Café Edelweiss is a small German café tucked in one of the bylanes leading to Bagore ki Haveli.
Even though you can’t expect a Parisian setting but the roadside sitting
arrangement there had its own charm. You could sit there and enjoy the
collective view of Gangour Ghat, old buildings, a garbage bin, and the single
paan-bidi shop across the street. We bought cigarettes from that shop and
ordered Kashmiri tea, chicken sandwich and apple-cinnamon pie at the café. The guy
in charge there was a Mohit Chauhan doppelganger and we felt he was aware of
the fact himself. Tea was so good that I decided to buy Kawah tea for myself
after getting home.
We had no
plan for the day and after breakfast we hopped into an auto and headed for
Sajjangarh Palace and the zoo adjacent to it. The trip to the zoo or what they
called it the Sajjangarh Biological Park turned out to be a better experience
than that to the palace. Sajjangarh Biological Park is spread over an area of
total 36 hectares. Entry was free on the occasion of Republic Day. Heat was
growing worse and hence exploring the whole area on foot seemed to be an
impossible task. So we took the golf-cart ride. They take eight passengers on
each cart and provide an extensive tour of the whole zoo which takes about an
hour. I am not a fan of going to the zoo. It always reminds me of a parallel
universe where humans are shown as exhibit to some more intelligent beings. Although
I’m pretty sure that must have been done in the past by the humans only. Somehow
the tour was not so bad mainly due to the scenic beauty of the whole area. The cart
was moving at a slow pace and halting when an animal’s area was nearby. Some guy
was telling his friend near the cage of hyenas that that was the animal that
Bhai fought with in Tiger Zinda Hai. I wasn’t sure which part was sadder; the
information itself or the fact that I knew it was the wolves in the movie.
Gate to Sajjangarh Palace is just adjacent to the gate of the zoo. After the tour of
the zoo was over we headed for the ticket counter of the palace. The palace
sits on the hilltop so they provide a car ride from the base. That will cost
you extra. View of Udaipur from the hilltop is breathtaking but the palace
itself was disappointing. Mostly because only the ground floor was open for the
tourists. Sajjangarh Palace was named after Maharaja Sajjan Singh who built it
in 1884. His aim was to sit at the top of the Aravalli range and watch monsoon
clouds passing by over the city of lakes. Well, you can do pretty much anything
as long as you have money. He also wanted to turn it into an observatory but
that couldn’t happen owing to his untimely death. I had no idea why there was a photo exhibition about the various species of animals found in the Aravallis at the palace. I mean who would want to take a zoology lesson at a palace.
It was past
two o’ clock and we were again skipping lunch. We had other plan. We were going
to the temple of Ekling ji. Ekling ji is the ruling god of Mewar and his temple
is about 20 kms from Udaipur. We asked our auto bhaisaab to drop us at the bus
stand from where we would be taking the public bus that was going to Mewar. An
old man was selling fruits at the stand; we bought half a kilo Indian jujube (ber) from him. That
was our lunch. We were more excited about visiting this ancient temple than
food, apparently. Travelling by public transport is always the best way to mix
with the locales. We hopped on to the dingy bus and occupied two seats beside an
old, wrinkled woman. Men with huge turban, bunch of college kids and an old
couple just got in when driver started the bus. We had told the conductor
to let us know when our stop came. He had assured us with usual Rajput politeness.
Bus was moving very slowly but we were devouring the bers real fast. All the
while warning each other not to eat much as that might lead to an emergency
Sulabh Complex detour. However, we felt quite flattered when an uncle ji asked us if we were still 'in edukessan'. We smiled and told him we were in service and he looked pretty bewildered.
Ekling ji
temple is perhaps the oldest temple of Udaipur. It was established during
eighth century by Bappa Rawal, the ruler of Mewar. Bappa Rawal is a known
figure to any Bengali who has read Rajkahini by Abanindranath Tagore. Bappa
Rawal established Mewar Kingdom in 728 CE and built this temple. His story is
half legend, half historical fact. Legend says that he was raised by a Brahmin
lady after his whole family was killed in a battle with the Bhils, a tribal
community found in western and central India. After reaching adulthood he met a
sage who initiated him to be a Shaivite and also gave him a boon that made him
immune to his enemies’ weapons. With the power of this boon he avenged his
family’s death and established Mewar kingdom.
Ekling ji
temple follows a disciplined timetable and it only opens to the visitors from
11 am to 1 pm in the morning and then from 4 pm till 7 pm in the evening. We were
early so we chose to loiter around the lake behind the temple. There we met
Manju and Bharti – two little girls from the village who smiled shyly and told
us they were only interested in eating chips when we offered them a few pieces
from our ‘lunch’. Needless to say, their wish was fulfilled. Many dogs and cows
were resting along the bank of the lake and we were chased by some really
bullying cows when we tried to feed the dogs some biscuits. I had never seen
such greedy, aggressive cows before.
Temple authority
was extremely punctual. Gate opened at 4 pm sharp. Nobody was allowed to carry
bags or mobiles and the temple premises had lockers to keep the belongings safe. Men
and women had separate queues and nobody was supposed to break the queue until
the tour of the temple was over. Uniformed guards were coming shouting after
whoever dared to break the rule. The temple we saw was not the original one
built by King Bappa. It was rebuilt during fourteenth century by Hamir Singh
after the fucking bastard rulers of Delhi Sultanate destroyed the idol during
invasion. The entire premises had one main temple dedicated to Eklingji and 108
smaller ones for myriad deities. Again we came across that heavenly smelling
mix of sandalwood and turmeric teeka.
Being authentically Indian was growing on us. What can I say? I am a hardcore
nationalist. I feel overly emotional every
time I stand up at the theatre when the national anthem starts playing. No wonder
I would be feeling overwhelmed visiting a centuries old temple founded by a
Hindu king.
Our last
night at Udaipur turned out to be full of more surprises. After a tiring day we
decided to go back to Café Edelweiss and had a session of tea-cigarettes just
to clear our head. Bagore ki Haveli was flooding with tourists, some show was
about to start. We were not interested in that so we headed other way. It was
our last night and a good dinner was due. White Terrace Restaurant was our
random choice, because it looked good. We ordered butter chicken, naan and some
gin & tonic. We were sipping gin and rewinding our whole trip when a cheery
looking lady leaned across from the next table and started chatting with us. She
turned out to be the production designer of the movie The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. She had
come to India for the first time on work few years back and fallen so much in
love with Rajasthan that now she would visit every year. She was too happy to see us two girls
travelling alone and looked visibly excited when we told her that we were
friends since our college days.
Next day we
had morning bus from Udaipur to Ahmedabad. This trip was not so good as the bus
took a hell lot of time to reach. The AC was turned off and it was stopping
repeatedly to pick up passengers. But good
news was awaiting us upon reaching. IIM-A’s annual fest was going on that time
and D’s husband told us that Benny Dayal was coming that night. I had morning
flight the next day but nevertheless I stayed late at the concert and when we
finally hit the bed it was past midnight and I was dead exhausted with an aching throat from all the singing (read shouting). A journey that had started with an
unexpected date ended with a concert. What more could I have asked for? I was
only praying for an on-time journey back home. Fortunately Jet Airways was
almost punctual this time. And by afternoon I was back in the land of the
Himalayas from the Aravallis.
The end
Read the other episodes here.
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