Jaipur

Another 'much needed break' is a good way to categorize the last few days, I suppose. Mom and I left Delhi Tuesday afternoon and returned late Thursday night, and it was a completely refreshing trip for me.

Of course, considering that I had a wonderful two weeks in Mumbai not so long ago, why I should Need so many breaks so frequently is a matter for much debate, but I shall probably deal with that one a little later.

I started enjoying myself the minute I sat in the bus, and since nothing of consequence happened that night even after we reached, I shall cut to the next days events. Now, we were staying with a friend of mom's, and her place is a little far from the 'sights' of Jaipur, so they hired me an auto for the day.

And so, at ten in the morning, my day of adventure began. Mommy had left already for the workshop, so I was on my own. It almost ended before it began, cause I came out of the bath just in time to see the auto driver already waiting outside, at the point of leaving, cause the maid told him everyone had already left!!!! I soon sorted that one out, though, and soon we were zipping along towards the City Palace!

Now, as anyone who has visited Jaipur will tell you, the traffic there is absolutely insane. I honestly don't know how I managed to travel there for two whole days without witnessing any accidents. Everyone drives around in any lane that they feel like and it doesn't seem to matter to them that the person in front had a right-indicator on.... if they want to overtake that vehicle right then, well, they will!! And yet, there was none of that awfully tense driving so typical of Delhi. They sped cheerfully, avoided collisions with admirable cool, and generally made nonsense of my ideas about good driving with elan. And despite all that, I was Not sitting at the edge of my seat or anything! Ah, all aspects of a holiday should be designed to promote relaxation and a general spirit of jig-a-jig-ness!

Then I did my touristy stint, spending about three hours traipsing through the City palace, another hour going up and down Hawa Mahal, then the Albert Hall Museum, followed by a swift, yet entirely satisfying shopping spree in Babu market.

City Palace was Fun! As it is, I am favourably disposed towards structures of architectural merit, specially when adorned with beautiful jaali-work and so forth... and to top it all, one of the main attractions here was the armoury!! What more could I possibly want!! Sadly, photography wasn't allowed in the galleries, else I'd have photographed every sword, dagger, mace, shield, matchlock and flintlock pistol there!! Sigh!!!

And the other place in the Palace where I totally flipped was this section in the art gallery where they had a display of manuscripts.. how shall I even begin to describe the state I was in when I saw a manuscript of the Ain! And oh, the feeling when I realised I could actually make some sense of the Persian!!

The only thing was, that I was enjoying myself so much that I so wanted to share it with someone! And none of my friends were here with me.. sigh! So what could I do, but continue with my solo-tourist-having-a-great-time role!

And yet, when it came to eating, I found myself digging in to pasta at pizza hut!!! That just happens to be something I have been doing a lot of here in Delhi as well, so the irony of the whole situation was just too priceless...

Now, since I am already tired of describing stuff, I shall just go ahead and ramble. First of all, stay at an hotel when on a holiday, cause staying with people you know just doesn't give you that totally free feeling... it was about the only thing that made my holiday a little removed from my ideal.. you know, come back to a room you don't have to bother to keep clean, and just go to sleep, order food, pamper yourself without any uncomfortable voices telling you that you're enjoying yourself at someone else's expense, so to say.

Secondly, carry your camera with you at all times, otherwise you'll end up like me at choki dhaani, with all these 'charmingly rustic' and totally photograph-able subjects all around and no camera!

If on holiday, do as those silly looking firang tourists at Dilli Haat do... watch puppet shows, get mehandi put on your hands(i didn't, but i had wistful tugs at the heart later, telling me I should've), and definitely have your future told by the local astrologer! I had a hilarious time at the palmist's, and was later wondering why more people don't go in for that as a professional option.

Ooh, and one must shop! I had a great time searching for cholis.. helpful shopkeepers directed me to the market at Hawa Mahal, and indeed, it turned out to be a goldmine! I must've become acquainted with at least ten different varieties of cholis, and though I ended up picking up just two of the most interesting kinds, I am already dying to go back and complete the collection!

And returning now to the question raised earlier, about this sudden need for frequent breaks, I can't quite explain it yet, cause there must be something that drives me insane every so often necessitating such measures, but I haven't figured out what yet. I'd thought that the Mumbai break had set me up pretty well for at least the next six months, but I was dying from strain within a month!! So now I've come up with an alternative hypothesis.. maybe the Mumbai break just got me addicted to the idea of disconnecting myself from the world for a while, hooked me to the high you get on being freed from a routine, from having to do nothing but what you feel like doing.. sigh!!