Jodhpur - Jaisalmer - Jaipur

Would have been more appropriate to say 'Jodhpur - Jaisalmer - Ajmer' (as Jaipur was just the flight out bit) but then I couldn't help the flow of the J's 

Mehrangarh Fort in all it's evening splendour, for the Sufi Festival

There's a rhythm to Rajasthan that kind of envelopes and mesmerizes. It's such an amazing blend of contrasts, that it takes your breath away with a new experience at each turn. 

Let me start at the beginning....right from the window on the flight from Delhi to Jodhpur. The plane was a bombardier, so it flew really low.....giving us spectacular views of the Aravalli ranges that run across north western India.  Ranges and ranges of mountains that looked like crumpled paper from above, and then you see them in all their magnificence as you drive from Jodhpur to Jaipur.

You think Rajasthan, and you're thinking war and valor, and forts and swords.....and then you get there and see color and music and folklore and dance......all larger than life. There's so much that the senses can take in... it's going to take days for the mind to process ( more glad for the blog for enabling process :)

It's like the cities of Rajasthan have sprung up around their forts and citadels, each city boasting it's own unique one. Even the topography...it has the mountains, the plains, the lakes and then there is of course the Thar desert.

And you can't but gape at the grace and beauty of the local attire, be it the pretty pretty coloured ghunghats and lehangas the women wear, or the grand looking pagdi's of the men. And it is so full of stories and folklore that it keeps you intrigued and fascinated. And oh yes, I haven't seen as much of, or as many shades of Bougainvillea ever before. Simply stunning.

Our base was Jodhpur, so let me start there. The Jodhpur skyline is dominated by the imposing Mehrangarh Fort, and the stately Umaid Bhavan which are visible from any part of the city. And the city itself is one of the cleanest, nicest and prettiest cities I've seen. And the people too...so polite and soft spoken, even the way they do their namaste seems more pronounced.

The Mehrangarh fort is simply stupendous in size, apparently one of the largest forts in India...and so intricate in design. You can see the canon ball marks on the fort,  just a dent in the six meter thick fortifications. It was built in 1460 by Rao Jodha, and is said to have been invincible. There is also the visible reminders of 'sati' with imprints of the hands of the women. (we can see cenotaphs across Rajasthan in honor of those who gave their lives through 'sati'...also brought back memories of 'Padmini' another favorite Amar Chitra Katha)

I read this about the fort, and while I could feel it...I can't say it more beautifully

'Mehrangarh Fort stands a hundred feet in splendor on a perpendicular cliff, four hundred feet above the sky line of Jodhpur. Burnished red sand stone, imposing, invincible and yet with a strange haunting beauty that beckons . Much has been written about the Citadel of the Sun, for truly, it is one of the most impressive in all Rajasthan. So colossal are its proportions that Rudyard Kipling called it “the work of giants”. 

Rest in pictures:

The size just overwhelms as you enter

Dhruva getting a picture of the city, which has a distinct blue side to it, apparently brahmin houses were painted blue so they were left alone during war. 

The blue houses are more clearly visible here

We waited and watched him tie his twelve meters of pagdi to perfection.....and I thought it was way more complicated than the six meters of saree. And the women, they aren't in costume, that's how they always are...... graceful, bejewelled and fully covered.

This is picture courtesy Google, just to give a better idea of size, it's just so awe inspiring

Just standing there and thinking of those canons in action gave goosebumps

A quaint old lady who had the tastiest water in her earthen pots..helped us spend an extra hour there for sure

I thought I could do Jodhpur at one go, but I just realized I hadn't written about the Sufi Festival, nor about Umaid Bhavan...In fact Umaid Bhavan will need a whole separate post.....as it has a fascinating story to boot ;)