(Almost) Single holiday

(Finally, publishing my Jaipur tale!)

Albeit, a mere 5 days on my own. A start, nonetheless.

Let me dive straight into Jaipur. For, Vizag, Srikakulam (attended my bestie's wedding) and Mumbai (just a few hours) aren't technically 'alone'. I was surrounded by friends and had little time to even feel my own presence. I had a remarkable time, of course. So uncustomary of my otherwise conspicuous Blackberry man and Mishmash in the tow situations.

So, Jaipur. Bidding adieu to my BIG friend with a bigger heart in Mumbai, I left for Jaipur. A part of me was fluttering with joy. The same exhilaration I felt when I left home for Pune. Childlike and silly. Of course, the Blackberry man and his friends were too nervous about just letting me off the hook without making pre-arrangements for my stay in the city. So I was pre-booked at a business hotel. I also, much to my annoyance, had a taxi driver waiting at the airport with my name board in his hand. Fervently I hoped this was the last bit done towards 'managing' my very short 'odyssey'. So it was.

I checked-in and crashed! My eyes had met with very little sleep over the last 72 hours and I was dead the minute my head hit the pillow (why do hotel pillows feel softer?). I woke up with a start at 5 pm. I freaked like I had missed a flight... I had less than 48 hours in Jaipur and I was sleeping?!

I could achieve little over the evening, so, called one of my Nine By Thirty fans (now a lovely friend) and arranged to meet up for dinner. Once that was locked, I just knew what I wanted to do. Anokhi! I was in the birthplace of two of my favorite brands - Anokhi and Amrapali.  I had to pay my respects at the holy shrines.

Once in Anokhi,  I admired endlessly, their bright block prints and made a mental note to visit the Anokhi museum (if time permitted). There was a lot to buy. You do remember the size of your wardrobe in Singapore, don't you? Didn't you declare no new clothes for 6 months?  Erm, so I admired and quickly made way to their cafe.  Ordered myself a pot of Organic Darjeeling. It was a small cafe.  They expected people to share tables. But for one table, the rest were taken by couples or families. The one I chose had a man in his late fourties/fifties, face buried in his laptop. Safe bet. 
Mish called, I yapped back. Each time she called, my heart skipped a beat. guilty.  But she seemed so happy! How? without me? Really? 

Something told me when I sat at the table that we were going to have a conversation. Turned out right. Once his head emerged from the laptop, we began chatting. Where did I live? He? What did I do for a living? Kids. Odisha. Tribals. OTDC holidays. Website spam comments (!).. He turned out to be a writer and freelance journalist. Later I went to his website Prahlad Singh Shekhawat, and regretted not talking to him a little more. He was good company. Quiet, understated, yet conversant and nice.  

When I think of this incident, it reinstates my faith in finding what you go looking for. I certainly didn't go looking for him, but I've always wanted to visit places and meet interesting strangers :). 

That night was nice. I met Priya. All I knew about her was the sole fact that she absolutely adores my jewelry. She pre-books my stuff before they are even published on my webpage (without even seeing them sometimes. Such blind faith!) With curiosity and a sense of comfort that I had another fun (semi)stranger meeting that day, I met her at Tiger Trail.  Nice romantic set up. I missed the Blackberry man. only for a fleeting second.  We spoke of life. Like girls do.  It was nice. And it got cold after that. Hell! I had no clue Jaipur was still in the fag end of winters. I got to the hotel, wore socks and turned up the AC to 26 degrees and went to sleep.  

Next day was big! Aamer fort (Which is funnily spelt as Amber fort! Gotta figure that!) and Jouhari bazaar later for my 'business purposes'.Very doable, very exciting.  

There was something so liberating to walk about the fort taking pictures of every bird in flight from every possible perspective  without having to hear 'are you done?'! Add to that no wailing kid, no sudden hunger pangs, no smoke-breaks. Ah- bliss. 

Apparently a lot of films have been shot (songs) at Amber. I was told only a day before my visit, Jr Bachchan was there to shoot for a song.  No loss there. So happy it wasn't SRK. Imagine my distress otherwise?

Jouhari Bazaar. Forget all that has been told about this market to you, its all irrelevant. You've got to be there to see it and know what a crazy place it is.  I was pre-warned by my friend in Sydney to not go looking like a tourist (wear hawai chap pals and go...go in a salwar Kameez!! )  I never imagined I'd find such exquisite looking silver pieces in that mad place. Forget haggling, I was down-right fighting with them and ended up convincing them that they had deliberately hiked their prices because I looked like a tourist. Its only after I maraoed some gyan on the silver prices over the last one year, about my business and how I was looking for a steady supplier, that I got their attention and as a result the price automatically went down too.  

After that did a few more rounds of Jouhari bazaar and had their world famous lassi (world famous?! Well,  heard about it from a friend in Sydney :D).  She had begged me to have it with malai and to also eat at the very popular LMB (laxmi Mishthan Bhadaar). I reached LMB and truth be told, I was so done with eating out for the last week that I wanted something light (previous night's Tiger Trail dinner was still churning in my stomach - that awesome Laal Maas was a tad heavy for my pet). Jaipuri food can be pretty greasy and at LMB everything smelled of pure ghee! Wow.. but not that day. So I settled for something light- Kadi and chawal . (I know you'll pelt stones at me for not having their Thali, but what to do, that last thing I wanted was to spend the rest of my holiday in India on the mighty pot, no?)

Dinner that night was with a childhood friend's brother, Amit and his wife Ishita. To imagine we were all grown ups and having dinner without our parents around, made me feel very old. 

Next day I had to check out, to get the most of the few hours I had in hand. So I headed straight to City Palace. Went a tad berserk with my camera.  I really wanted to go to Anokhi museum, but just could't manage.  No, I didn't go to Chowki Dhani.  Neither did I manage many other absolute must-see's. I've kept them pending for my next trip. I'll throw in a good measure of Jaisalmer and Jodhpur next time!

But for 2 days I did a great deal and ate to my heart's content. 

I took the next flight out to Mumbai and was supposed to take a connecting flight to Goa to join the BBman. The flight out of Mumbai got cancelled. My phone went dead. 

But that's another story.

That's me, sunning my tired feet, in Goa.