The Westside Story – XVI – Day 13

Our 13th day on the road! And after a long time, this was going to be one long drive! We left out Mess at 0530 hrs. The passengers passed out 5 minutes into the journey!! I woke up around 0700 hrs and realized Danish was the only one awake and driving with all windows rolled up!! The car was beginning to get stuffy, albeit warm, and that was not a good way to keep the driver alert and attentive!! By 0715 almost everyone was awake – except for JJ, of course!! If she was in the car – she was asleep! I can’t remember a single time when she’d be awake for more than 50 kms! ;D

At 137.2 kms 0740 hrs, we decided to stop over at a Dhaba for a much needed breakfast! But for some unknown reason, the very un-fussy girls (JJ and I) just took a look at the place and weren’t hungry anymore!! :P But the boys ordered 4 aloo paranthas, and when they came, we weren’t able to resist the urge to dig in! J The food was good and after a much needed rest, decided to head out, but with me at the wheel..!

We pretty much stuck to NH 8 the entire while, except when we took a left to Ajmer at 275 kms at 1100 hrs. We headed straight to Akbar’s fort which was under maintenance and we weren’t allowed to go around the fort. We did manage to gain entry into a museum of sorts which is nothing short of ridiculous! The paintings put up are intricate and nice but the boards put under them to explain each painting are hilarious and steal the spotlight from them! Forgetable!

I learnt 2 things in Ajmer! Okay 3…

You will not find any toilets in public places! There is one central complex called . Apart from that you’d have to make do with walking into hotels and using their toilets without availing their services!
There is usually a huge 2-3 storied building in most parts of a city (in Rajasthan) that are used for giving water for people to drink! These buildings are called a “Peeyau” and that’s the only purpose of such a huge building!
If you don’t watch your back in the tiny roads of these cities, you will end up fracturing a leg!! The traffic is bad and the drivers inconsiderate! Or at least that’s how it seems to an outsider! But the local people looked immune to scooters bumping into them and people rubbing shoulders with everybody else!!

We then headed to the famous Dargah in the midst of Ajmer- The dargah of Khawaja Moin-ud-din-Chishti. This was for the experience of Ajmer! A narrow lane lined with shops on both sides for over half a km, selling things ranging from flowers to handkerchiefs to coconuts! But the rush of human traffic is overwhelming! People actually live there, so you have the rush of daily activity and the craziness of a regular day mixing with the madness of tourists!

Once we reached the mosque we had to go in 2’s since we weren’t allowed to take cameras inside (strangely, every other mosque we’d gone to allowed us to do so) so Kudu and I guarded the camera and shoes while JJ and Danish went in. After waiting for over 20 min, we went in. This mosque has 3 mosques inside it and one Dargah. One mosque was built by Shah Jahan, one by Aurangazeb and one by someone whose name none of us could understand!!

Famished, we headed in search of a place to eat. We were a bit tired after being awake since 0430 in the morning! This is when we got into a neat discussion about table manners! Turns out, all parents go to a school where they are taught about what they will teach their children!! And the parents pass out of that school with a book of phrases that are used to tame children around the world – these words of wisdom are used on the poor, unassuming children and are similar, word-to-word!!!! :D

After lunch, we got conned! It was like it was on the agenda : Step one – Eat food. Step two : Head to Dargah. Step three : Get conned!

We went to Targarh which has on a hill and has a dargah on top. We were stopped at the base of the hill by a group of men on bikes. We were wary but stopped anyway. They told us that they were from the department of tourism and they were designated there to guide tourists like us to the Dargah and show them around for no fee! We figured this was a good deal. Bad move!

They told us to go up and wait for one of them to follow us on his bike. We reached on top and this guy led us into a house where he made us take our shoes off and go inside the house and fold our hands in front of a picture we had no idea what it was! He went on to talk really fast and move with the speed of light without giving us a chance to question and ponder! Suddenly it seemed like he was telling us that we had to buy a white cloth – it was mandatory – as an offering to the Dargah! We were contemplating when he made it seem like he’d do us a favour and make the decision for us – he yelled out to his counterpart “jaa, inko 300 walla de de, aur 50 ke phool bhi”. Within seconds we had a basket with a white cloth and flowers thrust on top of Danish’s head and the “guide” was leading us into the Dargah!!

This is the funniest part – The priest inside tells us tales of how anyone who makes a contribution to the Dargah can ask for a wish and it will most definitely come true!! He made us put our heads under the white cloth that we’d bought and muttered something that sounded like he was invoking the spirits to bless us :P They had the audacity to ask us for more contributions! This time we’d had enough time under the cloth to figure this out and say NO! The cloth that we’d “bought”, got put into a basket (which most definitely will be sold to another gullible tourist)!

What a racket!

We then headed to a memorial built for Prithvi Raj Chauhan. This was at the foot of the hill on which the conning Durgah was, and the quiet serenity was a pleasant contrast to the fast-smooth talker of a guide we’d followed!

We headed to Pushkar where we stopped at the only Brahma temple in the world! Apparently, he was cursed that he would never have a temple due to some sin he had committed, and even this temple is not really his. This story needs to be verified!!

We left Pushkar at 1815 hrs and hit bad bad truck traffic! We eventually reached Jaipur after taking the maximum number of U-turns in one night as compared to the entire trip!
We were exhausted and all of us passed out!