Bundi–March 2011

We started our journey on Saturday morning around six thirty in the direction of Jaipur, ultimate destination being Bundi around 446 kms from gurgaon. First part of the journey being uneventful and with one pit stop at Hotel Tokes for a sumptuous breakfast of stuffed Parathas we were crossing Jaipur. Somehow for the first time in so many travels google maps failed us and getting onto the Tonk Bundi Road became an exercise in favourite indian travel past time of asking directions. It was around eleven am when we found ourselves heading in the right direction and crossed the satellite town of sanganer.

This brought us to the NH12 which was to take us to Bundi via Tonk. This is where similarity with any other national highway ended. This road is a single lane road all the way totally devoid of any basic amenities like a Midway or a decent Dhaba and is used by some of the worst commercial vehicle drivers one would come across. And on this road there is an unusually high traffic of trucks carrying indeterminate cargo.

It was only in Tonk we found a decent place to have lunch and guess what it had taken us a good part of three hours to do hundred kilometres. To put this in perspective, yours truly had done hundred out of Bikaner in one hour a few months back. Can’t say we were not forewarned, our hosts at Bundi had warned us that it may take more than five hours to do 200 ams from Jaipur. After the break we started on our final leg to Bundi and with the sun bearing down on us, ac were on blast and by this time iPod had also gone off charge as were playing music through a FM transmitter ( travel tip – if you want to play music through FM transmitter, carry plenty of iPods).

Bundi is a town situated in a valley surrounded by hills from all sides and was considered a seat of preeminence during the times of Rajputanas as the kingdom of the Haras. It was a more important town then Kota then and due it’s natural hilly surrounding was considered a formidable kingdom. As one winds his was around the hills the fort appears to ones left almost one with the hill on one side and a small lake on the other. It is a breathtaking moment and worth the drive of ten hours. Right next to the fort sticking out like a sore thumb is a telecommunications tower and one can only envy the lack of imagination or appreciation of history for the Babu who approved erection of the tower.

We were escorted by our hostess and her charming daughter alongwith their man friday, to their home for a round of snacks which were accompanied with a lecture on history, travels and career opportunities for youngsters by the patriarch of the family. Naturally so, forty years of being a professor in a college does come with some amount of ability to discourse.

All this brought about the sun set which we felt was early onset, possibly due to the surrounding hillocks. We were then taken on a night tour of the outskirts and landed at a Devi temple situated on another hillock which had to be climbed on foot. Ten hours of sitting in a car is not the best preparation for climbing rough heaven rocks of uneven height, even if there is only about 200 of them and especially if you are doing that in pitch dark and only light is of the sanctum sanctorum as a beacon. The journey becomes all the more tiring if one is an agnostic and also aware that lack of lighting renders the camera superfluous. Long and short of it is that we managed the climb up and also the walk down. While on top we did come across a couple of “very happy” devotees with plastic glasses and finger snacks, who miraculously decided to end their tryst with the Goddess as soon as they found us within breathing distance. Another interesting aspect at the bottom of the temple was two kitchens, one for vegetarians and another for the carnivore.

We had dinner at an open air restaurant called Grizzly, while the fare was ok but nothing to write home about and service was decidedly tardy and with all the moths and mosquitos about even the strictest of vegetarians would have tasted some meat. Thankful this day came to an end and we retired to our rooms for the night though not before Man Friday warned us that we need to start the morrow early and instructed the hotel staff to serve us tea at six.

Morning at six we were woken up from our sleep by Tea bearer and unbeknownst to us man Friday was lurking in the background and exactly at 6:15 he appeared to enquire how long would it be before he should fetch us to the house and were suitably warned that if we delay, we will have to face the intense heat. Thus chastened we were ready at seven am and were taken across for a homemade breakfast of poha and tea.

Start of another day and this time to the Palace which is a protected monument approached from the middle of the town. We were in for another climb up a steep slope where the ravages of time and weather had rendered the stones slippery and one was looking for footholds to save one’s life as the fall would not be a very happy one and may result into some broken bones.

At the top it was another fighting palace which must have been witness to lot of intrigue and battle plans. History was replete in every part of the palace. The courtyard where the king held his durbar for the population to the meeting place where king held counsel with his trusted advisor. Importance of the Lead Queen’s counsel was also discernible. While the minions of the entourage were restricted to watching the happenings from eyeholes, the Queen had a window to herself from where she could express her assent or dissent by a simple shake or nod of the head. So much for the women being downtrodden in the Rajput families.

What struck one was the general dismal state of repairs of the palace and what it could be made into if only some repairs were being conducted on the structure.

The remains lay testimony to the grandeur which was built in and the vandals had ravaged over time due to apathy of the family and also disinterest of the government.

One could make out the details that had gone into making of the palace a fighting citadel by the way stairs were designed for one person to pass and that too at a leisurely pace and not at a canter and definitely not with a weapon in hand. The turns and twists which were built into the design and leading into courtyards and open spaces where the enemy soldier could be picked one at a time by a platoon.

From the palace we repaired to the so called Chitrashala for a dekko at the famous Bundi paintings and had come away disappointed as most of the frescos and paintings on the walls were in a state of disrepair and just one official guide for the odd visitor who happened to visit. When we visited this guide was busy with a French couple and none of us being articulate in French it was left to the guard to help us out with his version of history and art. Produced below is what was the painting in the best condition and had supposedly undergone renovation by the government.

Surprisingly we found the courtyard in front of the Chitrashala to be very well managed. Grass was cut and flowers and trees were well tended to. Though the water tank and fountains were dry but the seats around it were in good conditions at odds with the rest of the palace and left us thinking why the same care could not be shown to the rest of the palace or the paintings inside.

We managed to get down from the fort in one piece and had look at the wares on sale at the souvenir shop at the palace and found the inventory to be very mediocre compared to what we had seen in places like Mandawa, Kishangarh or Jodhpur. We did not find anything that we could add to our collection.

We went to the museum, which was a collection of photographs, old weapons and lots of stuffed animals. These animals are proudly displayed as trophies of bravery though what is so brave in shooting an animal from a hundred feet hiding on a treetop is beyond my comprehension. May be one can explain the killing of carnivore to protect the citizenry but what harm could a bison or a deer have caused is only for these hunters to explain.

In the afternoon we made a trip to the RANI JI KI BOWRI – around a kilometer from the palace. Ostensibly the Queen used to come down to this place for her bath from the palace. I personally believe these were the water storage tanks built by the various kings for the use by the people and were also the congregation points for the people to get together for social and religious functions.

In the evening we went to a nearby village for an early dinner of Daal Baati cooked in the traditional earthen oven in the house of Mr.Ramavtaar Meena. House was in the middle of fields and had only one light bulb, no television but all the male members of the family did carry mobile phones and had motorbikes. The family eats dinner by 6 PM and is off to bed by 8, typical day for them starting at 5 AM in the morning. All the young adults in the family are graduates and young ones go to private schools. Mr.Meena’s mantra – this is the age of the educated and it is for his family to keep pace with the times. We were introduced to the family lucky mascot – Toto, the Tortoise who had adopted the family few years back and whose addition the family saw as the turning point in their fortunes. Don’t know if it is legal to keep him in the household but at least better to keep him then to let him out and die.

Food was out of this world and company interesting. We learned that irrigating the fields was still a challenge and with erratic water supplies whole crops could go bad in a matter of days. Utensils were still being cleaned with the ashes from the earthen oven before rinsing with water. Buffaloes in the stable were as moody as the humans, each one with a name and its own idiosyncrasies like one wanted to be tied under the shed when milked and the other would only allow the patriarch to do the honors.

Mr.Meena and his sons had put together Pump Set and Generator set up to pull water and irrigate the fields. Mind you, this water was ONLY for the crop and not for personal use. This was the SWADES moment, all the talks of nuclear state, double digit economic growth, third largest economy in the world and largest democracy and we still can not irrigate the fields.

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