6 months after our marriage, my wife insisted that we go for a trip. I was more than ready. “Rajasthan” we both agreed.
When I think of Rajasthan , one of the names that come to my mind is Maharana prathap . There used to be a serial in doordarshan some time back about him. Me and my brother would watch it without a miss. We soon by hearted the title lyrics of the serial which literally translated from Malayalam would be like.
Holding a spear that glows like the sun’s rays
Was one of the great sons of bharatha matha.
To save dharma, he sacrificed everything he had.
Sacrificed even his life to safe guard his country…
Who’s that…who’s that…who’s that…
Maha rana prathap, maha rana prathap.
so I was pleasantly surprised and happy to visit the land of maha rana prathap.
After some meticulous planning by my wife – sibi, we were set.
We started off from cochin airport on an early morning to Delhi. From comparatively moderate heat of cochin to the scorching heat of Delhi was change in itself. From Indira Gandhi airport, Delhi we took a cab (meru cab service) to Nizamabad railway station. Near by the station, we headed to a food court for a sumptuous lunch. After that we waited at the railway station for our train to Udaipur to arrive. By evening the train came and we hoped on to it. It was an overnight journey. We talked for a while and then went to sleep.
By early morning we were nearing Udaipur. We landed at Udaipur by 7.30 am. We then took few pics to afloat our memory. We then kept our luggage’s locked in our railway waiting room . To be specific, we had to buy a lock from the nearby shop and keep our luggage’s locked in railway waiting room. On my way to the shop, I kind of had my first glance at the life of common man at Udaipur and it didn’t look very promising. It was quite clear that, the life around the Udaipur railway station – which would be one of the most visited stations in India annually, consisted of very poor people. Open defecation was happening and it reminded me of prime ministers address at lal kila for building more house hold toilets.
We then took an auto to Udaipur palace. Most of the places to be visited in Udaipur lies in and around Udaipur palace. We then went in search for a good restaurant for breakfast. We stopped at a place which was run by a lady. We had yummy aloo paratha and tea. On our conversation with the lady ,we came to know that she was a relative of hrishiraj singh – an IPS officer who was always in lime light in Malayalam media for being outright and honest.
Once we had our breakfast, my wife insisted that we check out some souvenirs. We then headed towards an antique shop. We brought traditional rajasthani knife and a Rajasthani Decorative Kaka Kaki Miniature Heads. Since we were first customers that day, the shop owner took the liberty of gifting us each with a key chain. Once we were packed with our souvenirs, we headed towards Udaipur palace.
we went about in exploring Udaipur palace. The palace in itself was an object of admiration. It was well maintained and looked beautiful. We took the liberty of dressing up in traditional rajasthani wear and posing in front of Udaipur palace. It looked terrific. It reminded us of a past, a history – long forgotten. There were lot of tourists both Indian and foreign. This is the palace which has witnessed many marriage ceremonies. In fact a part of palace can be hired for the purpose of marriage. We roamed around and explored the palace. The pichola lake which runs near by the palace brought in cool breeze which kind of melted down the overall temperature. There was a palace right in the middle of lake. An engineering marvel so to say.
People took boats to reach that palace , which was kind of a summer retreat for the king. All of a sudden, it started to drizzle and we were not able to visit the lake palace. We took few pics.
The long walk around the palace museum had made us hungry. We took upon the liberty of treating us ourselves with a grand lunch at Udaipur palace hotel. After a lip smacking lunch, we took a rest near the lake and enjoyed the view. We then headed towards jagdish temple. Temple was an art marvel in itself. It was beautifully laid with lot of sculptures and paintings.
After visiting the temple, we headed back to Udaipur railway station. We roamed around the station. We got a glance of how life revolves around in Udaipur. One thing I noticed in particular was that traffic norms are not followed at all. The streets were not clean, as is in most parts of India. But people were very warm. We stopped near by a small road side tea shop. I ordered tea, my wife being a strict coffee drinker said no to tea. She enquired if she could get a glass of coffee to the shop keeper. He readily walked to a nearby shop, brought a pack of coffee and made coffee for her.
Our search for a good restaurant near by the station proved un fruitful. So we went back to the station, asked my wife to stay at the waiting room. I alone went in search for our dinner. We were planning back to Jaipur that night, and we had our train around 10.30 pm. After walking around for some time, I found a pretty decent hotel. I parceled a typical rajasthani thali as the dinner and headed back to the station.
We then took our luggage from the waiting room. Waited for our train. Once the train reached, we hoped on to it and took our seats. We had our dinner and readily slept off.
Early morning we had reached close to Jaipur. We were up and ready. We got down at Jaipur railway station and headed straight to lemon tree hotel, where we had booked our accommodation.
Lemon tree hotel in particular was really good. Rooms were neatly decorated with all amenities.
We took time to rest and then headed straight to city palace. “The marvel of Rajput’s” I said to myself. We spend close to 1.5 hours roaming around and witnessing the beautiful palace. Once we came out, an old rickshaw puller came towards us, and said he would take us for a ride. We said, we will visit few nearby places and definitely use his rickshaw. We then walked to nearby market. There was huge crowd near the market as some local rajasthani festival was going on. I thoroughly enjoyed the views and continued walking along with the crowd, not to much happiness of my wife.
Soon we reached a different end of the city. We continued our walk and I soon realized that we had lost our way. After a few hiccups, we took an auto to hawa mahal.
Hawa mahal stood in the heart of the city. It was very crowded. We roamed around it quickly and then headed to jantar mantar.
Jantar mantar, I googled as I entered. There are 4 jantar mantar’s in India and largest one is in Jaipur, it said. I somehow felt happy.
It was terrific, it consisted of lot of old scientific instruments used by our ancestors. it reminded me of the scientific prowess our ancestors had. I could see many foreigners standing in awe at the explanations of these instruments from local guides.
We were tired after roaming around, and we took a seat. We watched different people walk past us.
We came out jantar mantar, and met the same old rickshaw wala here. We asked him to take us to a proper authentic rajasthani restaurant. He drove us around and took us to a restaurant, while driving he was very jovial and we enquired about him and his family. We paid him money, bid good bye and headed to shri balaji restaurant.
Restaurant was full, we somehow squeezed in and found 2 seats. We ordered 1 rajasthani thali and 1 Punjabi thali. Let me tell you, that’s one of the best north Indian food we have had in some time.
We then walked to the markets of Jaipur. I was hovering around the thought – if it’s the terrific lunch or the fact that she could so shopping , that made my wife pretty happy.
We brought few items for our family and friends and by late evening headed towards the room. We slept off for a while. Sibi felt very tired, so she said she will take a good hot bath and stay in the room, while I was assigned the task of bringing the night dinner.
I went out, checked out few road side dhaba’s and got few items for dinner. Meanwhile I happened to see couple of youngsters in a brawl. Soon police arrived and took them away. I walked back to the room.
We had our dinner and slept off, and we were very happy that our day 1 in Jaipur went really well. Next day we were planning to visit Ajmer and pushkar.
We got up pretty early and headed straight to Jaipur railway station. From there we took a train to Ajmer. We had recently watched “Usthad hotel” and were eager to visit Ajmer dharga. On the way , in the train, I was able to see a women TTE for the first time.
Once we reached Ajmer railway station, we took a bus to pushkar. After a 1 hr journey, we reached pushkar. I knew pushkar only for the pushkar camel fair. Again google came up with more details, as we headed to Brahma temple. Pushkar is boasted of having one of the five brahma temples in India. Temple was very crowded. We stood in a long queue, did our darshan and took Prasad. We then walked towards one of the Ghats. I was wearing a black kurtha and jeans. Once we entered the ghat, many locals followed us asking us to do the Pooja. I said no. After couple of attempts, few backed off, with few commenting on my dress – implying that I am of a different religion. I walked off from them, we sat at a place in the steps of the ghat. We saw many people doing puja.
We then roamed around, to find a local hotel, where in we brought a local sweet, which they said would not go stale for next 3 days, even if we don’t keep it inside the fridge. We brought 2 packets of it and headed towards the bus stand. On the way we saw couple of camels roaming around.
We took rest for a while and then headed back to Ajmer in bus. On our way we saw the other side of beautiful pushkar lake.
At Ajmer also there were long queue. We entered the beautiful green painted mosque. I was entering a mosque for the first time. So everything was new and looked great to me. We followed what others did. I could see a board which strongly suggested a Malayali presence in there. We did all the rituals and came out. Once our spiritual journey ended, we were feeling hungry. We had googled to find out about a local rajasthani restaurant nearby. We enquired about the restaurant to few people and all replied in same tone “ 5 mins walkable distance” . We continued to walk for almost 30 mins and then we reached the restaurant. We had our food. After our lunch, we headed straight to the Ajmer railway station. From there we took the train to Jaipur. The view from the train window gave us a glimpse of life in Rajasthan. After 3.5 hours journey, we reached back at Jaipur around 7.30 pm. We then took an auto to our hotel. Nearby our hotel , we stopped to buy few sandwiches and headed to our room. After having our sandwiches, we slept off.
Next morning itself , we took a local bus to amber fort. While sitting in the bus, a burqa clad lady got in the bus at a bus stop with a small child in her hand. No one seem to get up for her, I got up and gave her the seat. Soon after another burqa clad lady entered with 2 children, but no one gave their seat to her. She stood there with both their children for close to half an hour. It made me wonder.
We headed to amber fort. Amber fort looked marvelous. The view was terrific least to say. We took few photos. Since the way up to the fort was a daunting task, we had 2 options. In an elephant or via jeep. We chose the latter. We reached the top of the fort. The location and scenery surrounding the fort was breath taking. Once we entered the fort, we saw sheesh mahal.
While watching sheesh mahal, the first thing I remembered was one of the songs of “MGR – Jayalalitha” which I happened to see from an ardent old Tamil movie fan – my father. “Nallairavu thunayiriku….naaam iruvaar thaniyiriku” which was shot in this very place. I hummed, not to much amusement of my wife. We roamed around and explored the fort. Took some photos for tangible memory. We came out of the fort, took rest. Breeze from theMaota lake, gave us some sort of respite from the scorching heat. From there we headed towards jal mahal in a local bus.
Jal mahal is a beautiful palace located in the middle of man sagar lake. I was overwhelmed by the sheer beauty of the palace and the architectural excellence of having a palace being built in the middle of a lake. I assumed it was built by the Rajput’s to overcome the scorching heat of Rajasthan. The majestic Aravalli hills provided the perfect back drop to the mighty palace.
Nearby jal mahal we stopped for a while and had an ice cream. We saw a small kid and his dad providing camel rides for the people. “Rajaasthan aaye aur camel main nahi chade…yeh ho hi nahi saktha” said my wife, smiling. We hoped on to the mighty animal and had a ride. I had previously been on top of camel when I was in somnath, Gujarat. I had given the camera to the kid, who tried to click few pics of us.
We then headed to shri balaji restaurant itself. We grabbed ourselves a good lunch and again roamed around the markets. We then headed back to our restaurant. Nearby our restaurant itself there was a shopping mall and a movie theatre. We booked tickets for “singham returns”. We got into the theatre and soon realized that there was no AC. It was damn hot. Even though movie was watchable, the heat took a toll on our senses. Once the movie got over, we had dinner and came back to the room.
We knew our trip to Jaipur – Udaipur is going to come to an end next day. We slept off. Morning we had our breakfast from hotel itself. Then we packed our luggage and soon left to Jaipur airport. After check in, we got in to our flight and headed back home.
Overall Rajasthan was a great experience, one which tells you deep down to visit this place again, soon.
