Nawalgarh: City of Hawali's

Painting done on a wall, inside of Poddar Hawali

“I was taking position with my camera in my hand to capture a snap of an old building in a very narrow market street. I was with Surbhi (my cousin’s friend); and she was also gazing on the same building at that time. All of the sudden a cattle vehicle ran over my foot and the whole street became dusty. I dint understand what happened… as I was busy taking photographs of that building. Next moment I stepped backward and I looked towards Surbhi, expecting that she will tell me what happened, but there was no reaction on her face and then she started laughing… I realized then, what had actually happened, my foot was so close to the vehicle that I just escaped an accident. I was wondering, “Why did Surabhi not warn me about this?” She said, “She was also admiring the building when the whole incident happened, it was so quick that she dint get enough time to warn me about the approaching cattle cart”. God Graciously!!! I nearly escaped an accident, lucky me ….. Unfortunately I lost my sunglasses which were on my forehead…”

Careless travelling gives that kind of thrill which we cannot get from any other way…it’s full of fun, happiness and at the end it gives you peace of mind and also a kind of satisfaction which we cannot express in our words!!! My trip to Nawalgarh was full of careless traveling…

Close view of painting done wall of a Hawali

Nawalgarh is famous for its magnificent traditional Bungalow’s, traditionally known as Hawali’s. The specialty of these buildings is Fresco paintings done on the walls, main gates, windows and inside these buildings. These Hawali’s are also famous for their unique architecture and stunning main entrance. It was my first experience to see such a beautiful heritage site in the rural Rajasthan. Nawalgarh is 141 km away from Jaipur i.e. around 3:30 hours journey. It is located in Jhunjhunu District of Rajasthan State which is famous part of Shekhawati region. Nawalgarh is also the motherland of some of the great business families of India like – Poddar, Birla, Bajaj, Godrej etc.

I was there to attend a very special occasion, “The Wedding Ceremony” of my elder cousin, Abhinav Sharma. I accompanied my Mother and brother Shekhar on this auspicious occasion. We stayed at a local dharamshala (a Hindu Society Lounge) which had about 25 rooms with basic facilities. Before the wedding day, some of us planned to visit the Heritage Sites in the city. So, the next morning along with other cousins, Munna Mamaji and Surbhi didi I set forth to explore the city.

Every Hawali in Nawalgarh has its own dignity and status in the society. Their stories of glory and success are famous and narrated by old family members and locals. The fresco paintings on their walls signify their family’s culture, background, customs, values and beliefs. This is clearly visible in every painting done on the walls of these old buildings.

There are many old Temples, Gateways, a School and even a college located in the city and on every wall of these buildings fresco paintings are done in very details like – painting of old emperor’s, Hindu God’s, festivals, special occasions, mythological stories and many more. All these paintings reflect art & craft culture of the city. This means that Nawalgarh people not only built their houses for living but they also gave equal importance to their art & history by paintings them on their walls. It seemed as if some owners of these building gave full freedom to the artistes to paint the walls to the artistes’ contentment. I felt so because in some building I saw paintings of motor car, an English man driving bicycle, trains, vintage cars, British arms, elephants, horses and many such imaginary things.

These buildings not only consist of painting, but all these building also have state of art architecture inside. It is very much visible on the main entrance of the houses, like specially designed main doors, pillars, windows (Jhorakha) and many such things. Truly Nawalgarh is city of Hawali’s, I was stunned and amazed by experiencing beautifully painted old buildings, temples, which are present in every part of the city, and we just walked, walked and walked in the whole city and enjoyed a lot watching these beautiful Hawali’s. Nawalgarh is a must visit destination of Rajasthan...and don’t forget to bring your camera.

THE HISTORY OF NAWALGARH

 Thakur Nawal Singh Ji Bahadur (Shekhawat) founded Nawalgarh in 1737 AD at the village site of Rohili, before abolition of Jagirs in Rajasthan. Many great business families of Marwari community have their origins from Nawalgarh. Nawalgarh was encircled by the high Parkota (walls) consisting of four Polls (gates) in different directions, namely Agoona Darwaja (entrance gate), Bawadi Darwaja (in north), Mandi Darwaja and Nansa Darwaja. Each gate is very heavy as they are built from iron. There is also a fort build in the city called “Bala Kila Fort” which is situated in the center of the Thikana, another fort i.e. Fatehgarh Fort is situated outside the Parkota as an Outpost. The market place of the town and layout of the havelis indicate that the original city was well-planned before construction. Nawalgarh was considered to be the most modern towns of Shekhawati region.

GETTING TO NAWALGARH:

Nawalgarh is well connected by road and also through Meter gauge railway line. But the best option to visit the city is by road. Its distance from Jaipur is 141km which is around 3:30 hrs and from Delhi its distance is 260km which is around 5hrs journey from taxi.

By Train: There is a direct train from Jaipur to Nawalgarh which is 3-4hrs journey. Since these trains has no pre-reservation system, so it’s not advisable to go by trains as these trains are hugely crowed with peoples and there is also a chance of delay.

By Road: It is the best option to reach the city as several taxi services are available from all major cities like - Jaipur, Sikar, Jhunjhunu, New Delhi, Agra, Alwar, Udaipur and Jodhpur etc. There are frequent daily bus services also available from Jaipur Sindhi Camp bus stand (Jaipur bus terminal) to Nawalgarh. Bus services are also available from all other major cities of Rajasthan like – Ajmer, Kota, Bikaner, Jodhpur and even Delhi.

By Air: There is no Air-port at Nawalgarh as it is a small town, the nearest Air port is located is Jaipur.

MUST SEE: Forts and Hawali’s: Anandi Lal Poddar Hawali, Nawalgarh Fort (Bala Kila Fort) and Fatehgar Fort, Roop Niwas Palace (1km from Bala Kila fort), Sheesh Mahal, Murarka Haveli, Bansidhar Bhagat Haveli and Chokhani Haveli.

Temples: Lakshmi Narayan Mandir (Built by Thakur Udai Singh in 1869 V.S.), Shri Gopinath Ji Mandir (Built by Thakur Nawal Singh), Shri Kalyan Ji Mandir, Gangamai Temple, Shri Ramdev Ji Mandir and many more.

EAT: There are several sweet shops located in the city where one can find snacks items like - Dal ki Kachori, Samosa, Pakoda’s etc. But Nawalgarh is famous for its one of a sweetest dish know as “KHEER-MOHAN”, it’s a kind of Rasgulla (famous bangali dish) but not white, its color is brown which means it is more cooked then rasgulla and it is more tight and trust me, it’s very-very sweet.

Personally I have not visited any restaurant in the city and I even doubt that there is any in the city, although there are few dhabh’s is the city to burn your hunger. There are few good hotels, they may serve for outsiders.

STAY: There are very few hotels in Nawalgarh and several times at peak tourist’s seasons, visitors have to compensate by arranging their stay in another cities hotels like at - Jhunjhunu, Mandawa or Sikar.  


Stay At Nawalgarh - Heritage Thikana, Club Mahindra Roop Vilas Palace, Welcome Heritage Koolwal Kothi and Nalagarh Resort are few good and decent say places at Nawlagarh.

At Jhunjhunu - Dundlod Fort, (8km from Jhunjhunu), Grand Haweli & Resort, Jhunjhunu, Hotel Shekhawati (Mandawa), Hotel Fresco Palace (Jhunjhunu), Hotel Heritage Mandawa, The Desert Resort (Mandawa) and Hotel Castle Mandawa are few options if you won’t find any rooms in Nawalgarh city.

Apart from these hotels, one can also stay at Dharmshals (Society Longue) but somebody has to recommend you (local repute person/family) as they don’t allow any strangers.


Written by Apurv
Edited by Surbhi Seth

Roaming in Alwar...

On the way to Alwar city, you will find second most famous national park of Rajasthan state i.e. Sariska Tiger Reserve better known as Sariska Van Abhyaranya. It’s a dry forest covering area of 800 sq. km and close to the forest there is a beautiful lake situated called Silished Lake. There are other beautiful monuments included Alwar Fort, temples etc one can visit within the city. You can call Alwar an adventure city..So, let’s begin our adventure…

I have been to Alwar around three times and at none of the occasion I got chance to visit any of these places, although I planned it several times but unfortunately till date it never happened. But few of my friends do visited these places and shared some good experiences with me. So here I am sharing my roaming experience in Alwar City.

Alwar is a small and peaceful town which is surrounded by Aravali Hills which makes this city dynamic in regard of location & climate. It was my official visit accompanied by my manager Mrs. Disha. We hired a taxi and begin our journey at 8am in morning from Jaipur. Initially you have to stay on Jaipur-Agra highway road and then later you have to change the direction towards Alwar. It was not even an hour since we started our journey our taxi tire busted, thank god we were slow and luckily we were close to a tire repair shop. We stopped there, by the time tire was getting repaired we enjoyed home made sandwich (made by Disha) it was tasty…within few minutes we again begin our journey. There are two routes to visit Alwar, one is a straight highway road (most preferred) and another route is from the middle of the Sariska Jungle (if you want to go direct to Sariska go for this one). We opted highway road, as our destination was Alwar (that to an official visit not travelling). Within two and half hours we reached Alwar.

When we reached the city, I was not aware of this that the city is surrounded by hills; I was in this impression that this is also as normal as most of the small cities in India are. We directly went to our office (ICICI Prudential Life Ins Co Ltd) which was located in a quite place of the city. Our office was on the first floor of the building and we were sitting in the back office cabin. Then at the lunch time Disha ask me to move at front desk to handle customers. At the front desk, there were glass windows installed for natural lights and the moment I sited on my chair & viewed outside the window, my mouth and eyes was kept opened for a while, there was a breath taking view of a big mountain from the window…I said to myself “Ohh my God…what is that”. That was one of the mountain range of Aravali Hills. So now I was excited and thinking of evening to come so that I can roam in the city and have a clear view of surrounded mountains.

I evening my priority changed from mountains to shelter as Disha has left to Jaipur and ask me to stay in this city for two more days as our work was not completed. So in evening I begin hotel hunting. There are several good hotels in Alwar and most famous & preferred one is “Hotel Aravli”, but it was a bit expensive so I opted another one “Alwar Hotel” located near to railway station at just Rs. 350/- per night. Since my stay was not planned earlier and due to financial reason I opted this hotel. Hotel was good enough; my room was of medium size with attached bathroom and a good & clean bed along with a TV…what else I want…

Alwar Bagh

In evening I find a good restaurant at back street of the hotel, who serves a complete meal plate (thali) in just Rs. 50/- with variety of dishes included like – Dal, Rice, Seasonal Vegetables, Salad and a Sweet. It was really economic restaurant with good quality food and surprisingly very clean. Post that, I went to see famous Alwar Bagh (Park). This park is very old, around more then 350 years. There is a small palace is also build within the campus which make is very unique in itself. All the trees, plants and grasses were very well maintained and giving awesome feeling. It was a great experience to my mind and soul…and to my stomachJ..a must see...

Personally speaking what I have observed in my career that working in a small city like Alwar, Jhunjhunu or Churu is much easier and flexible rather working in a big city. The main difference is that even you have huge work load on your desk, no one is there to monitor you...and you can work freely…good na…Truly speaking, while working in these small cities you are more relaxed and in a comfortable zone and one can give much better performances in compare to a pressure atmosphere in big cities offices…

Moosi Rani ki chattri

Next evening after office hours I went to see Bhagirathi temple, it was very beautiful structured and very famous too, post that I went to see “Moosi Rani ki chattri”, it’s a dome kind of structure which was built in memory of Moosi Rani, wife of Maharaja Bakhtawar Singh in year 1813 AD. It’s a magnificent structure.

So, my Alwar journey ends here, I am soon planning to visit Sariska Jungle, and also excited to convert my experience into another blog column…lets hope it will happen soon…

GETTING TO Alwar:

Alwar is located at northern part of Rajasthan state, close to Delhi. It is 160 km from South Delhi & around 150 Km from North Jaipur.

By Train: Railway network of Alwar city is well connected with Delhi, Jaipur Jodhpur, Mumbai and other important tourist cities of India.

By Flight: Jaipur (161km) & Delhi (163km), both Airports are equally close from Alwar and then one have to choose from road or rail to reach Alwar.

By Bus & Taxi: Alwar can be easily reached by road as well. There are well-maintained roads linking it to tourism destinations like Delhi, Sariska, Bharatpur, Deeg and Jaipur. Both Govt. and Private buses and taxies are available frequently.

Sarisk National Park

ACCOMMODATIONS:

Alwar is a bit lacking in terms of good hotels, still there are very few good hotels in Alwar to stay:

Economic & Mid Range - Hotel Alwar, Rajasthan Motel, Ankur Hotel, RTDC Hotel Meenal & Alwar Bagh (Heritage Hotel)

Luxury – Hotel Aravali & Clark Inn

Eat:

There are few good stops to burn your hunger strike in Alwar, they are:

Prem Pavitra Bhojnalaya (one of the most famous and oldest-1957, serves great and testy meals in very affordable price), Inderlok Restaurant, Thali House - New South Indian Café (the one where I went to eat, it is located opposite Gopal Cinama in main city area), Dawat Restaurant and Narula's.

Must See:

Alwar City Palace & Museum, Alwar Fort, Alwar Bagh, Moosi Rani Ki Chattri and Tal-Vraksh (Water Pond).

Places around Alwar:

Sariska National Park (36 Km), Pandupol Hanuman Temple (on the way to Sariska Forest), Sagar (Water Pond, behind City Palace), Silished Lake, Neemrana Fort (75 km) and Nogaza Shiva Temple (8 Km)

Udaipur City: Venice of East

Wherever I was looking there was only water…we were in the middle of a lake on a small boat. The boat shakes badly with even a slight movement of our body and our fun may convert into real life drama. But we were least bother of all those things as it was giving us tremendous thrill & fun. One must experience this if you in Udaipur. The city of Romance, beautiful Lakes, Palaces, Foods and Markets...there are several things one can do in Udaipur...

I was here with my office colleagues to attain our annual Rendezvous. Our stay was arranged at Hotel located at bank of renowned Jaisamand Lake. This lake is Asia’s largest manmade lake. Our journey begins from Jaipur. We all left Jaipur by train at 2000hrs and reached Udaipur early morning. A bus was arranged to take us to Jaisamand. Within in two hours we reach at the bank of the Jaisamand Lake. Here several boats were waiting to take us to another side of the lake, at our hotel. This lake is really very huge and I have never expected that Asia’s largest manmade lake is situated in my state i.e. in Rajasthan. And when the boat begins running…ooohooo…wow…that was very thrilling & amazing feeling for all of us as wherever you see, there is only water and water…Within few min. we reached our hotel. Rooms were big and spacious including bathroom. We spend one and half day in the hotel. We enjoyed a lot like disco dance till late night, food, atmosphere, climate, peoples, everything was just perfect. It was month of December and there was mild cold. The whole experience was amazing. Next evening we all headed towards Udaipur City.

Nehru Garden

We reached Udaipur City around 1600hrs, believe me it’s a beautiful city, known for magnificent palaces and lakes. We first went to Savage Garden restaurant to burn our hunger. The food was awesome so as the place and peoples…J.. Post that, we went to see the famous Fateh Sagar Lake, which is beautiful and big. It’s an artificial lake constructed by Maharana in 1678 and located at north-west of Udaipur. In Fateh Sagar Lake, there are three small islands; the largest of these is called the Nehru Park, the second island houses a public park with an impressive water-jet fountain and the third island is the address for the Udaipur Solar Observatory. Every year a festival called the Hariyali Amavasya Mela (Green New Moon Fair) is organized at the lake precincts, in the month of August/September.

We hired a boat to take us to the Nehru Park Island. Our boat was shaking very badly with even a slight movement of our body, and we all were laughing & enjoying, it was tremendous thrill moment for us. The island has very beautiful garden with lush green grass and several kinds of flowers. We spend an hour there and took a round of the whole island.

View of Fateh Sagar Lake side

After returning from the island we all took a long walk on the footpath, which is build all around the Lake side. There are several fast food shops besides the Lake. Every evening several tourist visit this place, both local and outsiders. As it was Sunday, there was no place to even walk properly, every shop and street was crowded badly. In the middle we also enjoyed tea. It was close to 1900hrs, we all then decided to take our dinner as we also have to catch our train at 2130hrs.

We went to Mewar Haveli Rooftop Restaurant which was located on the opposite side of the lake side which was giving us very beautiful lake view. The restaurant building was built in a traditional Indian style. There was also a water fountain installed on the terrace with light effect which was making the atmosphere more elegant. We all enjoyed traditional Indian food and said bye to this beautiful city Udaipur.

ABOUT UDAIPUR:

Udaipur is said to be a “city of lakes” or better known as "Venice of the East". It is also said to be India’s most romantic city. It is located at southern part of Rajasthan state and surrounded with good numbers of mountains. You will find Udaipur city very normal till noon time, but the moment evening arise, it turned into heaven, just because of beautiful lakes, Mountain View, delicious foods and wonderful markets.

GETTING TO UDAIPUR:

Udaipur is situated at southern part of Rajasthan state. It is 418 km from Jaipur which is 6 hour journey by road, 254 from Ahemdabad, which is just 4 hours journey by road.

By Train: There are daily trains from New Delhi and Jaipur to Udaipur like – Mewar Express or H. Nizamuddin from Delhi & Jaipur.

By Flight: Dabok airport, also known as Maharana Pratap Airport, is 24km from the city centre. There are daily flights from Delhi, Mumbai and Jaipur on Jet Airways, Indian Airlines and Kingfisher Airlines.

By Bus & Taxi: Udaipur city is well connected with most of the cities of Rajasthan and Gujrat and there are several regular AC & Non-AC buses are available, both Govt. & Private. Private Taxies are also available from cities like Ahmedabad, Jodhpur, Bikaner, Jaipur etc.

ACCOMMODATIONS:

In Udaipur city, there are numerous places to stay, few names of good hotels are:

Economic - Hotel Padmini Palace, Krishna Ranch, RTDC Hotel Gangaur Palace, Mewargarh Palace and Hotel Kumbha Palace and many more.

Mid Range - Mewar Haveli, Jagat Niwas Palace Hotel, Mountain Ridge and Jaiwana Haveli and many more.

Luxury - The Lake Palace Hotel and The Oberoi Udaivilas.

MUST SEE:

Udaipur City

Like Jaipur, Udaipur City has ample of places to visit, and believe me, one or two day is not sufficient, one must stay here at least for 5 days. So, few places one must see are:

Palaces & Tourist Places - Udaipur City Palace (Pichola lake), Amar Vilas, Badi Mahal, Durbar Hall, Fateh Prakash Palace, Krishna Vilas, Manak Mahal, Mor Chowk (Peacock Square), Zenana Mahal, Rang Bawhan and Sheesh Mahal.

Lakes - Fateh Sagar Lake & Pichola Lake.

Other Attractions - Saheliyon ki Badi, Gulab Bagh and Zoo, Doodh Talai, Nehru Garden (Fatehsagar) and Bagore-ki-Haveli.

EAT:

Udaipur is a food lover destination, there are ample of good restaurants and resorts for your hunger like - Aapni Dhani, Mewar Haveli Rooftop Restaurant, The Whistling Teal, Savage Garden, Cafe Edelweiss and Bawarchi Restaurant. Apart from these, you can find several fast food restaurants and dhabhas in Udaipur city.