A stranger in India, reading the news in the last few weeks, would think that the most prominent landmark of Jodhpur was a huge prison, dominating the landscape. That the principal function of the city was to host trials for all kinds of ‘celebs’ accused of all types of crimes, and to then house the convicted in its boundaries.
I have lived in Jodhpur for several years, and my family has close ties to the city. None of us had any clue where Jodhpur Jail was. After the news of Salman’s conviction, we had to look up Google to figure out the location.
What we do remember of Jodhpur is the magnificent 550+ year-old Mehrangarh fort, one of the best preserved and best kept monuments in India. When I lived there 30 years ago, we would be greeted by drummers when we entered, and there were some friendly moustached guides who would take us around. They almost became like family, so often did I take visitors to the Fort. (Now there are proper displays and exhibits and shops and what not. Still nice, but not so intimate).
When you look down from the ramparts of the fort, you know why Jodhpur is called the Blue City. And there is also a walking path from the heart of the city up to the fort, which we did a few times as students (on furlough from college, no doubt). And the very unique Jaswant Thada, lined with different coloured translucent marbles, as you came down from the Fort.
Then the Umaid Bhavan Palace, the newest palace in the world, built as a drought-relief work and completed in the ‘40s. Part-hotel, part-museum, part-royal residence and wholly fascinating. Specially the indoor swimming pool lined with mosaics of the zodiac signs. And the huge murals of scenes from the Ramayana, with the heroes and heroines of distinctly Greco-Roman cast of features, done by a Polish painter.
The most interesting was where I had the good fortune to live on the grounds of—the Ratanada Palace, one of the palaces of the royal family, never really inhabited because it seems it wasn’t lucky for them. It was turned over to the Government after Independence and became the Defence Laboratory, a lab under the Defence Research and Development Organization. Imagine a lab in a palace! There were rumours that it was haunted, and ‘jingling ghungroos’ and ‘strange noises’ were sometimes an excuse not to stay too late at work!
The Palace-Lab
The housing for the Lab scientists was on the palace grounds, in converted elephant and horse stables, garages, band-house, aloo-khana, etc. So there was the most amazing array of very quaint but probably very uncomfortable houses for the families. I never knew whether we were lucky my father was allotted a proper house—one that was built for the king’s British pilot, who seems to have lived in true colonial style, in a 14-room bungalow . (The same king, I think, who features in the very interesting movie ‘Zubaida’).
The Pilot’s House
The food—the mirch wadas, the badi pakodis, the kabuli, the sponge rasgullas, ghewar and the array of sweets. The lassi in which we could stand a spoon, the dal-bhatti-churma, the kachodis.
The people—hospitable, chivalrous, generous, entrepreneurial.
The ‘khamma ghanis’ and the ‘padaro sas’ and the courtesy.
The bandhinis, the leherias, the silver jewellery and the lac bangles.
The bazaars, the gullies, the bargains.
I want these images to dominate my mindscape and Jodhpur memories. Not the prison and the prisoners!
–Meena
Millennial Matriarchs 
Wow! Feel like visiting Jodhpur now!! Fort cities have their own charm …
And yes, before Jodhpur was made famous by all the infamous personalities incarcerated in the prison, one always thought it of as the place of forts, palaces and royal grandeur!!
Interesting to note that the Defence Research Lab was housed in an abandoned palace. I also recall that my father’s institute – Central Drug Research Institute (CDRI) was also located in ‘Chattar Manzil’ – a palace built for the begums of Nawabs of Lucknow and it was always a pleasure to visit it!
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