The Royal Rajasthan Travelogue- Prologue

PROLOGUE
Being a dreamy person with a creative bent of mind, romanticizing comes easily to me…Even before my journey started, ever since the tour was discussed, I was feeling the fluttering butterflies in my stomach…I sat up, late at night, reading all I could about the places I was supposed to visit. Having never done anything like this before...my excitement knew no bounds…

Actually… all of us had discussed, several similar plans for a long time, without any of the previous plans coming to fruition...this however was different… this plan was conceptualised as a ‘quickie’ and built up a crescendo really fast… And at last, after a lot of hmms & haws…through a sudden quirk of fate, it translated into a thumping positive… One of the members of the team dedicated himself to calculating time frames, schedules, getting stay & travel arranged…I kept praying to God… that nothing unforseen should happen at the last moment to make us cancel the plans .

I kept wanting to block my tickets… my team mates wouldn’t let me… since the time we had chosen to travel, was peak season, they wanted to be doubly sure that, at least all the hotel bookings were made properly beforehand… in fact being a former hotelier myself… I was totally agreeable with the decision…however due to this I ended up paying a grand more for my tickets… (sad sighhhhh!!)

With the tickets in hand, I was quivering with excitement…and revving to go… Vroooooooooommmmmmmmm!! I was travelling to Rajasthan… memories of my last trip to the picturesque state, resurfaced, like million bubbles breaking the surface of the exotic pink champagne in a crystal flute… Last time I had just gone to Udaipur… this time I was travelling to Jaipur… Udaipur… Mt. Abu & Ahmedabad…

I went to my flat at Udita to get my faithful maroon suitcase… I am a very meticulous travel packer… and follow a proper checklist, which is why I always start packing a week in advance… I pack, trying to keep all contingencies in mind… I believe in being prepared…so the first to go into the case was medicines & a set of warm clothes… as per my previous experience … Rajasthan can be pretty cold at night…

My ticket to Jaipur was for the 23rd Oct 08, and on 22nd Oct was a big event for me at one of the city hotels… an event I was organizing & comparing… I was a bit tense, since it was a very high profile launch… it did go through a small crisis… starry tantrums and all that… but then in the end…. All well that end’s well…

I went off to sleep in the wee hours of the morning, since I had returned home pretty late at night… I was to travel alone to Jaipur… the rest of the troupe was coming in from New Delhi and joining me there…