A curious case of missing center seats in the plane while
scrutinizing our tickets and an eventual realization that it is a 2x2 seater
small air craft by Jet. A hilarious introduction of a couple of crew present on
board (hilarious cause the list finished before it started) and an equally
expected bumpy touchdown by the pilot Rahul, a name my son won’t forget in a
hurry. That was the beginning of our 4 day action packed holiday in Udaipur or
really if you ask me our hot trail of following Maharana Pratap through Mewar’s
forts and palaces.
MRP (as is fondly called by son and his friends) is a
popular historical figure with them, the imagination having been fueled by the teleserial
of the same name on Sony on this veer
putra. Not a TV watcher and bad with dates I was being corrected and
reprimanded for my lack of knowledge in the matter but confess I must, I came
out equipped with stories of valour, strength and a great deal of sense of
patriotism and respect for the Maharana clan.
Our landing at the Maharana Pratap airport was as you have
noticed much dramatic and equally dramatic was our double upgrade to the suite
with private swimming pool in Devigarh by Lebua. A 40 minute ride by the car on
an uphill winding road led us to a beautifully restored fort hotel, in the
middle of a sleepy village that wasn’t so sleepy when we checked in since there
was a wedding going on that night and the loudspeakers were blaring Sheila and
Munni with equal gusto. On checking in we were greeted with showering of rose
petals from the Ganesh Dwar and
offered subtly flavored rose drink while the husband completed check-in
formalities.
Now, this calls for a short review of the hotel. Well
maintained with manicured lawns, high reaching fort walls, dreamy landscape of
hills as far as you can see the horizon, very very well mannered and attentive staff
that each time they saw you joined their hands in “namstae” and greeted you
with cheer, much in contrast with our stay at Trident Udaipur that looked and
felt equally bland after a stint at Devigarh. Our room with the pool was
nothing short of a royal treatment, at the entrance to the suite was a very
well created trishul and Shiva installation, an inviting pool and typical
Rajputana sit outs complete with low seating. These definitely made early
mornings almost surreal and an hour to look forward to, what with sipping tea
(made by husband; even better, actually more shocking than anything else),
surveying the expanse and soaking in the loud chatter of the birds. An amazing
property, I must say with the only deviation being the F and B prices,
prohibitive.
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| our private sit out |
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| Devigarh by Lebua |
Since it was late evening that we had checked in, all we had
to do was soak in the dimly lit fort and have our dinner. Except that the beer
that we had at the hotel’s restaurant that costed us a cool Rs500/- per pint
(we had 4 pints that night, poor unknowing us!) our adventure that night was
limited. I still can’t get over the pint, whoever said size matters was right,
a pint-size can happily take your happiness (am I making good Sindhi sense?!).
Well the food made up for the shock, the Lal maas that we had was superlative
and so was the chicken accompanied by Rs 200/- each roti/parantha. There I go
again. I told ya, this meal was an adventure. Anyways retiring to the room with
a most awesome view that we were promised the next morning was a solace.
Another day. Another story.
Ah did i mention that at Delhi airport we got lucky to have bumped into Saifeena; yes Saif and Kareena. Got sonny boy's pic with Saif while Kareena was at the cashier at WH Smith.
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