Hawa Mahal.....

If it was Taj Mahal last weekend then this weekend it was time of Hawa Mahal at Jaipur.

I have lived in Jaipur for 3 years 91-94 and arguably Jaipur is one city where you can never get bored. Its so full of interesting places that no matter for how long you have lived there you will never get full of visiting places.

This weekend I went to Jaipur to visit my sister who is working there and one thing on my agenda was to click Hawa Mahal. 






Hawa Mahal clicked by my Sister

  
Hawa Mahal or the Palace of Winds was built by Maharaja Pratap Singh in 1799 as a tribute to Lord Krishna, Thats why the shape looks like the crown of Lord Krishna. The Palace was part of the Ladies Mahal and was mainly built to let the ladies of the family view the proceedings of the market as they had to follow the strict rules of Purdah system according to which they cannot come in front of outsiders and had to keep themselves covered always. So as you can see from the pic that it has lot of windows where the womenfolk used to sit and beacuse of these windows the place is full of air and hence the name Hawa Mahal




Spot the Pigeons sitting on the Windows

 This too was clicked by my sis.

Although I went past it at the best time possible i.e. in the evening when the light was perfect but I couldn't click it myself as I was driving and we couldn't stop as we have to go to Govind Dev Ji Mandir for the Aarti. So I asked my sis to click and luckily that was the best photo that we could manage of Hawa Mahal. Later when it was dark we came back and although Hawa Mahal was looking beautiful with all the lightning but I couldn't click a good shot because of the lack of light.




Hawa Mahal at Night

  Govind Dev Ji temple is situated inside the City Palace complex of Jaipur. City Palace was the official residence of the king of Jaipur. The temple is dedicated to Lord Krishna and every day the Aarti is offered at 7 different times and the remarkable thing is that every time the dieties are decorated in different form and clothes.




Govind DevJi, Jaipur

 
One thing in the Mandir complex which I found quite fascinating was that there was tree in front of the Hanuman temple which was full of bats. And they were big in size unlike the smaller ones I once saw at Bandhavgarh Fort. Again because of the low light I couldn't capture it properly.




Bats at Govind DevJi temple

  The black thing that you can see hanging from the tree are bats. I took the last one with flash as I was fearing the flash light might produce some unwanted reaction from the bats. Nevertheless that one wasn't good either.

These are just some of the places that I happen to visit but there are many more in and around Jaipur and just sharing some more pics that I clikced.



Albert Hall Museum



Entrance to Govind DevJi temple

 We then had dinner at one of the restauarnt where we used to dine when we lived in Jaipur and it was nice way to remember all those days.

PS: You can click on the photos to see the original sizes.

Meera Bai...

Well recently on TV (I forgot the channel) they are airing a promo of a new serial which is based on the life of Meera Bai.

Meera Bai was a princess of some province in Rajasthan, I guess Mewar and when she was a kid , on, seeing one of her closed one getting married, she pesterd her Mom to get her married too . And finding her not being bobbed down on being told that she can't marry now , her mother gave her an idol of Lord Krishna and told her that this is your husband and you can get married to him now. And after that she devoted her whole life to Lord Krishna. She was so devoted to him that even after being forced to marry Bhojraj she never accepted him as her husband. And finally seeing her undivided devotion, her mother in law gave her poison and she readily drank it and died.

Ok , so actually this post isn't about Meera bai. With due respect to her and her devotion , I never really liked her character and one reason for this was that way back in school , while I was studying in 3rd or 4th standard at Jaipur , we enacted this play and in that play I played the part of Bhojraj :). And a very good friend of mine played Meera Bai. My elder sister (Didibhai) played the part of my mother.

I still remember the day the castings were announced. I was very happy (and as always I showed my expressions too loudly)as I was Bhojraj and my friend was Meera Bai but that evening Didibhai came to me and told me that my friend cried in front of her saying that she don't want to play my wife as she always looked up to me as her brother (till this day this one line never left me, I still hear it from those quarters from where I never wanted it to be said).

So it made me sad (although it makes me laugh too) and I remember throughout the rehersals and the play she couldn't accept it and was always miffed because of this. She even shrugged it off when on the day of the play I ran backstage towards her to tell her that for poison we are using Coke. All those moments still flashes in front of my eyes as if it happened just yesterday.

Ironically I thought of writing this post the day I saw that promo(which was few days back) but couldn't get time and today when I am writing this , I just got the news that she is getting married this November. It makes me so happy for her and thats why just after knowing this news I wanted to write this post at any cost :)

She is a very good friend of mine and despite not being in touch after I left Jaipur in 1994, after almost 13-14 years she searched and found me on orkut.

May God bless her and give her a very happy and prosperous married life :)..Ameen