Diwali is an Indian festival, it is festival of lights. It is equivalent of Christmas, people wait for it and celebrate with great enthusiasm. New clothes, jewelry, and what not. Exchange of gifts , sweets and it is really lot of fun with crackers too. As children, we used to really enjoy Diwali, and would eagerly wait for it but over the years, this enthusiasm has come down. You get holidays during Diwali and I do not remember being at home for Diwali for past many years. It is normally some other place, in a hotel room where you can enjoy part of the celebration but not the whole package that you get at home, especially lighting the earthen diya’ and putting all around the house. The houses all lightened up with diya’ will give the most splendorous look to home which none of the modern light arrangements can match. Most simplistic and beautiful at the same time.
Jaipur is a city in the state of Rajasthan in India, it is also called the pink city. All the buildings in city are painted pink, it is not the sweet pink that most girls prefer as their dress colour but more towards brown. All the markets have the shops in this same colour paint. We happened to be in Jaipur on the second day of the Diwali. Diwali is a five day festival. On the second day, people purchase jewelry or some metal things for their homes. To our surprise, as we were approaching Jaipur city, we found the whole city was lighted up. The gates of the city which are huge, all the shops, every single place was decorated. And no simple decoration, they had used the most beautiful lights and flowers to decorate their shops. It was the most splendid decoration that I have come across. I guess the business community in Jaipur is really wealthy and they spend too. It was such a pleasant surprise. We checked into the hotel and wanted to come out fast so that we could spend more time on the streets of Jaipur and observe the festivities. Though it was past 10 in the night, there was major crowd on the streets. The jewelry shops were very crowded and they were the most well decorated one’ as well. We got good Punjabi food in a dhaba kind of place in the middle of the market place. And also got to taste faluda icecream after a loong time. It was well past midnight and shopkeepers were starting to close the shops. Inspite of all the decorations, the streets were not clean. One could find the litter all over the place on the streets spoiling the overall pleasantness of the festivities that was prevalent otherwise. Jaipur being a major tourist destination, such things can put off the visitors.
We had a very interesting experience at the Rajasthani Emporiums. These are the places, where all the products of the different small scale industries of the state are sold. It includes marble wares, clothes, quilts, leather ware etc. There are many such shops and all the places of tourist attraction like the palaces also have them in their premises. Amber palace, which is on the outskirts of Jaipur city also has one of them. To visit the palace, you need a guide. The guide himself came and told us that he will charge a very nominal amount. We were very happy to know that his fees is so less. He was good also, had sufficient knowledge about the place. After showing around the palace, and also a temple which was in the temple premises, he brought us to this emporium telling there is a demonstration of how they use the blocks and the vegetable dyes to print on the clothes. We were quite impressed. Then they took us inside and there was lot of ethnic stuff that we were tempted to purchase lot of stuff. When we came out, our guide was still waiting. I was wondering, he could have taken his fees and left earlier only. Then it dawned on us that his actual income is the commission he get from these shops because he is the one who gets customers to the shops. Very good business model indeed. Next day we did not get fooled. This time also, a guide told he will guide us in the city palace etc but since the palace is yet to open, we could shop in this emporium. But he realised that we are not going to purchase anything there, and soon left without even informing us. His day would have got wasted otherwise.
City palace is beautiful inside. There is a museum where the different aspects of the life of the rulers’ are preserved. It includes the paintings made by the King himself, the different carpets of those times, the photographs taken by the King, and lot of such stuff. The hall has very beautiful motifs painted on the walls. They have a golden hue in them giving the hall a royal look. There are other halls depicting the weaponry used at that time. Then there is some demonstration of the folk singing and puppet dance for the tourists. The whole place was very lively with lot of curious tourists enjoying the whole experience. Outside the premises, there are many small shops selling local wares.
Another interesting place is the Jantar Mantar which is located adjacent to the city palace. It is a collection of architectural astronomical instruments. This was constructed by King Jai Singh II of Jaipur in the period between 1727 and 1733. It is one of the five such laboratories he constructed. One of them is at Delhi. The one at Jaipur is the largest one. It has fourteen geometric structures for different purposes. For measuring the time of the day, predicting eclipses, for tracking stars in the their orbits and similar stuff. The sundial, which is a huge structure is known to tell the time of the day with an accuracy of 2 seconds for the city of Jaipur.
Another place we saw was the Jal Mahal. It is a palace in the middle of the lake. One cannot go near that, one can only observe it from a distance. Nothing much to write about it though, it is not maintained and even the lake is not very clean. The whole place can be made a major attraction point with boating facility etc introduced. It is on delhi-jaipur highway at the entrance of the city.
Jaipur has lot to explore. One needs to go with more time on hand. Then there are other places around like Udaipur, Jaisalmer which have lot of history and culture in them to explore.
