We had prebooked three ola cabs, which were waiting for us at the hotel entrance. It was around 05:30 a.m. in morning. The roads were all wet as it was raining the previous night. I guess since it rains so little in Rajasthan, their sewerage systems to handle rains aren’t developed enough. The roads were all muddy, potholes filled with water, I was wondering what Ajmer had for us. We reached the Jaipur railway station, most of them are clean and well maintained(just the railway stations I mean).
Day 5, Ajmer
I and UU were sort of excited the previous day that we will be going to Ajmer. Let us see what our excitement turns out to be. This journey was rather the shortest of all. Our seats in the bogey were right next to the door, so whenever someone would open the door, we would feel the wrath of the cold. At 04:30 p.m., we had another train to catch for our next location, Udaipur. And since we were supposed to be in Ajmer for such a short time, we decided to leave our bags in the cloakroom of the railway station and roam around the city.
The cloakroom guy was pretty rude. They do not accept bags without locks, luckily, my bag had a lock. But some of us did not have one. There was a guy selling locks there, so they bought one each from him.
As we stepped outside the railway station, the reality struck. Ajmer wasn’t anything like I imagined, not even close. Moreover, to add to it, rains had made it even worse. The roads were all muddy, the soil there is black, it had mixed with water and looked like hot chocolate, except it was not hot.
We all were hungry and were looking for a place to eat. Walking on the road had become difficult, thanks to rains. There seems to be a major influence of Mughals in this city. After a while, we were able to find a place. This place was attached to a mosque, a guy outside was making rumali rooti and I could smell biryani. After sitting for a while, an old man, by the looks of him seemed frustrated came to attend us. He said, “jaldi bolo kya chahiye”
HP asks him, “chacha, poha milega kya?”. Haasi tho maine control kar lii, we were exchanging funny looks with each other. The guy was pretty serious and was like, “idhar poha nahi milega!“. We were taking too long to decide and were still discussing, which added more to his frustration. We told him to just get tea for us. After a while, he asks us, “Kidhar se hoo tum log?”, to which HP replies “Gujarat”. I just couldn’t control my laughter this time, but somehow I managed to. I still wonder why HP said Gujarat.
After leaving this place we were wondering where to go next. Then there are taxi people who take you around the city in their big Trax vehicles. We went with one of them. Although I was in no mood I just joined all my friends.
The guy took us to a lake first, I guess we were in no mood of looking at anything. Most of my friends were interested in visiting the Dargah, which we got to know later was just near the railway station. We took a group picture near the lake, which didn’t come out to be very well. The weather was also very weird that day. It was cloudy and visibility was poor.
After this, he took us to Pushkar lake. Honestly, if you google the name of this place or see the images of this place from some other site, it doesn’t even look anything close to it. In Pushkar there is Lord Brahma’s temple and a lake.
I decided to sleep in the taxi as I wasn’t feeling very well. I woke up midway when we were about to reach Taragarh. The road is mountainous with twists and turns, not meant for amateur drivers. There is a Dargah there. I was just resting along with MB in the taxi. The place seemed a bit scary, the taxi driver told my other friends not to leave any stuff behind in the taxi. There is a possibility of things getting stolen there.
I saw a camel tied to a pole. It seemed as though its owner did not take good care of him. I was feeling really bad for him. It felt worse because, despite knowing that his condition wasn’t good, I couldn’t do anything. Animal cruelty is still a thing that needs to be tackled.
We forced the taxi driver that we were not interested in visiting any of those places and just wanted to visit the Dargah to which he replied, it’s just close to the railway station. After trying a lot, he got convinced and dropped us back at the railway station. It was almost time for lunch, although I wasn’t in the mood of eating anything. We went to a place to eat, since I didn’t want to eat anything I just ordered a lemon soda. Probably, this was the most expensive lemon soda I have ever had (80 Rs.).
I, MB, SJ, and Mi decided not to go to the Dargah as we were just not interested in anything. As we were returning to the railway station, I saw an interesting shop. (look at the image below)
Agar mumkin hota tho subscripton khareed leta uss dukaan kaaa. I and Mi went there with our old, worn-out 10 Rs. note which he willingly accepted and paid us 8 Rs. in return. Utna bura nahi thaa sauda. After this, we went to the railway station, collected all our bags and we were waiting for others to return from Dargah. It was almost time for the train, they were nowhere to be seen. As we all know, trains are always late, except when you need them to be. It was just 5 minutes until the trains’ arrival. We decided to go to the platform where the train would arrive. Just four of us had to carry the entire luggage climbing steps to hop from one platform to another, luckily they all managed it in time and we were able to board the train.
The happiness index of the group was just down, we were frustrated. I had never seen HP in such a mood before. To be able to relate better, I decided to plot a graph.
This journey was around 5 hours, and unlike all other journeys, I slept during this one. We reached Udaipur at 10:30 p.m. and I was really hungry now since I skipped the lunch. There was a canteen at the railway station. We just went and sat there. As per their system, we need to buy a coupon and then wait for the order to come. Of course, what else do you expect there? It is not your usual 5-star restaurant. Mi who entered late was unaware of this and just sat and waited for a waiter to attend him. After some time one of us informed him that he has to take a coupon. He was so pissed and said “I will give a bad rating to this place”. Mujhe tho nahi lagta unhe ratings se koi farak padta hoga. Anyways, there’s more to come.
Let us continue our journey in the next post. Stay tuned!