Well the second day at JLF seems inappropriate as a title for this post. Because I ditched the JLF for the
Jaipur city that day, i.e. 21st of January. Since I had already scanned the curriculum of the festival one week in advance of the commencement of the fest, so I knew that there was not much that I would miss on the day. Though there were few sessions with speakers whom I would have loved to attend. The list included Mr.
Prasoon Joshi,
Ben Okri,
Girish Karnad,
Tarun Tejpal and Gurcharan Das. Since I was done with Mr. Tejpal a day back and Mr. Das almost a year back, I was prepared to not to hear them again. Mr. Joshi and Mr. Okri had more sessions in the days to come, so I missed them too. I knew visiting the places in Jaipur would not take me much time, and I could be back in time to either attend the session by Mr. Karnad or the one on "
Publishing". I thought of making a decision on that when the time comes, ie. 5:15 pm. So, I left all my JLF worries and headed straight to the M. I. road after my breakfast to catch a vehicle to reach the
Jantar Mantar. I have always been amused with the place. I have visited Jaipur many a times during my school days and also visited Jaipur with my friends from the U. K 5 years back, but I could never really bring myself to see the Jantar Mantar. I really do not know why. It seems to me that I got a strange connection with the place. So, this time I had decided in advance to visit the place. But before the Jantar Mantar, I decided to visit the Anokhi museum of textile; simply because it is situated way ahead of it. It would have been wiser to visit the distant place and then come back to visit the one that is nearer to where I was staying. So, with much struggle I finally reached the Anokhi Museum of Textile and Hand-Printing. Struggle because very few people in the city know where it is. It is ironic that every ones knows where can one find a Anokhi store in the city, but no one knows about the place where all the inventory sold in each Anokhi store in each part of the World is produced. It was funny when one auto rickshawalla suggested to his colleagues that I might be looking for the hip-hop Anokhi cafe, since I look like the visitors to that place. Thankfully to the
Internet enabled smart phone of mine, I could find the contact number of the place and then the administrator of the museum directed the rickshawwalla to the place. I simply loved the place. But the same story saddened me. I was disappointed to see that the craftsmen are again paid peanuts for the job that brings so much capital to the people who sell the finished goods made out of the intricate labor of theirs. I did ask about it to the administartionj of the museum, but their sly reply was "we at least give them continuous work." Any ways I was lucky to receive a fresh block from one of the craftsmen, he made a flower
punch block for me in 5 minutes as a gift.
From the museum I headed to Jantar Mantar, I still could not get the complexity of the place and the monuments built in there. Most of the apparatus there seemed close to a bar to me, and I could only imagine a party there. I clicked few pictures there and started walking to find a good place to have lunch. I landed up at a forex exchange shop and ended up getting a print out of my railway ticket for free. At times carrying a pretty face does help. LOL
From there I landed up at a "Mojri" selling shop. I ended up buying a pair of mojris for my husband a 3 pair of harem pants for myself. The shop owner suggested a nearby food joint for lunch. It was at a walking distance, so I kept walking and reached the place in 10 minutes. I had a lovely "vegetarian meal" of missi rotis and "gatte ki sabji". Imagine me enjoying a vegetarian meal outside, cause I am a kind of person who does not waste money in eating vegetables that are cooked outside my home.
After a hearty meal I took a rickshaw back to the hotel. I must have relaxed a bit in the room, after which I walked to the festival venue and attended the session on publishing. When I was walking to the venue, I had made up my mind to skip Girish Karnad session for the one on publishing. It was again not that great. It did not add anything new to what I already know about the industry. Though I felt bad that so many people are struggling to find publishers, and here I already have a publisher trying to get me finish my book and I do not even respond to him. The most interesting was to see that a theatre actress shouted amongst the audience saying that though she not only writes but also performs on her poems, but still she does not find any takers from the publishing industry for herself.
 |
| a block printer |
 |
| the block crafter |
 |
| me along with my zodiac figure |
 |
| awesome place for good veggie food |
 |
| yumm milk |
After the session, I bought a folder which was sold as a merchandise of the fest. I bought it as a souvenir. Just as I had done the previous day, I again missed the music session. Instead I headed towards the bus stop to catch a bus to Malviya Nagar. The buses were indeed a nuisance. They looked so nice from outside, but they never stop, even at the bus stops. Thankfully the cops in Jaipur are very helpful, they suggested me to hail at them. I did and was finally on board a bus, which I was not sure if was taking me to my destination. It was not, so I got down at a stop near to where I had to go. From there I got another bus, but I had the amusing experience of my life time in it. I was surprised to notice that in both the buses the conductor occupies the last seat, and expects every one entering the bus to go to him and collect the ticket personally. The bus driver was furious at me cause I was wanting to get down from the front door, and he had issues opening the door for one person. It was impossible for me to get down from the rear door, considering some dude tried putting his hand in my bag. I was not sure whether he wanted to get hold of a part of my thighs or my wallet. For both of his searches, I told him to try next time with more skill. He gave way for me to get down and looked embarrassed. It must have been 8: 45 pm when I reached my destination, Shoppers Stop after the sad bus rides, and the crossing of railway track; but all my efforts went in vain. The big looking mall shuts down at 8: 30 pm during winters. I got so frustrated and started walking back to catch another public vehicle to reach the hotel back. On the way back while walking I saw Saras dairy's plant. I stopped by it to have fresh hot jalebis. But the local baddies did not let me. 7 cars passed by and the men inside started showing their leching behaviorism. Something to ponder upon is that lechism is not restricted to age, all sorts of men, with all colours of hair and some without hair were offering rides to wherever I wished to. I was wondering if this hospitality is extended to older women and men too?? Also if they could drop me to London in their cars?? If yes, then what would the entire trip cost?? lol I then obviously chucked the jalebis and got into the first auto rickshaw that came my way. I reached my familiar "Venus Bakery" at M. I. road, and headed straight to a nearby food joint to it to have a nice tumbler of thick warm milk. I was satiated and real tired after the entire activities. I simply walked to my hotel room, started VH1 and went into a slumber. ZZZZZZ
-Good piece of information.
ReplyDelete