The Neemrana Affair
So here I was packed with the current bestseller and my Ipod in a Volvo with my parents and their colleagues (all docs and btw some of them had noisy kids in the habit of screaming their lungs out at every possible instance. I was accompanying my parents for their Med Con, sounds drab but I was more than game for it bcoz of the venue which happened to be Neemrana Fort Palace close to Behrod on the Delhi Jaipur Highway. Being a sucker for all places rajasthani and traditional I was more than game for it, Well it is indeed a unique concept in hospitality trying to restore the picturesque heritage of Rajasthan.
But the best part was my solitude, though with my parents I was very much in this mode of loneliness where there was nobody else but myself to explore the pretty place on my own and there is a thing that your solitude harbors that is actually when you form opinions true to your experience, experiences in their honest manifestation and your nonchalant existence in a harmonious bliss called just being you. Poetic and relaxed was the ambience and playful was the weather with light showers intermittently disturbing sun’s hot cover thereby rendering the day initially a balmy charm and later on a humid restlessness. Started the day by taking a stroll of the wing above our suite which was called the Nandi Burj as the whole section came under the Shiv Parvati section of the resort where in the whole wing was under that stream of Hindu mythology.
The weather was cool and breezy and the sun seemed to be somewhat on a leave, perfect for an early morning cuppa and newspaper but I had none. Not relenting in the lack of the same I began my mini expedition of sorts to get a better view of the village on the foothill and was exposed to the expansive beauty which struck for its wilderness and its unaffected being.
The terrace was done in a spatial manner with a patch of grass had a Raja Rani marble seat (as I like to call it) and huge potted plants with some of them in full bloom. I progressed to the other parts of the fort which led me to another similar concept of terrace garden with a view of the foothills but the most endearing part of my fort expedition was the omnipresent calm and well being or could be that was what my predicament for the day was, I had never felt more comfortable, blessed and secure in my loneliness. It gave almost the same kicks that I usually receive after my loner movie experiences; guys try it specially for the movies that you badly want to watch but don’t have company for and I am very sure that out of that incessant need you will surely discover that indomitable streak of independence and self sufficiency.

On some further exploration of the fort I found this unique chattri, a balcony actually but made in a circular fashion and giving me view of the fort entrance, it was unique because I could actually view one part of the village from which the fort seemed to have emanated almost out of nowhere. Found it to be a perfect spot for lazing the hours for which I was to be confined in my solitude and nothing else.
Plugged in my Ipod, put on my favorite playlist and opened Jhumpa Lahiri’s Unaccustomed Earth at the page that I had left it in the journey. Somebody had said aptly that a book can make you travel places without you having to move an inch physically. My book transported me to London suburbs and the travails of a dissatisfied Bengali housewife bored with her marital mess as narrated by her daughter. A short story of life spent in lurch, compliance and rejection.
Sitting there in the chattri with my two companions I was experiencing a serene moment, a truth of my own, a glimpse of how I wanted my life to be, a view of how I wanted my bliss to be, could you reach any further in your lurch of happiness…..i don’t think so, such moments of joy and sense of well being are rare than often so here I am writing an ode to my moment of bliss, my moment of life.