The Rajasthan Chronicles-Day 5 (Finally Jaipur-The Pink City!!!!)

After setting off from Ajmer, we had a long way to travel. Jaipur by far was the place I was most excited to see. My sister had spent half an hour in Jaipur some years ago-she had been shopping like wildfire for me back then. The markets that she had described were enough for enough to whet my curiosity about this place. I frankly couldn't wait! But our bus 'Laxmi' mulled along slowly and I couldn't fight the sleep anymore and in no time was fast asleep. When I woke up people in the bus were oohing and aahing at various sights. I didn't feel very well so I put myself back to sleep. But the sounds of exclamation got the better of me and I found myself looking at the various sights of the city. Palaces big and small round every corner and malls caught my eye. Here the old and new co-habited peacefully, it didn't seem wrong here to have an urban, hip mall next to a stately, old and grand palace. Jaipur was in no hurry to give up it's tag of being one of the most well-planned cities in India. The second I lay my eyes on Jaipur I loved the it!

After lunch we set off to Amer Fort also known as Amber Fort located on the Delhi-Jaipur highway. It looked down imposingly at us. A huge wall spread over nearly 4 hills caught our eye-Great wall of Jaipur??? I'd read that the one could see the fort's reflection in the lake at it's foothills, but Lake Maotha was sadly empty. We went in to be greeted by scores of monkeys and pigeons-nothing out of the ordinary in places like these.We climbed zig-zagging steps and this led to a huge courtyard. It was teeming with people and here we spent some time just admiring the wast expanse. We made our way inside and this time I was truly stunned. Beautiful hunting paintings adorned the wall and ceilings, the mirror work and the carvings were simply breathtaking. Our guide then took up one carving and with his practiced hand hid various parts of the carving which then revealed elephants, fishes, birds, butterflies, bees and many more animals. It was fascinating and felt like a secret document which was being deciphered for us. He then dragged us to one place which had 12 doors. These doors opened into the quarters of the 12 wives of  Maharaja Man Singh. He also showed us the pavillion where Aishwarya Rai feeds Hrithik Roshan in the movie Jodha Akbar. People who had seen the movie sighed while I just 'hmmemd' at this piece of information. He then took us to see the cave where the food was prepared during this scene and then once again we were out in the sunlight. We spent some more time doing some tom-foolery with mammoth sized cauldrons places there and then once again we were off. While going back one cheeky boy gnashed his teeth at the monkeys. This angered the monkey so much that without a second thought the monkey gnashed back it's teeth right back at him. The boy was so taken aback that he ran down immediately from there. We couldn't knock off our laughing for a long time.

We were then take to a garden where wedding preparations were in full swing. Colossal ice sculptures, mouth watering dishes and dainty decorations bedecked the place. It was all certainly charming and royal.  I was by now extremely feverish with hardly any energy left. A cold chill was making me feel worse. After wandering around we had a nice hot cup of coffee which infused some life into me.

Now the part that I was waiting for the most-We were then dropped off at our hotel with instructions to step down in 5 minutes flat.  The shopping was about to begin. I hurried up, emptied my haversack to fill it with the shopping goodies, grabbed my cash and I was the first one down. I was flushed with feverish excitement and my legs were itching to start walking. However, we had to wait for a long time (it seemed ages to me) for the others to make their slow way downstairs. By now I had reached boiling point. We started off with our tour-manager. He kept telling us that the market was 2 km away and that we would need a bus to get there. But the buses were overflowing and so we walked  and walked. People had started grumbling by then as the walk was tiring. My friend and me in our excitement didn't notice that most of our gang was lagging behind. We both were enjoying ourselves to the hilt-this was surely the best way to see the city. We saw 2 marriage processions and the grooms were really cute, we saw the old palaces now converted into 5 star hotels and all this while i could feel my temperature rising. I could feel a heady rush and I couldn't stop my feet from running. We were headed towards Hawa Mahal for our shopping trip. On reaching the gates of the city I now remember screaming for joy. I threw a caution to the winds, grabbed my friend's hand and we ran to cross the road and then we reached the first shop and exhaled deeply. Finally we could begin. I slowly let my eyes wander and saw Hawa Mahal look down at us. We were surrounded by shops selling all that we wanted, shop-keepers beckoning us towards their wares and so much of beautiful colour. It enlivened me even more. My friend and me ran in and out of shops like a storm leaving a blazing trail of astonished shopkeepers in our wake, occasionally meeting some lost friend who only disappeared minutes later. Everyone was in a a hurry to make the most of this shopping trip. I ended up with dupattas, some colourful jutis, a stole, dress material and bangles. Bargaining was the highlight-the shopkeepers would quote some silly exorbitant price and we would beat them down to peanuts all in fast motion. It was an experience of a life-time. We had never enjoyed so much. After we had amassed all that we wanted, we started to cool down a bit. I could now feel my euphoria ebbing away and I suddenly realised that I was blazing with a fever and shivering in the cold. I was now paying for my excitement which had kindled itself into fire in the past few hours. I was also sorely hungry and my head was throbbing away. The pain was all the more terrible because I didn't have anything to take my mind off it. I was now more aware since the thrill had now passed. We caught up with our HOD and some friends. Our HOD promptly packed us into a rickshaw with some orders. The rest is in a haze. But I distinctly remember bickering with my mother, pushing some food down my throat, shuddering in the cold and then witnessing a fight between my seniors in the bus. That woke me up thoroughly. While in the bus people showed their purchases to each other. and we had a jolly good time. My only regret was that, that I hadn't been able to grab some ear-rings. It had been my dearest wish to buy them but sadly this was left undone :(

Back in our rooms we had a great time comparing our goodies. After some dose of hot gossip and cough syrup I was asleep. I knew that the morning was going to be awful for me. I was sick and now I was frightened.