Checking into Dera Mandawa at Jaipur

The mystery of traveling to an unknown destination is like learning to scuba-dive. One reads the training manuals of diving and gets into one’s diving attire and sits at the edge of the boat watching other divers effortlessly exploring the deep. You shiver in anticipation as you don the diving suit, the oxygen tanks and the the mouthpiece. Sitting at the edge of the water, you can feel the butterflies in one’s stomach. As you tumble into the water, you donot know how your maiden dive will turn out to be. A perfect dive and return to safety, an hair-raising experience and being rescued to safety or after all the preparation and practice, there is just no thrill..

One is writing this from the cool confines of one’s garden facing suite at Dera Mandawa, a boutique hotel with eleven tastefully decorated suites, located a short walk away from Mandawa Haveli on Sansar Chand Road.

My gracious host at this luxury homestay is Durga Singh Mandawa, who is a walking encyclopedia on Rajasthan. He is a natural trainer who has had four decades of experience in training guides on how to handle large groups of foreign tourists. Nahargarh fort is located 20 km. away from Dera Mandawa. So, Dera Mandawa offers one a unique opportunity to learn real history from Durga Singhji Mandawa himself. Like how the Indian Government abolished the privy purse and broke a promise made to the royal families of independent India.