4. UDAIPUR (RAJASTHAN) : DELHI- DWARKA - DELHI IN 16 DAYS :

(This is the fourth of the eight blogs covering this trip.)

Delhi - 265kms - Jaipur - 130kms - Ajmer - 194kms - Chittor - 120kms - Udaipur - 249kms - Ahmedabad - 231kms - Rajkot - 221kms - Dwarka - 456kms - Ahmedabad - 183kms - Ambaji - 51kms - Mount Abu - 737kms - Delhi

Pichhola Lake as seen from the Guest House

Day 04 and we woke up in Udaipur, the City of Lakes. The Guest House was beautifully perched on a hill-top overlooking Fateh Sagar Lake. The view was awesome and the breakfast sumptuous. Having experienced the maze of roads the previous evening and also in view of the time factor, we decided to hire a cab instead of venturing out all over the place on our own. I didn't want to lower the window-glass every now and then and address every second pedestrian or rickshaw-puller, “Bhaiyya ji…xxx ka rasta kidhar hai?”

The cabbie was punctual and we started our local tour at 9.30 am sharp. Well by tourism standards, it is pretty late. Isn’t it? Having already feasted our eyes on Pichhola Lake the previous evening, we headed off straight to Rana Pratap Memorial.

Rana Pratap on Chetak

RANA PRATAP MEMORIAL: Built in the memory of Rana Pratap, it is an unusually neat and clean memorial and the bronze statue of Rana Pratap riding his favourite horse Chetak is quite imposing. Born on 5^th May, 1540, Rana Pratap succeeded the throne of Mewar on 28^th Feb, 1572 even before he was 32 years and having lived a life of strife and struggle, died on 19^th Jan, 1597 when he was barely 37 years old. From the large size of his dresses and the size and weight of his sword(s) displayed in the local museum, it looks like he must be quite a big-built, tall and strong man who could carry such heavy swords one in each arm while fighting.

        Dressed as a  Rajasthani  couple

By the way, walking towards the memorial, I had spotted some tourists getting into Rajasthani dresses and getting themselves photographed.  I could not resist the temptation of getting ourselves photographed too in Rajasthani attire. At first, it was tough to make hubby agree but my persistence yielded result and he agreed. And there I was!!.... getting dressed in ghaghra, choli, jhoomar, choora and what not. By the time we returned after seeing the Pratap Memorial, the photo was ready. Cool!!... and oh boy!! … Did I look Rajasthani? You decide for yourself.

SAHELION KI BARI:

Soon we were at Saheliyon ki Bari, an old beautiful garden maintained so meticulously even today. As the name indicates, it is a garden where the royal ladies used to come with their female friends. 

At the entry gate of the house which was once my mother's paternal house

GULAB BAGH: It was now time to visit Gulab Bagh and my heart started beating fast. Will I or won’t I be able to locate the house where my maternal grand-father used to live when he worked in Udaipur. It was my birthday and I was in the city where my mother had spent all her maiden life with her parents and I really longed to see their house. As we walked in the huge property, nobody could direct us to the house as it has now been converted into the office of the Senior Supdt of Gardens. We were told that there is a zoo here and nothing else. We also sighted a toy train.

My grand-father Rai Sahab Shobha Ram Bhulyan,
 FRSH (London)

I was disappointed and we were almost about to give up our search when …..... yippeee....  the house suddenly emerged from a thick cover of trees and creepers. The huge yellow house covered by blooming bougainvillea stood there in its full glory. As I was about to walk in, somebody stopped me, “This is an office.” “Yes, I know,” I responded with a feeling of belonging and tone of authority, “This is the place where my Nana used to live 60 years ago and I have come to visit the place (as if I had come to visit my Nana in his house). The inner feeling was that of satisfaction on finally finding something that was amiss in my life.  It was almost like a religious place for me which I had been waiting for years to visit. My pilgrimage to Udaipur was complete today.

At the back-side of the house

Standing there and watching the house, memories of all that my mother had shared with me about her stay in this house, flooded my mind. This is where she used to live, could not go to a regular school due to conservative place and had to study privately  (about that later), learnt music and also learnt swimming from her personal maid Bhoori Bai. This is the place where 63 years ago, she got married to my father.…the jharokha (window) from where she saw her groom for the first time, the place where my father had gone as a 23 years old bride-groom wearing khadi clothes due to tremendous influence of Mahatma Gandhi on him, which my grand-father (Nana), highly influenced by the British had taken as an offence and where my father had refused to ride a horse as a bride-groom because he did not know horse-riding and did not want to hand over the controls to someone else. Nana, full of his status and sense of righteousness, must have been fretting and fuming and Papa, strong-headed as he was, must have been emboldened by the fact that he was the bride-groom. Imagine what a conflict of ideologies, it must have been!

The City Palace, Udaipur

THE CITY PALACE: The next destination was the City Palace. The cabbie dropped us at the gate of the palace and took the car away for parking. What a rush for purchasing entry tickets! Good that we did not have to look around for a parking place for the car. The walk being long and the Palace sprawling, I thought one has to be reasonably fit physically and should not wear any fancy footwear. Imagine walking such distances in stilettos! 

                                              The City Palace, Udaipur

Once inside the palace, we had to take a quick look at various museums as we had a time-bound schedule for today. However, as we moved in to see the palace, we soon realised that it was one-way traffic and one could not go back even if one wanted to. “Keep walking, keep walking,” we were being goaded time and again by the security personnel there…perhaps because of the tourist rush in the winter season. Most of the stairs were narrow and steep and almost all were without any support.

I was wondering how a comparatively elderly or handicapped tourist would manage. It is rightly said that India is not friendly to handicapped or elderly people. But the panoramic view of the Lake Palace located in the blue waters of Lake Pichhola from top of the Palace was simply magnificent. 
 

JAGDISH TEMPLE: This shrine is stated to have been built in the 16^th century with a black marble statue of Lord Vishnu. The sculpture looked impressive from outside but we were short of time, hence decided to give it a go by.

It was now lunch time and soon we were back in the Guest House for our frugal meals and ready for the next leg of the journey, from Udaipur to Ahmedabad or Amdavad as they call it now.  

TODAY'S LEARNINGS

1. For local sight-seeing, it is a good idea to hire a local cab who can take you around with the driver usually doubling up as a guide too.

2. Eating frugal meals during long journeys keeps your health in order.

Sunset on way to Ahmedabad

*****