Trip to Mharo Rajasthan-1

The realization that the last year has flown by, hit me when I saw that my last post was more than a year ago.So here I am...having a go at my very first resolution of the year!

I had been toying with the idea of attending a friend's wedding in Jaipur.But since no one else had plans of going I went from being absolutely determined to go to being not so sure and back to deciding to just go and have fun! But luckily for me Sindhu decided to join in in the last minute and then I was resolute about going. We made frantic bookings for flying to Jaipur and then booked train tickets for our return journey.After a lot of thinking we decided to fly both ways.

We started off to Jaipur on the 25th Night.We both reached the airport with more than an hour to spare so after check -in we sat down for a nice session of food, drinks and catching up.Time flew by and we soon boarded the flight.There was a stopover at Hyderabad and since I had the window seat I enjoyed the view of the 2 take-offs and the 2 landings.The aerial view of the lit up cities never ceases to amaze me.

We landed in Jaipur at 11 P.M and our first glimpse of the city was of broad, well-lit, clean  roads.but even with the sparse traffic I had a feeling I was in the bumping cars section of an amusement park.every one seems to be zipping past and no one seems like they are going to slow down for the vehicle coming opposite.We reached the guest house and after another session of chatting, we decided to get some shut-eye for the next day's sightseeing.

The next day's itinerary had been planned by Sindhu's uncle.He had arranged for a taxi to take us to Pushkar and Ajmer.I had no idea what there was to see in Pushkar.I have heard of the Pushkar mela but that's about all the knowledge I had about Pushkar.Turns out Pushkar is famous for the only Brahma temple in India.There is a lake on the banks of which people pay homage to the dead as well as perform different pujas.

While the mythological significance and the view around the lake is beautiful, I was completely put-off by the commercialization of religion.The people performing the pujas try pressurize and to some extent exert emotional blackmail to get people to make donations.I, for one am not religious so I had no hesitations telling the pujari that I was not interested but I also think that every one is entitled to their own beliefs. And using someone's belief to extort them and get them to do meaningless and expensive rituals should be considered criminal.

After visiting the temple, we went off in search of a place to eat lunch.There were many options since that place is a very popular tourist spot and is filled with restaurants and shops selling handicrafts.We chose one of the restaurants that had tables in a small garden.We had some lovely aloo parathas and stuffed baati.This was just the beginning.In the next few days we realized that you can safely have parathas anywhere in Jaipur, Ajmer or Agra.It's bound to be fantastic.

We then went on a camel ride through a small region of the desert.We headed off on 2 camels with Mr.Singh,the camel caretaker.The 2 camels were Johnny and Hari.On further question Singhji about the reasons for the different names, he gave me a queer look and said they just name them as they please.I am not sure he was very happy with my questions on the camels but i prodded on and found out that they need to be trained for 2 years before they can be used for riding.And these two were quite young, around 15.The average life span is 40-50 years.

He then warmed up and then asked us our names and where we were from and also offered to take pictures of us.I had left my camera behind so Sindhu gave him her touch-screen phone and started to explain how to click pictures.He quickly demonstrated that he was quite a pro at figuring out these things.

We then left Pushkar for Ajmer.This again was not planned by us.But my mother and my aunt had mentioned that they had wanted to visit Dargah Ajmer Sharif after reading an article in the Hindu.And when I found out Ajmer was on our itinerary, I was keen to visit this place.This place is thronged by people of all faiths.It would have been impossible for us to have gone in if it hadn't been for the person we had been put in touch with.He took us to the shrine past the long queues and then placed the chadar from the shrine over our heads and recited some lines and blessed us.It was a very comforting feeling and it is probably the faith of all the people that throng there that one can immediately feel that they are in the presence of a positive force.To me, that is the power of the mind.We can rationalize and theorise about the existence of God, but that really depends on what one considers God.I think it is whatever one believes in.It could be one of the many 'gods'or the faith in karma or wishful thinking.It all translates to the power of the mind.If one believes that there is a force that watches over one,then there will be one.Because it just needs to exist in one's mind to have an effect. This is my theory at least.
We visited the Nasiyan Jain temple on the way out of the city.This is also known as the red temple.This place has a museum too.We visited the swarna nagri, a hall decorated with gold plated replicas of different Jain temples.The 2-storeyed hall is a beautiful sight with silver balls hanging from the ceilings.

We left Ajmer and headed back to jaipur.The 3 hour car-ride had us driving past  desert landscapes, men with multi-coloured turbans, women in ghoonghats, marble factories with the music of the rawanhatthas in the background.

If we had visited a church and a gurudwara, we could have claimed to have completed the Indian spiritual sojourn! Jokes apart, regardless of belief, it is inevitable to visit temples while in India and since this has long been the canvas of many arts, there is no better place to learn about the skills, thoughts, ideas and beliefs of our previous generations.