Rajasthan

Rajasthan sojourn

Monsoon hits most parts of the country by July, which makes it a bit difficult to plan a trip at this time of the year. After deliberating for quite a while, we decided to go to Rajasthan. My first choice, Ladhak was left for some other day. Rajasthan is split into two by the Aravalis. The part south of Aravalis is green and fertile whereas the deserts are to the north. We decided to cover the southern part - Jaipur, Udaipur and Mount Abu.

Jaipur

On 1-Jul, we took a late night flight from Pune to Jaipur and checked in at hotel Vesta Maurya at around 11 AM, the following morning. There are some exquisite paintings in the entrance lobby of Vesta Maurya. After taking much needed rest, we had  lunch at a nearby restaurant called Niros. The food in Niros didn't live up to its expectation. With our stomachs filled, we decided to stroll down to a nearby park called Ram Nivas. Five mins into the park, we were stranded under heavy rains without any umbrella or raincoat. Aashi, being very susceptible to cold, and this being just the start of trip, we were a bit overcautious and took an eco friendly rickshaw ride back to Vesta. After rain subsided, we ventured out again in the evening. This time for a religious outing, with an umbrella and raincoat. As expected, we didn't need it much though. We first visited a 5 headed Hanuman temple. Adjacent to this temple was the Mooti Dongri Ganesh temple. It's a famous Ganesh temple, frequently visited by Rajmata Gayatri Devi. After that we went to Birla temple, which looked even more splendid at night. Tired, we took a rickshaw back to the hotel. The rickshaw wala had very good knowledge of Jaipur city and its history. Impressed with him, we decided to hire him for the following 2 days. Suraj Mahal is a restaurant at stone throw distance from Vesta. Relished mouth watering Rajasthani Thali at Suraj Mahal before retiring to bed.

Started second day with a sumptuous breakfast at Vesta. Had pretty much everything that the breakfast menu offered. A day earlier, we had chalked out a detailed plan for places to visit. Our driver and guide for the day - Mr Birju Chowdhury was slightly late to report. He however made that up with the places that he took us to later in the day. 

We first went to the famous Hawa Mahal. It's a 5 story building built by Lal Chand right in the  heart of old Jaipur city. There are 953 windows through which cool breeze flows through. Hence the name Hawa Mahal. The Mahal was used by royal ladies to watch processions that went through the old city. Almost all buildings in old Jaipur are in pink colour, hence the name Pink City. The only exceptions are the royal buildings like City Palace, Jantar Mantar etc which is in yellow colour. There is a road calld Mirza Ismail (M.I) road that runs across old Jaipur city. All major roads in Jaipur are connected to MI road. The architect of this road didnt take any remuneration from the king and only requested the road to be named after him. Raj Mandir, a famous cinema hall is there on MI road. 

Jaipur is named after a great Rajput king called Sawai Jai Singh - II. He became king at the age of 11 but was very intelligent and built many monuments across the city. The city has been built on principles of Vastu Shastra. There are 9 blocks which took almost 4 years to build. Jai Singh knew 17 different languages and had a penchant for astrology and architecture. 

One famous monument built by this great king is the Jantar Mantar, which houses many astronomical instruments. There are 5 Jantar Mantars across the country, but the one in Jaipur is the most famous. The sun dial (clock which tells time on the basis of Sun's position) here has a precision of 2 seconds! The guide at Jantar Mantar was worth his fees and explained every instrument in detail. Jantar Mantar is a UNESCO world heritage site. 

Next we went to City Palace. The current royal family stays in one part of city palace, while the other part has been converted into a museum. We took the tickets for the museum and mostly saw old armoury and clothes of the kings and queens. The place where the king used to hold the darbar is also open to the public, however photography is not allowed. It has exquisite paintings on the walls and glittering chandeliers. The museum also has two 5-feet high silver kalash, For religious reasons, the Maharaja used to carry Ganga jal in this kalash when he went to England. Birju then took us to a nearby veg restaurant, where we had lunch.

Post that, we went to Kallu Chacha's shop, a very renowned and old footwear shop in Jaipur. The footwear made here is all hand crafted and can be folded and kept in the pocket! After learning that we have come from Pune, the shopkeeper told us that Nitin Gadkari had visited this shop few years back and bought footwear worth 50,000 rupees . We ended up buying 4 pairs for 2000! Kallu Chacha's another claim to fame is that he died at the ripe age of 138. His son is now 110 years old. 

After Kallu Chacha's shop, we embarked on the famous Amir fort, which is about 15 kms from the old Jaipur city. We passed by Rani ki Chatri (final resting place of all queens). Another important palace on way to Amir, was the Jal Mahal. It is a palace made right in the middle of Man Sagar. One can only marvel at the engineering prowess of the people who made this 100s of years back. The king used this place as his summer palace.

Before Jaipur, Amir was the capital of Kachwaha Rajput until 1727. The guide at Amir was worth the money. Explained the various parts of the fort in detail - Shila Devi temple at the entrance and the associated history, Parade ground, Diwane Aam and Khas, Sheesh Mahal, natural geyser, bhul bhulaeya leading to the rooms of the queens etc.

The guide also took some creative snaps at the Sheesh Mahal. The Sheesh Mahal was made from glasses and mirrors imported from Belgium. Interestingly, the queens were not allowed to speak to each other and the King had a secret passage to the room of every queen in Amir fort. The only time queens could be together or speak to each other was in the presence of king. There is a dedicated place in Amir, where the king used to watch live performances along with the queens. Amir is connected with Jaigarh fort which was used as an escape route by royal family. While returning from Amir, we stopped at a Rajasthan tourism shop and bought some souvenirs. Coincidentally, our cabbie turned out to be from Darbhanga. He charged 800 for the entire day, which was very nominal, considering that the hotel arranged cab was for 1800.

The third day at Jaipur was going to be our last in the city in this trip, as we had to catch an overnight train to Udaipur. We left our our luggage in the hotel and checked out at noon. We headed to Albert Museum only to find that it remains closed on Mondays. Disappointed, we called Birju to pick us from Albert Museum. Post that headed to Jaigarh fort. 

Jaigarh fort is famous for housing the largest cannon in the world - Jaivan. The cannon weighs a mammoth 250 tonnes and required 4 elephants to move it. The cannon ball weighed 50 kgs. Jaivan has been fired, rather test fired only once and there were some rather telling aftermaths. The bomb landed almost 40 kms from the place from where it was fired. The  person who fired the cannon was told to immediately jump to an adjoining water body to escape the impact of the explosion. He jumped into the water, but died couple of days later due to injury to veins. There were cracks in walls in nearby areas and some untimely delivery of babies. The king ordered that the cannon be henceforth used only in grave situations. Luckily, that moment never came! 

Another interesting facet about Jaigarh fort is the treasure that was recovered from here. It is widely believed that during emergency, based on orders from Indira Gandhi, 7 trucks loaded with gold and jewellery were taken away from this fort. Delhi-Jaipur highway was locked down for 3 days. The incumbent King and Queen were imprisoned. As per official records, only 1 truck (4 tonnes) full of gold and jewellery was recovered. All this treasure was hidden underneath a big water tank and very few people knew about this. Another treasure, adjacent to the treasure below the water tank, was used by the King to build Jaipur city. This was housed in 9 rooms! Next in line was another adjoining fort called Nahargarh. This fort had 9 divisions, one each for each queen. The top of the fort presents a beautiful sight of the entire Jaipur city. We didn't take a guide here as we were running short of time. We finally came back to Jaipur city in the evening and went to the famous Rawat's shop to try Onion  and Mawa Kachori. We were extremely tired by this time and with no place to go, we decided to watch a movie in Raj Mandir. Birju dropped us at Raj Mandir, where we watched Tubelight. Raj Mandir is a very famous old movie theatre in Jaipur. After watching the movie, we collected our luggage from hotel and then headed to railway station to catch the train to Udaipur.

Udaipur

 

We reached Le Roi hotel in Udaipur at around 7:15 AM. We were very tired after overnight train journey, so the first half of the day was for recharging the batteries. Udaipur is named after Rajput Marwar King Uday Singh. His palace, built alongside Lake Pichola is a major city attraction. We went to City Palace in the afternoon, where we shared a guide with another touring group. Like the City Palace in Jaipur, this is also divided into 2 parts- one part is where the Royal family stays whereas the other part has been converted to a museum. The guide gave us huge doses of history and Maharana ancestry for about 2 hrs. We saw royal clothes, silverwares, armoury, paintings etc.

The King's bedroom is another mini Sheesh Mahal. There is an interesting story associated with a chair in the museum. Apparently, one of the Maharanas was invited by King Edward for some ceremony in Delhi. Upon reaching Delhi, the King learnt that he will be seated in the second row. Feeling humiliated, the Maharana returned back to Udaipur from the railway station without participating in the ceremony. Realising his mistake, King Edward sent Maharana's chair to Udaipur as a mark of respect. Until date, no one has sit on this chair. At the center of Lake Pichola, is another Palace called Jag Mandir. The King used this as a Summer Palace. The Palace was earlier open for all, but post Mumbai terrorist attack, one can go only if there is a formal dinner invitation, which can be bought for 3000 rupees per couple.

Next we went to Jagdish temple, which is about a 400 years old temple. Took almost 25 years to be built. Dusk was spent in Saheliyon ki Bari (Garden for Queens). There is nothing spectacular about the garden, just that it has bit of historical significance. We finished the day with dinner at Ambrai, restaurant alongside Pichola lake. Food was very ordinary, but there were some amazing views of City Palace and Jag Mandir from Ambrai. 

On the second day in Udaipur, there wasn't anything significant for us to see. We could have probably gone to Sajjangarh fort. But we decided to give it a skip and travel to some nearby historical and religious places. Our driver for the day was one Mr Vikram Sisodiya, who was quite a character. We started the day early, as we had to travel 110 Kms east of Udaipur to Chittorgarh. We went around Chittorgarh fort for about 2 hrs. This fort has a periphery of almost 13 kms and was made in 700 AD. Unfortunately, it had to bear Alauddin Khilji's onslaught after he defeated the Rajputs in 1305. Still a lot is intact - Vijay stambh, Kirti stambh, the legendary Merabai and her Guru's temple, water tanks where entire Rajput army used to take bath/ drink water from, main entrance of the fort, Jauhar site etc. The guide at Chittorgarh fort told many interesting stories. One of the most notable stories was that of Jauhar by Rajput queens and ladies. Jauhar is a puja performed before mass Sati. In all, 3 Jauhars were performed in Chittorgarh fort. In the first, 16000 ladies participated, whereas in second and third, 13000 and 8000 ladies participated respectively. The place is a testimony of the valour, courage and honour of Rajputana ladies. Accordingly to another account, Alauddin Khilji saw Rani Padmavati's shadow in water and was infatuated by her beauty. Padmavati's husband Ratan Sen was defeated by Alauddin Khilji. Before Khilji could capture Chittor, Rani committed Jauhar along with thousands of women. The tribals in Chittor make sari out if Tulsi and custard apple (Sharifa). We bought two Tulsi saris for both mothers. 

After Chittorgarh, we traveled about 90 kms eastwords and came to Srinathji temple at Nathdwara. Srinathji is a very revered Krishna temple. There are specific darshan timings. After doing the 4:30 pm  darshan, we traveled back and reached Udaipur by 6 pm. We couldn't cover the famous Eklingji (kulguru of Maharanas) temple as it was closed. We had South Indian dinner for a change in Bawarchi restaurant in Udaipur's Bappu Bazaar. The hectic schedule was really taking a toll on us now. We were looking forward to mostly relax in Mount Abu, our next destination.

The next morning, we checked out of Le Roi at 10 AM to catch a bus to Mount Abu. Getting a commute to Mount Abu was bit challenging. There are only 2 AC buses from Udaipur to Mount Abu. One departs at 8AM, whereas the second one departs at 3 PM. We missed the first bus and the second bus had a long wait. Rates for local taxi were very high. Finally we decided to take a semi deluxe Rajasthan State Transport Bus to Abu Road. Wasn't as bad as we had thought earlier. After reaching Abu Road, we took a cab to our hotel Mount Regency. Reached the hotel finally at 3:30 PM. 

Mount Abu

We were greeted by an aged lady Sangeeta at the front desk. Sangeeta mam is specially abled, but she manages the front desk for the entire day. She appeared to be  pretty well known in Mount Abu and guided us really well on how to plan our sightseeing in limited time. The view from the room balcony was amazing and took away some of our fatigue. After taking some badly needed rest, we went to the local market in the evening. On the way, we learnt that many people prefer two wheeler for local sightseeing as the roads in Abu are very narrow and winding. We also decided to rent an Activa for going around Abu on the following day. We went around Nakki Lake and had dinner at Arbuda. 

On second day in Abu, we woke up to the sound of rains, which to my delight subsided after a few hrs. I intentionally mention "my" because Ankita and Aashi were looking for a reason to stay back in the hotel. We started on Activa and set out to the farthest point - Guru Shikhar, which is the highest point in the Aravalis (read Rajasthan to keep it simple). It's approximately at 5100 ft. There is a temple of Lord Dattatreya and one can see some breathtaking panoramic views from the summit. We then descended and went to Peace park. It's a good garden. The only flip side is that there is a compulsory 5 mins sermon which everyone is supposed to attend the start.

Next in line was the famous Dilwara temple which Aashi was most excited to see as one of her teachers had specifically asked her to see. It's a conglomeration of 5 temples, the oldest one being 1000 years old. The oldest one was built at a cost of Rs 18 crore. With 1500 masons and 1200 labourers, it took 14 years to build. The next one is about 800 years. Took 12 years to build at a similar astronomical cost as the first one. The temple has such exquisite carvings that one can just not stop admiring. I haven't seen any wonders of the world, but Dilwara to me is clearly a wonder of the world. The third temple has a golden deity made out of 800 kg of gold.  Interestingly, the top of all these temples is very ordinary and is in a shape which can be confused with either a mosque or a temple. No wonder, the temple survived Alauddin Khilji's onslaught when most temples in Rajasthan were decimated. Another interesting thing about the temple is that there are only 20 pujaris who work as guide as well. There is no entry fee for such a beautiful temple! Unfortunately, but for a good reason, photography is strictly banned inside the temple since 1992. In the  evening, we first went to Shankar Math and then to Toad Rock. Later is a huge rock, overseeing Nakki Lake on one side and the mountains on another three. Again there were some amazing views from the top. There are close to 270 steps to reach Toad rock and luckily Aashi climbed up and down on her own. Add to this, another 150 odd steps for Guru Shikhar and I must say that she really cooperated. There were two more points which we missed due to lack of time - Sunset point and Honeymoon point. Infact we had reached Sunset point, but it was almost closing then. Honeymoon point was another 3 km away, so it wasn't worth trying. On the way back to the hotel, we bought some snacks from the local market. At one point, I was struggling to work out a plan for a day in Mount Abu, but honestly there is more than enough for few days.

On the following morning, we took a cab to Udaipur airport from Mount Regency. Finally our 8 days of action packed trip to Rajasthan was coming to an end. Ankita and Aashi slept most of the time in the way. Between transit at Udaipur and Delhi airport, we talked about various facets of the trip - how much variety we saw, and how many interesting anecdotes we heard in last few days. We met many interesting people, starting with loquacious Birju in Jaipur and ending with modest Sangeeta mam in Mount Abu. Rajasthan is truly is a mystical land with tales of splendor, chivalry and romance emanating from every nook and corner. It was definitely a trip worth remembering! 

We reached Pune pretty much on time at around 9 PM. Had dinner with friends and had loads to talk about. One of those few occasions, when Sinhas did most of the talking. Amidst the conversation, I didn't realize how time flew and the clock struck 12 after some time. Our friends had arranged a surprise cake cutting ceremony for us. It truly was an icing on the cake for a memorable trip. Couldn't have asked for more!