At Dharohar and Jaipur vintage car rally

With Nandana Sen and John Makinson at the Rambagh Palace on Jan 16, 2014

Jaipur, January 19, 2014: I attended the Penguin Random House Dinner at Rambagh Palace on Friday evening. It was nice of John Makinson and Nandana to invite me.

With Amish Tripathy

Yesterday was a busy day again. I attended a lunch hosted by educationist Jayshree Periwal and family in honour of India's top selling author, Amish Tripathy.

From the lunch meeting I went to attend the 16^th Vintage & Classic Car Rally that is being organised in association with the Tourism Department, Government of Rajasthan. Thanks to Vinnie and Saurabh Kakkar who took me there and my thanks to Sudhir Kasliwal who had invited me to the function.

The vintage car rally is held in Jaipur every year and has already become a rage among the classic car lovers in the state. 

With Sudhir Kasliwal (file picture)

This time the timing, coinciding with Litfest has added yet another element of great event to the city's itinerary and especially when many foreign guests are flying in.

This two day vintage car exhibition is any car lover's dream. Some of the original beauties from the 1920s to the 1970s along with vintage models of the cars like Bentley, Jaguar, Ford, Rolls Royce, Chrysler, Rover, Hudson, Lancia, Buick, Daimler, Cadillac, Packard, and Studebaker, besides other classic makes were on display. It seemed like we were transported to some earlier era.

From there I headed to the litfest to participate at one of the sessions at the Jaipur Litfest called the Dharohar: The Legacy of Rajasthani Culture session at the Baithak. It was a discussion in which the sarpanch of Soda village, Chhavi Rajawat, promoter of folk music, K C Maloo, also participated. Eminent archaeologist and historian Rima Hooja moderated the discussion. 

The panelists put forth their views on the subject i.e., Rajasthani legacy. I expressed mine by saying that the society teaches us several things like traditions, culture and so on but for me legacy is of utmost importance. Songs sung by women in marriages to me are a part of a rich legacy. I said, sanskriti, samaj and parampara is our dharohar. In fact, dharorar is ritual in every aspect. To save our legacy and to continue with it, there has to be change, dharohar cannot be defined by the lines of caste, society or language. 
I further said that our social values, traditions and our lifestyle are what we call legacy. But there is no point following those traditions that have no relevance today. The purity of our art, craft and music, which is part of the desert state of state should be retained addressing erstwhile royals with titles like Maharaja and Maharani is no legacy. Also, singing bhanjans set to Bollywood tunes by no means imply the preservation of tradition - it is a sheer mockery of our cultural legacy.

With Chhavi Rajawat, Rima Hooja and K C Maloo

The discussion on the serious topic had its lighter moments and we shared a laugh or two. It was a very exhilarating experience for me.

At about 10:30 pm yesterday I went to an editor friend's birthday bash that on full swing when I left at around 1 am.

ess bee