The Pink City of Baleno

The streets around the Amer fascinate me.

Quaint havelis and ruins, belgian or cobblestone paved, narrow, winding roads.

Brightly painted walls and crumbling facades.

The auto journos do not seem to like this as a backdrop for their snaps. I wish they did. Imagine how the Baleno would look against this backdrop! The yellow light of dawn, the slight nip in the air, and the colors of Jaipur reflecting on the walls of the Amer.

That's what I would do if Maruti hired me to do a campaign.

Jaigarh too could do justice to this car.You can drive your car through the huge gates and right up to JaiBan.

The largest Cannon on the planet stands beneath a shed and imperiously commands the view over Jaipur. Local guides have been taking poetic liberties with the weight of the cannonball and the range over which this one could fire.

Equal liberties are taken with the weight of the armour and sword that burdened the royals.Every Rajput king weighed in at a Tata-truckish two quintals, and competed with the local elephants in terms of diet.

The fact that the royals are long gone and the elephants are still around, is testimony to the fact that raw vegetables beat daal-bhati choorma anytime.

The guides also claimed that the Cannon shot a ball that weighed 20 kgs over a distance of 30 kms. I guess that is a little far fetched.

You can't hit what you can't see, I would have liked to tell the Maharajah of Amer. 

But, you got to thank the bloke(s) for such an enduring legacy. Here is a view from a street beside the temple near the fort.

Not in the pink of health are the ruins, I told myself, as I sketched. They are exactly as I like them. Broken. but, Unbowed.