Jodhpur, founded in 1459 by Rao Jodha, is the second largest city in Rajasthan and is known as the Blue City. Jodhpur is part of Marwar, which encompasses the western part of Rajasthan. Although the pronunciation is similar, this should not be confused with Mewar, the region we had just left that includes Udaipur and the southern part of Rajasthan.
By now, we had been in India for about three weeks and we were all in agreement that India is not the easiest place to travel. The food is rich and often spicy with few neutral options available. Motorbikes, tuk tuks and cars honk non-stop. The roads are not pedestrian-friendly and we often have to fight for space with vehicles and animals. It is crowded and the idea of personal space differs from what we are used to. People do not hesitate to grab one of the kids if they want a photo with them or grab our arm if they want to get our attention. The only time we could feel at ease was when we were at home. We tried to spend more time at home, but we could not shake off the feeling of being burnt out.
After a day of rest, we were all still fatigued but Leo and I were motivated to get out and explore this new city. RY felt differently and wanted to stay at the house so we left him at home while the rest of us hopped on a tuktuk and headed for the heart of Jodhpur, Ghanta Ghar, the clocktower. We arrived in the center of town and found ourselves caught in a sea of activity. It was so crowded with cars, motorcycles, tuktuks and people that we had to be dropped off half a kilometer away because traffic was at a standstill. There were shops and street vendors selling all manner of things ranging from clothing, fruit, home goods, pots and pans, handicrafts, etc. Some men but mainly women, many dressed in traditional saris with their heads covered, were browsing through the goods on offer, haggling for the best price and buying what they needed for the coming week. We were so busy weaving around shoppers and vehicles to avoid colliding with them that we didn’t have much of a chance to browse around ourselves.
We found out later that Friday is market-day and all of the ladies from the countryside come into town, favoring Sardar Market, to do their shopping. We would find out later that on other days, the town market wasn’t nearly as chaotic.
We made our way through the market and arrived at Ghanta Ghar, the famous clocktower of Rajasthan. The clocktower was built during the colonial era by Maharaja Sardar Singh between 1880 to 1911 and its architecture shows its colonial influence. It is believed that the clocktower was of symbolic significance, constructed to represent the prosperity and importance of Jodhpur. It also had a practical purpose to help residents of Jodhpur keep accurate time during an age when clocks and watches were rare in India.
We had gotten a late start that day and quickly realized that it was already well into the afternoon. We found a small restaurant with a beautiful view of Mehrangarh Fort and proceeded to have a late-lunch. We browsed through the menu which offered only a few food choices. We suspected most items were spicy. One item that was on the menu was Maggi noodles. Under normal circumstances, we seldom eat instant noodles and consider them a “treat”. We might occasionally have instant noodles when we are traveling or as a jet-lag meal. The kids sometimes request instant noodles on their birthday. But we are not under normal circumstances so I suggested we order the Maggi noodles. First, we had to confirm with the waiter that the noodles were not spicy. Not just not spicy, but zero spice. Nikhil had taught us to request “less than zero spice” to really get our point across. The waiter confirmed that the noodles were “less than zero spice”. We’ve been in this situation before where the waiter assures us that the food is not spicy only to have it arrive spicy. Leo and I didn’t want to end up eating 4 portions of spicy Maggi noodles ourselves so we only ordered two portions so we could judge for ourselves that they really weren’t spicy.
While we were waiting, we enjoyed the views of Mehrangarh Fort and listened to the call to prayer from a mosque in the streets below. The Maggi noodles arrived and we all tasted it. The noodles were overcooked, too salty and completely lacking in any nutrition, but they were just what we needed. It was comfort food and it was delicious. The kids gobbled up the two portions in a couple minutes. We ordered three more portions to make sure each of us could have our fill of the delicious Maggi noodles.
Now that we knew about Maggi noodles, I was already planning in my mind to cook it at home. On the way back, we stopped by a small shop near our house and bought a few packs of Maggi noodles and eggs. When we used to have instant noodles in Shanghai, I always cooked it with some leafy greens and eggs. Since we didn’t have any leafy greens, just eggs would have to do. Once we got home, I cooked RY a pack of Maggi noodles with an egg. I could tell from the look on his face that it was exactly what he needed. And that was the first of many Maggi noodle meals in the coming weeks.
