Wednesday, July 4, 2007

My Legendary Trip To Jodhpur

Hello everybody, myself Zlatan Ivrahimovich from Sweden and by profession I am an archaeologist. Since my profession is to discover new things, so visiting the various tourist destinations of world remains a regular affair for me. Apart from my profession, I take out some time for other leisure activities. During my weekly off days I do extensive reading that include travel magazines too. Six months back when I was going through a travel related book, I came across a well-informative article about India’s desert state Rajasthan. I found lots of interesting information about this state, in fact, while I was going through the particular article an imaginary picture of the state was created in my mind. After finishing the article I started to plan out how to make a trip to Rajasthan. I enquired about various tour packages from the tour operators of India, finally I opted a good tour package and boarded a flight to India. When I reached Rajasthan the state was many times beautiful than what I imagined earlier!

It’s true that the state of Rajasthan is synonymous with grand palaces, lofty forts, decorated buildings, camels and sand dunes. Amongst the cities which I visited during my trip to Rajasthan, I found something special in Jodhpur. Commonly referred as the Sun city, Jodhpur offers a decorative and pretty outlook in some other way through its lush green hills, deep valleys, lake palaces and gardens. From my tour guide, Brijesh I came to know about the fact that the Rajput head, Rao Maldeo Jodha, founded this city in 1459. Since then, it became the capital of the Rathore Rajputs.

First I visited the Mehrangarh fort, one of the most impressive and formidable structures of entire Rajasthan. I was just enthralled by its interior and exterior beauty. While I was looking at the fort from outside it seemed that with tiny openings of the impregnable walls, the fort provides a daunting look down to me. As I entered inside, I found myself in a land of wonder as there were marvelous palaces with magnificent carved panels and latticed windows. The gorgeous Pearl Palace, Flower Palace, Glass Palace and the Daulat Khana provided me great pleasure. Inside the museum, I observed the fabulous collection of Jodhpur royalty such as palanquins, furnitures, miniature paintings, musical instruments, and costumes. After visiting every nook and corner of the Meharngarh Fort, I returned to my hotel to relax. In the evening I went outside to explore the markets of the town and bought some beautiful handicrafts.

Very next day I started for the other interesting places of Jodhpur. At first I paid a visit to the Umaid Bhawan Palace, which fascinated me a lot with its Italian style construction and extensive use of pink marble. While I was exploring the palace, one person informed me that the palace was built by Maharaja Umaid Singh, the last ruler in 1929 to save the lives of 3000 workers from the famine. Here, the architectural grandeur of gold plated enamelled flowery patterned walls having a shinning outlook tendered me a charming feeling. From here, I set out to visit the Balsamand Lake which was surrounded by a calm garden. I plunged my legs up to knee deep water in the lake for almost an hour and realized each moment heartily. After that, I headed towards the city’s popular Sardar market. As I was moving through the congested lanes of the market, I was summoned by a little boy named Raju who was found so earnest to sell me a gift item made of stone. I bought it for my beloved Eustacia which would also remain as a memento of Jodhpur for the rest of life.