Jaipur: The Pink City
The walls of the city was painted in pink colour symbolising hospitality. Shyam explained about Maharaja Ram Singh, Lord Albert and many other rulers whom I knew nothing about. I met Shyam at Trivandrum railway station and soon he became my travel companion. We had something in common , a strange connection maybe its the desire to travel. Jaipur is our 1st destination and we have planned a short trip around northern states of India.
As Shyam talked with other people in truck who are immigrants from other states , he stared at me with a goofy smile. Oh lord ! That boy is in love. Shyam was a guy who falls for every girl and receives rejection. He made all his superpower moves to make me fall for him but I ignored all the symptoms and facts as if I never realised it in the first place. I smiled back at Shyam and felt uneasy under his gaze.
It’s mid-March and really hot in Jaipur combined with dust and pollution. I wanted to jump into a pool of cool water and stay in it for rest of the day but as if now my skin burned. The truck stopped at Wind View Café and at the other side of the road I could see Hawa Mahal. The only Mahal I knew about was Taj Mahal and as always Shyam provided all the extra information such as Hawa Mahal is also known The Palace of Winds.
This was one of his superpower move to impress me. To be honest , it did impress me a bit. In these moments I wished to be Shyam. Not like Shyam , but Shyam. He was free – free from all the responsibilities, commitments and routines , he was free like an Albatross made to fly , to travel. The only thing I knew about him was he is an orphan who grew up in Little Flower Church, Kottayam. I don’t know anything about his schooling or job or how he made so much money so that he could travel for rest of his life. For some reason I felt jealous of him and never bothered to ask anyway.
The truck took us around the city and finally to our hotel. We had separate rooms next to each other. Shyam helped me with my luggage. We spent our evening together having chai and egg puffs, sang our old favourite malayalam songs and shared our childhood memories.
