Amber Fort – The Path Less Travelled By

The Symbiosis School for Liberal Arts visit to Rajasthan for the Jaipur Literature Festival wouldn’t have been complete without a visit to one of the forts that lie around the city centre.

When we all finally rose on the 19^th morning, we loaded into two buses and headed off into Jaipur with our destination being the ever popular Amber Fort. I had gone to the fort before, nearly 6 years earlier, but I still recognized the landmarks as we left Jaipur and up the rocky pass that we moved through. This also meant that I knew what we were expecting when we got there.

-

The last time I had come to Amber Fort, my school had treated us to elephant rides to scale the mountain that Amber Fort rested upon, going up by elephant was is an incredible experience as you cringe at the smell emitted by the dung-encrusted elephants but can’t help but keep your mouth open as you move from the small town, up the stone-paved path that takes you higher with each lurch of the mighty pachyderm.

This time, my college had organised for a convoy of Jeeps, these Jeeps would take a maximum of 8 students up the side routes to the 'back door' of the fort. So when we reached the bus-bay to move from the buses to the jeeps, I immediately requested if I could walk up to the fort, since I’d been up before, I knew the route up so there wouldn’t be any chance of me getting lost...

After the flat response of "NO", we took some more photos at the dried up lake before, me and my friend Viren circumvented the chain of command, by asking another professor who was much more agreeable and gave us permission to walk up to the fort. And here is where this trip became well and truly spectacular.

From the bus bay, there was a solitary, surprisingly well paved road that led to the wall of the fort. As we walked, I was completely engulfed by the majesty of the fort, something that my younger self, could appreciate, but never truly grasp. Coming back, it was like a circle getting completed. I could now understand the scale of its construction, and how tactically, it was beautifully placed. The fort was on a 

spur of a mountain so that it faced the valley like a peninsula, it could face any army that would approach it from any side. The lake that once must have been filled, would have provided the fort with enough sustenance to ensure that even in the event of a siege they would be in a position to draw water.

Viren and I kept walking and eventually came across a bridge and our excitement doubled; Not only were we coming by a largely unorthodox method, but we were going to enter by a bridge! We started walking across and suddenly out of one of the windows; a man popped his head out and told us that we couldn't enter from here! I had a moment of panic; we would get into so much trouble if we had to get one of the Jeeps come back and get us.

As I had my moment of panic, the man explained that while that door was closed, there was another route in. He indicated below us, to the dried up riverbed. I remember that right then both of us just said something along the lines of "Wow, this is awesome". As we climbed down to the riverbed, we could not stop talking about how this was the way one was to experience the true majesty of a fort.

The walk into the fort was something, ethereal. From the shade cast by the wall, we came up the dried channel which must have allowed fleets of fishing boats to travel through or perhaps, where a Raja would take his Queen out onto the lake. 

As we calmed down we noticed the fort above us and the path that the lights from the sound and light show that marked a path towards the main entrance which lay above a small garden which tourists flocked to and a small lake where cranes flocked to

We began climbing and found some vendors selling Pagri's, we probably should have haggled a bit, but I was just so happy and full of enthusiasm at the fact that we had taken this different approach and not chosen to go up by Jeep that we simply smiled and paid. Our mood was very evident as we conversed with Hawkers about the fort and the people that visited it with a clear sense of enthusiasm.

We hung around for a bit at the crossroads of the walking path and the elephant’s path. Ecstatic tourists smiled as they snapped photos from the top of the mighty beasts and simultaneously, tried to shoo away hawkers who, even though their client were elevated a good meter above them, attempted to sell them some puppets or elephant carvings – A true testament to the determination of an Indian Hawker.

As we carried on, we came across a simple man, sitting with a small, covered, basket and a few pipes. Instantly, we knew that he was a snake charmer and we had to do this! We were tourists today, not Indians.

I sat and the man took out a small flute and passed it to me, trying to make me feel more part of the experience I figured. He took off the lid and began to play the flute, instantly, the pair of black snakes began to unravel from one another and rise. I tried to play the flute, but I simply lacked the lung power. So I began observing the snakes, they seemed to move based on the direction of noise; this led me to realise that they had been blinded. As if that wasn’t bad enough, they had also been defanged. I guess the business norms were simple; the snakes can’t have any ability to hurt the clients.

We noticed the time and we sprinted up the final staircase, finally making it to the gigantic gate. As we squeezed between two elephants that occupied both lanes of the entrance, I couldn't help but feel like I had gotten a journey up the fort that no one else would have ever experienced. It was one spectacular walk up and as we walked towards the rest of our group, we both knew that we'd get a scolding, but the look on the batches face as Viren and I walked towards them; Pagri's on our heads, a unique memory and an enormous smile pasted on (at least) my face I knew that it was worth it! 

Article and Photos by Virpratap Vikram Singh