First of all, hello all, and I hope you are enjoying reading the posts that are popping up. Love and miss, Kelly
Our hotel in Jaipur, The Jaipur Inn, is a welcome retreat for us in this bustling city of 3 million people. The owner of the hotel is a lovely gentleman Mr. Pushpendre who designed and built Jaipur Inn in 1974 from its modest beginnings as a campground where typically American and European travelers stayed, kept warm by a bonfire lit each night. Our group of travelers enjoyed this same hospitality with a bonfire on the rooftop yesterday evening hosted by Mr. Pushpendre and his son who now manages the hotel. His son, Pushpedre Bhargava, in addition to running smoothly the Jaipur Inn, is also an avid runner and hiker and our group was invited to join him on a sunrise walk to take in an extraordinary view of the city waking up. My reflections on this follow:
Sunrise over Jaipur Inn: At 6am we gathered in the quiet and unlit lobby, some bleary eyed but awake with anticipation. Mr. Pushpendra arrived ready to walk, earbuds and jogging suit clad. With a gracious invitation to join him, or rather, follow him (he is a fit man with a quick pace) through the streets neighboring the hotel leading to a view of the sun rising over Jaipur from Tiger Fort. After several days in India we are more accustomed to the mayhem of vehicular traffice here. However, on foot, in the dark at this early hour we find that even the bicylists do not wear lights! We come to an inersection and here Mr. Pushpendre slows his gait as each member of our group catches up. A new pace begins with his explanation that now we are about to see the "real Jaipur" away from the commercialism. "Here is where people live and work and pray", he says, gesturing towards hundred years old houses while pigs, cows, and dogs are wandering by. In these streets I wonder if people are still sleeping or if they are moving about without electricity as all is still dark and quiet now at 6:30am? We reach the fort and rather than climbing a rocky trail we step onto a steep stone-paved ramp lifting us out of the neighborhoods and towards the ramparts and towers of Tiger Fort. A steady climb worth every step we caught the sun on its way up and began to hear the sounds of Jaipur...the muslim call to prayer, school children in recitation on a rooftop, ubiquitous honking beeping, and the swish, sweep sweep as people ready their storefronts for the first customer of the day.
When we reached the top of the hill and gazed down upon the city of Jaipur, Mr. Pushpendrebhargava shared that viewing the city from this perspective reminds him that his problems are trivial and that he is but a speck in the larger world. It was a sweet moment acknowledging the tiny place we humans hold in this world while also sharing the preciousness of our ephemeral existence.
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