DAY 2
The next day we set off for Ajmer. Got up comparitively late, had the usual brilliant breakfast and set off with Bhagat Singh ,our driver. Now Ajmer is around 130 km away from Jaipur. The plan was to reach there around 11a.m and then do the Friday namaaz and leave
We reached and found a guy to help us out with the chaddar. We entered the dargah through the back entrance. I didnt quite understand why, we took an auto through the smallest of the smallest roads of India to reach one of the most holy renowned places of India
The next day we set off for Ajmer. Got up comparitively late, had the usual brilliant breakfast and set off with Bhagat Singh ,our driver. Now Ajmer is around 130 km away from Jaipur. The plan was to reach there around 11a.m and then do the Friday namaaz and leave
We reached and found a guy to help us out with the chaddar. We entered the dargah through the back entrance. I didnt quite understand why, we took an auto through the smallest of the smallest roads of India to reach one of the most holy renowned places of India
The main road leading to the Dargah super-crowded
I don't know how we got through that alive but getting into the Dargah and getting out was no mean feat. I got a little help from a small kid who appeared out of nowhere and shooed people who were coming in the opposite direction to make way for me. I couldn't even thank him, he just vanished after that.
A pot that cooks 4800 kg of food- just imagine how long that' ll take to cook
After doing our chaddar formalities , we had to do the prayers. Now ladies and men never pray together. Its always the women behind the men so that the men can't see the women ,and i mean literally. So this meant we had to find place for ourselves. Now first we found place to sit. Then they shooed us away saying that men had to sit there. That happened for every other place we sat at. Finally exasperated we walked out of the place and waited for the men to finish. Now , the jamaat prays on the road surrounding the mosque, so again the shooeing began. Finally (this is the last finally) we waited near the corner of a road.
Despite a bomb blast , scores of policmen waiting at the entrances and the bomb detecting entrances , its no big feat to bring in a bomb into the dargah. I had a huge handbag and all the policewoman did was to customarily open the bag and thrust it right back at me. No one seemed to follow the no camera, no mobile phone order.
What i learnt out of today:
1) Never go to a religious place on a Friday afternoon;
2) India is developed Yes, but not in every state. Ajmer looks like what Chennai would look 25 years ago.
3) Kudos to the dargah for handling unbelievable crowds like that. I dont know what they do , but they do it well .
4) Filth, pigs, dogs ,cats, impoverished people,diseases like encephalitis - This was the real India.
Had a mouth-watering lunch at one of the dhabbas. Simple but Yummy.
Tired but Happy. Mission accomplished
