A LOCAL TOURIST

Lost in my own thoughts , it took me a second to realise that the subject of our photographs was bolting towards us with a foot long wooden stick in his hand. In no time the swarming crowd of students around me was gone , I ran too. In those overcrowded markets of the city center of Jaipur, where even walking is a task ,we group of 30 students were running for our lives. After what felt like an eternity , I stopped , gathered all my courage and asked the snake charmer ," ke huyo sa?" , as I looked at his face for the first time after the chase began, I noticed he was  worried more  than angry. " Baisa meh garib haa, keb bigaado hai kisi ko, jo thari animal welfare organisation mahare piche padi se", he replied. After explaining to him that we were not from animal welfare organisation and were not planning to take away his little slithering friend .But this was not the first time since morning somebody mistook us for tourists or some organisation agents. I was living in Jaipur for 18 years then , but it was like I was seeing the city through a new lense. Initially, I was a little irritated by the idea of a photowalk in Badi choupar , by the school authorities.But now the overcrowded , noisy  city center I hated , was charming me with its orange sandstone walls decorated with highly intricate motifs.We started our walk around 5 o'clock in the morning to escape the blazing heat of Jaipur. We planned to walk through the main city market road having Hawa mahal to the city palace. The walk to the main gate of city palace was eventful but smooth and took us about 3 hours , the market was filled with colorful , traditional, mirror studded clothes , jewelry and small souvenirs for tourists to take back.The main gate of the palace was huge , decorated with paintings of ladies,birds and flowers , near the wooden old gates were lying two old black cannons . The old cannons was made up of wrought iron ,consequently was very heavy , but we tried to move them in vain for fun.
 Next we took a walk to Sahliyon ki baari, it was a part of the city palace where only women could enter to this day, so our teacher waited outside. The place is a beautiful arrangement of fountains ,gardens and small beautifully decorated verandahs for the queen and her maids. As it was a hot monday morning , the place was deserted except us and a few white skinned ladies with colorful scarves. Taking a light stroll through the gardens , echoing with laughter and chatter of my friends it felt like the place was rejuvenated , the air was filled with light fragrance from all the rose and mogra plants of the place , all the pillars were covered with lush pink bougainvillea vines and at last the whole atmosphere was a little cooler because of the ever flowing fountains. The charbagh gardens transported me back in history, to the luxuries yet bounded lives of the queens . We left the palace around 12 'o clock , the hot sun rays was burning our skins , so we decided to call it a day. We walked back to the school bus through a local perfume market called iktar bazaar. It is a narrow shaded lane filled with iktar sellers sitting on both sides of the lane ,displaying all their fragrances in small glass bottles on a low wooden stool, barely leaving some space to walk. Despite of all the sweat dripping down our faces, all we could smell is the mixed fragrance of 100 different iktar. After a 20 minutes walk through the crowded and narrow streets we finally made it to the Rambagh parking lot , thus bringing an end to this small but adventurous journey.