within striking reach wednesday

Jaipur brings with it lovely memories. I was working in jaipur when we got married and the hotel we have shifted to belongs to a then friend with whom I was associated even as he hotel was being built. The moment I step in I ask for Harsh Bansal but am told that he longer comes to the hotel. His brothers sons now run it .It had always been a very family kind of place with the brothers running the hotel part and the wives supervising the kitchen. It has grown much since then and the “Arya Niwas” is now a famous place with a very loyal select clientele. I notice his wife in the in the evening and ask about Harsh. She also gives a very evasive reply. She says he does not come here at all now but manages some construction work. He calls the next day to say he wants to see me too but does not turn up at the time indicated. Obviously something has changed- as has the city of jaipur.

It has grown massively-the sleepy five kilometers across each way town we knew is now chockfull of vehicles- the very lonely road near our old house where would go to watch peacocks is now difficult to cross. Sarry is in a greatly excited state today pointing out this place or that which we knew as a young just married couple, to all the others. We take the mornings session out of Jaipur and reach almost 22 kilometers out of it but for the evening session we walk within Jaipur for two hours because we make a late start from the hotel and had we gone out to the mornings end point we wouldn’t have been able to walk even 5 kilometers before darkness would set in. At the end we go to the house we had lived in and pose outside it. Sarry points out our rooms from outside to the gang and we spend time peering at name plates to see which houses still belong to people we had then known. Nostalgia at its best before tremendous tiredness hits in and as the others troop out to LMB for a traditional Rajasthani meal I sink into unheard of luxury – a hot water tub which relaxes the body completely as does the foot massage given by Sarry’s younger brother who has brought tremendous energy into the trip. He continues to exhort us to do better and says his task is only to motivate the troops. we hit back saying since he only manages the logistics and gives lectures whereas we do all the work he is actually a corporate consultant – good for nothing except giving lectures and then settling down to a company paid meal.

It is very hot in the afternoons and we have reinvented the arab head dress. All of us wrap a drenched chunee round our heads which keeps us cool at least for 2-3 kilometers and then its time again to hold it under the nearest hand pump. It is not very healthy to do that I understand but where is the time to think of such things? What matters is the trudging along at all costs since the temple is now within striking distance. Life is a total blurr and there is no time to think of what is going on. I wish I could write the blog regularly and also upload the hundreds of pictures I keep clicking but there I hardly have time or energy. The mind is also in a haze and I cannot for the love of God remember what the silly jokes are we laugh at all day, though we do laff a lot . Maybe later as we see all the pictures we will remember them later.

We regretfully have not been able to use most of the food we have brought with us. The formality of transferring the food to the room and then back to the car has also been dispensed with .Now the packets stay in the car and are only readjusted every time we want to sit in it.

Thankfully we have also not been able to use our “security equipment”. We are carrying a virtual arsenal. A walking stick ,two knives and two guns besides two cans of pepper spray. The stick is normally waved round a lot, one of the guns is a cigarette lighter and the second fires one iron pellet at a time. The knives though are the greatest laugh. They are housed in wooden scabbards with fancy design on them if we ever need to take them out we would be transported to the sets of some period film and all the villains would have to start calling us Badgane alee or something. And if we were ever to take them outt !!! God the rust would show , though we might pretend the yellow marks are actually dried blood marks of enemies we slew years ago but I am sure the villains would know.
And if ever we were required to use them – that would be the day – since I did try out their sharpness one day and found that I could not get my finger to bleed despite running it over the one many times. I then tried slicing an onion with one of them and found that job it did- albeit with some difficulty- I then breathed a sigh of relief –If a bunch of onions decided to kidnap Aakanksha at least one would be safe. We could slice them up with the bigger knife , spray pepper on them and eat them for salad. And if the onions thought they could team up with a couple of tomatoes to pull off the heist – they would do well to remember we have smaller kripan too!!!!!