A Technicolour Party in Jaipur: The Pink City of India

Talk to anyone about travel to India and chances are they would try their hand at dissuasion. That is totally alright since it is deeply ingrained to fear what we not know (us granted as well) - so when we shared with our friends plans to drop into the city of Jaipur for a quick get to know sesh, we were prepared to engage in a speculative discussion about the ‘horrors’ of the South Asian country. But we chose not to… and slipped onto the plane for Jaipur ready to let our words unravel their minds.

Safe to say, the city of Jaipur, a city of halves, from the landing strip to the airport, the transition from slums to the grand structures of the city came fast and many and reminded us of the stories that highlighted the disparity in income. Darkness shrouded the single-stories tin-roofed residences while large spotlights illuminated the opulent white marbles of the Birla Mandir. Through the interlanguage of English and Rajasthani, we barely made out the words “big” and “temple” from our Uber driver to set that conclusion straight.

While the night brought cool-to-the-touch weather, the afternoons were dusty and tepid and we succumbed to the comfort of an “auto” (basically an underpowered 200cc scooter with a hood). Like his rickety yet bling-ed up ride, our driver Aali was some piece of work - divulging cheeky stories of finding pimply adolescents in bushes and educating us with a rundown of his daily speak.

Perhaps that was what made that experience much more memorable, having someone in the city we knew on a first-name basis and who huddled us to safety from the cacophony of other drivers peddling their services. Or if any, the thrill of chalking up the right spots - there were just too many diversions to make in too little time. Take in the mountainous landscape at the peak of Jaigarh Fort or sip on chai in Jaipur’s snazzy tea hotspots. If our plan wasn't prime for success that day, we wouldn’t hear the end of Aali’s chummy sniggering and a re-negotiation of our day’s plan was on the cards.

There is a certain unspoken rule when it comes to traffic in the city - as long as there is an inch of space, some pooch malega (anything’s possible), and traffic will continue its exhale of exhaust and fan the duststorms to life. Truly enough, we were exhausted come nightfall after the trio of Jantar Mantar, Hawa Mahal and City Palace. It could have been all the dancing Leanne cooked up, reimagining herself in the center of the Bollywood film we caught the previous night at an art-deco theatre jazzed up like the Royal Albert Hall. Funnily enough, we spent half the time in the theatre letting loose in the razzle-dazzle of song and dance before questioning its relevance in a film title about law and order. Who are we to judge anyway - they write their own films and it is some spectacle seeing the people’s rhapsodic reactions.

If traffic was characteristic of the Jaipur experience then it is certain that food demands a paragraph for itself. Food in India doesn't follow rules thanks to a creativity-meets-tradition approach to its mostly-vegan fodder. From the lowly street stall serving up 24 INR (USD$0.35) kachori sabzi prompting a tear-in-my-eye respect to the posher rooftop plating delectable servings of an all-Indian burger, vada pav, made of potato fritters and buns. On other occasions, curry, paratha and a side of nothing were all that was needed to fill us up. But if you ask us for a food recommendation that encapsulated the synthesis of Indian culture, we would go with pani puri, the hollow puff bread ball of chickpeas, mashed potatoes and tamarid water that was a mixture of fresh and fun flavours and spices.

The Pink City, an epithet for the pastel-hued walls of the city were what we imagined would be the home with rich royal-like traditions. It is easy to lose one self in the different facets of the city, the pee-stained walls to the glimmering white monuments, but we took what we wanted to take out of the experience and we returned with more dust on our knees and wide smiles on our faces.

Till then, shukriya Jaipur na.

#India #Jaipur