Rajasthan : Jaisalmer

JAISALMER FORT
RIDE INTO THE DESERT NATIONAL PARK TO VIEW SNAKES AND BUSTARDS
THIS IS THE JAISALMER FORT
PALACE PAVILION IN AN ENCLOSED LAKE
DANCES FROM THE LOCAL PEOPLE
RIDE INTO THE DUNES ON A CAMEL BACK

I have always been a traveller and felt like a traveller . Their is a natural force that pulls me towards places and explore them but sitting in a closed Aircinditioned Bus is not the way i like travelling. The best way to travel is to decide to go at place 1 , pack essential luggage and within 1 hr of deciding reach another place 2 and keep the feel of the fresh air rushing into your face alive.

Travelling to Jaisalmer from Udaipur is a long journey . thank god the roads are good and you can easily cruise at 80 kmph. As you pass along the terrain of rajasthan green prosopis and acacia trees vanish from both sides green farms of overhanging jowar crop ready for harvest and bajra crop vanish . Its all barren all around and small statured horizontally prolific trees have grown aroung the roads and bushses at various points in the middle. For long hours you dont have a village or a habitation and then you pass by POKHRAN and rest for a colddrink which you dont find. the air is dry and biting hot . the grounds hardness which was experienced in the middle of journey ( due to the aravallis and rocky substratum ) has given way to a sandy texture. You are depressed as you dont find the drink.

You go on reach the Rajasthan Torism Hotel and explore the city after some rest.

Well Jaisalmer is a expansively built city . roads are broad and shops and residential areas are far off . Traffic is minimal and beauty is maximal. You happen to see a Heritage hotel built all alone in a barren land of red rocks as if it were a medieval castle . Nearby are huts of the same construction materials but round and cylindrical shapes with conical domes . Some groups of tents are seen - tourism is promoted through these.

Away from these is the Desert National Park which you cover on a camel cart and see the GREAT INDIAN BUSTARD - really a rare sighting.

The sand dunes ? where are they i ask the driver i want to see the real desert . The driver told me - Sir actually the deserts have been largely afforested specially after and as a result of the Indira gandhi canal . The area around the canal is now no more a barren land but covered with prosopis FORESTS for large areas . Still we managed to see the sand and the dunes . you can enjoy caml riding here and view the sun as it drops into one of these dunes.

Enjoy the local dance and songs of the beautifully and colourfully attired girls in the night . They amaze you with their go round and round dance and flexibility of the body with which they do tricks. Culturally these people and the people across the border are the same- u r told.

Next Day you explore the nearby lake built in the middle of a palace and enjoy boating there . you observe some pavilions in the middle of the water and try to avoid them and reach an island in between where herons are waiting for you . But actually they were not as they fly away at your arrival.

The jaisalmer fort is another pearl in the RAJASTHAN STRING OF FORTS. beautifully and exquisitely built with innovative ways of aircculation it is place from where you can see the whole city in pink ( as you can with all rajasthan forts ).

Rajasthan :Jodhpur

inside the royal mehrangarh fort : the meeting place of the rathore rulers
the defences from the walls of the fort
exquisite archtechture : beauty +architechtural brains

THE UMAID PALACE : IT IS ALSO A HERITAGE HOTEL

If the Mewar is having udaipur as the tourist capital the Marwar across the aravallis are having Jodhpur. this city is called the sun city and rightly so . Jodhpur was THE LAND OF THE RATHORE'S and the place is named after Rao Jodha. Contrary to perception that Rajasthan is not a green place Udaipur and Jodhpur are one of the most coulourful cities in India ( at least I think so) and the most dominant colour of them all is GREEN. The place is green and the trees have variety in their shapes and sizes .

In our short excursion to the place we visited two places and they were the MEHRANGARH FORT and the UMAID PALACE.

At mehrangarh fort we saw the culmination of architechtural beauty and brains.a fort which at that time would be penetrable as it was bulit on a hill and was as very strongly built. The view from the top could ensure that any incoming trespasser could be viewed from several kilometres away and blown away to pieces by the number of cannons placed at strategic locations.

There was the sheesh mahal the queens rooms and the meeting place of the rulers of Rathore clans from all India ( the seats in which were expanded as the clans grew in number.) The queens would view the proceeding from the windows on the walls .

inside the fort you see people selling all sorts of things : Marwari texts to lehngas to fabrics woven in the local styles. One thing gets reaffirmed in your mind : Rajasthan is the place of colours , even the fabric is so colourful. At the corner you see a man singind with his sarangi like instrument in a language you half understand ( if u understand hindi fully) but the music is so enchanting that you wait there till he stops.

There again the guide shows you how the Rajas converted a long piece of cloth into a PAGDI .and then you enter the museums and find the PALKIS SWORDS GUNS THRONES are all in front of you.

Umaid palace was bulit very late ( early 20th century and the architechtural style hence has a victorial tinge to it).

Rajasthan : Khejarli

THE SYMBOL OF THE PROTECTOR -MEMORIAL AT KHEJARLI
INSIDE THE MEMORIAL : 2 MINUTE SILENCE FOR THE BRAVE LADY
THE INSPIRATION FOR THE CHIPKO MOVEMENT IS HERE
STARE AT THIS PICTURE AND YOU CANT MOVE YOUR EYES OFF IT

No wonder the history of Rajasthan is written in red in blood in courage in honour in dignity. You keep on exploring the place and you find something that will amaze you. If you have not heard this story before you will not believe me. because like you i also didnt.

It is a place called KHEJARLI.

On a Tuesday in 1730 A.D., Amrita Devi, a Bishnoi woman was at her home with her three daughters (Asu, Ratni and Bhagu bai) when she came to know that a number of people had descended on their otherwise sleepy village of Khejarli. The name Khejarli was derived from "Khejri", since these trees were found in abundance in the village.The people were a party of men sent by Maharaja Abhay Singh, the ruler of the kingdom of Jodhpur in the Marwar region, who wanted to fell green Khejri trees to burn lime for the construction of the Maharaja's new palace. Since there was a lot of greenery in the Bishnoi villages even in the middle of the Thar Desert, the king ordered his men to get the wood by cutting the Khejri trees.Amrita Devi protested against the Maharaja's men who were attempting to cut green trees as it was prohibited according to Bishnoi principles. The malevolent feudal party told her that if she wanted the trees to be spared, she would have to give them money as bribe. She refused to acknowledge this demand and told them that she would consider it as an act of insult to her religious faith and would rather give away her life to save the green trees. It is at that stage she spoke these words:

Sar santey rookh rahe to bhi sasto jaan (If a tree is saved even at the cost of one's head, it's worth it)
Saying these words, she offered her head. The axes, which were brought to cut the trees, severed her head. The three young girls Asu, Ratni and Bhagu were not daunted, and offered their heads too.

The news spread like wildfire. The Bishnois of Khejrali gathered and sent summons to their counterparts in eighty-three Bishnoi villages in the vicinity to come and decide on the next course of action. Since the supreme sacrifice by Amrita Devi and her daughters had not satisfied the royal party, and the felling of green trees was continued, it was decided that for every green tree to be cut One Bishnoi, volunteer would sacrifice his/ her life. In the beginning, old people voluntarily started holding the trees to be cut in an embrace as in the 20th Century Chipko Movement.

Despite many valiant old persons, giving away their lives, the Hakim (the royal party's leader) , Girdhar Das Bhandari, taunted the Bishnois that they were offering unwanted old persons. Soon, young men, women (including recently married ones) and children were sacrificing themselves in a similar manner.

There was intense pandemonium. The tree-felling party was badly shakhen. They left forJodhpur with their mission unfulfilled and told the Maharaja about what had happened. Soon as he learnt about it, he ordered the felling of trees to be stopped.
By that time, three hundred and sixty three (363) Bishnois, young and old, men and women, married and unmarried, rich and poor, had already become martyrs.

The place has been afforested by the Forest Department and a memorial has been placed -the epitome of supreme sacrifice that we can only dream and not see or hear nowadays. While coming to the same memorial we could see chitals roam around the villages along with domestic cattle -an unseen picture of co existence . The wild animals treat these bishnoi villages as their own home. and why wont they?