Arjun prowls the sprawling stone battlements of the Nahargarh Fort just North of Jaipur. The fort’s great height provides a broad view of the valley and City of Jaipur below. Arjun found his way up the Aravalli Hills in a bus filled with tourists, half of them westerners. They chattered the whole way and the bus became very noisy as it made its way up the narrow hairpin road to the fort. The fort is special to Arjun, his place in the world, however far he may go.
On one side of the rampart’s wall is the low lying City, spreading out in every direction below the cliffs as far as he can see. On the inside the fort is a mighty terracing of stone dropping down to a placid, green pool of water. It is as if in building the fort the builders had hollowed out the very mountain, making the interior a bowl of these monumental stone terraces. The fort is named after Nahar, a spirit who is said to have haunted it until a temple was built to assuage him.
The Madhvendra Palace was later added for the Maharaja and his numerous queens. Arjun takes some time to wander this compound and its courtyards, at times with the tourists and at times alone. At points the palace rises fifty feet or more along the cliff. He climbs to the roof to look out on the many low walls and yellow balustrades that run over the tops of various palace chambers. Clusters of golden domes glitter in the sun along the top of the façade. A courtyard stretches out far below.
Arjun is finally satisfied and returns to the area outside the fort where another tourist bus awaits. He steps aboard and pays for his next trip, this one to the Amber Fort a few miles further North. Three forts were built to protect the City by its founders Singh I and II in the early sixteenth century, the Nahargarh, the Jaigarh, and the Amber. He only has time for two of them today.
The bus takes them through the small town at the base of the mountain of the Amber Fort, which is really more a huge Citadel, to a drop off parking lot. From here it is a long walk along the top of a wall that see-saws its way up the mountain to the front entrance. Intimidated by the long climb, some tourists line up to make the trip aboard decorated elephants.
The walls of the Amber Palace look down the mountain to Maota Lake. In the middle of the Lake is a garden raised out of the water by massive stone walls. As Arjun walks the bulwarks, he gets a better view of the multi-level garden, a rectangle of green, built to the same dimensions as the fort, divided into geometric designs. The roughhewn stone walls continue on either side of him until he steps through a giant arch, the Suraj Pole, or sun gate, into a vast courtyard designed for assembling troops, the Jaleb Chowk. The Palace has four such divisions and accompanying courtyards. Small domes on pillars stand atop the gate.
From here Arjun takes stairs to the main palace grounds to the three-story, highly ornamented Ganesh Gate, which is covered in elaborate frescoes. The top story has latticed windows for viewing of public events by the women of the royal court. Going through the gate takes one into the main palace of the maharajas.
Arjun wanders the temples, courtyards, gardens, and halls of the royals. These include the Sheesh Mahal or mirror palace, which is filled with mirrored mosaics. Arjun stops and contemplates the view of the lake from this hall. Finally he proceeds to the oldest part of the fort, dating back to 1600, and finds there the Baradhari Pavilion, a heavy structure supported by delicately turned columns. Before leaving he descends to the depths of the fort to view the tunnel going to Jaigarh Fort, a possible escape route for the royal family in a time of siege. The tunnel is lined in elegant masonry, large flagstones on the floors and stone arches above the head running endlessly into the distance.
Arjun comes back down to the lake and the parking lot, and finds a bus to take him back to the City. There is time and he wants to see the City Palace before returning home. It is five miles and he is soon there.
The City Palace is a complex of courtyards, gardens and palace buildings originating during the time of Singh II, who initially ruled Jaipur from the Amber Palace. Population growth and the need for water resulted in the Maharaja’s move to the City Palace in 1727.
Arjun enters through the Virendra gate. Like all the structures here it is mixture of Indian and European styles, two stories of white sandstone carved into delicate traceries over and around complex arches and archways. A flat roof extends over the main archway and entry, which is topped with ornate railings. He passes through it and is immediately confronted with the white Mubarak Mahal or Auspicious Palace, now a museum. Its three stories feature arches in small arcades on the first floor, light railings and arches on balconies on the second, and a roof with iron railings on the third.
He finds in the same courtyard area the Sabha Niwas, the hall of public audience, an ornate building with spectacular chandeliers and supporting columns, now an art gallery that contains rare original manuscripts such as the Bhagavad Gita.
Arjun wanders through various temple and palace buildings until he reaches the West end of the Palace complex and the Chandra Mahal. The descendants of the Maharaja still live in this impressive seven story palace, the largest building in the complex. The first floor only is open to the public. The lower floors have numerous arched, screened balconies and red railings contrasting with the alabaster of the building. The upper floors taper to the top floor, which is a domed pavilion. The platform space around the pavilion has a red railing and offers terrific views of the City below and the mountains above. Above the pavilion flies the flag of the Maharajas of Jaipur. For Arjun, this is the penultimate challenge. How to get to that view?
How to see that which is only reserved to the few and the exalted? He walks carefully around the museum on the first floor observing everything that he can. He sees that there is a man down at the end of a lonely corridor. His job apparently is to watch the door leading into the main courtyard. Arjun figures that from there he can find the stairs he will need to take him to the high pavilion.
Arjun approaches the museum guard and engages him in conversation. Soon Arjun is offering a small bribe to the guard to be give him time to climb to the top of the palace for the view. Arjun shows the man his phone, with which he hopes to take a few quick pictures. Surely, he promises, I will return so fast you will hardly know I have gone. Raising the bribe a little, he finally succeeds with the guard, who opens a door onto the stone paved courtyard. The man points to where Arjun can find the nearest set of stairs.
Arjun Kamat is fit. What are a few flights of stairs to him? Taking them two at a time, he finally reaches the seventh floor. He steps into the pavilion and is greeted by intense sunlight flooding through its archways. He hears the royal flag nearby flapping in the wind and cranes his neck to see it. He steps into one of the small, railed in open spaces on either side of the pavilion. He looks outward from the front side of the palace and is agape at the view. He pulls his phone out and starts taking pictures of the City of Jaipur, his home, as seen from an angle that he is very unlikely to see again.
A man pokes his head out the stairs. He can see Arjun to his right. He looks back down the narrow stairway behind him and gives the men waiting there a signal with his hand before lunging the rest of the way onto the palace’s rooftop pavilion. In doing so his foot accidentally strikes the last stair, making him stumble.
The noise draws Arjun’s attention. At first Arjun thinks he has been discovered by the Palace’s security staff and his pulse quickens. The man is wearing a suit and tie after all. Who else could he be? What had seemed like a lark just a moment ago is now beginning to look a lot more like a mistake, one for which an additional price may well be exacted. In that instant Arjun freezes. He doesn’t realize that this could cost him his life.
“Mr. Kamat! I’m exhausted. I’ll tell you that,” a loud voice states.
The man seems to recover from his stumble quickly, moving with fluidity toward Arjun. Worse, that fluid motion carries with it two really scary looking guys, who waste no time in moving to either side of Arjun. It’s hot and sunny, but Arjun is used to it. All of a sudden th
ough, he feels the heat. Or is that just the body heat coming off the two big guys?
“Thanks for the tour of Jaipur’s most historic sites,” Mr. Suit remarks, nodding at the other two. They grab Arjun and pull him under the pavilion, backing him against the center of the five open arches. A push and he will fall into the courtyard seven stories below. He looks backward but Mr. Suit is saying something.
“Your attention please!”
The man slaps Arjun so hard that he thinks his head has come off his neck. It makes a sickening sound. He is totally stunned and can’t think.
The man pulls a knife and makes certain that Arjun sees it. But Arjun is unable to process what is happening.
“Mr. Kamat, I’m going to ask you a few questions and we don’t have a lot of time. We’ve been very patient following you around all day until this very moment. But now the patience runs out for you. If you fail to answer my questions, or even hesitate to do so, you will suffer the consequences.”
Arjun’s head is nodding and he has no idea why. He still can’t speak.
“Okay. Now listen to me. The USB stick from China. Do you have it?”
Arjun can’t believe he is being asked about this, but he tries to think. This takes too long and Mr. Suit slashes him across his chest, separating his t shirt and making an ugly cut, which makes Arjun cry out.
“No. I don’t have it.”
“Who does?” he is asked.
Again, Arjun hesitates. Again, Mr. Suit slashes him, this time on his right arm.
“Dammit! Zak. Zak has it. Zak and Kim, in Paris.”
Mr. Suit gets closer, in his face.
“Did he give you a copy?”
“No,” Arjun says flatly.
“I don’t believe you.”
Arjun gets stabbed in the thigh. One of big men slaps his hand over Arjun’s mouth to stifle his scream. After he stops Mr. Suit nods and the man moves his hand aside.
“Who else has a copy?”
Arjun is in shock. He can feel blood soaking his clothes. He feels panicky and thinks he is going to pass out.
“No one. There are no copies. Geezus!”
The man wipes the knife on the sleeve of Arjun’s shirt. His face turns down in an ugly grimace.
“I don’t believe you,” he says.
Mr. Suit gives him a deadly look. Abruptly, the knife in Mr. Suit’s hand arches toward Arjun’s throat, and in that second something finally awakens in Arjun. He lifts off his feet, leveraging himself with his arms still firmly in the grip of his two guards and uses his feet to hit his inquisitor squarely in the chest with all the force he can muster. An expression of surprise comes over Mr. Suit as the force of Arjun’s body in motion breaks him away from the big men and launches him like a projectile out the courtyard archway of the pavilion.
Arjun can see only sky as he falls backward, but there are several balconies below him that have overhanging roofs. Instinctively he flails, arms hitting one and then another roof painfully, slowing him down. Finally there is a third roof. This time he reaches for a roof and finds a purchase, breaking his fall however briefly. He cannot hold on. Instead, he falls another story and lands, on his back, on a large archway. The wind is knocked out of him and he is unconscious. His body is splayed prominently over the classic architecture and blood is splattered on his pale face.
Chapter 50
On Fire Page 49