Jaipur, The Pink City

My brother and niece saw us off at the Ahmedabad airport early Saturday morning.  As further northward travel would take us into unknown territory, we both were somewhat anxious about our next stop in Jaipur.  Not knowing sufficient Hindi to converse would put us in at the mercy of uncouth taxi drivers who would take travelers unfamiliar to the area literally for a ride and charge huge sums of money.  Fortunately, we had enough sense to ask our hotel in Jaipur to send us a taxi with our name written on a placard. Not only did we have a driver waiting for us, but he also happened to be a Malayalee (a person from Kerala who speaks Malayalam).  Varghese served, in addition to being our driver, as our guide and guardian. 

After reaching Tara Niwas – a three star hotel – we freshened up and set out on our to some of the most important sights.  First we stopped at Albert’s Hall Museum, known for its Hindu-Gothic architecture. Built in 1868 by Maharaja Sawai Ram Singh II, it now serves as the central museum for Rajasthan’s art and culture.  I was clearly impressed with both the architecture of the building and the vast collection of artifacts it houses.  As even a cursory glance through the exhibits took sometime, we decided to postpone a further probe into the riches of this city to the next day.

As the following day was Sunday, we thought we would start with worshiping at an English speaking church, which happened to be an Anglican Church, following the Church of North India liturgy, very much like our Episcopal liturgy we use at St. Peter’s in Phoenixville.  The service started at 9 a.m and finished by 10 a.m, right on the dot like the English.  Varghese, our driver, said he had just dropped his wife at her Indian Orthodox church where the service would last 3 hours and 30 minutes.  We counted our blessings and went on to see the Amber Palace by driving through the Pink City – the old part of Jaipur City.  On the way we saw Hawa Mahal, - the Palace of winds.  It provided the women of the royal family an adequate vantage point behind stone-carved mesh like screens to view the royal processions passing through bazaar. After skillfully driving through the hectic and frenetic streets of the old city, we finally got into road going to the palace.  Here, in addition to the motorists, we had to share streets with tourists on camels and elephants.  Once you reached the palace, you’re in for a treat.  It is indeed a beautiful palace with a fort stretching miles and miles on uneven mountainous terrain.  This was the ancient capital of Jaipur State.  We saw couple of other palaces as well from a distance.  Seeing these palaces and fortresses made me think how much the royals must have exploited the masses to support their lavish and extravagant life style.  Rajasthan is indeed a rich state with lots of resources.  However, its wealth is concentrated in a few hands and is not circulating in its economy.  It streets are crowded, filthy, polluted and insufficient.  A massive undertaking is needed to build an infrastructure, which would support the life of a population of about 5 million.  It took two hours to come back to our hotel to travel a distance of less than 10 kilometers coming back from the palace.  I couldn’t believe it when I found out that it was due to the traffic police closing a busy street to allow a religious procession to go through the city without providing an adequate detour.  With all that, I would say it was a great visit.