Jaipur airport made me remember the old
Bangalore airport – clean and small one located near the city creates a cozy
feeling. My family planned a trip to Rajasthan to recover me from the
heartbreak that was an unavoidable effect of my leaving Bangalore. The
sight of Jaipur airport aggravated the pain instead of reducing it seemed! Who knew that I
missed the 20 minutes auto rickshaw drive from my Koramangala residence to
airport so much?
Our flight was delayed due to fog. The
way climate changes in winter is interesting in northern part of the country - we had to
make changes in our plan! Removing plan of sightseeing on the day of arrival was hitch on the first
day of the tour! But at the same time, we found an airport cabbie would be
available for sightseeing trips. Every unfavourable situation brings something
favourable along!
As it happens with our family trips,
almost everything was pre-arranged, but not with me! I realized that I forgot
stuffs like woolen cap and body sprays and batteries for my small camera. Why I
am always under- prepared during my trips? I was angry on myself – for having no
option but to step into the shopping mall opposite to the RTDC hotel in the
evening. And that brought me chance to I realized, Jaipur traffic arrangement has room for
improvement. Crossing the roads in this part of the city is difficult due to
the absence of any proper traffic signaling system or traffic police. There are
Zebra crosses on the road, but the moving traffic never stops; so the only
option is to calculate their speed and run though them. I thanked God for saving me
while crossing the road!
Discovery number two –a shopping mall
inside a city may look deserted on Saturday evening! Three fourth of the mall’s
stores were vacant or closed – only couple of cloths and stationary and
confectionery shops doing business and that too in mandi style – I remembered
one of my Gujarati friend’s words, “Malls in Badodara are flop show– none wants
to shop in a clean (read gaudy) mall leaving the comfort of bargaining with the
roadside hawkers.” Is the story same in Rajasthan too?
Next day was for Puskar and Ajmer - both
in Ajmer disctrict – a 136 km drive from Jaipur – started with famous Jaipur
onion kachouri and other snacks in a roadside foodstall. Healthy hotel
breakfast does not stand in competition with delicious Indian street-food,
provided your stomach is not built in developed West.
A university gate at
Ajmer
Towards Puskar
But at the end of the route, if it ends in
Ajmer or Puskar, the tourist needs to learn, how to deny the crowd of devoted
guides tapping the car from all sides. We found for the first time, how my
brother’s northy look and Western-region Hindi accent help in Rajasthan!
Finally our
cabbie managed to take us to a comparatively less-crowded bathing ghat
(Choudi-paidi) so that my brother could peacefully practice photography. After the
session, we moved to the temple, one of the two dedicated to Lord Brahma in the
country. Are we, the residents of Brahmanda, not much interested about the God
of creation? Among the Hindu male-god trio, Shiva and Vishnu seems to be more
popular when it comes to temple making. Does Brahma have any dedicated group of
devotees like Saivaits or Vaishnavaits? Why not? Mythologists might have already
provided a sensible answer in their articles, but I guess the old bearded look
of this god may be a reason behind. Sounds too innovative an idea?
Puskar lake from Choudi-paidi ghat
Apart from dairy, agricultural is another
source of livlihood for people in Puskar area. Large scale cultivation of roses
may be the reason why they do worship Lord Brahma with roses; in eastern
part of the country, “foreign” flowers like rose or chrysanthemum is not
allowed for god’s worship.
Photography is not allowed inside
the temple here. But more than the temple, I found the road to temple interesting - retaining the look and smell of small north Indian towns. I am
not a big devotee of the gods in temple – they are visible only for few seconds
and I never had a chance to talk to them. Our cab-driver is a better person than that bearded Brahma distributing very common prasadam of surgery items - he took us to a roadside restaurant (Dhaba) to taste Rajasthan thali. We didn’t
know that a meal named “dal bati and churma” also includes roti, several types
of veggies, curd, pickles, papad etc – so left the place with heavy heart, not
being able to finish the plates.
Puskar is an area that includes developed and
still developing villages. People are mostly into agriculture and farming. As a
Hindu pilgrimage destination, this is associated with many mythical stories. If
you find a good cab driver, he will tell you all the stories he knows. Other
option is to open the books on Hindu mythology. The Hills are called Ghati, and
there are many temples on different ghatis. There is another legendary temple
dedicated to Savitri, the wife of Lord Brahma on another Ghati called Ratnagiri
- few kilometers away from Puskar. But I would advise the tourist to stay one
day in Puskar to be able to have a wider look at all temples – there are many.
The place is overcrowded during the Puskar fair only.
Road to Ajmer
Ana Sagar Lake
A monkey family
Road to Ajmer
The moment we
arrived close to Ajmer Sharif, a 15 km drive from Puskar, again by a
beautiful road though the hills, we were surrounded by larger-sized guides
wearing sherwanis and surma! Mom was scared as if a riot has just began and denied to get down from cab. My sunglass-clad, northy Hindi speaking brother took control again – we
walked a little towards the Darga – it is a narrow lane full of small shops
after a large gate – made me remember Char-minar ambiance in Hyderabad, with
all chadar, imitation ornaments and utensil sellers on both sides of the lane.
There are shudh sakahari Mittal and Jain bhojanalay (Vegetarian north Indian
food courts) as well! In India, believers do not consider religion as a barrier
when it comes to the question of worshipping a holy man. In fact, the concept
of Sufism developed integrating beliefs of Hinduism and Islam. When commoners
of all sects including vegetarians go for a pilgrimage to Hazrat Khwaja
Moinuddin Chishty Dargah, they need own kind of food as well. This seemed to be
another good photo-shoot destination – but we could not spend much time to visit
the Darga in fear of losing mom with the cab. Getting the cab with the
cab-driver and mom back guarded by the pack of local guides costed Rs 100 \half an hour!
Ajmer
Photography copyright - Tathagata Mukherjee
To be continued:
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