Dec. 22, 2018
Got up at around 7 am.
Poha for breakfast.
Visited City Palace
Hired a guide
Before lunch: We went on a boat ride in the lake. They took us to Jag Mandir -- a 17th century mid-lake palace.
Had lunch (Rajasthani Thali)
Left for Chittorgarh at around 3 pm
Some goof-ups at bus-stand:
Miss one bus by a few seconds
Got into a bus which was already booked. So, had to leave that.
Got the next one
Bus was very crowded. Tipu enjoyed a lot. We enjoyed too.
Got to Chittorgarh by about 7.30 pm
The hotel -- Keerti Plaza -- is a bit shady
Dinner -- Paneer Chilly -- Aloo paratha -- Gobi paratha -- Curd.
Very spicy. I didn't dislike it. Shilpi didn't like it. Tipu couldn't eat much.
Tomorrow, we will visit Chittorgarh fort -- supposedly one of the largest and oldest historical monuments we have seen so far.
Dec. 23, 2018
Woke up around 7 am. Didn't enjoy very deep sleep. It was very noisy through out. Could hear passing vehicles, hoking rail engines, people talking, dogs barking all as if they were happening in the next room. Shilpi found out that we had left the window open overnight. No wonder!
Morning awaited us with two bad experiences. They was a dead spider in the poha we had for breakfast. And there was a nest of a pigeon with two chicks -- apparently dead -- in the gap between the AC and window.
Overall, Keerti Plaza was quite disappointing and overpriced. Only saving grace was that the boys there were polite, friendly and eager to help. They happily kept our luggage after we checked out in the morning.
Visit to Chittorgarh Fort
Autowallahs don't haggle too much here in Rajasthan. We reached the famous fort hopping into auto-rickshaws. The second aut wallah finally convinced us to hire him for the whole day.
Chittorgarh fort was a maginficant experience full of history, heritage, legend, architectural grandeur. This place is too little to summarise over awe and incredulity.
We took a guide shortly after starting our sojourn as we realised that without at least some guidance we would be completely lost in the gigantic place. There were just too many things to see! The guide was somewhat unimpressive. His knowledge was very ordinary and towards the latter part he seemed to have started to get impatient to end the tour, mildly trying to nudge us to give some of the spots a miss.
Highlights:
Kumbha Mahal
Meera Mahal
Padmini Mahal
Vijay Stambh
Kali Mandir
Jain Temple + Kirti Stambh
We had an encounter with a well-built goat. Tipu was especially given attention by him which left him quite shaken and tearful.
We had lunch at a place which served some reasonable food at some unreasable price. We find this collusion between the auto-wallahs and restaurants quite a put-off. We came across two instances of this -- once yesterday and once today.
Anyway, after lunch we picked up our luggage from the hotel and headed straight to the bus stand. This time, the bus catching experience was less hassled than yesterday, although we had to settle for some of the rear seats. However, it turned out well for us as we had some luggage with us.
We reached Udaipur around 7 pm. We were in our homestay by 7.30 pm. Our hosts are Tarun and family. Exceptionally friendly people. We had some 'light' dinner -- omelette, pasta, pizza, hot chocolate. Went on a walk and had some tea.
Some observations
- It was my first experience of a heritage sight in North India. Needless to say that it's equally rich and mind-blowing as in South India. I was of the opinion that all heritage sites in North India must have been wiped out due to the ravages of a violent past. Rajasthan dispels that misconception.
- Such complex architecture -- be it the Udaipur City palace or the Vijay Stambh in Chittorgarh -- could they have been constructed without any formal design? My meagre understanding of engineering and design tells me that it is not possible. Then where is all that knowledge gone? Where are the documents with the Indian knowledge of architecture and civil engineering?
December 24, 2018, 7.30 am
Attitude of Globalised Hosts
In the first house we stayed in, our host -- and particularly their teenaged daughter -- insisted on conversing in English, even though we made it clear through our conversation, that we preferred Hindi. It's not something believable that North Indians living in North India would prefer English to Hindi even wile conversing with North Indian guests.
In both the cases, there was visible a subtle bias in the hosts. Both seem to be proud that most of their guests were foreigners.
On 23rd night, we had dinner at a cafe named Fresh Food Cafe. The host there seemed to have a preset opinion about what the Indian visitors would be looking for. Although I can't charge any of the hosts as lacking in hospitality, this stereotypical mindsets about guests of their own country is unfortunate and rings of a colonial mindset.
In both the cases, there was visible a subtle bias in the hosts. Both seem to be proud that most of their guests were foreigners.
On 23rd night, we had dinner at a cafe named Fresh Food Cafe. The host there seemed to have a preset opinion about what the Indian visitors would be looking for. Although I can't charge any of the hosts as lacking in hospitality, this stereotypical mindsets about guests of their own country is unfortunate and rings of a colonial mindset.
December 25, 2018, 3 pm
Yesterday was spent in Udaipur visiting the rest of main attractions:
- Ropeway
- Fateh Sagar Lake
- Hilltop Museum
- Monuments near the lake
- Saheliyon ki Baari
- Shilpa Gram
We just grazed past Fateh Sagar. After having done a boat ride two days back in the other lake -- and that too after paying a lot of money -- none of us seemed to see much value in repeating the same experience. One observation was, of course, that this lake was bigger and much cleaner. While, Pichola is surrounded by architectures of the older side of the town, the surroundings of Fateh Sagar are more picturesque and natural. Anyway, as the auto-driver silently drove past it, evidently to save his time, none of us made a noise.
Earlier we walked quite some distance uphill to catch the cable car experience. It was like most other places -- very crowded, and absolutely not worth it for the money we paid (Rs. 330). However, an interesting incident was bumping into one of my old acquaintances from IISc (whose name I keep forgetting even though I have met him many times since as a co-examiner in various viva-voce examinations in IIIT-B). He happens to be a common friend of Satyam.
Saheliyon ki Baari turned out rather surprisingly an excellent visit. It's a theme based art gallery and many paintings -- mostly done in traditional style using water colour -- depicting the everyday life of Rajput women -- probably the royal ones in the bygone centuries. There was also a beautiful collection of photographs mostly depicting the aspects of Rajasthani village life.
The highlight of the day was Shilpa Gram -- a theme village exhibiting the arts and crafts and other everyday life aspects of the villages and tribal life in four neighbouring states of Rajasthan: Gujarat, Goa, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh along with Rajasthan.
What all did we experience?
- Vigyan learned some wire art.
- Shilpi learned some cloth art.
- We all witnessed how hand made paper can be made from paper pulp made out of waste paper.
Some Observations
Udaipur tourism service providers -- be it hosts or auto-drivers or hotels and eatery runners, seem to have acquired this haughty and self-aggrandising style which, first of all, is extremely irritating, secondly, is quite contrary to the idea of atithi devo bhava.
Girls put on a lot more make up these days. Younger and younger girls deck up with red pouty lipstick, skimpier dresses, moving around with a lot more self-consciousness. I will stop short of passing a value-judgement about this development.
Yesterday morning, our host Tarun and his wife fed us a nice breakfast. Tarun also asked me to stay free of the worries about the booking of the bus tickets to Barmer.
We returned to the city from Shilpa Gram (which is located at the outskirts) in a bus. We walked about 2 kms to reach the street where our lodging was, hoping to have something light for dinner at Fresh Food Cafe. We found it closed. We went to the other restaurant suggested by Tarun the previous night. The food was OK but the experience was utterly negative. Many of the items in the menu were not available. The place was little and yet under-staffed. The hosts were irritable, probably due to overload of work. It took them very long to serve us our order.
On finally reaching Tarun's house, we were greeted warmly by the family. Their daughter Poojan, who is the same age as Vigyan, showed us all her drawings. I drew for her a family cartoon.
Tarun had already arranged the bus tickets. He volunteered to drop us at the bus-stand as he anyway needed to go there to pick another foreign guest.
We had one tea together near the bus stop. After a good amount of delay, the bus arrived. Tarun left as his other guests were already there.
Followed a nightlong bus journey which was nothing less than harrowing. I was restricted into a undersized cabin (sleeping) that made me feel like a corpse in a coffin. My window wouldn't fasten properly and would let in trickles of chilling winter air from outside. The size, the cold, the apprehension that we would reach Barmer at 4.30 am as declared by the attendanct, the chatter between the bus crew and the smell of whatever they were smoking (which was anything bus tobacco) team up to not let me sleep.
It later turned out that Shilpi's and Vigyan's experience had been no different than mine.
Eventually, we reached Barmer at around 6.30 am. We quickly got into the car which was waiting for us. Followed a fairly enjoyable 60 km care ride through the arid wilderness of far north west of India.
Will fill up more details of our first day in Viratra which has been memorable in its own way. Right now, a bit worn out after nearly an hour and a half of scribbling continuously. (4.25 pm)
One of the most remarkable things about the havi were the mind-bogglingly intricate carvings on the stones with which the whole structure was constructed. The beauty was almost too much to take in. It gave me an aching feeling that I had no option but to just ignore. There simply was too much to take in.
The design of the buildings is too intricate to be of a brute force nature. There clearly was followed a formal architectural discipline. The question is: where has all the blueprint gone?
There were too many Bengali tourists. They would move in these large groups. The ladies would be shouting, commanding, scolding in the typical Bengali mannerisms. The group would definitely have some matriarchs who must visit every corner of the monument, and climb every floor, thus creating bottlenecks everywhere. We soon realised that it was wise not to go to a spot that had such a crowd.
There was another haveli (or may be another part of the same Haveli) which was owned by the government (the first one is owned by a trust). This part was are and not maintained at all, and had a rather sad look to it. I again wondered -- why does it have to be this way in our country?
From the Haveli we moved to the famous Jaisalmer fort -- the fort that was made famous by Satyajit Ray through his Feluda story called শোনার কেল্লা (shonar kella).
The fort, through smaller than the Chittorgarh fort, has a more impsing personality. It looms large on the horizon of the city, is visible from almost everywhere in the town, and looks really majestic with its Golden coloured walls and gables.
The entry to the fort was equally imposing: a delight to the eyes of an artist.
Quite contrary to the Chittorgarh fort it was a 'living fort,' with residents living in houses and havelis lining streets wide enough only for pedastrians. Turns out that these people are all descendents of the ancient royals.
The things we saw there were:
King's palace which has again been turned into an museum.
Jain temple which was already closed for the day.
Lakshmi Nath mandir which is again supposedly ancient temple.
We snacked in the evening on some bhel purchased from a street cart and cold coffee from a posh but thinly populated rooftop cafe.
It appeared that we had pretty much seen what was there to see in the fort. We'd decided that we would have an Italian dinner in one of the restaurants inside the fort. So, an early plan was to wile away our time till dinner inside the fort itself, then head back to the shelter after finishing dinner. However, it gradually turned out not to be working out. It was getting colder every passing minute, and we had left out sweaters and mufflers back at the shelter. We decided to go back and later come back for dinner.
The walk back was through myriad super narrow lanes, lined with houses/havelis all running into each other, assisted by Google Maps, with hundred encounters with cows and oxen and their holy refuse. This held true with all walks in Jaisalmer town.
Observation. Almost all cattle in Rajasthan look really well fed. They also look furrier than in other places. Rajasthan gave a feeling of being dominated by Hindutva ideas.
Anyway, we got back to our shelter, collected our warm clothes, and engaged in a short but interesting conversation with Mr. Pramod, the owner of the place. Mr. Pramod turned out to be a music enthusiast with aspiration to learn playing the harmonium. He also had made a collection of bhajans in a notebook. Turns out that in Rajsthan people sing bhajans even when someone dies. These bhajans are of a particular kind: philosophical and reflective.
In due time, we left for dinner. Had dinner at the Italian place inside the fort. It was one of the most memorable moments: Tipu's company, delicious dinner, the fort all alight at the backdrop and the slight chill in the air.
When we returned back to our shelter it was as early as 9.30 pm. We were sure that we would be in no great hurry to start out next day's sight-seeing. Hence, pleny of time to rest. We read for a while and slept.
The next morning, we were all set to begin the day's adventures by about 9 am. We had poha in breakfast (which was served in such large portions that I barely managed to finish my part, and Vigyan left half of his). When we were out on the road after checking out, I already sensed some dullness in Vigyan. Over the day this grew pronounced and forced some real time decision-making on my part.
The day's plan was to cover the Gadisar lake in the morning, have an early lunch and start our journey back to Viratra as early as possible. An adventure planned for this journey was to cover it completely using public transport. Considering the extremely isolated location of Viratra, this ambition was non-trivial.
Gadisar turned out to be a complete let-down as far as its physical beauty went. We have bigger and cleaner and more lush lakes right here within a few kilometres of where we stay in Bangalore. However, it was lined with remains of architectural structures which are crumbling , beautiful, mysterious and ancient looking. A Shiva temple, a house with a compound which turned out to be a private property of a gentleman based out of Mumbai who comes here every winter to spend a few days.
I wished to explore, trek around the lake and possibly take a complete round of it. But Tipu kept expressing his unwillingness to do so. Initially, I interpreted it to be a sign of his unexploring and timid nature. However, increasingly it started getting clearer that he wasn't feeling well and was running out of energy. Nevertheless, we did trek around a bit.
On our way out of the lake compound, we stopped by a group of local boys -- all aged between about 6 to 15 -- sitting and singing a variety of folk, film and semi-classical songs with a panache. They did a wonderful job as a team of performers in entertaining the bystanders and passers by. Listening to them singing will have to be recorded as the most memorable experiences for me while visiting the lake.
We returned briefly to our homestay to pick up our remaining bag and left for the bus stand. In an attempt to reach the bus-stand through a more optimal path we came across another haveli called Nachani haveli. This is currently being inhabited by the descendants of its makers. It also has a restaurant on the terrace. That's where we had our lunch. Finishing that we headed straight to the bus stand. I found this walk a bit painful as the sun had got pretty sharp by now.
By the time we got into the bus for Barmer, it was clear that Vigyan's unwellness wasn't an eyewash. Shortly after the bus started I decided that it would be too much of a risk to try covering the entire journey using bulci transport. I called up the taxi people and booked a taxi from Barmer to Viratra.
The remaining journey was uneventful. The distance from Jaisalmer to Barmer, being about 157 km, was covered in about 3 hours. Shortly after 5 pm, we were in Barmer and off on our way to Viratra in the taxi.
We were sipping coffee/milk at the temple cafeteria at about 7 pm in company of Shilpi and Mahuya both of whom looked a bit exhausted and a lot relaxed on having successfuly completed two days of their workshop. The third day was reserved for wrap-up activities; so both were pretty relaxed.
The dinner had a horrendously spicy cabbage curry. This tipped the balance for my stomach. Immediately after having it, I started feeling unwell. By the way, by this time Vigyan had improved quite a lot -- probably after having been reunited with his mom.
We went to bed soon afterwards, but I think I slept badly.
Oh yes! After the dinner and before going to bed there were two interesting things:
Shilpi introduced me to one of her colleagues named Yawar (यावर) who teaches arts in an APF school in Tonk. We had some interesting discussion about drawing. Yawar had a few tips which I may like to use. One is to draw often. Another in to sketch. Another is to draw on small dimensions. Yawar himself came across as an exceedingly simple and pleasant gentleman.
Thereafter, there was a fun/informal gathering of all the participants. Two highlights:
There was this person called Markandeya (मार्कण्डेय) who is a music teacher. He presented two songs. I can boldly say that he was easily one of the best singers I have listened to live and off-stage.
Rajasthanis love dancing. It happened through the gathering at least a few times that they played a few lines of some beaty song, people got up from their places, danced for a few seconds, and were back at their places. Very much in line with my earlier experience at Shipra's wedding more than 11 years ago, I found all of them pretty free with their dance steps; no inhibitions at all.
Shilpi got done with her workshop by the time we finished lunch. We left very shortly, around 3.15 pm.
We visited the nearby sand dunes, on our way to Barmer. People throng to the sand dunes near Jaisalmer. Obviously, these have turned crowded and got polluted. Here in Viratra (Chohtan, rather) the dunes were nearly pristine. Nearly, because here too some idiots had left their trail by breaking beer bottles in the sand making it a dangerous thing to walk barefoot on the sand. Note that walking barefoot on the soft smooth sand is one of the experiences you wouldn't like to miss. However, thanks to our predecessors, these dunes can never again be walked on barefoot. Nevertheless, it was great fun!
We left shortly with loads of sand hiding in the folds of our dresses.
One conversation though brief mustn't be missed. Someone wondered what the villagers living in such desolate stretches do for their living. Aren't they afraid of thieves and robbers? The straightforward answer was that most of them are so poor that they mayn't possess anything worth robbing or stealing. Further, with such vast dissolation around, it's not easy for theives to escape; there's nowhere to run away to. I just made a mention of a less straightforward, but equally important explanation. Habitations with dense population also breed heterogeneity and disparity. Economic and social. These disparities are the prime cause of giving people ideas for committing crimes. For any complex socio-economic system, there always will be a section which finds itself deprived, shortchanged and cheated. This collective feeling is the true seed for any criminal or anti-social thoughts. When such a system is either inexistent or too rudimentary, such thoughts don't get enough fodder to strengthen. Hm!
Anyway, off to Barmer. We were dropped well before 5 pm. I purchased some ORS sachets from the nearby medical store. We found out train already waiting on the platform. So, we settled down. 5.45 pm, our train left for Jaipur.
When it was around 7 pm, I started experiencing initial pangs of hunger. I felt it would be a good idea to ascertain that we would get food if we wanted. When we enquired we realised that this train had no pantry in the train. Further, the train would stop at a station in some time only for 2 minutes. That would be our only chance to get some food. When that station arrived, I hurried out to get something. I was particularly concerned that if Tipu started feeling hungry later, the situation would become rather difficult.
Anyway, as soon as I got out into the platform, the chill outside hit me like a lightning. Our coach was AC and was on heater. We were sitting inside in ordinary clothers. On coming in contact with the code, I got such a shiver as I have never before experienced. I purchased 2 plates of poori sabji. But due to the haste and because of the shivering I toppled one of the subjis, and soiled my shoe. Anyway, what I could take back turned out to be enough for three of us. We ate and slept.
Another good decision we took was to book a room in Jaipur as soon as we got into the train.
We were of the idea that the train would arrive at Jaipur at 6.30 am. It did so at 4.30 am. Our idea was wrong.
We took an Ola taxi, reached our Oyo Rooms hotel and checked in. Within no time we huddled and cuddled up into bed. Got up around 8 am, had breakfast at our room. We were out on our Jaipur sightseeing expedition by about 10 am. We took a cycle rickshaw. The experience for me was an excitement of doing something I hadn't done in a long time and that of guilt about participating in a practice that's based on exploitation and human degradation.
Anyway! We wanted to see Hawa Mahal, Jantar Mantar and City Palace all of which are located in close vicinity of each other.
Very quickly, we all could sense that this day our ability to enjoy the sightseeing was visibly diminished. One was of course the exhaustion and saturation and saturation that had justifiably set in after being out on the roads for more than a week. The other was this horrendously increased crowd compared to any other place we had been to during this tour. Again all those Bengali tourists blocking the passageways. Hawamahal truly didn't give me any memories I would like to preserve.
Next was Jantar Mantar; and guess! It was awesome! It's a compound housing a variety of astrological instruments to measure time, spot constellations and determine zodiac signs. The ideas were sometimes scientific, sometimes not. But the engineering was first order stuff. Two questions:
It was understandable how the instruments were to be used. It wasn't mentioned anywhere how they were designed.
Again the old doubt. Can't believe that such complex engineering and architectural projects can be implemented without explicitly documented designs. Where did they go?
We took a guide who walked us through most of the instruments. We also watched a 10 minute video. There was a huge queue for the video show. But one show happened for a group of VIPs -- relatives of the new DG of police appointed by the recently elected congress state governement. Inside, a tourist from Maharashtra had sat both his sons in the first row while standing himself. A senior lady rudely made the younger of the two boys to get up, and took that seat. Though the father raised an objection, it had no effect. The whole family left in indignation. Really! Why did that lady behave like a brute. Did she absorb anything that got showed in the video? I felt a seeting rage and an urge to go and ask her. What makes people behave meanly and selfishly? The form of love hat tries to reserve resources for one's own loved ones by appropriating them from others is one of the most detestable and overrated emotions, and is likely at the root of much evil in this world.
JM done, we all agreed that we weren't left with any more energy to see the City Palace. The feeling was akin to that we get on being in a buffet with 100 different items on offer, and the tummy already full after having the first few.
We had lunch at an awefully crowded eatery serving very bad Rajasthani that at too much price. We came out feeling even more sick and bloated. By now our impatience to get back home, sleep on our bed, have home-made food, was overflowing and dripping.
We had some kulfi and gajak as dessert (I don't know why -- probably to neutralise the fire that was burning after the incredibly spicy lunch). Meanwhile, Shilpi booked an Ola. However, that booking got cancelled as we and the cab driver couldn't locate each other. Finally we took an auto to the hotel, picked up our luggage and reached airport using another Ola.
The flight was delayed by about 30 minutes. In time we boarded. Shilpi exchanged her seat with me as she wanted to sit with Tipu. We landed in Bangalore around 11 pm. We reached home by about 12.45 am.
Thus came to a successful end our Rajasthan trip.
JM Trivia
During one of the breaks in JM, I was trying to draw Vigyan's attention to the overwhelming sophistication and grandeur of the place. I told him how the wicked the machine of imperialism works, not by waging a war against the colonised, but by breaking their pride and confidence. And what mechanism do they use? They go about decimating all evidence of past glory: whether cultural (by destroying monuments), material (by stealing it) or scholarly (by purging scriptures and scholarly text).
When I urged to Vigyan to share what he thought of this, he said that British had cannons which worked using gunpowder. Canons using larger bore barrels are less powerful than those with thinner barrels.
We had one tea together near the bus stop. After a good amount of delay, the bus arrived. Tarun left as his other guests were already there.
Followed a nightlong bus journey which was nothing less than harrowing. I was restricted into a undersized cabin (sleeping) that made me feel like a corpse in a coffin. My window wouldn't fasten properly and would let in trickles of chilling winter air from outside. The size, the cold, the apprehension that we would reach Barmer at 4.30 am as declared by the attendanct, the chatter between the bus crew and the smell of whatever they were smoking (which was anything bus tobacco) team up to not let me sleep.
It later turned out that Shilpi's and Vigyan's experience had been no different than mine.
Eventually, we reached Barmer at around 6.30 am. We quickly got into the car which was waiting for us. Followed a fairly enjoyable 60 km care ride through the arid wilderness of far north west of India.
Will fill up more details of our first day in Viratra which has been memorable in its own way. Right now, a bit worn out after nearly an hour and a half of scribbling continuously. (4.25 pm)
December 25, 2018, 8.30 pm
So, our car journey from Barmer to Viratra started at 6.45 am. 15 minutes into the journey we just saw the eastern sky starting to lighten up. This is the latest sunrise I have evern seen as far as I remember.
The road was essentially straight lines -- absolute straight lines -- drawn through vast stretches of desolation. So desolate was the expanse that, on encountering human beings, or signs of human habitation, you would wonder what they do here. In fact, what are such beautiful roads doing here when our Neeladri Road, plied upon by hundreds and thousands everyday is so broken! If there's not enough money to repair Neeladri, just imagine the cost of every metre per person of these desert roads!
Viratra is an exquisit impressive and well-endowed temple complex lodged in the midst of rocky mountains in the middle of a desert. Again the same feeling: who comes here? Particluarly in the morning hours, the place was so damned deserted that it would give you a spooky feeling.
The temple guest house, the place we are lodged in, is again a massive residential block with at least a hundred rooms, if not several hundreds. Again, when we entered, ours became the only occupied room. It remained that way till the evening.
The place is under construction. There was continously some racket created by the labourers working here throughout the day.
We wanted breakfast. So, we took the same car to the nearby village Chohtan. Had some nice kachori and chai there. We relieved the car after getting here (temple guest house).
Afternoon, we had our lunch the temple canteen (भोजन शाला). A simple meal (रोटी, चावल, कड़ी, लौकी की सब्ज़ी, छाछ) served with amazing warmth by a temple employee.
Evening, after my last likhaas session, we want trekking on the nearby rocky hill with (apparently a hilltop temple. The trek turned out to be less trivial than we had expected. Around 1300 steps took us up to this little, beautiful and completely deserted temple. Shilpi gave up somewhere around 700 steps as she didn't want to take chances with her health just a day before her workshop. Tipu and I made it all the way up; and that clearly stood out as the achievement of the day.
On our way back we got to see one of the most beautiful sunset views. Far far away in the west beyond the arid plains of the semi-desert, the sun withered away beautifully. This stood out as the view of the day.
We had some tea and returned to the guest house to find that two of Shilpi's colleagues had already arrived. By dinner time all the others -- participants of the workshop from Sirohi and Tonk -- had also arrived.
Other miscellaneous things to happen during the day:
The road was essentially straight lines -- absolute straight lines -- drawn through vast stretches of desolation. So desolate was the expanse that, on encountering human beings, or signs of human habitation, you would wonder what they do here. In fact, what are such beautiful roads doing here when our Neeladri Road, plied upon by hundreds and thousands everyday is so broken! If there's not enough money to repair Neeladri, just imagine the cost of every metre per person of these desert roads!
Viratra is an exquisit impressive and well-endowed temple complex lodged in the midst of rocky mountains in the middle of a desert. Again the same feeling: who comes here? Particluarly in the morning hours, the place was so damned deserted that it would give you a spooky feeling.
The temple guest house, the place we are lodged in, is again a massive residential block with at least a hundred rooms, if not several hundreds. Again, when we entered, ours became the only occupied room. It remained that way till the evening.
The place is under construction. There was continously some racket created by the labourers working here throughout the day.
We wanted breakfast. So, we took the same car to the nearby village Chohtan. Had some nice kachori and chai there. We relieved the car after getting here (temple guest house).
Afternoon, we had our lunch the temple canteen (भोजन शाला). A simple meal (रोटी, चावल, कड़ी, लौकी की सब्ज़ी, छाछ) served with amazing warmth by a temple employee.
Evening, after my last likhaas session, we want trekking on the nearby rocky hill with (apparently a hilltop temple. The trek turned out to be less trivial than we had expected. Around 1300 steps took us up to this little, beautiful and completely deserted temple. Shilpi gave up somewhere around 700 steps as she didn't want to take chances with her health just a day before her workshop. Tipu and I made it all the way up; and that clearly stood out as the achievement of the day.
On our way back we got to see one of the most beautiful sunset views. Far far away in the west beyond the arid plains of the semi-desert, the sun withered away beautifully. This stood out as the view of the day.
We had some tea and returned to the guest house to find that two of Shilpi's colleagues had already arrived. By dinner time all the others -- participants of the workshop from Sirohi and Tonk -- had also arrived.
Other miscellaneous things to happen during the day:
- Jaisalmer room booking
- A long pending conversation with Niranjan in which , I got to share with him my disappointing experience at their Satsang temple as a judge to the drawing competition on December 5.
- Booking of car for our journey tomorrow morning to Barmer.
Tomorrow, Vigyan and I are off to a one and a half day trip to Jaisalmer. While Shilpi gears up for the opening day of her workshop tomorrow, I keep my fingers crossed as this will be my first excursion with Tipu to a new place like this without Shilpi being with us. Hope everything goes off smoothly.
Will return to these notes on Dec. 28, hopefully. Till then, still well. (9.25 pm)
December 28, 2018, 9.15 am
Yesterday evening we returned from a brief visit to Jaisalmer. Here's the account.
We started early in the morning. I had arranged the same car which had taken us from Barmer to Viratra. It was around 5.45 am. It was chilling, utterly dark, and hence very painful. But we needed to squeeze as much time in Jaisalmer. Idea was to reach between 10 am - 11 am. Hence the early start.
At Barmer, we found that a bus was waiting to leave. This bus was going to Jodhpur or Bikamer, and wouldn't pass through Jaisalmer. Nevertheless, our driver nearly shoved us into this us (and I think any such act gets them some kickback). He said that this bus would drop us at an intermediate place called Fatehgarh. From there, another 'connecting' bus would take us to Jaisalmer. So, we got in, took the sear right behind the driver and suffered severe chills all the way to Fatehgarh.
At Fatehgarh there no such connecting bus, nor did this bus people help us any further. We crossed the and in time (about 15-20 minutes) we hopped into a passing bus. This took us to Jaisalmer.
The most mentionable memory of this journey was the sight of literally thousands of windmills sprawled over 10s of kiometres on both sides of the road. The maximum number of windmills I have seen together (again during one of our highway trips) before this would be less than 10. Moreover, all these had been from a distance of several kilometres. Here, we got to see many from a distance of just a few metres.
After getting down at Jaisalmer, we took an auto that took us to our homestay. There, we did the checkin formalities and freshened up. We left for lunch.
We had our lunch at a place called 'Maharaja Restaurant'. It was Tipu's choice, and the food there turned out delicious, partly on its own merit, but also because we were almost starving by then.
December 30, 2018, 3.45 pm
Vigyan announced even before the meal was over that he would like to rest for a while after our lunch before we started on any sight seeing. I accepted his urge. We went back to our room and napped for about 45 minutes.
We were back in the streets again. Our first point of visit was Patwa ki Haveli.
Patwa ki Haveli
A residential mansion belonging to a family of accountants in the royal court. The mansion has been turned into a museum showcasing the articles of everyday lives of its residents; cooking, wardrobe, work related (e.g. pens, locks, tables, cabinets), and things belonging to relatively more rencent times, e.g. gramophones, radios and even a 50 year old refridgerator.One of the most remarkable things about the havi were the mind-bogglingly intricate carvings on the stones with which the whole structure was constructed. The beauty was almost too much to take in. It gave me an aching feeling that I had no option but to just ignore. There simply was too much to take in.
Some observations
The haveli was built on a relatively small area. The floors were mounted one on top of the other. The staircases were narrow, doors were low. Clearly accessibility wasn't one of the goals in the architecture.The design of the buildings is too intricate to be of a brute force nature. There clearly was followed a formal architectural discipline. The question is: where has all the blueprint gone?
There were too many Bengali tourists. They would move in these large groups. The ladies would be shouting, commanding, scolding in the typical Bengali mannerisms. The group would definitely have some matriarchs who must visit every corner of the monument, and climb every floor, thus creating bottlenecks everywhere. We soon realised that it was wise not to go to a spot that had such a crowd.
There was another haveli (or may be another part of the same Haveli) which was owned by the government (the first one is owned by a trust). This part was are and not maintained at all, and had a rather sad look to it. I again wondered -- why does it have to be this way in our country?
From the Haveli we moved to the famous Jaisalmer fort -- the fort that was made famous by Satyajit Ray through his Feluda story called শোনার কেল্লা (shonar kella).
The fort, through smaller than the Chittorgarh fort, has a more impsing personality. It looms large on the horizon of the city, is visible from almost everywhere in the town, and looks really majestic with its Golden coloured walls and gables.
The entry to the fort was equally imposing: a delight to the eyes of an artist.
Quite contrary to the Chittorgarh fort it was a 'living fort,' with residents living in houses and havelis lining streets wide enough only for pedastrians. Turns out that these people are all descendents of the ancient royals.
The things we saw there were:
King's palace which has again been turned into an museum.
Jain temple which was already closed for the day.
Lakshmi Nath mandir which is again supposedly ancient temple.
We snacked in the evening on some bhel purchased from a street cart and cold coffee from a posh but thinly populated rooftop cafe.
It appeared that we had pretty much seen what was there to see in the fort. We'd decided that we would have an Italian dinner in one of the restaurants inside the fort. So, an early plan was to wile away our time till dinner inside the fort itself, then head back to the shelter after finishing dinner. However, it gradually turned out not to be working out. It was getting colder every passing minute, and we had left out sweaters and mufflers back at the shelter. We decided to go back and later come back for dinner.
The walk back was through myriad super narrow lanes, lined with houses/havelis all running into each other, assisted by Google Maps, with hundred encounters with cows and oxen and their holy refuse. This held true with all walks in Jaisalmer town.
Observation. Almost all cattle in Rajasthan look really well fed. They also look furrier than in other places. Rajasthan gave a feeling of being dominated by Hindutva ideas.
Anyway, we got back to our shelter, collected our warm clothes, and engaged in a short but interesting conversation with Mr. Pramod, the owner of the place. Mr. Pramod turned out to be a music enthusiast with aspiration to learn playing the harmonium. He also had made a collection of bhajans in a notebook. Turns out that in Rajsthan people sing bhajans even when someone dies. These bhajans are of a particular kind: philosophical and reflective.
In due time, we left for dinner. Had dinner at the Italian place inside the fort. It was one of the most memorable moments: Tipu's company, delicious dinner, the fort all alight at the backdrop and the slight chill in the air.
When we returned back to our shelter it was as early as 9.30 pm. We were sure that we would be in no great hurry to start out next day's sight-seeing. Hence, pleny of time to rest. We read for a while and slept.
The next morning, we were all set to begin the day's adventures by about 9 am. We had poha in breakfast (which was served in such large portions that I barely managed to finish my part, and Vigyan left half of his). When we were out on the road after checking out, I already sensed some dullness in Vigyan. Over the day this grew pronounced and forced some real time decision-making on my part.
The day's plan was to cover the Gadisar lake in the morning, have an early lunch and start our journey back to Viratra as early as possible. An adventure planned for this journey was to cover it completely using public transport. Considering the extremely isolated location of Viratra, this ambition was non-trivial.
Gadisar turned out to be a complete let-down as far as its physical beauty went. We have bigger and cleaner and more lush lakes right here within a few kilometres of where we stay in Bangalore. However, it was lined with remains of architectural structures which are crumbling , beautiful, mysterious and ancient looking. A Shiva temple, a house with a compound which turned out to be a private property of a gentleman based out of Mumbai who comes here every winter to spend a few days.
I wished to explore, trek around the lake and possibly take a complete round of it. But Tipu kept expressing his unwillingness to do so. Initially, I interpreted it to be a sign of his unexploring and timid nature. However, increasingly it started getting clearer that he wasn't feeling well and was running out of energy. Nevertheless, we did trek around a bit.
On our way out of the lake compound, we stopped by a group of local boys -- all aged between about 6 to 15 -- sitting and singing a variety of folk, film and semi-classical songs with a panache. They did a wonderful job as a team of performers in entertaining the bystanders and passers by. Listening to them singing will have to be recorded as the most memorable experiences for me while visiting the lake.
We returned briefly to our homestay to pick up our remaining bag and left for the bus stand. In an attempt to reach the bus-stand through a more optimal path we came across another haveli called Nachani haveli. This is currently being inhabited by the descendants of its makers. It also has a restaurant on the terrace. That's where we had our lunch. Finishing that we headed straight to the bus stand. I found this walk a bit painful as the sun had got pretty sharp by now.
By the time we got into the bus for Barmer, it was clear that Vigyan's unwellness wasn't an eyewash. Shortly after the bus started I decided that it would be too much of a risk to try covering the entire journey using bulci transport. I called up the taxi people and booked a taxi from Barmer to Viratra.
The remaining journey was uneventful. The distance from Jaisalmer to Barmer, being about 157 km, was covered in about 3 hours. Shortly after 5 pm, we were in Barmer and off on our way to Viratra in the taxi.
We were sipping coffee/milk at the temple cafeteria at about 7 pm in company of Shilpi and Mahuya both of whom looked a bit exhausted and a lot relaxed on having successfuly completed two days of their workshop. The third day was reserved for wrap-up activities; so both were pretty relaxed.
The dinner had a horrendously spicy cabbage curry. This tipped the balance for my stomach. Immediately after having it, I started feeling unwell. By the way, by this time Vigyan had improved quite a lot -- probably after having been reunited with his mom.
We went to bed soon afterwards, but I think I slept badly.
Oh yes! After the dinner and before going to bed there were two interesting things:
Shilpi introduced me to one of her colleagues named Yawar (यावर) who teaches arts in an APF school in Tonk. We had some interesting discussion about drawing. Yawar had a few tips which I may like to use. One is to draw often. Another in to sketch. Another is to draw on small dimensions. Yawar himself came across as an exceedingly simple and pleasant gentleman.
Thereafter, there was a fun/informal gathering of all the participants. Two highlights:
There was this person called Markandeya (मार्कण्डेय) who is a music teacher. He presented two songs. I can boldly say that he was easily one of the best singers I have listened to live and off-stage.
Rajasthanis love dancing. It happened through the gathering at least a few times that they played a few lines of some beaty song, people got up from their places, danced for a few seconds, and were back at their places. Very much in line with my earlier experience at Shipra's wedding more than 11 years ago, I found all of them pretty free with their dance steps; no inhibitions at all.
December 31, 2018
On Dec. 28, I kept feeling unwell right from the time I wake up. There was severe feeling of indigestion couple with feverishness. Shilpi got us some breakfast which I finished mechanically. Thereafter, I sat down to write these notes, but couldn't sustain for long. I lay down and even caught some sleep. Tipu was around minding his own business. We went down to the dining hall at about 1.45 pm. I had some plain rice with two glasses of butter milk.Shilpi got done with her workshop by the time we finished lunch. We left very shortly, around 3.15 pm.
We visited the nearby sand dunes, on our way to Barmer. People throng to the sand dunes near Jaisalmer. Obviously, these have turned crowded and got polluted. Here in Viratra (Chohtan, rather) the dunes were nearly pristine. Nearly, because here too some idiots had left their trail by breaking beer bottles in the sand making it a dangerous thing to walk barefoot on the sand. Note that walking barefoot on the soft smooth sand is one of the experiences you wouldn't like to miss. However, thanks to our predecessors, these dunes can never again be walked on barefoot. Nevertheless, it was great fun!
We left shortly with loads of sand hiding in the folds of our dresses.
One conversation though brief mustn't be missed. Someone wondered what the villagers living in such desolate stretches do for their living. Aren't they afraid of thieves and robbers? The straightforward answer was that most of them are so poor that they mayn't possess anything worth robbing or stealing. Further, with such vast dissolation around, it's not easy for theives to escape; there's nowhere to run away to. I just made a mention of a less straightforward, but equally important explanation. Habitations with dense population also breed heterogeneity and disparity. Economic and social. These disparities are the prime cause of giving people ideas for committing crimes. For any complex socio-economic system, there always will be a section which finds itself deprived, shortchanged and cheated. This collective feeling is the true seed for any criminal or anti-social thoughts. When such a system is either inexistent or too rudimentary, such thoughts don't get enough fodder to strengthen. Hm!
Anyway, off to Barmer. We were dropped well before 5 pm. I purchased some ORS sachets from the nearby medical store. We found out train already waiting on the platform. So, we settled down. 5.45 pm, our train left for Jaipur.
When it was around 7 pm, I started experiencing initial pangs of hunger. I felt it would be a good idea to ascertain that we would get food if we wanted. When we enquired we realised that this train had no pantry in the train. Further, the train would stop at a station in some time only for 2 minutes. That would be our only chance to get some food. When that station arrived, I hurried out to get something. I was particularly concerned that if Tipu started feeling hungry later, the situation would become rather difficult.
Anyway, as soon as I got out into the platform, the chill outside hit me like a lightning. Our coach was AC and was on heater. We were sitting inside in ordinary clothers. On coming in contact with the code, I got such a shiver as I have never before experienced. I purchased 2 plates of poori sabji. But due to the haste and because of the shivering I toppled one of the subjis, and soiled my shoe. Anyway, what I could take back turned out to be enough for three of us. We ate and slept.
Another good decision we took was to book a room in Jaipur as soon as we got into the train.
We were of the idea that the train would arrive at Jaipur at 6.30 am. It did so at 4.30 am. Our idea was wrong.
We took an Ola taxi, reached our Oyo Rooms hotel and checked in. Within no time we huddled and cuddled up into bed. Got up around 8 am, had breakfast at our room. We were out on our Jaipur sightseeing expedition by about 10 am. We took a cycle rickshaw. The experience for me was an excitement of doing something I hadn't done in a long time and that of guilt about participating in a practice that's based on exploitation and human degradation.
Anyway! We wanted to see Hawa Mahal, Jantar Mantar and City Palace all of which are located in close vicinity of each other.
Very quickly, we all could sense that this day our ability to enjoy the sightseeing was visibly diminished. One was of course the exhaustion and saturation and saturation that had justifiably set in after being out on the roads for more than a week. The other was this horrendously increased crowd compared to any other place we had been to during this tour. Again all those Bengali tourists blocking the passageways. Hawamahal truly didn't give me any memories I would like to preserve.
Next was Jantar Mantar; and guess! It was awesome! It's a compound housing a variety of astrological instruments to measure time, spot constellations and determine zodiac signs. The ideas were sometimes scientific, sometimes not. But the engineering was first order stuff. Two questions:
It was understandable how the instruments were to be used. It wasn't mentioned anywhere how they were designed.
Again the old doubt. Can't believe that such complex engineering and architectural projects can be implemented without explicitly documented designs. Where did they go?
We took a guide who walked us through most of the instruments. We also watched a 10 minute video. There was a huge queue for the video show. But one show happened for a group of VIPs -- relatives of the new DG of police appointed by the recently elected congress state governement. Inside, a tourist from Maharashtra had sat both his sons in the first row while standing himself. A senior lady rudely made the younger of the two boys to get up, and took that seat. Though the father raised an objection, it had no effect. The whole family left in indignation. Really! Why did that lady behave like a brute. Did she absorb anything that got showed in the video? I felt a seeting rage and an urge to go and ask her. What makes people behave meanly and selfishly? The form of love hat tries to reserve resources for one's own loved ones by appropriating them from others is one of the most detestable and overrated emotions, and is likely at the root of much evil in this world.
JM done, we all agreed that we weren't left with any more energy to see the City Palace. The feeling was akin to that we get on being in a buffet with 100 different items on offer, and the tummy already full after having the first few.
We had lunch at an awefully crowded eatery serving very bad Rajasthani that at too much price. We came out feeling even more sick and bloated. By now our impatience to get back home, sleep on our bed, have home-made food, was overflowing and dripping.
We had some kulfi and gajak as dessert (I don't know why -- probably to neutralise the fire that was burning after the incredibly spicy lunch). Meanwhile, Shilpi booked an Ola. However, that booking got cancelled as we and the cab driver couldn't locate each other. Finally we took an auto to the hotel, picked up our luggage and reached airport using another Ola.
The flight was delayed by about 30 minutes. In time we boarded. Shilpi exchanged her seat with me as she wanted to sit with Tipu. We landed in Bangalore around 11 pm. We reached home by about 12.45 am.
Thus came to a successful end our Rajasthan trip.
JM Trivia
During one of the breaks in JM, I was trying to draw Vigyan's attention to the overwhelming sophistication and grandeur of the place. I told him how the wicked the machine of imperialism works, not by waging a war against the colonised, but by breaking their pride and confidence. And what mechanism do they use? They go about decimating all evidence of past glory: whether cultural (by destroying monuments), material (by stealing it) or scholarly (by purging scriptures and scholarly text).
When I urged to Vigyan to share what he thought of this, he said that British had cannons which worked using gunpowder. Canons using larger bore barrels are less powerful than those with thinner barrels.
😲
Epilogue
Rajasthan trip gave me the following:
A revelation that ancient architectural monuments of North haven't all been wiped out due to its violent history of wars and invasions, as I used to think.
A lot of knowledge about its history: Maha Rana Pratap, Meera, Padmini, Uday Singh, Jaisingh II, Kumbha ...
But what kept working on me silently through my stay there and is probably going influence me and lastingly is the warmth in its people. That kindness, gentleness, non-judgemental smiling attitude nothwithstanding the sizzling, arid, impoverished, lonely life. That's the souvenir I take away from Rajasthan, and will hopefully be able to touch all aspects of my life with it.
PS. At least two times, during the trip a thought struck me that touring seems like such a middle class recreation. When we were queueing up in the sun to purchase tickets to Jantar Mantar, or taking a boat ride to JagMahal, or taking a boat ride to JagMahal, I was wondering if a person like Shahrukh Khan or Mukesh Ambani would ever do such a thing. They would probably go to other more exotic places inaccessible to people like us to avoid mobbing. Or would they just rent the place out exclusively for themselves to keep the corwd out. What do such people think of us: insects? bugs? I wonder! Also, what really is the takeaway from visiting tourist spots? Do we really feel something, or it is merely the feeling of doing something apart from day-to-day chores to support our insignificant and inconsequential existence?
