Johri Bazaar, Jaipur, is where you go to purchase the best trousseau in Rajasthan. From Sanganeri Gate you walk down, left and right, lanes and by-lanes, collecting one item after another. From the bichia for the toes all the way up to the bor worn above the forehead, the whole ensemble is available here in Johri Bazaar. Starting from the Hanuman Temple, going past Laxmi Mishthan Bhandar, the road will end at Badi Chopad. But before that you have to take a sharp left into a lane that goes to Katla. And that is where the trousseau shopping culminates. For here you get the perfect Rajasthani poshak, the kinds that Indian filmdom uses in an exaggerated fashion. In the corner of Badi Chopad, near the Ganesh Temple are the bangle sellers, and a little way past is where the famous thin cuddly Jaipuri quilt began its life, supposedly in the hands of Qadr Baksh.
As in all Asiatic old cities, this part of Jaipur is also its cultural heart. The essence of what it means to wear Rajasthani is made, sold, traded and ordered out of here. This is where craft, skill and marketing are on daily display. Weaving ever finer designs using the most delicate gold threads on gorgeously coloured georgettes, mating precious stone with equally precious metal, brilliant bangles that seem too fragile to touch. This is what old city Jaipur is about, and Johri Bazaar is at its core, its crafts centre.
A similar craft, and a similar skill, went into creating the madness behind the serial Blasts in old city Jaipur. The whole trousseau walk was littered with blood, bangles and ball bearings. Some are still embedded in the steel railing of the Hanuman Temple at Sanganeri Gate. The Panditji defiant about the force of that steel vis-à-vis his faith, and even more effusive than before. Fiercely foretelling the outcome of battles being fought, and battles to be won. Challenging the entire hysteria of victimhood, and defying the market for pop-psychologists that prey on such tragedies.
Panditji and his neighbours who live and work in the most Rajasthani of bazaars today epitomise the essence of the state — a steely resolve and a rugged determination to get on with life. Not for them that wail on camera. There is a pride, and a sense of satisfaction, when they tell you that all bodies were in hospitals within 15 minutes....
