Royal Nightlife: Jaipur

While other places have clubs, bars and underground racing. . . Jaipur has hills, forts and palaces.

Amber Palace

Jaipur is a timeless city, with the past, present and future all co-existing and complementing each other. The old "Pink City" is still the commercial hub of Jaipur. There is one active palace inside the Pink City which acts as a residence for the "Royal Family" of Jaipur. There are three other forts in the neighborhood of the city which also are integral to lives of the residents. The Amber Palace, residence of the founder of Jaipur and his ancestors. Jaigarh, the war time fort for the residents of Amber Palace, thankfully it was never needed . . .

Nahargarh Fort

. . .and then there is Nahargarh, a fort over-looking Jaipur from a small hill. Nahargh literally means the adobe of the tigers. It has little relevance historically, but is quite popular among tourists and residents as it offers a breadth taking view of the city, especially at night . . .

. . . making it a favorite with after-dark adventurers.

Courtesy: Rang De Basanti

My last trip to Nahargarh was with three other college buds meeting after a long time. We grabbed a car, some drinks and started off. We stopped for a while at Jal Mahal (translates to Water Palace), an old summer cottage for royalty made in the middle of a pond.

We reached Nahargarh after a scenic drive through the hills and picked our camping spot.

After two hours of catching up we set out again in search of a dhaba, and found one 10 kilometers outside Jaipur. It was 2AM and during the dinner a friend got a call from my folks. I had dropped my phone at Jal Mahal and some kids from Haryana, out on a night excursion of their own, found it some how. They called the first number on my SIM, who was a family friend, who had in turn called my folks. We raced back to Jal Mahal, picked up the phone, thanked those kids, thanked our stars, and probably for the first and the last time ever in history, thanked the state of Haryana. We then came back to finish our dinner.

There was another occasion when I went to Nahargarh in the month of January for a photography expedition. It was 11 PM but, surprisingly, the weather was pleasant.There were just the two of us and the entire area seemed to be deserted. As mugging is quite common here at night, we left after a quick photo session. The Nahargarh pic at the top is from that time.

Here are some other shots of the fort taken during other occasions . . .

. . . and this one is enroute to the place . . . the yellow buildings are Kanak Vrindavan and the water is from the Jal Mahal lake.

. . .

8 comments :

D.NambiarJanuary 26, 2012 at 5:40 AM
Some great pictures, Kartik.
Anurag ChoudharyApril 18, 2012 at 11:28 AM
Beautiful pics Kartik!!!
I too have some shots of Jaipur from Nahargarh, but those were not as beautiful as yours.

Two thumbs up for these lines "Jaipur is a timeless city, with the past, present and future all co-existing and complementing each other."

Padharo mhare des! :-)

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