Intellicenter: Rajasthan Travelogue

In December 2013, my family and I had planned a trip to Jodhpur and Jaisalmer, two of the main centres of tourism in Rajasthan. Rajasthan, the land of the kings, lies in the north-western part of India. The famous Thar Desert covers almost half of Rajasthan. On one fine morning, we rented a cab and reached the Bandra station in Mumbai, a three hour trip that was absolutely boring. We saw the Subrata Roy Sahara Stadium on the way. After we reached the station, at first it was a pleasure to watch the trains pass by, one after the other. In every two minutes, a local train would pass by. But the heat of the sun started setting in and I got irritated by the unhygienic conditions of the station. Finally, after one hour, our train to Jodhpur arrived. Our compartment was second AC. The one I like. Once in the train, I didn’t even realize how the time passed by as I was completely engrossed in reading a novel. I had started reading the book when we boarded the train and now it was dinner time. Surely, books are a great way to pass time.

PART 1: JODHPUR

On the next day, the train arrived at Jodhpur station. It looked like a royal palace. It was a very cold morning. After resting for a while in the Ghoomer hotel, where we stayed, we went to see the Umaid Bhawan Palace. It was a small palace constructed on a hilltop. It was interesting to note that the Raja, which means the king, of Jodhpur was still living in the palace with his family. Half of the palace was converted into a museum. Vases, clocks, utensils, furniture, thrones, miniature non-working aeroplanes, actual swords which the kings had used and many other things were put on display. There was also a model of the palace put on display in the southern part of the main room. The king also had a vintage car collection having actual cars from those times. A wire mesh was put as a ceiling in the courtyard behind the main room and next to it, there are some royal shops, selling fabric and other items. In front of the palace there are beautiful gardens and next to the entrance, there is a café. At the base of the hill, the king had constructed his own city which had houses for the people. Good view, but if it had been a little cloudy that day, it would have been an awesome view.

We then approached the Mehrangarh Fort, the most famous fort of Jodhpur. It was also constructed on a hilltop. To prevent enemies from entering the fort, huge walls were constructed at the gate. There were stairs and also a lift to reach the top of the fort. Looking at the height of the wall, we paid the fee for the lift as we wouldn’t ever have been able to climb the stairs to reach the top. It was a wonderful view from the top. A cluster of blue houses were made next to the fort. They were the homes of the Brahmins in those times. The fort is famous for elephant howdahs. A howdah is a carriage which is positioned on the back of an elephant. Mostly used by the kings. Palanquins, royal cradles, daggers, spears, swords, some really long guns, axes, pistols, big paintings, the king’s quill, his writings, costumes, musical instruments, furniture, cannons and other similar things were put on display. From the Kilkila cannon, we got a breath-taking view of the city. Four rooms in this fort caught my eye, the Phool Mahal, the Moti Mahal, the Sheesh Mahal and the Takhat Vilas. Gold ceilings, colourful windows and balls hanging from the ceiling, mirror pieces on the walls, I guess these rooms are the main centres of attraction. While we were walking down the fort to the taxi stand, we saw this big pillar. It had these holes in it, circled by red paint. These holes were created by attackers who opened fire on the fort. The heat was again at its best. We were as tired as ever. We walked back to the gate of the fort and breathed a sigh of relief under the shade of a big tree. There were many pigeons next to the gate. My brother just took a step towards them. Flap! Flap! Flap! Flap! All the pigeons took off with such a tremendous force and sound that my brother almost fell down, embarrassed by his own actions.

Some distance away from the fort is the Jaswant Thada. It is a memorial made of white marble built by Maharaja Sardar Singh in memory of his father, Maharaja Jaswant Singh II. This monument is an example of architectural brilliance. Although it was not very big, it had a beautiful design. It is said that the marble stones used in it are extremely thin and polished and they emit a warm glow when sunrays fall on its surface. While walking towards the monument, we passed a lake. The water of the lake seemed to cool the environment. There is a nice garden and a fountain in front of the monument and next to it are other small well-carved structures. Here also we can get a nice view of the city and the Umaid Bhawan Palace is visible from this point. Behind the Jaswant Thada and the fort, stretching across the mountains was a wall, golden in colour. It looked like a boundary wall, more like the Great Wall of China. Obviously, no comparison, but still.

Next, we visited the Mandore garden. There are many temples and memorials in the garden. The cenotaphs of many rulers are present here. After walking past them, at the end of the garden, we approached the temple of the Hindu god, Bhairav. Many people had gathered over there. There were also a lot of monkeys in the garden. There were signboards all over the place-Do not feed monkeys in the garden. But who cares? Don’t know why, but many people were feeding the monkeys. As usual, they had to bear the consequences. There was this guy who opened a packet of food and gave it to a monkey. Three other monkeys saw this and followed the man hoping that he would give them some food also. But this guy didn’t have any food left with him. Looking at the monkeys following him, the man made a run for it. As you would’ve thought, the monkeys ran after him. They were no match for the man. They easily would have caught up with him, but two other guys started pelting stones on them. The monkeys ran off to their monkey group under a tree. Well, sometimes signboards do come handy.

Quite a hectic day though. Umaid Bhawan Palace, Mehrangarh Fort, Jaswant Thada, Mandore Garden, all these places in one day. We returned back to the hotel. I forgot to tell you, in case you ever visit Jodhpur, and stay in the Ghoomer hotel, do take the room facing the road. The staff at the hotel will advise you to take a room not facing the road as you will get disturbed by the noise of trains at night. But seriously, there is no such thing. I mean, at night, if you wake up by even the slightest of sounds, you may take the advice of the staff a little bit more seriously. But I’m a person who enjoys watching trains and hearing their sounds. Another thing, in every ten minutes or so, a train passes by over here. Also, the rooms facing the road are better as compared to the rooms on the opposite side. After returning back, the first thing I looked for was the remote control of the T.V. What could be better than coming back from a long exhausting trip and watching a movie? I searched all the channels, but not a single good movie was broadcasted. Excellent broadcasters. Nothing to do, I took out my Gameboy. Single screen cartridge video game player made by Nintendo. You must have heard that name. My brother was playing on his Nintendo double screen system. He was playing the game of Madagascar. That is the type of game you need to pass time. But I couldn’t argue with him. With my experience with him, I could tell you that big brothers aren’t always dominating. Fighting with him would mean ruining my vacation. Because once I disturb him, he doesn’t forget it easily and keeps on bugging me. Great. So I had no other option but play some other game. At 8 pm, we opened the boxes of snacks and sweets we bought from some shops while coming back to the hotel. That was dinner. One more thing I must tell you, there are no nice restaurants in Jodhpur. So having snacks and sweets for dinner was the only option.

The following day, we set out to simply walk on the road leading to the Jodhpur clock tower. One of the many examples of the bustling small roads of India. There were shops on both sides of the road. Shops of sweets, handicrafts, clothes, shoes, fast food restaurants and hotels. Along with this, people. The road was crowded with people on both lanes. And if that’s not enough, there were cars, bikes, rickshaws, cycles and scooters. If you were an Indian living in such a place, you won’t mind this condition at all. But if you are a person living in a metropolitan city with wide roads and shopping malls instead of small shops, you would surely mind. My parents didn’t seem to be disturbed by this at all, but my brother and I had to follow them as we didn’t have any other choice. Imagine this situation. You are walking on a road. The temperature is something around 30*C. The footpaths are taken by the shops to display their goods. So, the only option is to walk on the roads itself. And there is a traffic jam. You have to go between the vehicles which are in motion and every second try to avoid an accident. Also, you see people, according to the great Indian tradition, not even thinking once before spitting on the road. Well, this was the condition my brother and I had to face. We finally reached the Jodhpur clock tower. There was a huge market over there. Here, along with the people, there were cows and dogs. Literally, panic seized me. This was too much. But I had to wait for five minutes till my father finished exploring the market and had to walk back on the same great road.

Back at the hotel, we started packing our things. We checked out from the hotel and reached the Jodhpur station to catch the train to Jaisalmer. You might be knowing that Jodhpur is extremely famous for its sweets. We saw many sweet shops on the way. We still hadn’t seen what Rajasthan was famous for, the Thar Desert. We boarded the Jaisalmer train. This time our compartment wasn’t second AC, it was third AC. Something was wrong with the compartment, the AC wasn’t working. My father called someone to see what the matter was. The man simply pushed a small button on the AC and it started working. Yeah, common sense. But I had always seen ACs functioning on their own in second AC. There was no such button to switch them on or off. Even if you were shivering, there was nothing you could do.

PART 2: JAISALMER

The next morning, well, you couldn’t call it morning, just some hours before dawn, the train arrived at Jaisalmer. This station too was designed as a palace, just like the one in Jodhpur. But there were simply no buildings. Strange. Nothing was to be seen in the dark. I believed Jaisalmer to be a small, nice city. We boarded a taxi to our hotel, Club Mahindra. This club is spread all over India, and even abroad in locations like Thailand. It provides you with a free hotel room, but for joining the cub, you have to pay a hefty sum of money. I guess only those above the middle class could afford it. Through the taxi window, I was able to see sand and a lot of babool trees. I wondered what the place would look like in the morning. Obviously, like a desert. But my main concentration was towards the eastern horizon. The Google Sky Map app showed that the Geminids meteor shower was occurring somewhere over this region. The Geminids meteor shower is considered to be the best meteor shower. The meteors appear in many vivid vibrant colours. But sadly, on that day, none of them were in sight.

At the hotel, we took the keys of our room and proceeded. No light was switched on. The sky had become a bit lighter than black, dark blue I colour. There were many stairs, built in an awkward way. Three up and three down. Four up and six down. Then for some time, no stairs. I forgot about the stairs when suddenly I tripped over a pair of stairs. In the same particular manner, I tripped quite five or six times. The room was excellent. Club Mahindra style. I had slept at eleven in the night and woke up at four in the morning. Still, I wasn’t feeling sleepy at all, perhaps due to the tripping. But my parents and my brother took to the bed. I also lay down on the bed, thinking how I wasn’t able to sleep once I was awake. Nothing to do, I became utterly bored.

The next thing I remember after that was that I was woken up by the loud sound of the T.V., and of course, my brother playing horsey-horsey by sitting on me. It was 9 in the morning. I had slept another four hours. The others were. I suppose, fresh and clean, and here I had just woken up. I quickly got ready for breakfast. In the daylight, the resort was absolutely whoa! I mean it. Swimming pool in the middle of the resort, table tennis, library and all, a really cool place to stay in Jaisalmer, I guess. The resort was designed in a palatial way, except for the fact that there wasn’t any kind of dome on the top, found in most palaces. There were 6 buildings in all, I guess. , joined together. We were familiar with the exotic Club Mahindra food. Always like a royal buffet. Not free, yes, a bit expensive. You have to take your plate, take whatever food you like, and keep on eating until you can’t eat anymore. For breakfast, there was cereal, hot and cold milk, potato sandwich, coffee, hot water and tea packets for tea, sambhar-a dish of lentils and vegetables, uttapam-a thick pancake dish, khichdi-a rice dish, fruits, and what not. There was even a special Jain counter as well as a live counter where chefs were making dosas-another kind of pancake and omelettes right before our eyes. We are vegetarians, but there was no problem as almost everything was veg.

Remember I mentioned that Jaisalmer had to be a city? The resort we stayed in wasn’t actually in the city. It was quite far. We set out for our tourism purposes and rented a taxi. The driver took us with him at top speed. Now, the sun was shining brightly, compared to 4 in the morning. Now, everything was visible. And yes, the place did look like a desert. There was no sign of any houses. There were cacti, babool trees and all kinds of plants you’d see in a desert. On the long dusty road, there were only three cars including our taxi. The driver was driving at 125 km/h. He told us that the Indo-Pakistan border was not too far. Out in the desert, I saw something unusual. Two super-large dishes with super-long antennas. The driver told us that it was the Indian army’s airbase, which was going to be converted into Jaisalmer airport. Now I was able to see the runway, shining and clean amongst the desert sand. We took some left and right turns before we saw some civilization. Small buildings, a few people, small cars, rickshaws, sandy hills, prickly trees and a network of thin roads. The city of Jaisalmer- the Golden city.

The first tourism spot was a lake. The Gadsisar Lake. The guide provided by the resort told us that the lake used to be a source of water to the city. It was made by the king of Jaisalmer, Maharwal Gadsi Singh in 1400 A.D. There are many temples and shrines surrounding the lake. In the water of the lake, many beautiful small structures were built in which the king used to sit, relax and enjoy. Next stop- Jaisalmer fort. Also called the Sonar Quila or Golden Fort, it stands proudly atop the Trikuta hill, amidst the Thar Desert. It is made up of yellow sandstone. To reach it, we went through some problems. There is perhaps only one main road in Jaisalmer, as we had to reach the fort through very thin roads, all like the road of the Jodhpur clock tower.

The fort certainly looks better than the Mehrangarh Fort, I believe. Maybe because of all the sunlight in Jodhpur, I wasn’t able to see the Mehrangarh Fort clearly. But this fort looked great. Just some hours after sunrise, the fort gleamed in the sunlight. Well, I couldn’t say that it is a proper tourist spot, though it is a UNESCO world heritage site. In the fort, people were riding motorcycles and cows were roaming around. It is actually a residential area, I suppose. The ancestors of the people living in the fort actually lived with the king in those times in the same place. There is an enormous number of Jain temples in the fort. All very beautiful. They had fabulous carvings. The guide told us everything about them. At the top of the fort, was a cannon, facing the better part of the city. We had a nice panoramic view of it from there. The guide told us about three havelis- private mansions, which were in sight. Farther away from the city all across the horizon, there were windmills. Quite a lot of them. Big and small, huge and tiny. I took innumerable photos of them. Coming down, the guide showed us a house, residential of course. But it was the most breathtaking. The symmetrical carvings were done to the level of a small sharpener.

The fort also had some shops. We visited a stone shop. The merchant showed us many magnificent stone pieces. He was a collector of stones. He also had this gigantic crystal stone which was made up of many small crystals which were bigger than ice cubes. The whole stone was the size of a watermelon. He held some kind of record for that. We bought a small stone pyramid as a souvenir. In the afternoon, it was quite hot, and this feeling is best experienced when 6you are thirsty. My brother and I bought some juice for ourselves, but before we could take a sip, the guide led my father out of the fort and they disappeared around the corner. We quickly caught up with them.

Now, the guide took us through one-way roads which had the width of about one small car. After reading till here, I’m sure you know about my dislike for crowded Indian roads. The roads were incredibly thin. Every now and then, a biker would come, brake hard, avoid crashing right into us, curse and move on. After working our way out of these roads, we reached a 2-3 storey well-carved building. It was a haveli of an important personality who lived during the king’s rule. Inside it, there wasn’t much to look at. But something was cooking. I mean, food was being cooked in the house. You might be curious to know what people of royal blood eat. The answer- plain old khichdi, a dish made up of rice, spices and green gram. One of the basic food items of India. Thought they’d be eating some royal food. Perhaps they might be on a diet. It was humid in the building. Then I saw some familiar faces. Two people. A married couple, I guess. I tried hard to remember who they were, where I had seen them before. I suddenly remembered that they were the same people who were with us on the Jodhpur train and also on the Jaisalmer train in exactly the same compartment. Crazy coincidence. Train, second train, okay. But now here! It seemed like they were following us. Probably might be having the same vacation plan as ours. They didn’t seem to recognize us. I sure did.

The guide finally took us to the last haveli. Two havelis combined. The first one was indeed very beautiful and bigger than the previous one. Another well carved building. We had to pay a good fee to enter it. On the first floor, we entered a room. It was a temple or a prayer room. The walls were decorated with pieces I couldn’t describe. Maybe glass of different colours. I had to take a picture. There also was a camera fee. We weren’t allowed to touch anything. Tight maintenance. CCTV cameras were installed everywhere. But still, I should say, this is a must-visit place. The best decorated room I’d ever seen in my life. The guide then took us to different rooms. We saw a bedroom, dining room, dressing room, drawing room, kitchen, a game room, and if that’s not enough, a big turban room. All of them had displays. In the game room, we saw a model of the Jodhpur clock tower, and board games like chess and ludo, once used by royal people. The chess pieces were still arranged correctly. Outside the game room, there were some pots. No, not exactly pots, cauldrons. Big cauldrons. With a height of one metre or more. There were also some utensils kept there, which our guide said were used for making ice-cream, or something like that. Ice-cream? Are you sure? In those times?

After seeing this haveli, we climbed down. Mother and brother saw someone making key rings. Meanwhile, my father wanted me to go with him to the adjoining second haveli. The first one was well maintained, but this one, not so much. It looked like a poor, old dusty, abandoned haveli. I would have added the word ‘haunted’ if I had visited it at night. It was constructed for governmental work. It had almost the same design as that of the first one. We both entered it. At first, it was a cool feeling. I and my father walking alone in a spooky, abandoned haveli. We were walking in dim light conditions, and I was sure that if I tripped, the walls would come crashing down. It was extremely dark and cold. And if that isn’t spooky enough, there were bats. And that terrible bat smell. Man, I hate bats. In the building, wherever there were stairs to reach other floors, bats resided, making their strange sounds. I tried to avoid looking at those creatures, by concentrating my vision on the stairs while climbing, but one of those little devils kept on hovering above me, flapping its wings and finally hung upside down from the ceiling. Not a nice experience. I’ve seen many of those movies in which hundreds of bats come out of caves, flapping right into a person’s face. Then we heard footsteps.

Now that’s scary enough. Cold footsteps. I imagined myself and my father in tomorrow’s headlines. Two people half-eaten by unidentified vampire in haunted haveli. That’s the last thing I’d wanted to happen. Finally, I saw the vampire. But this vampire had a hat on his head and his weapon was a camera. To be precise, another tourist like us. So, we were at least not alone in the haveli. From the top of the building, the condition of the haveli was clear, it was in ruins. Other things we saw `included the Jaisalmer Fort. It was the best spot to view the fort. From there, I again was able to see the windmills stretching from east to west, as seen from the fort. We had a small light-hearted discussion with the tourist. We explored the rest of the haveli. Some rooms were decorated a git. One of them had a gold checker ceiling, part of which had fallen doing. This haveli must’ve been feeling very lonely. Almost no one came to see it. The fee to see it was also low, compared to the first one.

Lunch time. We went to the nearest restaurant. After having lunch, we came out. To my mother’s surprise, there was a khadi cloth centre right next to the restaurant. Khadi is the type of clothing Mahatma Gandhi used to wear and preach about. It is basically a traditional Indian cloth. My mother bought some bandhini dresses for herself. City tourism complete, we came back to the resort.

On the day, the resort namely Club Mahindra Jaisalmer was having its first anniversary. For the same, at around 7:30 in the evening, the club hosted a celebration party. The authority had organised performances Rajasthani folk dancers and singers. The best thing- free food was given. Nice. It was one of the best experiences I had had in any hotel ever before.

Next day, we set out to see the world famous Thar Desert, the thing Rajasthan is famous for. The taxi driver flew the car at 150 km/h, as the road was completely empty. On the way, we stopped by at Kuldhara- an abandoned village. It was made of yellow bricks. Extremely lonely. It looked good, though it was ruined. People believe that the village really is haunted. A signboard said- All tourists leave the place after 7 pm to stay away from unwanted experiences. We left the place.

Last thing to see- the desert. On the way, windmills were seen. Everywhere. Some big project. Finally, we saw sand dunes. The beginning of the actual Thar Desert. We took a camel ride. Father on one while my brother and me on another. Mother was a bit frightened by the camels, so she walked. We saw the sunset. It was incredible. I conducted my own photo session while the sun stood still. It felt cold after a while. My brother ran down the dune, and then walked back up. He collected some sand in his bottle as a souvenir. We roamed around a bit, and rode the camels back to the taxi. This time, even mother accompanied us on the camels, after much of our persuading. The taxi driver led us back to the resort. We packed our bags and suitcases and went to the station. In the train, we felt much relaxed. Finally, trip over. The train reached next morning to Pune. We reached our home. This was my first desert experience. Never to be forgotten.

- Manas Trivedi