THE LIFE OF A PRINCESS

THE FORT PALACE BY NIGHT

Have you ever thought of what the  life of a princess in Rajasthan in the medieval times would be like? I  used to see the opulence, the beautiful gorgeous colourful ghaghras and the jewel encrusted blouses that the Princesses always wore. I was quite fascinated by the different kind of jewellery that the women were adorned with. I grew up reading about the stories of the valour of these princesses, Hada Rani, Rani Padmini, and so many others, that these stories always made me think that the life of a Princess in Rajasthan must be quite out of this world.

THE THEATRE & OTHER ROOMS

I recently went to Neemrana for a short holiday and saw for myself what being a princess really meant. The Neemrana fort is about 120 kilometres away from Delhi. It is on the Delhi Jaipur highway.  The journey was pleasant. We set out with baskets loaded with food and drinks and ice boxes full of ice . We had quite forgotten that the days of yore when one needed to pack a hamper and ice box have gone past their expiry date. One finds good eating joints with good air conditioning on the Highway. Not very far from Delhi in terms of distance, but quite far away measured by the time that it took us to reach, we found a Bikanerwala and a KFC on our side of the road. We quickly made  a pit stop. My children who live abroad were with us and so they wanted the papdi chaat and  chole bhature and what not for their repast. Soon after having our fill,  we set out on our journey and saw the Aravalli range closing in upon us.

AS WE ENTER

Neemrana fort is located on top of one of these hills. It is not visible from the Highway, but is nestled a little away. It was through a narrow lane that the car climbs up the hill and reaches the gate of the Fort. The Fort was built in 15th century and belonged to the descendants of Prithviraj Chauhan who had fled from Delhi after being vanquished in the battle with Mohd. Ghori in the 12th century. Once inside the gate, the beauty of the Fort Palace took my breath away. Climbing up the stairs to reach our rooms further took more of my breath away. I did however manage to survive!

As we were three families we had three rooms. All these rooms were inter connected. It was as though we had a wing of the palace exclusively allotted to us. Our rooms were the Nandi Burj, the Garuda and the Hans Mahal.

Nandi Burj was in red, Garuda was in green and the Hans Mahal was in pink.

INTERESTING ALMIRAH

Nandi Burj had a lovely dressing room and an interesting basement room. There was a spiral staircase which took one downstairs to a lovely little chamber with a bed, a quaint little cupboard and an exclusive toilet and bathing room. 

The most interesting thing in this was that a long drape hung from the roof, which was to be used as a support instead of a railing while going down. This was very unusual and therefore very interesting. All the rooms had wonderful furniture and interesting almirahs.

The Nandi Burj room has pictures of a bull by different artists.

The Garuda which was done up in green had paintings and decor of garuda. It also had a balcony. The Hans Mahal had pictures of graceful swans.

Having this whole area to ourselves was great fun as we could walk into each others rooms as if we were in our own home and could make as much noise as we wanted to.

THE AMAZING SWIMMING POOL

There are two swimming pools in the Fort Palace. One is exclusively for adults. All of us took to the common pool so that the family was together and also as there was a jacuzzi there. I cannot go ahead without telling you about a little girl who was walking past and excitedly told her mother,"Mom, look there is a Zucchini".
The water was lovely and warm. Solar energy had not been wasted, the warm water had been heated directly by the sun's rays. The view was exquisite and the pool was all to ourselves. On the first evening we spent over two hours in the pool as the sun was setting, and the beauty of the surroundings kept us enraptured.

We were told that there was a complimentary service of tea and coffee and snacks in the Hawa Mahal.  Locating the Hawa Mahal was quite an adventure as the signs were not very clear and there were stairs and dead ends galore. People guiding us would also point in some direction and then disappear. Not wanting to miss our complimentary tea we did finally locate the place.

Later in the evening trying  to locate the Dining Hall was another exploration. There were so many stairs going up here and down there, we went up one way and down another and had a lot of wild goose chases. The evening became more interesting as we went from one dead end to another, before we succeeded in finding the place.   It built up our appetite too for dinner. It was only later that we found that the Dining Hall was located quite close to our own wing of the Palace.

MAGNIFICENCE

The next morning was beautiful with the magnificent peacocks all around. I explored the palace on my own, making sure that I did not wander too far away from our rooms, as I was worried that I could have got lost in the myriad maze like stairs, and my family not knowing which direction I had wandered off to would have had to miss their breakfast looking for me.

CAMEL CART RIDE

The next day we went on a camel ride and a camel cart ride. We went to the step well which was built in the 15th century at the same time as the Fort Palace. The sun was scorching, and although we had hats and there  was an umbrella  provided by the camel cart owner, yet we had a tough time braving the sun as we went ahead with this joy ride. 

THE STEP WELL

I simply do not understand the concept of these huge beautiful step wells. We were told that the Queen used to come here for her bath from the Fort palace through a "surang", which is actually a hidden passage.
Neemrana also has a great modern Zip Wire over the hills. They are in five laps. I being a non adventurous person did not venture out but my children went for the Zip Wire and came back badly sunburnt. They did enjoy the experience though, as it was over the hills with a lovely view.

The same evening we went to the Hawa Mahal to attend a musical programme. Local artists sang lovely Rajasthani folk songs. Sitting in that open air place we felt cool fresh breeze of the Aravallis. It was very pleasant and soothing. There was no need for fans. 

THE FULLY ENCLOSED LATTICE WINDOWS

While sitting there I looked up to find walls with beautiful jaali work. It suddenly dawned upon me that this must have been the place where the women stayed. They could look down and see things, but they would not be visible to anyone. I then realised what a life of imprisonment the women had to live in. They were confined to their rooms, they could not interact with outsiders nor see strangers. They could not even feel the full breeze and free air. I suddenly started feeling very stifled.

THE CAMEL RIDE

I am sure the life of a princess must have been quite stifled. All the freedoms and liberties were curtailed. Everything was locked. If one was always told to be imprisoned within four walls then growth would have been totally dwarfed. Without the wings of freedom everything would be scuttled and straitjacketed. It must have been a dreadful life to stay confined all the time. Although for those who were born then and lived in those conditions that must have been their norm of life. They would be trained to live like that, never expect anything, and never look for that little sliver of freedom. 
Our holiday was great, as we had a fabulous time, living in a palace, dining like Royalty, and having the Chef prepare special Rajasthani cuisine specially for us. We moved about with free abandon from one palace to another.  The mystery of the palace, the intriguing stairs and different decor of the rooms made our holiday quite unique and out of the normal.

Neemrana managed to give us more than what we had wanted. There was beauty, comfort, intrigue, adventure, mystery and an eternal game of trying to reach different places without getting lost. We all loved the experience, but most of all I was happy to get dis- illusioned. The life of a princess is surely a life of clipped wings, with not even a whiff of fresh air coming her way freely.