Saturday 2 February 2013

Udaipur to Delhi

Part III


Udaipur city overlooking one of its seven lakes.


...We left for Udaipur at around 2 o clock. After coming down from the hill, when we went on to the highway, I realised that this is the Ahmedabad-Indore highway which is one of the best in the country. We reached Udaipur and found our hotel before sunset. We went in our room and rested for some time and after that we went to Manish Uncle's (my fathers' friends) house. We went for dinner with them to a restaurant called Millets of Mewar. The restaurant is run by the students of Shikshantar. Shikshantar is a non-school school founded by Manish Uncle. The restaurant mostly had organic food. By the time we were out of there, it was very late and so we quickly dropped Manish Uncle and his wife and daughter to their house and went back to the hotel. We slept as soon as we reached.
Flames of the sun fly over the fort (background) to temple. 
Jan 5, 2013, 1735 hrs. Abner Manzar
               Next morning we went to Manish Uncle's house and asked him if he could send anyone with us to the Swaraj University which had the same philosophy as Shikshantar. He went into the Shikshantar building which was right in front of his house and sent a person. We travelled for 15 kilometers on the highway and then took a right. After about 2 kilometers we entered the campus of Swaraj University. One of the students there took us for a walk around the campus and as we started talking she said most of the students of Swaraj University have fought with their parents to come here. Their parents want them to go to a normal well structured college but these people want to realise their real aim in life. For this there is nothing better than the Swaraj University. The students of Swaraj University make food for each other and they also made food for us when we went there. After having our lunch we went back to Udaipur and to Shikshantar. We stayed in Shikshantar till 10 at night because there was a concert from 7. They served dinner to all the people who came. After the concert finished we went back to the hotel.
Sunset in Udaipur is so evocative, almost like a postcard.
Jan 4, 2013, 1750 hrs, Abner Manzar
                Next morning we left for Tilonia. We stopped at a village called Devdoongri where there was an organisation called MKSS. My father decided to help them by putting up a computer center there. From there we went to Bhim, it was about 10 kilometers from Devdoongri. Aruna Roy the co founder of Barefoot College was opening a School Of Democracy there. Any human would be allowed to go there and learn about their constitution and their rights. The buildings were being made so we couldn't see how it would function. After talking to the people there for some time we moved on and finally reached Tilonia at around 8 at night. We had dinner and then went to our room. 
               Next morning my father went to a village called Arain, 15 kilometers away from Tilonia but we decided to stay. Me and Abeni made a puppet each. It takes 4 days for it to dry. So we couldn't paint it. After making the puppet I wandered aroung the campus and met people whom I had met years ago. I got a homely feeling in Tilonia as if I am already at home. The people would talk so friendly I would have just kept talking to them for hours and hours. Soon my father came  back and we quickly had lunch and set off again. This time for home. There was a lot of traffic as we got closer to Delhi and we finally reached home at 1 am. 7th night or 8th morning.
                 I had dreamt of such a journey for more than a year now and as we reached our so called destination, I was dissapointed because for me all this while I was at my destination, journey.

Friday 1 February 2013

Jaisalmer to Mount Abu

Part II



...As we were driving back from the sand dunes, I saw the meter of the fuel tank, it was almost at 'E', there was no petrol pump for the next 15 kilometers. Jasbir Uncle drove at the most economical speed, 60, there were cars passing us at 110-120, we felt like we were going in a road roller. But being a road roller helped as we reached Suryagarh before the tank was empty. We had dinner with my fathers' friend. After dinner I played billiards with another 15 year old boy. We kept playing till 1:30 AM! And as I expected, I woke up later than what we had planned. Finally we left Jaisalmer at about 10:15. We made our first stop 70 kilometers off the highway near Barmer. A village called Dhanau, Chohtan, District Barmer. Barefoot College has a center there also. I had gone to the Barefoot College in Tilonia many times before so this was not something great for me. What interested me was the fact that 33% of Dhanau's population were Pakistanis who migrated in the 1971 war of India and Pakistan. I even met one of them. He said his family is still in Pakistan, they are in touch through mobile phones. A relative of his had gone to Pakistan recently and given his mobile number to his family.
             We had lunch with them and set off again towards Mount Abu. Soon the sun set and we had to go up the mountains at night. We finally reached Mount Abu at 9 at night. We found a hotel and quickly went to our rooms. The weather was cold compared to Jaisalmer and Bikaner but it wasn't colder than Delhi. We had done more than 500 kilometers today. I needed something from the car at midnight and when I went to ask for the keys from Jasbir Uncle, he was like tere padosee ke paas hogi, (it must be with your neighbour), he was so tired he was talking to me in his dream!
              In the morning we both had surprising news for each other, I told him about the midnight episode and he told me that there was frost on the car at 7 in the morning! So maybe Mount Abu was colder than Delhi. We walked till the famous lake of Mount Abu but didn't feel like boating so we started walking towards a huge balloon we saw in the air. On the way, we saw horses with riders on them. They were asking everyone if they wanted to sit on it. They walked the horses when someone sat on the horses. When we reached the balloon place we realised that people go in that balloon and enjoy the view of Mount Abu. We did the same. The view was good but not as much fun as we had while going up and down. It was fun seeing everyone so scared! When we came back down, we drove till a widely known Jain Mandir which was a normal temple. So basically Mount Abu is just a tourist spot and has just tourist attractions. It does not live up to its name, but I figured that the people of Rajasthan might go there because of the colder weather than the hot Rajasthan.
            Udaipur, Bhim and Tilonia still to come.....   

Delhi To Jaisalmer


2,500 km, 8 days, 8 destinations, 3 posts


            On the morning of the 31st of December we set off from Delhi at 6 in the morning. We stopped at a restaurant near Rewari which had a huge open area. It always used to be empty, at least the number of times I have gone there. We were curious to know the reason and we asked them why they have such a big place and still it is empty at all times. The person there said usually people come for lunch or dinner, many foreigners also come here. As I walked towards the open field I heard some shooting. Then I saw the mountain which was beside the field there was something written on it, it said ‘firing range’. I stayed in the field for some time enjoying the view of the mustard plants and the shots that were being fired. After eating breakfast we drove on, my father driving now. I kept thinking of stopping for lunch but then it would get late. We finally decided against stopping and reached Laxmi Niwas Palace, Bikaner at 4 pm. It is a heritage hotel which is taken on lease for 99 years by my fathers’ friend.

I took some photos of birds in the evening and at night we went to the main garden where the New Year celebration was happening. We ate dinner and went to sleep at around 12. I was very happy as 2013 came as there were many fatal road accidents occurring in 2012. In the morning we woke up a bit late and after eating breakfast we set off from Bikaner at around 12 noon, my father was driving again, 50 kilometers away from Bikaner he suddenly took a right turn off the highway where there was no road, just tracks of tractors on mud. We followed the tracks and they brought us to a mud house. We stopped there and started talking to an old woman who seemed to be the only person there but I was wrong, suddenly 7-8 children appeared from behind us shouting merrily, a man followed them and after that two women with one holding a small child in her arms. The middle aged man told us ‘we are all a joint family’ and pointed at two other mud houses not too far off, ‘these are also our houses’. The old woman was the mother of this man, he had three more brothers who also stayed in these mud houses. the nearest hospital from there was 50 kilometers away in Bikaner, the closest police station was 10 kilometers away. These people were very happy with their way of living. We said thank you to them and continued our journey.
            We planned to reach Jaisalmer before sunset. We were at Suryagarh hotel right before sunset. This hotel was made to look like a fort from the outside with luxurious rooms inside. This was also owned by the same friend of my fathers’. The entrance told me the grandiosity of this fort like hotel. I am always fascinated by old monuments and this looked just like that from the outside which made me feel good about this place. But as soon as we stepped in to the building it felt like I had suddenly reached 2050 AD after being in the 17th century a moment ago! This I thought was the best thing about this hotel, it gives you the humungous feeling the kings of the olden times had and it also gives you a feeling that you are in the future. As we got to our room I realised that the there was not just one similarity between the olden times and this hotel but there was another similarity, there was a great bath in our room! It soon got dark and I decided to go and explore this humungous hotel. The engineer of this hotel saw me taking photos and told me to come with him, he would show me even better views. He was right, he took me outside the building and a few meters away from it, then he told me took look back and the view was great! I saw the building with its lightings, for the next half an hour, he gave me a tour all around the hotel. I was tired by the end of the tour and went back to the room and called it a day.
Next morning I was woken up by my father just before sunrise. I took photos of the sunrise as it came up from behind a hill. Soon everyone was up and we went down for breakfast after getting ready. My father had planned the day for us. First we went to the main part of the city. We stopped at Kalakar (artisans) colony. My father knows a person who stays there, Ghazi Khan, a musician. We went to his house and started talking to him. He told us about his life as a musician. He gets to travel the world! He has gone to more than 100 countries but still stays in a small house given to many artisans by the government. He says, I want to stay here so that this place is exclusive to just artisans and was also dissapointed with the people who sold their house in this colony and started staying somewhere else. After thanking him for his time, we moved on to the Jaisalmer Fort. This fort houses 4000 families, 84 restaurants and 42 hotels! I had mixed feelings for this fact, one was a good feeling because it gives a home to many people who would have been on the road if this fort was not built but bad feelings about how people made it a market place through restaurants and hotels. There was garbage all around. We spoke to a woman who stays in the fort, she said our ancestors stayed here, the king of Jaisalmer made this fort so that it gives a place to stay for so many people. As we moved upwards we crossed narrow lanes and reached the top of the fort, the view was lovely. The whole Jaisalmer city was under our view. We soon came back down and were on our way to Suryagarh when Jasbir uncle told us that there are 84 villages in the surroundings that were emptied when the king came to one of the villages and said that I am going to marry this woman tomorrow. The 84 villages were emptied in one night! We asked someone where it was and went towards it. We reached soon enough and saw the ruins of the village. All we saw were a few stone structures all similar to each other. There were two rooms in each house. After about half an hour we head towards Suryagarh. We asked them where the sand dunes were. They booked camels for us and told us the way. It was about 30 kilometers from Jaisalmer city and 20 kilometers from Suryagarh. There was a lot of crowd there but we enjoyed our camel ride despite so much noise. After the camel ride we walked around the sand dunes and took photos of yet another sun set...
This is obviously not the end, wait for the next post which continues this adventurous journey...