Once Upon A Time
Once upon a time, tourists referred to Jaipur, Delhi, and Agra as 'The Golden Triangle." This name reminds me of Singapore and Dubai. Some term Singapore as "Asia for Beginners." Others handed Singapore's title to Dubai. I dislike Dubai: I consider it artificial and pompous. Both cities are exorbitant, and whenever you visit either town, the prices may deplete your bank balance at an alarming rate. I prefer Singapore: the city is green and the gateway to South-East Asia. Moreover, I am much more familiar with the cultures of the Far East and South-East Asia.
I don't know if people still refer to Delhi, Agra, and Jaipur as "The Golden Triangle." Old Mughal architecture dominates Agra: apart from the architecture, it is not a city you want to visit. Delhi is ancient and massive. The architecture of Delhi's seven (eight, if you include Lutyens Delhi) cities dominates Delhi. However, we will talk about Delhi in separate posts. Once, I did a project on Delhi's seven cities. My primary and backup hard drives collapsed during the COVID-19 pandemic. The collapse is proof that the SARS-CoV-2 virus affects computer hardware. Since then, I have learned my lesson: apart from a backup disk, I back up all my data to Backblaze on the web.
I've strayed, and it's time to revert to my musings about Jaipur. All historical sketches will follow in the next posts, so I will restrict myself to moaning for now.
Jaipur
Jaipur is a Rajput city, and I know this is a strange description. No matter how much the present-day nationalists may protest, the term 'Rajput' is of recent antiquity. The term "Rajput" was not used as a hereditary term until the 16th century, not before. Read Richard Eaton's magnificent "India in the Persianate Age" if you don't believe me.
My first visit. When my hair was black.
I don't remember the year I first visited Jaipur: maybe in 1988 (so long ago!) The investment firm (Kravis Kohlberg Roberts ) KKR had bought Nabisco via a leveraged buyout, and Rajan Pillai, an Indian fellow from a prominent cashew-exporting family in Quilon, Kerala, India wanted to buy the company I worked for. Henry Kravis planned a holiday to India with his friends and, to curry favor, Rajan Pillai offered to arrange the holiday.
Business stopped for three months, and the wise men running the Delhi branch chose me to arrange the Jaipur leg of the holiday. The order required a few trips to Jaipur, including a few meetings with the management of the Rambagh Palace Hotel. The Rambagh Palace was the former residence of the Maharaja of Jaipur, but the first building constructed on the site (in 1835) was a home for the king's wet nurse. The Taj group of hotels took over the management a few decades after India's Independence and Partition, even though the royal family still owns the place.
Rude!
In those days, Jaipur didn't have many hotels and no luxury hotels besides the Rambagh Palace. It was exorbitant then, and I am sure it is even more so now. The Americans were arrogant, and the hotel management was even more elitist. I remember walking into The Princess Suite – one of the 'rooms' the Americans were booking – and almost fainting with the shock. As I remember, the Princess Suite was massive, with several rooms and a fountain plumb in the center of the suite's living room. The American fellow managing the trip instructed me to inform the hotel's management to change the floor tiles to a color of his choosing. I was lucky. It fell to my General Manager to tell the American of the management's stiff refusal.
False Pride.
I went to Jaipur two days before the tourists arrived. Jaipur had no luxury cars then, so our company hired five or six Mercedes, which arrived at my humble paying guest accommodation early on a Sunday morning. I lead the cavalcade to Jaipur, chest puffed with false pride! The Americans wished to drink wine. I bought many bottles of wine from the Taj Palace Hotel, towels to wrap them, and suitcases to pack them into. My general manager warned me my job would be on the line if even one bottle broke.
A career for a bottle of wine. Could you ask for more?
When I checked in to the Rambagh, they put me into a stuffy little room—so much for luxury. When our guests checked in, the hotel's General Manager pulled me aside and instructed me to ensure the Americans did not extend their stay. Right!
His job for mine!
I won't go into the tedious details of the trip except to point out that the "Holy Visitors" expected us to be invisible until they snapped their fingers. That is when they expected us to snap to attention: "Yes sir, no sir, three bags full, sir." Or does it go, "Yes, sire, no sire, three bags full, sire?"
I did not get to visit the sites during this trip. We stayed on the roadside with the cars when they went up to the forts. The only small blessing is that the trip happened during the winter months. Apart from the dust, we were comfortable on the street. I also remember my company being stingy. We were not allowed to launder our clothes; cost management was the order of the day.
"Thriftiness, my lad," said my GM. Then, he handed out one more cliché, "A penny saved is a penny earned."
Differing Standards. Sigh!
There's always one standard for the powerful and one for the rest of humanity. I don't want to end on a sarcastic note, but we must never forget this truism.
Jaipur is a tourist city, and I confess that I restricted my explorations to some conventional tourist spots. Will I return to explore the city in depth? I don't know.
I don't have any images of the Rambagh Hotel, so, for good measure, I posted one of the Umaid Bhawan Palace Hotel of Jaipur. The Umaid Bhawan is another palace that has been converted into a hotel. Call me prejudiced if you will, but the management at the Umaid Bhawan was much better. I used to work for the ITC group, and ITC Welcomgroup runs, or used to run, the Umaid Bhawan! Call me prejudiced, and I'm afraid I have to disagree!
Shall we move on to some of the places in Jaipur?
Since I have been complaining right through this post, please read the poem at the bottom!
I won’t write about Jaipur next week because I visited The Partition Museum in Delhi yesterday. It is imperative I change direction for one week, return to Delhi, and then drive back to Jaipur!
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"We have become a nation of complainers. Don't you find it a little insane
To be surrounded by people who complain, complain, complain?
We complain about the weather, we complain about waiting in lines
We complain about the service in restaurants, we complain about the wine.
We complain our team just lost the game, we complain it wasn't fair
We complain when we look in our closet and there's nothing for us to wear.
We complain about the dog, we complain about the cat
We complain that we're too poor, we complain that we're too fat.
We complain that its Monday, we complain about our job and all its stress
We complain about the government, and we complain about the press.
We complain there's so much to do, we complain we need more time
I even imagine there are those out there who complain about these daily rhymes.
And they'd be right to complain about this rhyme for even I can see
A rhyme complaining about complaining; there must be something wrong with me.
So I will gladly end this little missive, this dreadful parody
But just one more thought before I go and then I'll let you be.
Today when you feel like complaining would it be too ludicrous or bizarre
To stop for a moment and think to yourself....how lucky you really are?"
Jim Yerman, Monday March 17, 2014