Rajasthan : A Beautiful Chaotic Mess

Another day, another late life update. Here it is, a blog about the road trip I had six months ago. Definitely did not decide to post this immediately after the trip because I was definitely not in a creative slump.

Anyway, in this seventeen-year-old existence of mine there have been quite a few road trips. This time was no different either; after staying at home and celebrating Diwali the traditional way for the past two years given the pandemic, now that things were finally getting better, we knew we did not want to be home this year. Everything was so last minute that our destination was decided three days earlier and we were shopping for the trip until the very last second.

Initially, it was going to be this religious trip to Banaras-Prayagraj-Gaya which then turned into a food expedition when we added Lucknow and Gangtok to the itinerary. Now, my dearest father has this innate quality of describing things, selling things basically marketing something to you to the fullest with of course terms and conditions applied. The description that started with “oh! We could go to this ghat for that aarti and this mela for those people,” ended with “oh! There are various types of chaat here, kebabs there and noodle soups here.” On a fine morning, we all sat down for a family meeting to discuss all the prep that was going to go into this trip. Here, mother dearest springs up and says, “I’d love to visit Rajasthan once, all of the culture, the food, the clothes, THE DESERT! There’s so much to see!” Of course, Mr. Marketing Expert here didn’t slack and sold us a trip to Rajasthan as well. Now, these people you know? are very smart even though they probably have a place in mind, they very nicely said that it was just an idea and it was all up to me and where I wanted to go. My indecisive yet gullible self was confused it would be too cold in the north and maybe too hot over here in the west. It was this dramatic reality show like moment. I held on to my parents’ hands, took a deep breath in, closed my eyes as tightly as possible, squeezed their hands…. And…. Here we were in our little Tata Aria on our way to Rajasthan.

HA! One could only wish it were that easy. Dear lord, the packing we’ve had to do. I think it will be safe to say that we shopped more before leaving than we did in Rajasthan. You’d like to think that three people would take maximum four bags, one for each and one extra bag for first aid and snacks. But it’s an Indian family’s road trip there are always backups for a backup. Three bags plus six more bags out of which three are for snacks, first aid, cooking equipment (?) and electronics. Each member in the car has a designated place; mom and dad in the front with me in the back. The backseat transforms into the bedroom, pantry, everything for the few days we’re travelling. What starts from sitting up straight and singing throughout and playing games, soon turns into me slowly sliding down my side to lie down. It’s the car. I’m telling you, it’s the car. I’m not that lazy, okay?

We always make up our minds about the amount of hours we’ve to travel and depending on the condition of the roads we decide to either continue our journey or find the nearest town we could take a halt at. As the time passed our halts changed by the minute, what was Ujjain in the beginning, changed to Mandsaur, then Neemuch and finally; late at night we reached Chittorgarh. Also, sidenote we took a little break somewhere near Neemuch so we could have dinner and delicious – that’s all I can say. Anyway, here it took us almost an hour to only find our hotel even though we were in that lane itself.

You know for me the most favourite thing about travelling to a new place, is dressing up according to that place. Cotton dresses and Dungarees in Goa; and Cotton kurtas with oxidised jewellery here in Rajasthan. For the first time ever, I woke up early, got dressed and rushed to the buffet so we could leave early to see the fort. Oh, and was it worth ruining my sleep. Chittorgarh Fort in all of its ancient and architectural glory was more than the words stunning, beautiful, breath taking. The Stambh, the Queen’s quarters, the nearby lake, you could feel everyone’s presence in every piece of architecture there. Walking around the ginormous premise was as fulfilling as it was tiring. And you best believe I had two kulfis to beat the crackling sun. Numerous kulfis down and off we were to Udaipur. This Lake City had royalty built right in the middle of the Pichola that looked even prettier at night. We were supposed to walk more than a kilometre to actually enter the palace. And you know this favourite family of yours gave the people working there an earful for not helping us out. How much ever this experience was a headache our rickshaw driver took us to a popular Dal Bati Churma place. Now, I don’t know if this would get us cancelled, but we’ve had better Dal Bati in Maharashtra than the one we had in Rajasthan. Laal Maas though, I wanted to cry, that’s how good the meat was cooked. Visiting the lake during the day and getting to listen to the local artist play the Ravanhatta was a type of peace you could only experience; describing it in words would be disrespectful to that feeling. It was as if I wanted to stay a bit longer. Just me and the Ravanhatta.

The next day, all of us were down; down to go to Jodhpur and dad – down with a mild fever. Despite that Jodhpur was as gorgeous as ever, the Mehrangarh Fort, the blue houses, the food, the clock tower, Toorji Ka Jhalra Bawdi, each place was no less than a dream. It was all a bliss until dad’s fever got worse. Early morning, we hit rock bottom and, on the day, we were supposed to leave for Jaisalmer, we were on our way to the airport to get back home.  Man, was it a hassle. Booked tickets last minute, took a stop at Mumbai Airport for almost six hours, had one of the best burgers and fries and there we were on our way back home. The trip that started as a road trip once, ended with us hopping on the plane and rushing back. These are what family trips are like though, right? Everything is last minute and chaotic to the tee. But it’s the way we get through it all the while laughing at ourselves for creating this mess in the first place.

Oh, and in the time, we were having all of this fun and living in our little Shuddh Desi Rajasthani universe despite the last hiccup; we were also absolutely unaware of the fact that a fat, gnarly, rat was also travelling with us all this while. Not just that, we were also greeted with its dead body in our car’s trunk. Poor guy. What if it was a rat? I’m sure it had a great life. My condolences. RIP.