These Are a Few of My Favorite Places

A colleague told me last evening, “Update your blog! Either do something exciting or lie through your teeth.” Since both are rather interesting options, I am going to attempt doing at least one of them here. So Vivek, this one’s for you.

Something again on travel this time....A list of the five places I have loved visiting the most (so far) in my life.

Jaisalmer
The first view of Jaisalmer is of burnished gold. Because the fort itself, built in the 12th Century AD, is made of yellow sandstone. So are a lot of the old houses. Our family stayed within the fort itself.
It’s a living fort…meaning that generations of families continue living inside the fort just the way their ancestors did several centuries ago. Once you enter the fort, it’s like you have entered a different world. Winding, narrow lanes are flanked by houses, shops selling curios, clothes, attar, and mehendi, temples of all sizes, and hotels trying to blend in with the chaos around yet maintain a semblance of order for all their guests. We lived in one such hotel…Hotel Jaisal Castle. The rooms, the views of the desert, the balcony, which was actually the ramparts of the fort, the number of stars you could see in the sky…every inch of the surroundings were memorable. Waking up every morning and sipping tea while looking at the big, wide desert ahead, merrily pottering around the nooks and corners knowing that people lived here in this very place hundreds of years before you did, and in a way, you are superimposing your memories on them…was brilliant. Even outside the fort, the camel rides and sunsets in the desert, the typical spicy Rajasthani food, the interesting weather-beaten faces all around….made me decide there and then, that Jaisalmer...one day, you are going to be mine.
If only!

Narkanda
The Himalayas are so goddamn sexy...especially when it rains. I was fortunate to be in Narkanda in the month of July one year, and when thick, menacing clouds come calling, it’s not a funny sight. It’s superbly exciting. The drive up to Narkanda from Simla was immensely exciting too. There were so many stretches when we were surrounded by every conceivable shade of dark green nature has ever created. There were also stretches where the Himalayas stood in their rockiest, angriest avatar. But even the most treacherous road often gave way to picture-perfect apple orchards, or the most pedantic mountain goats. At Narkanda, we stayed at the HPTDC hotel...I don’t remember its name anymore, but the joy of getting up early in the morning-— and coming down to the well-tended lawns to look at the huge expanse ahead surrounded by grim, unspoilt, green mountains on all sides with the cloud-soaked sky above-—will always remain unmatched…no matter how many mountains I see in my lifetime.

Patiala
Went here with a friend in 2004. I love cities with a bit of history woven into their everyday lives, and Patiala is one fine example of this. Right from its highly interesting Qila Mubarak, to its sumptuous street food, to the sprawling acres of the very prestigious Yadavindra Public School better known as YPS, to the quaint Adalat Bazar where you get the world’s most interesting juttis and phulkaris. Even if you don’t buy a thread, the visual spectacle and chaos is delightful, and any photographer’s paradise. My most favorite Patiala memory? Falling in love with the rickshaw-wallahs. Why? Because all the rickshaws here have a string of bells tied to them. And I love bells.

Haridwar
There is something enormously soothing about being close to a river, and watching its gurgling rapid movement. You could be the biggest unbeliever, and may have no faith in the millions of gods and their blessings that Haridwar seems to offer, but if you are a foodie, and if the idea of devouring Indian food in a typically Indian city gives you a kick, then Haridwar is the place to be. My only mental problem with the city? That it does not serve even an iota of non-vegetarian food or alcohol. It’s not as if I need either of these everyday but I would like the option being available. (Ok I am lying...I need the former everyday.) Another thing that I love doing in Haridwar is simply walking around….you never know who you might bump into. An old, bored cow; or a young cellphone-wielding, dude-ish sadhu; or a loaded American who has given it all up to come and see the arati every evening; or hoards of Bengali tourists fresh from somewhere in WB. (Bongs are enthusiastic travelers after all…kudos to all my brethren!)

Puri
I love the ocean, far more than the mountain. Probably because an ocean is so deliciously restless. And the Bay of Bengal at Puri is mad, it’s wild, it’s delirious...it’s captivating. I went to Puri with my college friends, way back in my second year at Stephen’s. At one point, while marveling at the gigantic waves that were crashing onto the beach, the then-love-of-my-life asked me, “Shall we go in there?” And I said yes, without one thought of “Helloooooooo Sayantani! You don’t know how to swim! And this is the Bay of Bengal in high tide, and not the neighborhood puddle.” But when you are eighteen and in lurve, you just calmly raise your middle finger to every word of caution inside your head, and walk Christ-like into the water. Thankfully enough, the crush was one-sided and it ended within months, but the memory of the wild sea is enough to make me want to go back any day.

So this was my list for the day. Other notable mentions: Pushkar, Ajmer, Jodhpur, Konark, Digha, Palampur, Kasauli, Chail and Varanasi…but more on them later.