An inbox full of wedding invites has forced a non traveller and ' i hate dressing up' person like me put on my fineries( if you could call them that!) and travel to distant places ( We Mumbaites believe anything beyond a 10 km radius of Mumbai is far off!!) ...
One of these distant places this week turned out to be the Pink City of Jaipur for dearest H's much awaited shaadi..
My first visit to Jaipur was also for a wedding but I couldn't get time to absorb the city as most of the time was spent in a Dev D type alcohol and smoke haze that precedes every Bakar Gang marriage... (H and me belong to a gang called The Bakars )
The city itself had a very Delhish feel to it... with cycle rickshaws , decent roads , women with lipstick on even in the sabzi market and a nice chill in the air.... what made it different was.. the surprisingly un lecherous men who went about their daily chores without a glance at the pretty women walking on the streets.. the women themselves though decked up had a very innocent and endearing air about them... the streets filled with what I think were Banjarans in absolutely exquisite jewelery talking in a tongue I had just heard in movies...
The bazaars are a girl's dream come true and it was love at first sight with over a zillion items that adorned the shops in the tiny lanes... The Lakhi Jhumkas,the multicoloured gemstones, the kurtis at throwaway prices, the delicate handwoven bed covers, the trinkets oozing of an explosive combination of colours and shapes and finally the grand,bright and absolutely royal ghagras were a delight for the eye and the mind... This was my neverland :):)!!
Now coming to the wedding itself. It was a Marwari wedding in all its splendor and grandiose.. Ladies draped in a riot of colors...rustic and foot tapping Rajasthani music wafting through the air and the graceful dance by the women that can make even someone like me ( 10 left feet) want to move my hips and feet like there is no care in the world... The hospitality was royal to say the least. We were fed like we had just broken a fast and yes we responded with the same fervour!
The wedding ended at 4 in the night/morning ( and I thought only Tams got married at weird hours of the day!) and a certain non groom H provided the wedding a brilliant snory musical score pitching it right for all the important rituals!
The next visit I hope would give me chance to explore the other side of Jaipur... its heritage and architecture!!
Friday, February 20, 2009
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