India Trip 2013 - Part 3 (Jaipur)

On the morning of the 16th we got up around 4:15AM to get ready for the early morning train to Jaipur, on the famous Shatabdi Express. The drive to the station was smooth almost all the way and our taxi-wallah brought us to the station via Chelmsford Road Entrance with time to spare. Due to the traffic jam around the station entrance, we all got off in the middle of the road and walked into the station dragging our luggage! The journey of 4 hours started auspiciously on time from Platform 2, with the train stopping at Patel Nagar, Delhi Cantt, and Gurgoan stations, to pick up passengers on the way. We victualed on  two rounds of breakfast comprised cereal with milk, cookies, idlis, upma, sambar and rounding it off with tea. Food was clean and the service very professional. The overall journey, although very comfortable, was not otherwise noteworthy.

L-R : Admiral, Jan, Maa, I

We arrived in Jaipur with time to spare and were taken by taxi to the place to stay during our stay in Jaipur; the beautiful Devi Niketan. Our host is the former Head of Indian Navy, Admiral Madhavendra Singh. Devi Nikatan is his ancestral home with the Admiral tracing his Rajput ancestry to one of the Navratna of Emperor Akbar, Raja Mansingh! It should come as no surprise to anyone that several positive adjectives apply to the Admiral including handsome, educated, well-informed, friendly, sophisticated, and articulate! We had a great time here and we recommend it to everyone.

L-R : I, Amar Singh, Maa, and Sarika

After check-in, we secured our passports in the safe conveniently placed in the room (an important point we will come to later), we cleaned ourselves of our travel grime and went to meet a friend of mine from my days in Lucknow during the late 80s. Mani Mama, whom I introduced in my previous post used to live in a large Bungalow in the heart of Lucknow along with several other family including Amar Singh and Sarika. At that time Bhai Sahib and Bhabhi (I address Amar Singh and Sarika by the honorific "Bhai Sahib" and "Bhabhi" respectively as is customary in North India) were newly married and were starting their family. I was particularly friendly with bhai sahib's younger brother who was an exercise fanatic. I was meeting them again after a gap of nearly 25 years! They were as affectionate as I remember them. It should also come as no surprise to all if I say that bhabhi  is a great cook. I know I put on at least 1 pound just because of the lunch I ate that afternoon at their place.

Johari Bazaar

From there the driver took us to the Johari Bazar in the heart of Pink City, India's oldest planned city. Ostensibly Raji and Inchara were at a conference, but it seemed more like they were Whatsapp-ing with Jan images of various jewellery they were buying or recommending for Jan. I call Raji a vicarious spend-thrift! Maa was bored but I enjoyed the teeming humanity. It was colorful, loud, crowded, lively, and I could not get enough of it. After a couple of hours of shopping we went back to the hotel.

We arrived in time to see Naveen and his daughter Siri along with Harsha and his children, Sam and Vee arrive from the airport. A few minutes later Raji and Inchara also came back from their meeting. We were all finally together, the entire group would travel together for the next 6 days. The picture on the right shows the whole group, as eclectic a group as one could get; doctors, scientist, software professionals, and a lawyer. At the bidding of the kids, we had dinner at a nearby Italian place called Little Italy, where we made our plans for the following day which was Sunday the 17th.