Just as you land in arid Jaipur and drive out of the airport parking lot , you see an elaborate green signboard declaring profusely ‘Welcome to Pink city ’.
“Why is this called the Pink City ?, I asked my cabbie
‘Maharaja Jai Singh , the erstwhile ruler of Jaipur , had built a wall all around the old city which had the large windowed Hawa Mahal which was pink in color , so this came to be called Pink City ‘, said the cabbie authoritatively .
‘And why on earth is this road called Tonk Road ?’, I queried wondering what a peculiar name this was for a normal ‘Airport road ‘as it is called in any other city .
‘This road starts from a Muslim area where Tonks lived , so it must be one of the muslim names ‘, said the cabbie
As I found out later from the owners of one of the oldest movie theatres in the city , the pink color had been used at the time of its construction to create an impression of red sandstone buildings of Mughal cities of those times .
That cabbie was pretty well informed amused me . Mumbai cabbies would care a damn about why Victoria Terminus or Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus as it is called now was a built that way or where the architecture originated . They couldn’t tell their Borivalis from the Dombivilis as long as the meter was ticking and money was rolling each minute .
I landed in Jaipur to be greeted by thirty degree temperature at seven in the morning . The flight was packed with foreigners , eager to soak in Indian history . The terrain , when seen from above, is flat as flat can be and arid as arid can be . There are a minimal scattering of trees around the different parts of the city and a hillock on one side of the airport . A couple of forts can be spotted as the plane hits the runway .
The city was founded in 1727 AD , much after Shivaji had finished his fights with the Mughals in the Deccan , by one of the greatest rulers of the north , the astronomer king Sawai Jai Singh. A collection of complex astronomical instruments, chisseled out of stone- most of which continue to provide fairly accurate information to this day kept in the Jantar Mantar observatory stand testimony to the intellect and brilliance of the astrologers of those times till this day .
Forts never fail to impress me . Each piece of history that Forts hold and the amazing turn of story that each conquest holds grips me with a sense of awe . Achievement thrills me . And I consider a Fort a great military achievement and their conquests absolute strategies .
Take for instance the Sinhagarh fort thirty kilometers from Pune city , the mystery of its conquest , can goad me to to even today take a treck up the fort to feel the awesome daring of Tanaji Malasure , Shivaji’s trusted general who forsake his daughter’s weeding to conquer the fort from the Mughal King Afzal Shah . The Lizard , Yeshwanti , which stuck to the walls so that the Maratha guerillas could scale the mighty fort and attack a surprised enemy enthralls any audience . His death while fighting prompted Shivaji’s famous soundbyte ‘Gard aala , pan sinha gela ‘ , The Fort is Won , the Lion is Lost .
A poignant moment in conquests .
Another fort with a great twist of fate is the Murud-Jaljira fort one hundred and forty kilometers from Mumbai , bang in the middle of the Arabian sea on the coast a couple of miles from Alibag . legend has it that the fort was built by Siddhi Johar ,a South African King around the end of the sixteenth century over eleven years , each day seeing contruction on the outside during low tide and on the inside during the high tide . The fort with its three hundred and sixty five canons couldn’t be captured by Shivaji or by his son Shambhaji , who attempted to reach the fort many times but failed to find its entrance gate .He then tried to build a fort a couple of miles down the sea but left the fort incomplete as he had to fight other battles in Raigarh .
One can’t approach the fort directly . The canoe takes one in a zigzag manner to find the entrance , going south westward into the sea first , away from the fort , then the boatmen swing the sail the other way in a rapid well co-ordinated effort and the canoe changes direction to northeasterly and then a couple of hundred metres down the choppy sea waters , the sail is turned again so that the canoe can move south westwards again . And just as the canoe turns sailing over bouncy waves , one sees the hidden entrance to the fort . It is so deceptively hidden , no wonder Shanbaji couldn’t figure it out for his life . As you reach the entrance , the boat is held by ropes and you need to jump out in order not to be sucked by sea . A remarkable experience . The journey from the shore to the fort in the sea takes a good half hour , but you return in ten minutes as the sail is directed straight to the shore in a south eastwardly direction making it a swift journey .
The fort itself is huge , and they say a complete town settled in the three storey fort with schools , marketyards , houses and freshwater ponds inside .Architechturally , it is brilliant with its many alleys and carefully designed township .
The fort in Jhansi is also spectacular , more for its place in history as the battleground of one of India’s most outstanding queens who fought the british till the end , than for its plain architecture . The Indian Army uses it as a base now .
Alexander , like Shivaji many years later , must have mastered the art of breaking forts for in his time , 326 BC , he had captured half of the known world with sheer chutpazh and valour . Think leading a contingent of thirty thousand fighters across Persian , Egyptian and Indian soil conquering whoever came in the way . Alexander did at a ripe young age of twenty six .
That brings me to the forts in Jaipur , each of which are exceptionally functional and served their time in history . There are six forts in Jaipur and as I see some of their designs , they still look ready for battle , worn by time but built for ever .
We begin a different battle for marketshare in the Pink City tomorrow . We have to fight to win , guarding our turf , customers , listeners . The forts in Jaipur have stood testimony to great strategies and big victories by many Kings .
And they will all be around to see ours , a couple of weeks from now .
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