My Sole2Soul Trip to Rajasthan

Two things always stop me from writing. First I am too lazy, second, I think writing doesn’t come as naturally to me as talking. Its been three weeks that i am back from my Rajasthan trip ,so all the Rajasthan memories that i still remember shall be written down though I think I am quickly forgetting a lot of interesting moments .

My journey started with three nights stay in Jaipur, one day in Ajmer, two nights in Pushkar and ended (have I really come back????)with four nights in Udaipur.

I travelled alone for the first time(main aur meri tanhai!!!) and that became the most exciting part of this trip. The only way I could convince my family was to assure them that i will be having a Chauffeur driven car and will not be travelling alone in public transport as they think i m still a kid..not that I have never traveled alone, traveled a lot for official purpose but this was my first ever vacation trip ALONE!

One thing about Jaipur that impressed me the most was Late Maharaja Sawai Mansingh 2 (Late Maharani Gayatridevi's Husband) I think after Elvis Presley,he is the person i fell in love with(who i'll never meet in person). What a personality !what a hunk ! Truly impressed.

 History,forts,Palaces always fascinates me and this trip was like a dream come true.

I use to spent hours just observing how their life must be years back..and  I made sure i hire a Guide for every place i visit..trust me its worth hiring a Guide.we think its a waste of money but its not, they have hell lot of stories to share you never heard before.

Out of all the tourists places place that i went, my favorite was Amber fort at Jaipur. 

                                                                (Amber fort- Jaipur)

One more place that i have to mention is 'Jaigard fort' well not for Jaivana (world's Largest cannon on wheels) but solely for the restaurant they have there. This simple (not so lavish) restaurant belongs to Maharaja SawaiMansingh's 2 Chief cook and like most of the places i visit, this place also welcomes me with Salman khan's photo framed with the owner..

                                                       (Rajasthani Thali at Chauki Dhaani)

For some strange reason i am a Street light lover and i must say that Jaipur is the owner of Beautiful street lights with European touch (most of the places)

Now comes shopping...I am not going to tell from where you should buy good stones and from where you will get 100 grams ki Rajai (Rajai that weights 100 grams) ,to my surprise there is this Rajai named on madhuri dixit' Sau gram Madhuri Dixit' as these Rajai patterns were used in one of Madhuri's film which i cannot recollect and let me Warn you if you don't have any knowledge about stones then please take someone along who knows or else DO NOT buy..I know after reading this you guys will still do the same mistake as i did..I read a lot that one should buy only from government recognized shops but once you go there you will find lot of government recognized shops and might end up buying from a wrong place. I bought one small Emerald Gold ring with diamond stud for 30 thousand. Later when i checked with other jewelers they confirmed its a real stone and real diamond but also added it is not worth more than 15-16 thousand. I also learnt that Aries should avoid wearing Emerald grrrrr. anyway so on this note lets say goodbye to Jaipur and welcome AJMER (my second destination)

Ajmer was my half day trip,only thing i could see was Ajmer Dargah.here  I made sure i am completely well dressed as there were times i was thrown out from temples(well not actually thrown,i was asked not to enter) for not wearing proper attire:P so this time i was properly dressed. the moment you enter the lane,boys will start approaching you,to take you around,be your guide for money (like any other holy place) but the most funniest part was when i went to keep my shoes one local guy said he will charge 150 bucks.i said meri shakal me firang likha hai kya? then he came down to 100,then 50,then 20,then 10 then 5 .i kept on insisting that we don’t pay for keeping shoes then finally Rs 2. Lekar choda.its really very upsetting how people are misusing holy places in our Country.

                                                                      (Ajmer Dargah)

My next stop was 2 nights in Pushkar..here i must mention my hotel experience. It was a palace hotel and there was nothing around the hotel...no houses and eerie silence at night .even hotel lights were less voltage. Beautiful room with wooden touch ,wooden bed (beautiful and romantic spooky)  with beautiful balcony,2 black and white photo frames of one Rajkumar and one horrifying lady. basically beautiful Palace rooms you must have seen in horror films.and as i sleep quite late so prefer watching tv late night.i was already shit scared in this room and both nights lights went off at 2.30 and 3 am in the morning and on top of it they had manual generator so the man whose job was to switch on the generator was always asleep.after my yelling and shouting they use to get up from their sleep and after 15-20 mins of horror dark night alone in my room before lights comes back.(did i mention this was one of the best hotels in Pushkar) but if you are planning to visit pushkar then i'll highly recommend you to stay in Seventh heaven (lonely planet most recommended and very cheap rates)but if you are looking for palace then my hotel is one of the best .

                                                      (My Spooky Palace room- Pushkar)

so that was my hotel experience..now comes shopping..out of all 4 places i visited i would choose Pushkar best for cloth shopping and yes whenever you visit Rajasthan mainly Pushkar dont forget to smell Rose petals.fresh and strong fragrance which you wont find in Mumbai.

Pushkar,where camel ride was another awesome experience, My desert dance along with Rajasthani folk singers and musicians.

                                         Pushkar- With Rajasthani folk singers/Camel Ride

Pushkar, where my Crazy camel who stopped walking all of a sudden and me and my rider were stranded in the middle of nowhere later he told me the reason that a female camel  was standing there and my male (lafanga) camel wanted to spend some time with her. hahaha. In Pushkar you will find Kids mainly boys fully dressed up and dancing to Sarangi tunes or playing Sarangi themselves to earn few penny from tourists.

Pushkar ,where i am going to visit again for shopping and to spend few nights in Seventh Heaven..There goes Pushkar..

                                                  (Seventh Heaven hotel/Restaurant -Pushkar)

                                                     

And the last destination of my trip Udaipur!!!where I experienced the most exciting and thrilling bit of my trip...on my way from Pushkar to Udaipur which is 8-10 hrs of journey..2 chapri looking boys in bike were chasing my car for quite long. later after overtaking our car they managed to stop us in the middle of highway. They were recovery agents who came to fetch money from my driver. After 2 hrs of high drama we finally managed to escape from there and finally touch Udaipur..

My 4 nights in Udaipur was blissful!

Udaipur being the most romantic city in India and I was a backpacker there:) but trust me ,roaming around alone in the most romantic city is a different experience altogether. It is a must experience once in life. But cannot deny the fact that there were few moments when i missed being in a relationship just to taste some more beauty of this blissful place..

My Udaipur journey starts with Bhartiya lok kala museum as it was mentioned in Lonely planet book  (Plz dont visit this place, waste of time and money) i am sure government must have paid/threatened them to mention this place on lonely planet so tourist will start visiting this place as i did.

later my driver took me to have one of the best street food (parathas)..forgot the name but its bang opposite to Vintage car museum. He serves Aalu,Gobi,Muli paratha with thick layer of butter along with one bowl of dal and curd for 30 per plate..My driver was happy that finally i ate something full of calories, in my 10 days journey everyday my driver use to give me gharelu tips on how to put on weight. I think this was part of his healthy diet tips..

I am not a foodie by nature but whenever you visit Vintage car museum u MUST have hot buttery parathas waiting Bang opposite.

after visiting City Palace and shopping around my next stop was Bagore ki Haveli (Dharohar) which hosts the best opportunity to see Rajasthani folk dance (Entry fee 60 with camera Rs10 extra)

                                                 [Bagore ki Haveli (Dharohar) -Udaipur]

after the show gets over i indulged in some more shopping and then dinner at Ambrai. Lonely planet book has this thing called 'Our pick' out of the 100 places they recommend to have food and stay they have their personal favorite so Ambrai was their 'our pick' for dinner and so was mine:)

Ambrai is a must to have dinner.goodfood,Nice ambiance,live music, lake facing and candle light, what else you want. I was surrounded with newly weds,1st anniversary couple,2nd anniversary couple, group of friends, Iwas the only person with table for one:) but trust me,as i mentioned before, even though Udaipur is the most romantic city in India,a single person can still survive there,one should explore Udaipur alone once, an adventure altogether :) 

                                                 (Ambrai- Lake facing Restaurant -Udaipur)

Pichola Bar (Jagmandir Palace island) is another good place with its extra-ordinary beauty ,located in the middle of Lake Pichola .there they have table for 2 at the corners (lake facing) (best view)

                                                  (Jagmandir island Palace restaurant)

here i am not mentioning much about my hotels because the hotels i stayed in (apart from Pushkar) you will find the same in mumbai and everywhere and which are bit expensive then the local hotels.my bookings were already done but i would recommend you to do more research and choose a local heritage/haveli hotel you will find at much cheaper rates with local flavor to it.

well there is lot more to mention but i want to keep this blog as short as i can.so its best to just highlight few places.ohh and dont forget to buy sweets from JMB at Bapu Bazaar.

one thing that was common in all the 4 places i visited was i found lot of local girls/School kids/tourist from nearby places who wanted to click snaps with me, and then they would talk to me in broken English.....

what i loved about Rajasthan is out of so many places i have visited Rajasthan is the most safest place for girls (this statement coming from a girl who faces 'not so good' experience in the streets of Mumbai and everywhere else) my driver use to leave me alone at night when he could not find parking place or where there was no entry for vehicles, he use to tell me 'Madame yahaa kisiko ladki ko dekhne ka koi shauk nahi' (here nobody is bothered to look at girls) and he was right! Maximum you will find people teasing or singing bollywood songs for you but thats it.

since my childhood i have heard Rajasthan's welcome song 'Padharo mare des' but for the first time i understood its meaning when a Rajasthani folk singer sung that song for us at Chaukidhaani' i was almost in tears..now whenever i think about Rajasthan that song keeps running over my head and heart and for that song,for those beautiful lakes, Beautiful Palaces, for the amazing clothes that i bought what makes me look beautiful, for the yummy food, for the history that is still living there, for the Kings who had built those amazing forts, palaces, who are dead but left so many things for us to see ,explore,study. To the wonderful lakeside Restaurants where i had my dinners alone. the memories would stay with me in my head and heart. I am going to Visit you soon.wait for me wait for me:) 

                                                 

At Sion Koliwada in search of a Narcotic Queen

 I must say that the best thing about my job is the unexpected twists and turns that I face in my everday life………

I came across a  book called the 'Mafia queens of Mumbai' by Hussain Zaidi and Jane Borges.The moment i read the book,it gripped me and  I immediately decided that i wanted to do a radio special story on this and thankfully, my team agreed.

The book consists of the life of 13 ladies detailed in 13 of its chapters - some of them about the Don’s wives, girl friends, sisters and some of them about the (Female) Don themselves.

So on the 16th of September 2011,a friday I went in search of one Mafia Queen based at the Sion Koliwada named Mahalakshmi Papamani, who was during the early 90’s and 2000 Big time into the drugs business.

So, walking in those unknown yet adventurerous lanes, I was accompanied by a  colleague of mine; as i was told not to go without police protection; inspite of the fact that I preferred going without one ,incase, she refuses to speak about her adventurers in front of a police personnel……..

  We reached there at around 4.30 pm and the only address I knew was the Sion Koliwada slum, and the mutton shop near the Kali Mata Ka Mandir. To my surprise there were more than one such temple and a road full of mutton shops.

The entire lane with the butcher shops did frighten us a bit. On the corner of the road a bunch of fat eunuchs were playing cards, and everybody kept glancing our way. Did make us feel quite uncomfortable.


As my collegue  thought that we are going to the Bhindi Bazaar he came all dressed  in a Pathani suit. Made us look quite funny – a young 5’3’’ female accompanied by a 6’.3 ‘’ male  walking down the busy narrow lane of the Sion Koliwada slums, also known as the mini Tamilnadu.

We kept on roaming the area for about two hours and still could gather no information,nobody knew her or were just pretending of not knowing her.

Finally, one lady near Kali mata ka Mandir could recollect her memory and told us that she could probably be found around the very place from where we had entered the slum.this time i was not frightened at all as now my frustration level had gone to another level – no one was ready to speak about her as if she were a myth not someone who really existed….

Finally one man took pity on us and came forward and told us that Mahalakshmi Papamani had left for her native place. On pressing for further information, he just said that once she was out of jail; she left everything and went to her native place. My further inquiry only made him look angry and his voice loud. I could understand that it was a lost battle…. there was no point provoking him any further and so we finally left the Koliwada slum.
On our way back, I had a strange feeling – a satisfaction that I had finally managed to get someone who knew who Papamani is and a sadness that I could physically not meet her.

but one thing I was sure of was that she had the brains not only run a dangerous and illegal business but also to confuse and misled the police force for years.


On my journey back, I kept on thinking to myself that may be she was one  among the gathered ladies near Kali mata ka mandir or probably the one who directed me..probably,. she was watching us the whole time we were there and was smiling at our frustration and her smartness.