Dosa Bandi

This was in dear old Bangalore. (A break from the Rajasthan travels).

I think I had one of my best dosas at this 'bandi' this morning.

It's a proper family run enterprise. Kiran (standing by the bandi) serves, the mother makes the dosas, the father washes the plates, and between them they have it all covered. Swaroop (busily eating away to the right) is a regular, and it was interesting to hear him say, 'the mother is the hero'. She was in charge of core operations see....and total no nonsense kinds, not even time for a smile.

Kiran on the other hand  was only too happy to talk. The moment he saw me take a picture, he was saying something about street food in America and in China. They have had the bandi there for ten years, and he's apparently like the proverbial 'barber'...knows anything about anything in the area. And he had such a ready smile, that had I not had an appointment to catch, I would have loved to have stayed and done a longer chat.

The mother has three tava's parallely going and that covers  the menu...plain dosa, onion dosa and egg dosa. And it was truly yummm.

Within the ten to fifteen minutes we were there, we must have seen atleast twenty people come eat. They are there for three hours, seven until ten each morning, and it seemed continuous brisk business.

It sure started my day great...in fact with a bandi like this around the house, a great breakfast done at twenty rupees, breakfast at home would become exception :)

Umaid Bhawan - Jodhpur

Umaid Bhawan is said to be the second largest private residence in the world, next only to Buckingham Palace. 

Constructed in 1929, by Maharaja Umaid Singh, the grandfather of the current Maharaja, Gaj Singh II, the palace has 347 rooms, and served as residence to the erstwhile royal family of Jodhpur. Actually still does, the current Maharaja still lives there. 

The palace was built right from 1929 to 1943, and was planned on lavish scale, essentially to provide employment to the people of Jodhpur during the time of famine.

In 1971 Maharaja Gaj Singh converted a part of the palace into a hotel, which is currently run by the Taj Group of Hotels.

The Palace thus has three parts: the residence of the royal family, a luxury Taj Palace Hotel, and a Museum focusing on the 20th century history of the Jodhpur Royal Family.

The palace also boasts an amazing private vintage car collection. Needless to say, the picture is courtesy Google, but then we did see the Maharaja at the Sufi festival. He is a little older and grayer now I guess.....but this picture could be fairly recent too...polo is still a much played sport in Jodhpur, and the cars, atleast most of them look like they are ready to be driven out. We could see the love and respect that the people of Jodhpur still feel for him.

He still runs the Umaid Bhawan and Mehrangarh Fort trusts, and it's his entrepreneurship ( like the hotel and the Sufi festival) that has enabled both these epic monuments be maintained as they are. It's said that Mehrangarh is one of the best maintained forts in the country.

A couple more pictures (also courtesy Google)

Now for the story;

Gaj Singhs's father Hanuwant Singh, was Maharaja during the period when India gained independence. He was a keen horseman, an ardent polo player, an expert pilot, and an amateur magician. Now, how impressive is that. He was married, and became Maharaja in his early twenties.

During one of his polo matches he meets the beautiful Zubeidaa, and gets completely besotted with her. 

There is then a passionate romance, which the royal family is in disapproval off. And the disapproval was grim and severe, not just because he is already married, but more because Zubeidaa was wrong in more ways than one. She had been already married, was divorced with a child, and the final blow...she was a muslim. Yet the headstrong Hanuwant Singh has his way, he marries her. 

And listen to this....the pressure from the family was so bad, that they had to leave Umaid Bhawan. And where do they go......they move into Mehrangarh Fort 

In 1952, Hanuwant Singh contested the Lok Sabha elections, and won with a landslide victory (loyalties to royalty runs deep) And he is said to have flown Zubeidaa, in his plane, over the Marwar desert to celebrate the victory. (He had inherited the Jodhpur Royal family's passion for flying, and was also known to be a reckless flyer ) While no one knows exact details of how, there was a crash, and both he and Zubeidaa were killed in the plane crash. 

The story was in fact made into a movie by Shyam Benegal, a movie by the same name, Zubeidaa. A beautiful movie with lovely music too.

And while the movie ends with the crash, in reality, Zubeidaa had a second son by the Maharaja, under an year old when she died.

And on this trip, I even heard how the moment the news of the plane crash reached the palace, the Rajmata (the first wife) had her aide rush to Mehrangarh to pick up the baby, as she knew the family would immediately have the child killed. The boy was then brought up by the first wife, the Rajmata of Jodhpur, along with her own son (the current maharaja)

And what's most fascinating is that the movie is written by scriptwriter Khalid Mohamed, who is Zubeidaa's son by her first marriage........who she left behind with her mother, when she goes off with the Maharaja.  The movie in fact starts with him making an effort to find out more about the mother he never knew.

I remember back then, watching the movie multiple times, not even knowing it was based off a true story. Who needs fiction, when we have true stories like this, huh?

Sufi Festival - Jodhpur

The Sufi Festival in Jodhpur was the nucleus around which our trip started to take shape.

A few months ago, at a chance meeting in Hyd, what came together was Harshitha saying, 'we're now in Jodhpur, why don't you make a visit', and my long standing desire to see Jodhpur and the desert. But then the thoughts had happened before, even when she was stationed at Jaipur, but no trip had materialized.

This time round what got added is her saying, "there's a sufi festival somewhere in Feb see if you can make it then, it's in the Mehrangarh fort and it will be lovely"

And so by chance, I had dates, and that's all it took. That little bit of concreteness to build on. 

And slowly we added in other elements, Jaisalmer, Udaipur (dropped later), Ajmer, and by end Jan, we had a nicely packed in itinerary, and from the original two days of the Sufi festival out of a five day trip, we had settled for one evening of Sufi. 

Once there, we realized the festival tickets cost a bomb, (something like 11 k a couple), and we were like 'oh oh, not happening '. Then we so fully lucked out. Harshitha actually got us passes. Well, guess it's not for nothing that it's said "where there's a desire, there's......", but more significantly....."Huge thanks Harshitha!"

Now to the festival itself.

Sufism goes beyond religion. It’s said to be a direct connect with the creator in the quest for personal enlightenment and self realization, transcending churches, temples, mosques and their rituals. It finds expression in mystical poetry, music and dance inspired by the works of Sufi poets, like Rumi, Hafiz,  Amir Khusrow and Khwaja Ghulam Farid.

In that one evening, I experienced Sufism like never before. And while we attended three performances, the one that touched me the deepest was a performance by a Baul artist  (derived from vatul in Sanskrit, literally “mad”, drunk on divine aspiration) 

Baul music is folk song, carrying influences of hindu bhakti movements as well as the shuphi, a form of Sufi music. Bauls are mystic minstrels from Bengal, with a large influence on  Bengali culture, and particularly the compositions of Rabindranath Tagore.  They do not identify with any organized religion, caste system, deities, temples or sacred places and are admired for this freedom from convention, as well as their music and poetry which is devoted to achieving spiritual liberation.

The Baul singer at the festival was Parvathy Baul, and we thought  she was phenomenal. It was a solo performance, with narration of poetry and singing, accompanied by two small instruments, the single string ektara and a small drum called the dubki, in either hand And while the singing is in Bengali, she first translates each poem into English. The performance is in an almost trance state.... and I thought she was enchanting.

                    

A few pictures from the evening.

Dhruva and Diksha at the entrance, background is the stage. And the food place was kingfisher sponsored I think, so there was beer to go with the music.

This was Prem Joshua and Band. Prem Joshua, upon his very first visit to India in 1977, felt an immediate and profound connection, and deeply inspired, the young German musician began infusing familiar forms of western music with the exotic flavors of India. Already an accomplished multi-instrumentalist, he mastered the sitar and he now divides times between India and Europe.  

He did a lot of traditional mantras and slokas in zippy tunes, accompanied by the electric guitar and sitar.... as said by someone, it's as entertaining as it is enlightening.

This was epi from Mongolia, alongwith a Manganiyar community troupe. His versatility and range of voice and how they blended it to fit in with Marwar folk was lovely.

This was close to midnight as we left the fort, heady with the music, the crowd, the ambiance (and maybe a little bit the beer too :)

I'm realizing that these festivals are really enriching experiences, and so much fun too.....and definitely worthwhile planning trips around. Hoping to make it a regular part of life :)

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 ;)

How Travel Also Teaches

That 'travel teaches' is a given.....the newness of a place, of a culture, of food, of people.....generally a lot of fun, and needless to say, a huge expanding of horizons. 

And then there's also the other side to it. A trip....the thinking, the deciding, the planning, the arranging, the bookings......

                         

And while all that can also be engaging and fun....it can also drive you nuts. Yep, no points for guessing....I had it pretty tough this morning.

I was doing a web checkin......and what started as a simple, straightforward process, went as all over the place as it could. What I had set aside ten minutes for, took a full three hours.

First off, I realize that if you want window seats, you need to pay for them....well, I wanted window, so paid. Then found the payment had gone, but no seats. And what's worse the registered email was from makemytrip, so my messages were going there, and this inspite of my changing email.

Then the onerous task of getting through to customer service ...the IVR....and once there, I realized I had six different PNRs, and what's more...on three different airlines ( no direct flights :)

That sorted, on the next airline I'm stuck because it's says 'booking not recognized', any permutation combination I tried...not recognized. Back to IVR, and madam at the other end says, 'use a different browser'. I was by then on the task for over an hour...and I was in no mood to take being palmed off with a casual 'use a different browser'. Ten minutes more to get the supervisor online, and then he figures it...middle name and last name have no space in between. I needed to have done Dhruva PrasadDevara. Who'd have thought.

And trust me, I had more issues, but will stop with this....anyways by this time nerves were stretched thin enough. And the reason I write all of this happens here.....to share what worked. 

Mindfulness .....actually mindfulness exercises.

Step out of that space...like physically, sit elsewhere.....close your eyes.....listen to the sounds around.....feel the air on your body...... feel your toes..... feel the movements within the body...feel your breath....go on for two minutes (like actually two minutes). It works like magic...... the energy shifts.

That bit of awareness, that bit of effort, and you can change a lot of things around you (and within you)

I was very soon fully back in action ....grounded, present and in joyful anticipation :)

Musings - Add in Nostalgia

A day that started with some nostalgia.....

The earth, the sea and the sky, all in that one forever moment

Just as with 'Anticipation' .............So with 'Nostalgia'.

To be fully centered in the present, and yet to allow into it's folds 'Nostalgia'.... to allow oneself to be taken over by the waves of beauty and emotion from the past, is yet a fully present experience.

And when you have it alongside 'Anticipation', you realize your mind has just expanded beyond time....to encompass the more. And in there, can be experienced life with a heightened sense of awareness......almost like vibrating at a different frequency.

Guess it could be called 'to be in love with life'

What better day to say this than on Valentines :)

Musings : Anticipation...Being In The Now

I started to write about 'Anticipation'........ how wonderful 'Anticipation' is, and how it has within it excitement, possibilities, expectations, hope, pleasure.....all of that right.(talking positive anticipation here )

And then as the thoughts started to sort themselves out in the mind... in came it's antithesis, (also something I dearly subscribe to).....'live in the moment' 'it's all about the present' 

Do they contradict? Seemingly So.......   But they really don't. 

When you're flush with anticipation, you are yet completely present. Anticipation of the future...but fully contained in the joy of the 'Now'. Thought about the future.......yet a function of the present. Nicely paradoxical, huh.