Jaipur impressed me. While driving on the University Road leading up to Hotel Clarks Amer, it gave a feel of a mid-Eastern city (Dubai or Doha) replete with gigantic grunting construction machines peeping out of neatly-defined very foreign-looking boundaries ( I guess a World Trade Center is getting built there). The smooth wide road dotted with street lights (that actually worked) and lined by steel-and-glass architecture gave a very international feel. For me, Jaipur is an old halt – I have visited it several times, done all the touristy things and even once got my car accidented. But it’s the first time I felt that the city has actually progressed well. Compared to Agra (the other angle in North India’s Golden Triangle), it came off as the bigger, neater and more responsible cousin. However, the drive to Jaipur didn’t offer anything smooth as this portion of the axis is still under construction – perhaps a couple of years down the line, Agra-Jaipur Highway will give stiff competition to the current Delhi-Jaipur one.

Chokhi Dhani

Chokhi Dhaani is an ethnic village resort, on the outskirts of Jaipur, on Tonk Road. The place is extremely well built, presenting five-star rooms albeit inside ‘huts’, imparting it a rural touch. The entire place is in brown and ochre, the color of mud! ‘The Village’ inside the resort is a happening place. Even though I have stayed at the resort sometime circa 2001, memories had somewhat dimmed.

‘The Village’ has all the trappings one finds in an actual one, though of course, the setting is suitably sanitized. The ambience is feral and festive. There are several rides – elephants, camels, bullock carts and merry-go-rounds (typically wooden as found in rural fairs). You can try your luck and aim at the various ‘game stalls’ – shooting off balloons with air-rifles, or throwing darts and even using an exotic bow-and-arrow. Lose yourself in the mud labyrinth, and once you find the way out, play human ‘snakes and ladders’ with a large cloth-dice and your own selves as the counters. Alternatively, loose your wallet at the mini-shopping arcade selling local ethnic-ware.

To refresh, you can just watch the colorful ladies dancing to folk music, or better witness the flexible steps of little artistes (who’d move from the folk to the film music, depending on your interest).

The village’s further section is the most interesting. There you can taste a traditional hookah, and once high, dance with the ‘tribals’ to the beats of a huge drum placed atop a machaan. It truly brings out your inner wild spirit as you dance holding a stick atop your head in your hand, with your feet raking up the sand in a feral cloud. Climb the machan, and you can even beat the gargantuan drum with the sticks! Feeling naughty? Click yourself with a life-like statue of a traditional lady in bright Rajastani dress (complete with the veil). A little distance ahead is a ‘cave’ carved inside an artificial hill. Dark and deep, the end will surprise you as a ‘tantrik’ sits, enveloped in smoke from a fire that burns. (The fire is real, the ‘tantrik’ is a larger-than-life statue).

Tired? Return to the village square (or ‘chaupal‘), set up for those who need some rest. It’s filled with khaats (jute cots), and some cemented seats filled with thick mattresses and oblong pillows (the kind that the royalties used), under a thick banyan tree. Nearby, you can view the ‘puppet show’ and some meters away the henna girl applies the deep mehdi on the women-folk. Food is aplenty – from the syrupy ice-candies to the spicy jaljeera to the cool kulfi (ethnic ice-cream made of thickened milk) to the chatpati chaats.

If the village sojourn exhausts you, head back the tiny bridge to the main section of the resort to the Chandi Bar, and refresh yourself -no, not with some local spirit – but with the choicest brands available.

Related Reading – Rangeela Rajasthan

Technorati : Chokhi Dhaani, Jaipur, Rajasthan

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