Extended weekends are
always a source of pleasure. Last year, my desire to go out of station during one
such weekend, suddenly took shape when my Chachi asked me to
accompany her & Chacha to her paternal home. With my cousin
already there, Rakshabandhan round the corner and charm of visiting a
new place, I was quite excited about the plan.
It was a 6 hour journey
from Delhi to Jaipur. Due to the extended weekend, there was a huge crowd at
the station. We still managed to sit cozily on our designated seats. As the
train started to move, I started enjoying myself. Gentle drizzle and lush green
fields around, added to the feel!
Train arrived at Jaipur
at around 11.30 pm. It was too late for us to catch any bus to our destination
village – Toda Raisingh. But we were anxious to attend my cousin's school
function next morning, so we decided to travel by those late night newspaper
jeeps.
After making a couple of
phone calls, Chacha announced that we needed to wait for another half an hour for
jeep to arrive. After making some dozen calls and waiting for more than two hours
in the middle of the night, the jeep finally did arrive, but only to take us to
another place to wait, as the newspapers had not been printed till then.
We spent the next three
hours in jeep with seats as our makeshift beds and mosquitoes as our
companions. At last, the driver arrived and declared that his trip had been
cancelled and offered to drop us at the bus terminal, since bus services would
have commenced by then.
However, at 5 in the
morning, direct bus services to Toda hadn’t started. We had to change buses midway
at a place called Malpura. Incidentally, this place has a famous Jain temple
that I had never visited. Suddenly, I found myself wishing that we could visit
this temple. Unfortunately, it would have meant missing my cousin’s school
function hence I kept my wish to myself.
As soon as we entered
the terminal, we saw the first bus leave right in front of our eyes. And all
our hopes to attend my cousin's school function sunk even lower. Irritated with
the turn of events, we began cursing the "muhurt" we
started this journey.
However, to our good
fortune, the next bus arrived within 15 minutes. We also managed to get comfortable
seats and as soon as the bus started moving, we all fell into a blissful
morning nap. But, as fate would have it, this was not to be the end of our
journey's miseries.
At about 8.30am, I was
rudely woken up by “Bhopu” noises coming from outside. Startled, annoyed
and groggy, I was told that the source of the cacophony was an ongoing
pilgrimage Mela at Diggy- a place 20 km ahead of Malpura. It seemed as if all
the people in Rajasthan had decided walk down to Diggy
Kalyanji for the Saawan Mela. Our two hour journey had already taken
three hours and by then, I had totally resigned myself to the situation. In
fact, I decided that I might as well enjoy whatever was coming my way. At Diggy
terminal we had an awesome morning breakfast- lip-smacking “mirchi ke
pakode” and some fabulously brewed tea.
Rested and full, I could
actually enjoy that confusion. After a long breakfast stoppage, the driver
asked all the passengers to board another bus to Malpura, since he was asked to
go back to Jaipur owing to the huge rush on that route. All I could do at that
time was laugh at the situation we were in. Already too late for the function,
we then decided to take a halt at Jain Temple Dadabari, Malpura. I couldn’t
help smiling at the turn of events.
Peace began to settle
in, as we walked into the premises of Malpura Dadabari. Awed by the grand
building and enthralled by the beauty & serenity of nature, I felt as if I
had just entered a different world. We rested for a little while, then bathed, performed
our Pooja and had a satisfying afternoon meal. Eventually, we left
for Toda Raisingh in a jeep.
Refreshed by rest and
food, the journey became all the more enjoyable. As the jeep sped on the road
ahead, I felt as if we were driving straight into the clouds. Suddenly,
everything became so lively, the sun was playing hide and seek, cheesy
bollywood songs of 90s from Jeep’s music player adding rhythm and curves of the
road making us dance. High hedges on both sides of the narrow road reminded me
of the magical maze of Hogwarts that Harry Potter had to cross in the movie.
There was a surreal pleasure engulfing my senses.
Finally, by late
afternoon, we reached our destination. Looking at the place, a nice rustic old
untouched house with a huge garden, built around 150 years back, I felt it was
worth all the trouble of the journey. I was very pleased with my decision to go
there.
The next three days flew
by like a dream, I went to see “Hadi Rani ki Bawri”- a staired well, Bisalpur
dam, the Palace, temples atop the hills surrounding Toda- all this at my own
leisurely pace. It was like a spa for my soul- calm comforting, thoroughly
enjoyable and amazingly rejuvenating.
It was a trip that I can
never forget in my life. A trip that not only took me closer to nature but also
helped me re-discover myself. And at every opportunity I get, I would recommend
everyone to take such a trip- where your own well-thought out plans go
topsy-turvy and an unknown hand prods you to where you ought to be.
