Our second day of Jaipur we visited the Amer Palace, Jaigarh fort and Nahargarh fort. Because I am trigger happy with the phone camera there will be three or more different posts 😅
As we reached Amer, I was momentarily confused if we suddenly won the lottery and ended up visiting Europe rather than Jaipur. We both and our guide and driver were the only four Indians there! We were later told that's because we came really early and Indians it's seems come aramse at noon. It was quite surreal to feel eyes on you like you are a rare and foreign entity in your own country.
Our guide Mr. Sharma was a jolly man full of life lessons alongwith historic facts. We learnt history, vastu shastra, numerology, culture, human behavior and psychology all in half a day! The man was a chalta firta University. One can reach the top on foot or on elephants or via cars. In our case foot was broken and if I sat on an elephant it would break so car it was up the slopes and winding lanes of the old city of Amer with it's meenakari artisans, sarangi vadaks, lac bangles makers, puppetry experts and historic charms. An interesting though regressive fact about the people we were told was they all lived in huge joint families in equally huge havelis but most of them are dilapidated now and they would not teach the art form to their daughters as they would get married, move to another village and share their secrets! As for the bahus, they are taught the traditional art only after a child is born so that there is a confirmation that she won't leave the family 🙆
Amer Palace is a fusion of Rajput and Mughal architecture with the resplendent Sheesh Mahal, Diwan-i-Khas, Diwan-e-aam, Shiladevi temple, 12 matching rooms for the King's 12 wives (each of a different rashi we were told), common courtyards for them to assemble, sukh nivas, Kesar Kyari garden and am sure am missing a bunch of places 😬 The Shiladevi temple has something called "Pucca Prasad" which I stayed away from but navra jumped at quite enthusiastically and was thus in high spirits for the rest of the day! This "teertha" is a "fine" blend of wines and whiskeys people offer to the Kali Devi which left navra in "badal pe pao" hai mode.
Sheesh Mahal was definitely the main attraction with its convex mirrors designed with colored foils, embossed silver artwork, all the colors used been natural pigments which continue to shine and charm over the centuries. I could only imagine how heavenly it would have looked in its time reflecting candlelight from the walls to the ceiling. It was giving proper Mughal-e-azam feels! There was this one marble panel in a pillar with a flower made with pigments in the centre, carved butterflies, and we couldn't see at first glance but were shown it had everything from a scorpion to a cobra, a fishtail, elephant trunk to a lotus when seen closely.
As we were exiting we saw a woman in traditional Rajasthani wear selling puppets in traditional Rajasthani wear, her warm smile and those bright colors beckoned us and that was the moment our "Rajasthan pockets Khali karega" journey began. Further ahead we were enchanted by an old man in a lovely orange turban and royal white moustache (mucche ho toh nathulal jaisi brand) and beard; playing sarangi. Matlab do teen ghanta chalne ke baad ki poori thakan utar gayi, I just couldn't move away from his music (sobbing obviously happened). His smile was as radiant as his music and he didn't ask for any money, we had to force him to take some. The joy he felt while he played, if we all can experience even short moments of that joy we would be lucky!
From the palace we went on further to see the Panna Meena ka kund; a square stepwell with chambers for the kings to change clothes and points to jump from in the water. These stepwells were a heritage way of water harvesting, we visited Abhaneri as well which made Panna Meena look like navra in front of Big B! More on that later. Oohh we met a group of Malaysian women there who of all the things insisted on getting a pic with me like I was some celebrity 🤣 this was followed by a nice chat wherein they were further fida on us when we told them we honeymooned in their Langkawi. I was "badal pe pao hai" post this interaction aur unhi badalon pe se we reached the shops where happened a deep excavation of our pockets!
Lo ab photus dekh lo...
Rare to find people who don't take money..!
ReplyDeleteI want some pucca Prasad.
Lolz ya you would have enjoyed it!
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