Whisper in the Sand

The fourth installment of our cross-country Hyundai Santa Fe journey takes us through the land of kings, Rajasthan, on our way to the national capital. Join us as we sample the beauty of the desert State and beyond.

IN OUR PREVIOUS LEG OF this journey, we had arrived at the village of Dasada and back to the Rann Riders resort, having experienced the wonders of the Little Rann of Kutch earlier that day. This story moves forward from that point.

The day started at a ridiculously early hour. We were ready to leave the beautiful Rann Riders by 4.30 am, and my newly made best bud, Princy the pug, was there to see us off, along with a member of the resort staff. So we set off towards Jaisalmer, with NH 15 as our route of choice, taking advantage of the emptiness of the highway to put some distance on the odometer. The highways of Rajasthan are a dream to drive on: straight as an arrow for long stretches, smooth, and untarnished. They do, however, suffer from a distinct lack of animal control,  because everything from dogs, sheep, cows, goats to camels and, yes, even the infamous (and endangered) black bucks are prone to walking, running, jumping, leaping and strolling across the highway according to their whims and fancies. It was extremely infuriating, having to slow down drastically every time you saw a quadruped anywhere near the road, and sometimes (black bucks, I'm looking at you) they just sprinted right across with no warning or prior notice. Needless to say, the Santa Fe's brakes got a thorough workout.

As any petrol-head will tell you, it's mighty frustrating to see highways like the ones in Rajasthan and not absolutely plough through them. It's against the laws of motoring nature. So after a drive tarnished by waves of disappointment, we arrived in Jaisalmer. We checked in at hotel Moolam, run by the Rajasthan Tourism Development Corporation (RTDC). The hotel was decent, with a reasonable tariff, but, sadly, its image was tarnished in my eyes by the woefully inadequate air-conditioning. Surprisingly, despite appearing to be a relatively new construction, it also followed the architectural philosophy that just about every building in Jaisalmer follows: Maru Gurjara or the quintessential Rajasthani architecture that uses intricate stone carvings as its signature. In Jaisalmer they've taken the State's architectural identity a little too far in my opinion, as everything from hotels and government buildings to even public rest-rooms are designed in this manner. Overkill.

There are a few places in Jaisalmer that are worth visiting. Our first place of visit was about 15 km away from the main city: a village, now abandoned, called Kuldhara, the biggest of a cluster of 84 which was inhabited by Paliwal Brahmins back in the 1800s. Historical-evidence suggests the Paliwal Brahmins were a dab hand at trading, and had wealth to rival that of Jaisalmer itself. At this juncture, legend takes over. The story goes that then Prime Minister to the king, Salum Singh, had his eye on the Kuldhara chieftain's daughter. Being from a lower caste, the chief refused the match, which led to the minister threatening the chieftain with death, giving the latter a 24-hour deadline to change his mind. The chieftains of all the villages convened an emergency meeting, and decided that the best course of action was to leave and never return. So they took all their riches they could carry, and buried the rest. Their final act was to lay a curse on the village, which would afflict anyone that would try to inhabit it or dig up their treasure. Apparently, the ghosts that supposedly reside there are the villagers returning after death to protect what is rightfully theirs.

The village and the story were all but forgotten for the best part of 200 years, until, in 1998, a couple of foreigners were spotted by the villagers using metal detectors to find the treasure and carrying various gold and silver articles out. The police were alerted. They caught the foreigners red-handed, and tossed them behind the bars. This incident brought the village to the government's attention, which then secured its perimeter, renovated some of the structures, and turned it into a tourist destination, with all the trappings including a nominal entrance fee.

From the haunted village, we went to Vyas Chhatri, set atop a hill overlooking the rest of Jaisalmer. The place is dedicated to the titular sage, best known for writing the epic Mahabharata. The festival of Guru Purnima is also celebrated in his honour. The Chhatri itself is quite beautiful, with detailed stonework adorning the building, and a fantastic view to boot.

After a quick stop at the Chhatri, we went to what is widely recognized as the crown jewel of Jaisalmer: the Jaisalmer Fort. Sitting atop Meru hill, the fort draws the eyes from anywhere within the city, especially at night, when it is lit up with floodlights, and effuses a golden glow that shines like a beacon against the dark sky. Unlike most historical locations we've seen on this trip, though, the fort is still inhabited. It also has a monumental population of pigeons fluttering in and around it, so all you folk suffering from ornithophobia, you have been warned. Everything from clothiers' to barbers' and restaurants can be found inside the fortifications of the fort too, almost like a city within the city. The fort was built in AD 1156, and the facade of its exterior has been maintained to this day. Walking through its gates is like travelling back in time, with the thick, looming fortifications inducing a sense of safety, shelter, and comfort. With night setting in, we headed back to our hotel for some rest. After all, we had a long drive ahead of us the following day.

Crack of dawn, and we were off, the roads in Rajasthan being consistent in the sense that they were excellent as ever, and the animals seemed to enjoy them just as much as the travelers because they just wouldn't stop encroaching! We were wise to this possibility, though, and a good thing too, because at one point we had to suddenly swerve to avoid a nilgai that\ had run on to the road out of nowhere. The nilgai, if it was an intelligent being, would have definitely sent Hyundai a 'thank you' note for equipping the Santa Fe with ABS and traction control, for were it not for the safety features, that particular jaywalking (jaytrotting?) mammal would have been history. If you've never seen a nilgai, it looks like a cloning experiment gone bad. It has the head of an animal hailing from the antelope family, and a body of a cow! In a word, freak.

 

         

Our skirmish with the deer-cow hybrid was just a precursor to a larger malaise, because soon enough we ran into (figuratively, no animal ever came to harm during this travelogue) another breed of highway encroachers. This time, they weren't even restricted to the four-legged staying on the ground kind, because there were these annoying birds flying low and across the road for seemingly no reason. I don't know if they had a false sense of bravado or a large-scale death wish or, maybe, they were just hankering for the attention that endangered species get; whatever the reason, they seemed to enjoy diving in towards the fast-moving Santa Fe and then attempting to dart out of the way. Annoying birds apart, though, the road was glorious. Our planned route for the day would take us to Jaipur with stops en route at Jodhpur and Pushkar. After a few hours of dodging the birds, signboards at the roadside indicated that we had almost reached Jodhpur.

Jodhpur was chaotic. We were aiming for the Mehrangarh Fort, but the maps on our smart phone took us through a bustling market area with really   arrow roads. The Santa Fe is anything but really tiny, and there were a few tight squeezes, but we came out on the other side without incident. The fort itself was magnificent. The walls were incredibly tall, even for a fort, and the security was provided by members of the Indian Army, which was mildly puzzling. I know Jodhpur is an Indian Army base and a few squadrons of the Air Force too, but I thought using military forces to protect forts in these modern, post-monarchy, democratic times was passe.

The fort has a lot more going for it too, apart from its security personnel. Past the forbidding walls you can witness the elan and panache of Rajasthani royal quarters. Three palaces (or mahals) can be found inside the fort — the Moti Mahal.  Sheesha Mahal, and Phool Mahal

— and each is mesmerising in its unique blend of beauty and opulence, There's also a large museum in there, which has all sorts of artefacts that the ; culturally inclined will enjoy. Walking through the fortress, you feel like growing a big curly moustache, I wearing a traditional safa (turban) and strapping on a wicked sword and shield. It's like being transported back in time, and somehow being in that environment gets your blood pumping. So much so that I, for one, wanted to spontaneously yell stuff like 'for honour, for glory!' and twist my imaginary sword around in flourish. By far the coolest part of the fort, though, is the cannonball indentations from back when the fort was under siege, which you can still find in one of its seven gates.

After ooh-ing and aah-ing our way around the fort, we hit the road again, with Pushkar Lake as our next destination. We went down NH 89 and past the village of Merta, and saw an incredible sight a slight distance out from Pushkar. It was a quarry where red sandstone was being mined, and, luckily for us, it had been temporarily abandoned. We drove in to check it out, with the uneven terrain not fazing the car one bit. The sheer walls of red and a little reservoir of water caused quite a contrast, and it was interesting to see what a quarry looked like up close. We couldn't explore it for too long, however, as we saw hard-hat donning workers starting to enter the premises, and took that as our cue to skedaddle.

In my naivety I thought that lane in Jodhpur was chaotic, but the experience of driving through Pushkar city and navigating towards the lake put things in perspective. The lanes were even narrower, with shops encroaching on all sides, a mass of humanity walking or riding around  in a wanton rhythm with no regard for rules; it was absolute bedlam. There were a surprisingly high number of foreign nationals too, and from the snatches of conversations I caught, they spoke perfectly acceptable Hindi, albeit with a distinct accent. The temple by the bank of the lake, dedicated to one of Hindu folklore's oldest deity, Lord Brahma (aka the Creator), was graceful and calming, but the searing rays of the sun put a damper on my enthusiasm. Pushkar has been a famous Hindu pilgrimage destination for eons, with some scriptures even awarding it the title of Tirth Raj or the king of pilgrimage sites. In fact, evidence of the Pushkar Lake's existence has been found depicted on coins dating as far back as 400 BCE.

Hankering to be back in the comforting embrace of the Santa Fe, we decided to drive to the other side of the Lake and see how close we could take the car to the actual water body. Luckily, we struck upon an offroad path that led to a spot just overlooking the lake, which the Santa Fe clambered through without hesitation or hassle. After enjoying the tranquility of the lakeside and the cool breeze wafting towards us from the direction of the placid water, we headed out again, Jaipur being the next spot to land in our crosshairs.

The Ajmer-Jaipur highway was our choice of route to get to our destination, and for the first time since we ventured into Rajasthan, there were no animals on the highway! They had been replaced by a huge population of vehicles and the continued interruptions of toll booths instead. None of that bothered me, though. I just turned up the music, scrolled through my play-list  and picked out Metal messiahs Metallica's "Nothing Else Matters'. I don't know how I ever functioned without a touchscreen system that lets you pick songs so easily. To think I grew up in an age where you had to 'fast forward' a cassette tape in the car, the very thought sends a shudder through my spine.

With the genius of James Hetfield and Co for company, the miles flew by and we found ourselves entering Jaipur city. Our halt for the night was to be the excellent Ramada Hotel, and the maps indicated that there was a bypass road leading there. My first impression of Jaipur was what I like to call the 'big city feel'. It's the impression you get when you go to Mumbai or Delhi, like you've just entered a sea of humanity that's in an unbearable hurry. The traffic appeared flustered, and the city looked as if it had expanded to such a degree that the roads couldn't keep up with the sheer volume of traffic any longer. Through the traffic and throngs of crowd, and after a quick stop for a refreshing drink of roadside nimbupaani (lemon juice) we arrived at the hotel and packed it in for the night.

Another short but comfortable night's sleep and then back in the Santa Fe. The Hawa Mahal is probably the most illustrious structure in all of Jaipur, and that was why we chose to go there first. It is located in the heart of the city, in the old part of Jaipur, the one that lent it the moniker of 'pink city'. The 50-foot tall, five-storey palace was built in 1799 by Maharaja SawaiL £ Pratap Singh. Hawa Mahal literally means the 'palace of the winds', it is called so because the unique façade of the Mahal is designed with 953 windows in a latticed pattern for maximum air flow. From the Hawa Mahal, we drove towards Amer Palace (also called Amber Fort).

The winding road leading up was fun to drive on, mostly because it's a one-way. which means you don't have to worry about anyone coming down the wrong way. Also, it was really early in the morning, so there wasn't another soul in sight throughout the fort complex anyway. The fort overlooks Maota Lake and to get there you either walk or drive up the cobbled path winding to the top, or you could go the Maharaja way and hitch a ride on the back of a stately elephant which will transport you up and even inside the fort's premises (vehicles have to be parked outside) at a sedate pace. Inside, you'll find a four-level architectural approach. The first level is the Diwan-c-Aam, where the kings of yore held public audiences. Following that is the Diwan-e-Khas, where the nobles and the royal family's more exclusive guests were granted entrance. The Jal Mahal comes next, followed by the Sukh Vilas which was the king's private residence. The fort is one of three in the vicinity, and together the three forts formed a formidable barrier of resistance against attacks from foreign kingdoms. In fact, there's a subterranean last-ditch escape route that connects the Amer Palace to Jaigarh Fort, which was our next stop.

Now Jaigarh Fort and Nahargarh Fort are pretty much neighbours, even the approach road to the two is the same. So we decided to split off towards Jaigarh first. As soon as you head towards Jaigarh Fort, you'll come inhabited by at least 50-60 wild peacocks and peahens. It's as if they've established a colony there, the sight of all those feathers swathed in electric blue and sharp greens swaying about in close vicinity is truly mesmerising. Inside the fort, you'll find your usual palace, along with an armoury and a museum. Just outside the gate, you'll also find a troop of langurs hanging about.

About five minutes away is the fort of Nahargarh. It probably has the best view of the lot. It's constructed on the very edge of the cliff, on the Cheel ka Teela (Hill of Eagles) part of the Aravalli hills. Incidentally, the Cheel ka Teela also houses Jaigarh Fort and Amer Palace. When you stand on the rampart and look down, the fort overlooks the original Pink City, and you also enjoy a spectacular view of the Man Sagar Lake. We also stopped by on the bank of the Man Sagar Lake on our way back from the triple fort visit. Plump in the middle of the lake is Jal Mahal. Although we couldn't travel to the Jal Mahal itself because we didn't want to leave the Santa Fe behind, and despite its many handy features, it isn't capable of making the jump from car to motor boat, or any kind of boat for that matter. We did manage to take in the Jal Mahal's splendour from afar, though.

Our next stop was to be the capital, New Delhi, and getting there meant we had to take the NH 8. Everything was going smoothly until we reached Manesar. Once there, the ongoing bridge construction meant the entire highway traffic was funnelled, causing a major hold-up. Things only got worse the closer we got to New Delhi, because Gurgaon was an absolute bumper-to-bumper clog up. After inching forward at an agonizingly slow pace, the road finally started to open up again. In the distance, I could see a sandstone and marble monolith cutting a sharp silhouette in the skyline, the Qutub Minar, which could only mean one thing. New Delhi: we had arrived.