16th October, the D-day arrived. Our flight from
Bangalore was to arrive about an hour earlier than the flight from Bhubaneswar.
While waiting for our parents, we did everything a person does while waiting:
update on the social media, get something to eat, play with the luggage (made
easier by the 360 degree wheels on the suitcases) and doze off!!! Once they
alighted, we had a quick rendezvous, got them some snacks and then called up
Volercars.com to enquire about our vehicle. Our vehicle was on the way but its
arrival got delayed by over an hour owing to the peak hour traffic in Delhi.
The car finally arrived around 12.30 PM. We quickly came out of the airport to
the pickup point for the inspection and hand over of the car.
We could now see a grey colored Toyota Fortuner waiting in
the pickup bay. We had expected this car to be a relatively new one with 15-20K
on the ODO and the variant to be an entry level variant of the range. To our
surprise, the car we got was a top of the line 4x4 Automatic variant which had
run only 2K KMS. In fact, even the poly covers were still intact on the seats,
the music system etc. and we could smell the “New Car” smell inside the
cabin!!! As per the executive, the car which we supposed to get was involved in
a crash a month back, so they had to procure a new one, which we got luckily. My
enthusiasm looking at the car was completely visible to everyone!! Indeed the
Automatic Transmission meant the drive would be more enjoyable and less fatigued.
I being the primary driver and a driving enthusiast, would be able to enjoy the
rest of the trip apart from driving.
After loading all our baggage, there was just one seat was
left in the 3rd row. It was a snug fit for one of the shortest
passengers, guess who?? Yes, you are right, it was Ananya!! The Google Maps was
ON and the direction was set to our hotel in Jaipur. We could leave Delhi
Airport only by 1:15 PM. By this time we were very hungry as we all had our
breakfast early in the morning owing to the early morning flight and moreover
we had our parents who are all diabetic. So they needed to have their food and
medicines on time to keep the diabetic conditions on check. We missed a couple
of Haldiram’s on the Gurgaon-Jaipur highway as they were all on the service
road and there was no exit available to go to the service lane for quite a good
distance. There came the first toll plaza around 02:30 PM. After another 15-20
KMS drive, we could locate a Bikanervala on the left side of the road where we
quickly hopped into for lunch around 03:00 PM. We took a good hour and a half
for a tummy full of lunch and then started back in the journey towards Jaipur
around 04:30 PM. We had to pay the entry tax at the Shahjahanpur RTO check post
until we return to Delhi on 24th October. It cost close to Rs. 1500.
The rest of the journey went completely uneventful except heavy evening hour
traffic. We reached Jaipur at around 08:00 PM.
We got a little refreshed and went down for dinner at around
09:30 PM in our hotel. The hotel manager told us that dinner had closed, the dining
area had been converted into a bar post 9 PM and hence no food was available. So
we checked out from some locals about a nearby restaurant, but to our surprise
it was too expensive when compared to the quality of food and more importantly
for vegetarian food. It cost us close to 2K when we were not in a mood to have
much.
The next day, we set out for sightseeing in Jaipur. We had
to take local autos for the local transport since it would have been difficult
for us to navigate through the narrow lanes in our beast. Our first stop was at
the Birla temple. We have previously also been to the Hyderabad Birla temple,
so the difference between the two temples was in the deities’ idols; each one
reflected the local architecture.
Then we went to the Albert Hall Museum, situated close to the
Birla temple. Apart from the other “old stuff”, what interested Ananya the most
was the first patented turnstile. This turnstile was actually used to mark the
attendance of the workers (a tradition that is still being followed on
unsuspecting corporate employees!!). Near the exit of the museum, we heard a
band playing music. Upon coming closer, we found out that an episode of the
indie music show, Coke Studio, was being shot there. At that time the jamming
session was on while the main performance was to be held in the evening.
Although the two of us were excited, we had to drop our plans for the sake of
our parents.. :(
Although Jaipur is called the pink city, only an area of the
city actually has the pink buildings now. There is a distinct walled area inside
which one can see the continuous rows of pink buildings. Our autos took us into
the pink city area (old Jaipur) for lunch. We were deposited in a small eatery
named Shree Balaji Veg Restaurant. We all took the Rajasthani special thali,
whose dishes were all prepared in desi ghee. I personally liked Dal Bati
Churma, a local delicacy. Going by the tight fit in the backseat of our autos,
we must have each gained an inch or two after the heavy, satisfying lunch!
Our autos then took us to the Amer fort, the center of
administration of the princely state of Jaipur. Amer fort is an imposing
structure and can be seen from a distance on the road. The autos took us till
the base of the fort, which houses a shopping complex as well. From there we
got into a jeep which took us up till the entrance of the fort. This jeep ride
reminded me of my father’s government jeep rides through the ghat roads of
Odisha.
One of the entrances of the fort is called Ganesh pol. This
gate is decorated with intricate carvings on stone painted with vegetable dyes.
These dyes still retain their color even after 400 years! The guide then
ushered us into the Diwan-e-Khas, aka “Mughal-e-Azam” hall. This hall got this
name because it has several pieces of mirrors that were shown in the song “Pyar
Kiya toh Darna Kya”.
After a detailed tour of the fort, the jeep took us back at
the shopping complex, from where it had picked us up. And so the first round of
our shopping began. Bundles of vegetable dyed bedsheets, mounds of embroidered
salwar kameez materials, rolls of blankets both thick & thin, stacks of
paintings, handfuls of sculptures…. We had bought something (or rather many
things) from each section of the shop. As is with men, this copious amount of
shopping didn’t go down too well with Ananya’s father. While we were indulging
in our heavy duty shopping, he had slipped out quietly, fuming and regretting
that he could not see the Jal Mahal. When we finally emerged out of the shop
four hours and several thousand rupees later, he had the look of a robbed man.
Sensing the explosive situation, I suggested we go back to our hotel without
further ado! By this time the sun had gone down few hours earlier. So on our
way back, we got a chance to see the glittering night view of the Amer Fort and
Jal Mahal. We stopped near Jal Mahal for a while to get a good glimpse, which
diffused tensions a bit.
That night we decided not to go to the same
overpriced “fine dine” restaurant. Instead we hunted for and went to a desi
dhaba. This place offered us much better food at about a third of the price of
the earlier restaurant. Additionally we got deliciously thick Punjabi Lassi
right in front of the dhaba. While we were enjoying our lassi, a mother of two
came begging to us for some food for her children. Instead of giving her money,
we bought her some rotis and a curry. Finally our day ended on a good note with
a little regret that we could not visit the Hawa Mahal, Jantar Mantar and a few
other forts because we had to leave for Jodhpur the next day.
