62 THE WEEK^ • JULY 29, 2018
COVER STORY
TRAVEL●Th e ex-weightlifter
of Jaipur
SO MUCH OF Jaipur is an amalgam of the old
and the new—age-old handicrafts showcased
in plush, air-conditioned shops; a placard with
the words ‘KEEP CITY CLEAN’ jauntily placed
on a pile of garbage; old men in pagris and betel
nut-stained smiles jostling with young dandies
in bow ties; dusty roadside hotels playing disco
music and serving traditional Rajasthani cuisine.
Th e ex-weightlifter, Subhash Jha, was our
guide in the city. He was a man with such serious
demeanour that he could probably rattle off a
nursery rhyme like it was a budget speech. He
had a fascination for ancient kings and queens
of Jaipur. As a weightlifter, he said he was proud
of the akharas of Rajasthan, where kings used to
train. Unfortunately, he had to give up weightlift-ing because of an injury.
In the car, he kept up a steady stream of
conversation, pointing out various places where
important royal events had happened. Like
the ashwamedh yagya of Sawai Jai Singh II, the
founder of Jaipur, where a horse is let free and
the supremacy of the king established in the
places where it sets foot. Or the site where the
queens used to play an Indian game called chau-
par, which, I gathered, was a bit like monopoly
because it never ends, although unlike monop-
oly, the queens do a lot of ‘spitting, snorting and
cracking knuckles’ to distract their opponents.
Subhash kept asking me whether I had heard of
these before, and by the end of the day, was thor-
oughly disgusted with my ignorance of ancient
Indian customs and rituals.
We told him we wanted to see the real Jaipur,
not the air-brushed version of palaces and forts
showcased in tourism pamphlets. So he took us
to the 17th century lake of Sagar in the nearby
town of Amer, and we realised why pamphletSubhash Jha
was our guide
in the city. He
was a man with
such serious
demeanour
that he could
probably rattle
off a nursery
rhyme like it was
a budget speech.