I was away on an overseas assignment -- and I have come after an hiatus of one and a half years.To Jaipur, the Pink city.
It’s the same this city of mine. The traffic on the road has become that much more chaotic.Folks here believe in the saying: Rules are meant to be broken.While cows continue to chew the cud bang in the middle of the roads -- street beggars make the lives of the foreign tourists sheer hell;as do the touts and the auto rikshaw wallahs at the bus stand and the railway station.
I love this city of mine!
This conservative city, having pretences of being mod, hip and cosmopolitan is at heart the very epitome of orthodox values.If they can be called ’values’.Take a colleague of an opposite sex out for a cup of coffee and people will jump to conclusions. When will jaipurians learn that members of the opposite sex can be friends too. No more, no less.
I love this city of mine!
Wow! The demure, sophisticated chiffon-clad hi-society ladies nursing a glass of whisky in one hand and a menthol cigarette in the other. However, if their pallu shifts that wee bit from their heads they might go in a fit!The paradox at its best can be seen in Jaipur.
I love this city of mine!
The latest saying goes: If you throw a stone it will probably hit a liqour shop in Jaipur. They have mushroomed by the dozen all over city.While one government bans even the beer bars;the other government comes and sets up liqour shops all over.The saving grace is that I can now have a chilled beer or a glass of red wine at Niros my favorite, age-old restaurant.
I love this city of mine!
And one night, I decide to go to ’’Steam’’.The happening place of Jaipur.Much to my dismay, I find that only couples can enter the pub-disco.The reason, I’m told, is that single males might indulge in some serious eve-teasing.Oh gosh!
I love this city of mine!
The angry sun beats hard in the summer -- and Jaipur is witness to an attempted gang rape;encroachments in the city by the unscrupulous builders and colonisers;many colonies running dry of water and electricity;master plan going haywire.
I love this city of mine and its inhabitants.Jaipurians, who have a unique lassitude, a listlessness in their blood.Deprive them of water, of power, of wide open spaces, of law and order, and they won’t even utter a word.As a wizened old man says:’’Yahan pagalpan mein bhi ek system hai.’’
And I love this method in madness of Jaipur.