A short trip to Jodhpur. Review on Jodhpur

When I found squirrels gamboling about in the lawns of heritage hotel, I

knew that we were at a small town with an old world charm and when I spied upon

peacocks cavourting about in the approach-way to another resort-cum-restaurant,

I knew that we had made no mistake in choosing Jodhpur as our destination for a

small weekend getaway. In fact, this trip materialized as a result of a brainstorm

had by my wife who was on a business trip to Jodhpur and suggested that I and our son join

her in the weekend. Though I am an avid traveler, my only tryst with Rajasthan

has been the railway station of Kota

which falls on the Mumbai-Delhi rail route. Jodhpur which lies in the desert state of

Rajasthan perfectly blends the medieval with the modern, rural charm with semi-urban

amenities. One of my most favourite films, Satyajit Ray’s ‘Sonar Kella’ fuelled

my love for Rajasthan. Shot extensively in Rajasthan with captivating

camera-work, it had made Jaisalmer, a much sought-after destination for all of

us. Though we had to restrict ourselves to Jodhpur on this visit, we made up our minds

to visit Jaisalmer and its famous Golden Fort in our next visit. We could have

squeezed in a small visit to Jaisalmer this time but we were not interested in

a touch-and-go, hectic affair. We wanted to experience Jaisalmer in all its

glory and splendour. *Jodhpur is connected

by air and rail to Mumbai, while Jaisalmer is a 4-hour drive from Jodhpur.

A sprawling palace, a lofty fort, scores of heritage hotels which are

nothing but converted palatial mansions belonging to the princely era, shops

selling handloom handicrafts, spicy savouries and sweets are found in abundance

in Jodhpur. Antique

furniture, king-sized beds, medieval architecture, lawns with flower-beds and

water fountains are the hall mark of the heritage hotels. We stayed at two

different heritage hotels- The Devi Bhavan and the Ratan Vilas, on the two

nights of our visit. The walls of our rooms were adorned with photographs of the

Jodhpur royals on

hunting expeditions or playing Rajasthan’s favourite sport- polo. Simple meals served in candle-light on the

hotel lawns and verandas made meal-times a sensuous experience. Both the hotels

were chock-a-bloc with foreigners and we felt like aliens in our own country. The

Devi Bhavan even had a swimming pool where the foreigners were basking in

glorious sunshine and helping themselves to a healthy sun-tan. Jodhpur is also known as Suryanagri, and

perhaps the foreigners knew this very well. A tortoise crawling about the lawns

of Ranjit Vilas hotel fascinated my son but it vanished after the first

sighting.

We had thought that we would see camels loitering about the streets of Jodhpur like stray dogs in Mumbai and cows in Varanasi, but during our stay at Jodhpur we came across only one camel. We

immediately halted our car to take a snap of the ‘ship of the desert’. We had

also thought that water would be a scarce commodity in Jodhpur but were pleasantly surprised to find

water fountains operating in full glory everywhere and the shower in our room

running on full water pressure. Rather than being arid and dry, Jodhpur was lush and

green. The only negative points were the searing heat and the power cuts. On

the first evening, we first picked up my wife from her office where we were

very warmly greeted with smiles by the entire staff of her office. This made us

realize that hospitality and warmth were inherent features of Rajasthanis. We

then proceeded to Nai Sarak, Jodhpur’s

main market area. Shops selling dresses, footwear and gift items along with

residential hotels jostled for attention at Nai Sarak, and were not much of an

attraction to us.

The next day we set out to explore Jodhpur’s

attraction by car. *Auto rickshaws in Jodhpur do not run by meter and charges are even higher

than in Mumbai*. *There are no public

transport buses plying within Jodhpur.

The Umaid Bhavan Palace,

the Mehrangarh fort and the Jaswant thada were the places we visited. Umaid Bhawan

Palace

named after Maharaja Umaid Singh, grandfather of the present Maharaja of

Jodhpur, has 347 rooms and serves as the principal residence of the Jodhpur royal family.

Only a small part of the Umaid Bhavan is open to public viewing but is enough

to boggle the senses. It serves as a museum, show-casing its many treasures

like weapons, ornate clocks and antique artifacts. The other part of Umaid

Bhavan has been converted to a luxury hotel. The son of the present owner of

Umaid Bhavan was in the news recently after meeting with an accident while

playing polo which left him paralysed. After a long treatment at Bombay hospital for many

months, he is back on his feet now.

From here we visited the Mehrangarh fort, which is excellently maintained

making its viewing a pleasurable experience. The fort, built by the Rathores

still looks beautiful with intricate carvings, colourful glasswork adorning its

interiors, jharokhas and huge courtyards. The

fort is situated on a lofty height, 400 feet above the city enclosed by imposing

thick walls. Canon ball hit marks suffered during battles with attacking armies

can still be seen. The museum in the Mehrangarh fort houses a palanquin section

where you can see an interesting collection of old royal palanquins and

decorated period rooms. The Jaswant thada, very near to the Mehrangarh fort houses

the chattris of the royals and their family members.

After lunch at a bhojanalaya recommended by our

car driver, we returned to our hotel for a siesta. In the evening we went for

dinner to the Lake Balsamand Palace

on the outskirts of Jodhpur.

But before that we did some shopping at National Handloom shop near the circuit

house. There is a chain of National shops in Jodhpur and this one near the circuit house was

the biggest. We bought some gift articles, a jharokha and also had some snacks

and ice-cream. At the Balsamand, we saw peacocks in plenty whose shrill cries

rent the air and filled us with ecstasy. The dinner on the sprawling lawns of

Balsamand wasn’t very appetising and I feel they should include many more

variety on their menu.

On the last day we got up leisurely, had a

relaxed breakfast and went out to have a last look at Jodhpur. Every time we traveled in Jodhpur, we passed the

same landmarks and locations. Seeing a lot of hoardings of Ansal Shopping

Mall-cum-Multiplex we asked our rickshaw driver to take us there but he had

never heard of the place. We enquired with a lot of people but nobody had heard

of Ansals. We even admonished the rickshaw driver for not knowing such an

important landmark. When we finally landed up at Ansals we were in for a big

anti-climax - Jodhpur’s first shopping mall-cum-multiplex, Ansals was still

not operational! Our next search was for a good eatery serving authentic

Marwari fare but we could not find the right place and had to finally settle

for Punjabi food at a small restaurant. We then purchased some snacks and some

sweets like the Rajasthani specialty – ghewar etc. Finally to kill some time we paid a visit to Jodhpur’s zoo, which we found in a pathetic

state, before we took the evening train back to Mumbai. Finally I must mention

that the food served in the train was so bad that we regretted having not

accepted the packaged home-cooked dinner that was being offered by my wife’s

offi