I got
ready with new clothes for the Pooja that was due in another few hours. Till
then I called all my close people to wish them good health, luck and prosperity
on this festival of lights, and while doing that I came out and took stroll on
the lanes of Bikaner’s Mukta Prasad Colony.
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| Bikaner's diwali |
All the row houses of this newly planned
colony of New Bikaner were lit up from top to bottom with all sorts of diyas-
from the LED rolls to artificial diya shaped lanterns. This Diwali of the small
town felt so much different from the one that I had experienced till now.
Everything was so quieter, so subtle, so calm but still so amazing! No weird
sound polluting crackers like in Mumbai, No dhumdhadaka, no shorsharaba,
only little innocent smiling kids running through the lanes and then by lanes
with fuljhadis in their hands- and seldom a few anars and Bhuichakkars
cropping up to make this beautiful town even more charming.
This followed an Aarti of Laxmiji at my
friend’s place and then a visit to a temple closeby.
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| Bikaner's diwali
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Coming back home, there was an awesome menu
of Dalbaati Churma waiting for me. Wow! What a Diwali I had had this
time!
Day3: Plan
for today was to visit the famous17th century Karnimata temple at
Deshnoke aka Rats temple- some 30 km from Bikaner. Having seen this famous
temple on Discovery channel so many times, I was really excited about visiting
this place.
The buses for Deshnoke and other
destinations which go via Deshnoke can be boarded from the main chowk of Old
Bikaner. Most of these buses being ‘wave and halt’ types, catching them
from anywhere on their route is not a problem.
Some 15 minutes later, the bus crossed the
boundary of Bikaner town and halted at a bus station for people to get down,
wait in the queue, buy their own tickets for their destination and come back to
the bus and sit! (or see someone else occupying the seat you were sitting on
all this while) Weird, isn’t it?
Another 30 minutes later, the bus dropped
us to the main entry way of the Karnimata temple from where the actual temple
is a walk of another 500 m.
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| Deshnoke |
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| Deshnoke- main entrance of the temple |
We reached the temple complex leaving past
some old looking houses and Deshnoke railway station while walking and
washed our hands n feet and collected flowers and mithai to offer the Goddess.
Thankfully situated in such a secluded part
of the country, this temple didn’t have as much rush as it should have had
considering its fame coz of the thousands of rats here which have been covered
on TV at least 100 times throughout the World. However there were a lot of
foreigners who had taken pains in this burning heat to visit this ‘weird’
temple in Bikaner.
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| Deshnoke - the rats' temple |
My first foot inside the temple and a bigg
rat crossed me from very close. Hush! And my next feet insdie the temple I
could see rats allover around me! Many on the both sides of the railing that
marked the queue to enter the sanctum, numerous inside the metal vessels filled
with prashad, several on the threshold at the crossing of mandapa and the
sanctum making the terrified ladies turn back and run away for their lives.
Countless of rats were even hanging on the unimaginable places as high as the
door frame! All of them not less than 20 cm in size!
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| Deshnoke - the rats' temple
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| Deshnoke - the rats' temple
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After the first five minutes of high blood
pressure, I probably got familiarized with the scene around and started taking
snaps of the rats from close by making the macro mode on in my digicam. The
coolest thing about this temple is that, unlike most temples in India, they
don’t ban photography inside the temple and sanctum; instead charge 20 rupees (against
a thanks receipt; which goes to the temple trust and hence the maintenance of
this temple) to freely take as many photos inside the temple as one wants.
Thanks to this there were atleast 25 other clickers like me inside the mandapa
running behind the rats to capture them in candid moments- most with digicams,
a few with DSLRs and a few with the professional ones.
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| Deshnoke - the rats' temple
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As we entered inside the temple’s dark garbhagriha,
we were surrounded by even more rats, now sitting on and around the Goddess’s
idol and on the silver statues of lions next to her. The half-naked pujaris of
the temple were more than comfortable with the company of tons of ‘so called
reincarnated holy men in the previous birth’. One look down the thalis of
prashad offered to the Goddess, and it was all occupied by the holy mens! Holi
crap!
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| Deshnoke - the rats' temple
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| Deshnoke - the rats' temple
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| Deshnoke - the rats' temple
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Coming outside the temple we saw the
premises of temple, the backyards and adjoining temples and rooms were all
occupied by needless to say the rats! Many of the devotees sitting outside the
temple probably locals even took a few rats on their laps and fed them
coconuts, bundies and other sweets! Incredible!
After eating some chat from the stalls
outside, we rushed back to the same spot where the bus had dropped us to catch
bus going back to Bikaner.
Reaching back Bikaner we thought we would
finish the other main landmark of Bikaner that’s the Junagarh fort today
itself. This being the very next day after Dilwali, sadly most of Bikaner town
was shut including the fort.
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| Old Bikaner |
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| Old Bikaner
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| Junagarh fort! |
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| Junagarh fort!
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After asking the guard about the earliest
time the fort would open the next morning, we headed back home.
Some merry time with talks and gossips and
dal bati and laddoos and dinner of extremely spicy chicken n mutton gravy with
bati, I decided to end it for the day!
Day4: Today was my last day in Bikaner, infact not
even a full day. I had my ticket booked in Volvo for Jaipur at afternoon 3 pm.
Without
wasting time in the morning, my friend, me and her brother headed to the
massive and according to the international travel guides- ‘the best preserved
and most ornately decorated of all forts in Rajasthan’- the Junagarh fort.
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| Junagarh fort!
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| Junagarh fort!
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| Junagarh fort!
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| Junagarh fort!
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‘Constructed between 1587
to 1593 by 3rd ruler of Bikaner, Rai Singh is protected by 986m long
sandstone wall with 37 bastions, a moat and most effectively of all, the
forbidding expanse of TharDesert. Not surprisingly, the fort has never been captured,
a fact which explains its excellent state of preservation’ -reads the summary
of the description of the fort written at its entrance.
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| Junagarh fort!
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| Junagarh fort!
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| Junagarh fort!
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| Junagarh fort!
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| Junagarh fort! |
Built
inside the fort are not less than 37 profusely decorated palaces, temples and pavilions, built by its successive rulers
over the centuries, but in harmonious continuity of style.
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| Junagarh fort! |
Most
outstanding of the palaces is the AnupMahal built by Maharaja Anup Singh in 1690 as hall of private audience. It was
splendidly decorated by Maharaja Surat Singh between 1787 to 1800. It also
replicates the high lustre lime-plaster walls of Mughal pietradura work.They
are covered with red and gold lacquer patterns, further embellished with
mirrors and gold leaf.
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| Junagarh fort!
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| Junagarh fort!
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| Junagarh fort!
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The Karan mahal is the hall of public audience
which was built between 1631 to 1669 and is ornately decoareted in similar
style but with somewhat lesser lavish style.
17th
century Chandra
mahal which was
the queen’s palace has carved marble panels depicting Radha- Krishna legend and
has superb stone carvings and jalis.
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| Junagarh fort!
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Another
17th century palace- Phoolmahalcontains RaoBika’s special low height bed to jump quickly to his feet to
fight off murderous inruders.
Badalmahal is covered with paintings of
Couds, yellow streaks of lighting and rain showers.
The Hawamahal has huge mirrors positioned over
the maharaja’s bed which enabled him to view the courtyard below and thus
alerting him from the approaching danger.
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| Junagarh fort!
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The oldest palace in the fort is 1595 built LalNiwaswith floral motifs in red and
gold.
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| Junagarh fort! |
The newest palace inside the
fort is the Durbar Niwas built by Sir Ganga Singh in early
20th century. This palace now houses fort’s museum which has
fascinating exhibits in its armoury section and sandalwood thrones of the
rulers dating back to 5th century among its important exhibits.
Doing up n down from different levels of
forts and seeing the gold plated stuff and massive collection of armoury for
continuous 2 n half hours had taken a toll on all 3 of us!
Anotherpalace
worth visiting in Bikaner is the 1902-1926 built Lalgarh palace made of local red sandstone which is now a
heritage hotel and a part of which is a museum which along with the garden is
open to the public barring Wednesdays.
Bikaner’s
old walled city also houses 2 of its most ornate Rampuria and Kothari hawelis former of which is now a heritage
hotel.
Southwestern
corner of the walled city has two 16th century Bhandeshwar and Sandeshwar
Jain temples both
of which are ornately decorated with frescos, mirrorworks and gold leaf scroll
work.
Another interesting place just 9km southeast of Bikaner is the Camel breeding farm set up in 1975 which breeds
nearly half the camels found in India, including those in the camel regiment of
Indian army. Open from Monday to Saturday for public against a small fee this
farm should be best visited in the late afternoons when camels return from
grazing.
It was
late afternoon and I was sitting in my Volvo all set for Jaipur. After bidding buhbyes to my friend in
Bikaner and wishing her to see soon in Delhi, the bus left for the Rajasthani
Capital where two other people were gonna join me in- one coming from Mumbai by
flight and the other coming from Delhi.
Having had some bad exposure to Sun again
today, I again slept off in the bus out of weakness waking up only twice when
the bus halted at Sridungardarh and Sikar for tea and loo breaks.
Around
well past 9 pm, the bus reached the outskirts of the Jaipur city everything
seemingly shut by now and I was given the responsibility to search for some
decent yet cheap hotel for 2 nights’ stay. Since I was coming to Jaipur for
first ever time, I was a little tensed about finding a hotel in Jaipur at this
time when everything outside appeared to be closed.
Consulting
my fellow passenger, I decided to get off at very last stop that’s Sindhi camp near Bus stand and railway
station where according to him I would get as many hotels as I want.
Really
standing upto what the passenger had said, the Sindhi camp looked like what
Paharganj or karolbagh is for Delhi- full of n number of small-big budget
hotels open all 24 x 7.
After
checking in one of them, I was waiting for my friends one of which had just
landed at Jaipur’s airport and other who had left from Delhi and would reach
Jaipur at 3am in the morning.Till then I enquired and booked a small car to
take 3 of us on a to and fro trip to Ajmer and Pushkar the next morning.
Day5:Around 8 in the morning, all 3 of us got
ready to leave for Ajmer and Pushkar. A smooth ride of some 100 kiometers on the highway got us the outskirts
of Ajmer when the landscape around suddenly changed. The Arawali range of hills
occupied the background of the Ajmer town and made the scene look dramatic.
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| Ajmer- On the way to Pushkar |
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| Ajmer- On the way to Pushkar
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| Ajmer- On the way to Pushkar
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| Ajmer- On the way to Pushkar |
We first
headed to Pushkar to visit the famous Brahmaji temple which is the most important among the 400
small big odd temples in this pilgrim town. A legend claims that Pushkar’s lakes
were formed when flowers (pushpa) fell on the earth from the divine
hands (kar) of Brahmaji- the creator of the world in Hindu holy trinity.
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| Pushkar- Brahma temple |
Today’s
Pushkar mostly revolves around the lakeside ghats, the busy bazaars, temples
and tout sadhus claiming to be holy men. Yeah Pushkar is full of them!
After
offering prayers to Brahmaji, we headed to few of the 52 ghats that Pushkar
lake has. Bathing
in this lake atleast once in the lifetime of a Hindu is considered to wash all
the sins that he has commited and also is considered a sureshot ticket to
heaven :D
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| Pushkar Lake |
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| Pushkar Lake
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Coming
back to where our car was parked, we saw 1 colourfully decorated camel sitting
next to it and next to them were their owners offering a tour of Pushkar’s
grounds and mini desert for a sum of 300 per head. Looked tempting! A single
camel can take upto 2 people of normal size and we were three of us. Asking us
to sit inside in a room with fan and cold water, this camel owner rushed to
fetch one more camel for us.
Wow now
this was gonna be exciting! As the camel I was sitting on rose, my guts
wrenched for a while out of panic of falling down. Thankfully nuthing such
happened and the two camels left to take us around the markets and the grounds
where the world famous Pushkarmela was to be held in another week.
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| Pushkar- Camel safari |
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| Pushkar- Camel safari
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| Pushkar- Camel safari
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| Pushkar- Camel safari
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This 3/4th hour long trip was
surely exciting and worth, the way it took us around the bazaar, then the Pushkar fair ground which was busy getting ready for
the fair, then through the mini desert which is lonelier where we clicked ourselves with the camels and then
through the farms
of roses (only to
be seen in the rains and winters) which Pushkar is famous for.
We headed
back in the car to Ajmer which is just 30 minutes away to visit the renowned dargah of
Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti aka Ajmer Sharif. Ajmer was much more congested than Pushkar
and more of a dusty town. All of its small lanes and streets were occupied by
honking vehicles all the way till Dargah. We instead decided to park our car wherever
we were and walk it down to dargah.
A 15
minutes’ walk through the narrow streets of Ajmer got us to the extremely
crowded market where the Dargah is situated. Somehow through the rush we
managed to get inside the main complex and then lined up in the queue to enter
the dargah.
With an
almost stampede type situation, we finally got darshan of the dargah and prayed
for the fulfilment of our wishes.
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| Ajmer- Adhai din ka Jhonpra |
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| Ajmer- Adhai din ka Jhonpra
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| Ajmer- Adhai din ka Jhonpra
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Having
learnt about the ‘Adhai Din KaJhopra’ or the two and a half day mosque in my architecture history books, I
headed there which is a 5 minutes’ walk in the congested dirty market to the
west of the Dargahsharif. This mosque is significant for the reason that this
is the second mosque (or atleast the second noticed important mosque) ever
built in Hindu India by the muslim rulers of slave dynasty. This 13th
century mosque is contemporary and identical to the Quwwat-Ul-Islam mosque
(more commonly known as Qutub complex) in Delhi which is the first mosque built
in India. These two mosques are identical for the reason that they were made in
hurry by joining columns and others parts of Hindu and Jain temples of
surrounding areas that the Muslim rulers demolished; the reason of hurry being
the provision of place for prayers for the newly forced converted pre-Hindu
population of India. (I guess they knew they would never ever be able to match
their own structures with the Hindu architecture masterpieces around and hence
probably went for a shortcut! Ha!- That was the bigot inside me yeah)
Another worthwhile place in Ajmer is the Rajputana museum situated in Akbar’s fort and
palace. Its exhibits include sculptures dating back from 4th to 12th
century.
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Reaching
back Jaipur pretty much in the late evening, we decided to go further ahead and
visit the much heard about recreated rajasthani village at ChokhiDhani and have dinner there.
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| Chokhi Dhani- Jaipur |
ChokhiDhani
was something that I could see many around me enjoy; especially the kids. But
many adults around including me looked a bit disgusted with the way the whole
thing inside was happening! So darn artificial! All the artisans and musicians
that the hotel owners had put up inside for recreating whole Rajasthan inside
this small cultural resort had clearly failed in their intensions. All the poor
artists were showcasing their art in some weird unauthentic artificial way just
to please the people and take out hefty tips from their pocket. Most of these
artists seemed busy reading faces and dresses of people around; who could offer
them good tips and who could not, and the ones they think could not were simply
being ignored by the impolite artisans. A few artists even had guts to say
something vulgar or rude to the tourists who didn’t offer them tips after
seeing their performance.
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| Chokhi Dhani- Jaipur
|
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| Chokhi Dhani- Jaipur
|
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| Chokhi Dhani- Jaipur
|
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| Chokhi Dhani- Jaipur
|
The whole
so called cultural extravaganza looked like one big bullshit to my eyes.
Nevertheless I could see many people trying to enjoy themselves (probably coz
they had already paid an hefty amount at the entrance in advance) while doing
moves with the dancers, getting themselves some stupid massage for 2 minutes or
exploiting the camel and elephants by testing their limits of carrying weights.
Huh I was done with all this!
As if this wasn’t enough, there was a
kilometre long queue for the dinner for those who wanted to be served by the
people in traditional attire and traditional environment. Rest had the option
of serving themselves in buffet. We obviously chose the latter one. With lack
of utensils, half-finished food, uncooked and tasteless Sabji, the whole ‘Sucky
Dhani’ had turned into a bad bad experience for me.
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| Chokhi Dhani- Jaipur
|
Day6: Diwali vacations had come to an end and
tonight we were to embark a bus to take us back to Delhi. But before that we
had one full day to explore the Pink city with the pre booked Govt city tour
buses- the cheapest, hassle-free and hence the best option to visit any Indian
city.
The tour
bus picked us up from the Sindhi camp bus stand itself and first headed to the
white marble Laxminarayan
temple more
commonly known in all Indian cities as Birla temple. A visit to even this Birla temple made me
feel that the place lacks something- a sort of feeling that one gets when
someone goes to a place expecting something and you find everything else but
that thing there. The quietness and deadness of the temple makes this place an
over estimated tourist attraction of Jaipur.
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| Birla temple AKA Swaminarain temple- Jaipur |
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| Birla temple AKA Swaminarain temple- Jaipur
|
Next the
bus entered the Old
Jaipur i.e. the Pink City. Driving through the old pink buildings was surely the most amazing
thing Jaipur tour has to offer.
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| Driving through Jaipur Pink City |
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| Driving through Jaipur Pink City
|
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| Driving through Jaipur Pink City
|
First
stop inside the Pink city was the Jantarmantar observatory built by Raja Sawai Jaisingh2 between 1728 to 1734. This
observatory has been described as the most realistic and logical landscape in
stone. Its 16 instruments resembling a giant sculptural composition are still
used to forecast weather, as well as arrival of monsoon, flood, famines etc.
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| Jantar mantar- Jaipur |
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| Jantar mantar- Jaipur
|
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| Jantar mantar- Jaipur
|
Next was
just a small halt for clicking pictures at Hawamehel which is actually a huge freestanding structure standing; some say
without foundation.
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| City palace entrance- Jaipur |
Occupying
the heart of the Pink city stands The City palace which has been the home of Jaipur’s rulers since early 18th
century. This sprawling complex is a superb blend of Rajput and Mughal architecture.
Today, a part of the complex is open to the public as raja Sawaijaisingh 2 museum. It houses miniature paintings,
manuscripts, musical instruments, royal costumes as well as weaponry which
provide a splendid introduction to Jaipur’s princely past.
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| City palace- Jaipur |
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| City palace- Jaipur
|
Somewhere
on the way we were taken to the Govt handicrafts and handlooms emporium where we were showed a small demonstration
of tie and dye of clothes which Jaipur is famous for. With such good pieces of
craftsmanship around, one could hardly resist buying something or the other
from here. Even I bought a quilt and 2 sarees to take back when I go to Mumbai.
While on
the way to next place there was a short photo clicking halt at Gaitor- the marble
cenotaphs of Kachchwaha kings enclosed in a walled garden just off Amber road. This site was chosen as
the new cremation site by Jaisingh2 after Amber was abandoned.
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| Gaitor- Jaipur |
Very
close to Gaitor is the famous ‘JalMahal’ of Jaipur standing between the mansagar lake. During the monsoon, water
fills the lake and jalmahal seems to rise from it like mirage. Built in mid-18th
century by madho Singh1, its inspired by the lake palace at Udaipur where the
king spent his childhood. The terraced garden enclosed by arch passages had
elegant octagonal towers topped by cupolas in each corner.
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| Jalmahal- Jaipur |
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| Jalmahal- Jaipur
|
Next was
the Nahargarh
fort- where the
famous shot of movie Rang De Basanti was shot. Other than this spot, the fort
flatly fails to attract the visitors. This fort was built by kachawaha rulers
after defeating fiereceMeena tribe which occupied the jungle at this very spot.
Its fortifications were later strengthened by Jaisingh2 and subsequently
expanded by successive rulers. The fort has a lavish palace called
MadhavendraBhawan built by Madhosingh2 for his 9 queens. Other than this one of
the chambers of the mahal is today occupied by a government restaurant which
served us the much needed tasty lunch for the day.
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| Nahargarh- Jaipur |
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| Nahargarh- Jaipur
|
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| Nahargarh- Jaipur
|
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| Nahargarh- Jaipur
|
Jaigarh
fort was our next
destination. This is the fort that looks over the old capital- Amber. Today it
houses world’s largest canon on wheels- JaiVan, which surprisingly has never
been fired! Other interesting places on the fort are DiwaBurj- a 7 storeyed
tower, 2 temples, a palace and a place used for mass killings of criminals.
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| Jai Van at Jaigarh- Jaipur |
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| Jaigarh- Jaipur
|
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| Jaigarh- Jaipur
|
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| Jaigarh- Jaipur
|
Amber
fort is the most
gorgeous piece of architecture in all of Jaipur. Thiscitadel was established by
ManSingh1 in 1592 on remains of an old fort. But various buildings added by
JaiSingh1 are what constitute its magnificent masterpieces. Sheesh mehel- literally made of small pieces
of mirrors is arguably the most beautiful location of the fort along with the
Aram Bagh- the pleasure garden sitting in front of it. Jas mandir- the hall of private audience has
lattices windows, floral ceiling of elegant relief work and glass inlay. Ganesh
Pol is the shimmering 3 storeyed gateway built in 1640. It is connected to the
private apartments by the screened uppermost level meant for ladies in Purdah
(veil). Shiladevi
temple- the
temple of family deity of the Kachchawahas is also situated on the fort which
is approached by a silver ornately carved door.
Goddamn
tired with so much of roaming around, we were taken to our last destination for
the day- a garden called KanakVrindawan – parts of which had shut down by the time we reach there.
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| Kanak Vrindawan- Jaipur |
Reaching
back to the Sindhi camp, the bus dropped us at the bus stand.
Last few hours left in Jaipur, we still had not eaten its famous Kachoris. We
straightaway headed to the Famous shop- RawatKachoriwalawhich is 2 minutes’ walk from the bus stand
to eat the Pyazkachoris.
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| Kanak Vrindawan- Jaipur
|
Checking
out from the hotel around 10 pm, we occupied the booked seats of the bus which
was about to leave for Delhi anytime now. The hustle bustle of the capital city
had now come to an end and suddenly everything around had become quiet. Driving
through these calm roads of Jaipur and bidding it a tata, the bus hit the
Jaipur- Delhi highway.
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| Hawa mehel at night |
Day7:Time: Morning 4am, Place: DhaulaKuan, New Delhi!
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