With little contemplation and a lot of monument-hopping in the last two days,I can confidently say monuments exhibit curious human traits- human relationships to be precise. Not collectively, but through fragments of memory one lives through in the course of the whole trip. The Jaipur monuments at first intriguedme with tantalizing sights offered by glossy guidebooks, like a cute face leering at me from a friend's facebook album. I wanted to meet him, touch him, experience all that the metaphorical wildlife does to your belly. My curiosity grew reading the generous words published about the monument(s) on the internet. There is never a dearth of romantic bloggers, Is there?. The ones who exhaust all the adjectives in their vocabulary within a word count of 100
Anyway, so I walked up to the guide enthusiastically to unveil the mystery around the monument I had scheduled for the day, this tendency being akin to the act of poking your crush's friends to know about him all that you could possibly know. The first date is likely to go awesome because you've built a stupendous image of the monument in your head. In my case,Jodha Akbar and Hum Saath saath hain forced me to overlook the tedious film production qualities, shepharding my eyeballs to the majestic visuals of the Rajput forts and palaces. I knew i was going weak in my knees. So on the first day when i visited the first monument here, I was essentially hyper as demonstrated by the incessant clicks of my camera.
What followed was the usual dating protocol. Looking was not enough, I wanted to feel the monument-throwing my palms on the walls, pillars and minarets. See it change its colours to the changing sky. As if turned into a possessive lover, I had issues with people thronging my monument. Any click that doesnt emanate from my camera is noise and must be avoided dutifuly. My romance with Jaipur monument picked up both fast and slow. The more i saw,the more i liked and the time it it rained,I felt the fall on my knees in need of a rose to complete the picture perfect.
After a couple of rounds however, i was beginning to get tired of the same stories echoed by a bunch of guides around. The dreamy romance was soon to be obscured by thoughts like How long would it take me to return? What if there are bats on the prowl, How much more is it left to visit?. But then being men of heart we dont stop meeting people and accumulating memories we're to savour in the casket of our pillow. It works the same way for monuments. If one offers ravishing view,the other compensates with its meticulous fine art. Like humans, monuments are not perfect but victims to poverty ill-health, negligence or simply fate.
Mankind is a virtue through the nature of its diversity and complexity. The word monument evokes the same sentiments in me. I fall in love, grow out of it,revisit it with a twinkle in my eye, reliving the rains that are never to come back yet never to be washed away.
#bagpackerdiary,N.India chapter
17.7.11
