Memoirs of Pinkcity

I had left Jaipur on a cold December of 2004. It's been 17 years I left the place but the memories remain intact. We stayed at the Government quarters allotted to my dad in the posh Jyoti Nagar area, owing to the vicinity of important offices and places nearby - The Vidhana Sabha, C-Scheme area, Statue Circle, Rambagh Palace etc. (The spoil sport in that area was the Jhuggi basti - The last I hear, it is still there and no one had dared to remove the basti from that place).

Winters were very special for me while I was at Jaipur. When the sun peeps out of the cloud with its sunshine in the winter and hits your body, that feeling was amazing... I still feels that warmth, even when I am writing this. When I was in my college days, with my limited set of friends, we go to the tea shop at the back gate of the Maharaja's college  and sipping the tea along with some pakora just felt heaven. 

And then, the main event of winter. Every late December, or early January, Jaipur hosted (and I guess it still hosts) its Annual Book Festival. It would be for the whole week and I would go to the place all week long. I would have collected my pocket money (or beg-borrow-steal from my mom) for this, and it was a heaven for me roaming around the book stalls. There would be dealers from all around the country and it was a treat to the eyes for book lovers like me. It was held in the open place opposite the Sawai Man Singh Stadium, which is just 1 KM from my home, and I would go in my Hero-puch or bicycle to the place. Almost none of the book I purchased from the fair are there with me any more, except this one - 'Physiology for everyone' published by Mir Publishers, Moscow. Back then this Russian Publisher was very popular and all the scientific and Mathematical books were available from them. I suddenly remember all this, when I saw this book in my shelf today, and ohh god so many memories started flooding my mind, that I decided to direct the flow of those memories to this post. 

Another place I visited often was the Radhakrishnan Central Library, situated opposite the Rajasthan College Campus. I don't remember who introduced me to the library, but I remember we had taken the membership in the library together. The library had a ginormous amount of books, and my favorite sections were History and the Horror genre...The place itself was creepy, with racks and racks of books and no body around you but just books. And in this surroundings, when something moves, the whole floor reverberates with that sound creating a creepy effect. They have renovated a lot of it, when I saw the latest pictures of the library now. 

This was the time when the Mall culture of the country was not so in place mainstream. By the fag end of years of me leaving Jaipur, GT mall was just getting famous and people had started visiting that at their free times. There were no Online businesses. I couldn't think how I will survive without the Amazons and Flipkarts of today now, but back at that time there's nothing online...You want a shoe, go the shoe store in Kishanpole bazaar. You want clothes, you have to go the the shops at Indira bazaar or the Bapu bazaar. The school dresses and other 'special occasion' dresses were purchased NOT readymade, but it got stitched by the tailors (I remember RK Tailors in Tripolia bazaar. That was the favorite place of my dad to give those clothes for stitching). You need books for studies, you needed to go to Chaura Rasta , where lines and lines of book shops were there. And for groceries, you had the Goyal stores in Kishanpole Bazaar. With the advent of online businesses I am not sure how these merchants are surviving. There must be some jugaad which i am sure they must had came out with. 

I had spent more than half of this life years of me in the Pinkcity, and want somehow to save those cherished special moments of life. A visit is long due to the place, and hopefully I could make it someday soon. 

(C) Vipin.