Haldio-ka-Rasta - Cultural Heritage of Jaipur

 Haldio-ka-Rasta - Cultural Heritage of Jaipur

Johari Bazaar in Jaipur is the identity of the Pink City. It epitomises the indigenous 

culture, where tradition and heritage are both kept alive and surprisingly in tune with 

modernity, without loosing their identities. 

The heart of Johari Bazaar lies in it’s bylanes , the most distinctive of which is the 

Haldio-ka-Rasta. I visit the place once in a year, near about the Makar Sankranti day on 

January 14, a festival which religiously comes on this particular date, unlike other festivals, 

dates of which vary every year according to the Hindu calendar. For me, this has become 

an annual “pilgrimage” and I do not want to miss it ever. 

Haldio-ka-Rasta is the most vibrant and traditional bazaar, I have ever seen, not even 

in Benaras which is considered to be the most ancient city, mother of Hindu culture and 

tradition in north India. The narrow lane is replete with a variety of shops, the jewellers, 

the top two of Jaipur , the Suranas and Malirams with number of other siblings are all there, 

displaying costume jewellery in silver, gold and the Jaipur famous kundan work along with 

the coloured stones, emeralds, rubys, diamonds and a variety of others not commonly 

known, studded in various kinds of ornaments. The big names cater to the rich, the smaller 

ones are for the not so rich – jewellery all the same for everyone. 

Intertwined with the jewellers, are the sweet shops, freshly prepared sweets of 

different types kept in big open ‘thalis’ almost projecting on the street is something one can 

not resist. Middle aged people in white dhoti-kurta sometimes a ‘pagri’ on head, typical of 

business community are often seen on these shops collecting ‘rabri’ or ‘barfi’ in small 

packets, and ‘pheni’ from the famous ‘Sambhar pheni walla’, a small inconspicuous shop at 

the corner. The ‘phenies’ he sells are prepared in ‘desi ghee’ and are indeed a delight for 

the connoisseur. My pilgrimage to the lane ends with this shop. In between are a couple of 

‘samosa-kachori’ shops, small narrow cubical like things. What hits ones eyes straight is 

the big steel ‘karahi’ parked on a gas ‘chula’ with sizzling hot oil in which are floating

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samosas and kachoris in turn, getting fried; when ready, they are churned out and moved to a 

big ‘thal’ on the counter. The site of hot samosas and kachoris, fresh from the oven, is too 

good to escape anybody’s mouth watering. Herd of people standing, mostly younger group 

in pants and shirts, some in kurta-pajama, can be seen savouring samosas and kachoris 

slightly crushed in a ‘dona’ with sumptuous sprinkling of ‘imli sonth’ and ‘green chatni’. 

The relish on their faces is unmistakable and infectious. 

There is an assortment of shops like ‘Supariwala’ with silver wrapped ‘suparis’ and 

cardamom, ‘Sariwalla’ displaying ‘bandhage saris’ and several such others on both sides of 

the lane. But above all, which come storming on your eyes are the kite shops, they become 

stunningly alive during the Makar Sankaranti days. The shops bulging with kites, thick 

stacks piled in front, dozens and dozens of them with multicoloured geometrical designs, 

mostly bold glittering colours, black, red, green, yellow, purple and the likes are displayed 

on vertical shelves. The multitude of colours in all their glory and gaity could rival the 

colourmost extravaganza of holi revelers. The kites in all their manifestations are there all 

over the shops covering everything there except the shopkeeper peeping out of the piles 

expectantly. The customers of all hues, children, adolescents, young and middle aged 

clustering a round the shops, buying in singles, doubles and dozens, kites of different 

shapes, size and colour along with the inevitable ‘charkhi’ of ‘patang dori’. The buyers 

radiate an exuberance of festivity around them adding a very distinctive and rare character 

to the lane. 

On the whole Haldio-ka-Rasta is at it’s vibrant most with a highly charged 

atmosphere during the Makar Sankaranti days. I have never experienced such an atmosphere 

oozing with energy and activity at any other time. A milling crowd, jostling with each other 

moving shoulder to shoulder, pell-mell, disorderly and yet orderly enough not to touch the 

other person barely an inch away. Each seem to be rushing but not too fast, not too slow, in 

a hurry and yet leisurely with faces relaxed and radiant unlike the pensive crowd of 

corporate world rushing to meet the targets - “no time to stand and stare” , as some poet 

had said. Haldio-ka-Rasta wallas have all the time to stand and savour samosas; stare at the 

kites, jewellery etc and relish the visual delight and feel charged with the vibrancy of the

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lane. The coexistence in the lane is astonishing. There are children, young and old, mostly 

male with some female moving together like a joint enterprise, dressed generally in desi 

attire, kurta-pajama-dhoti, some in pants and shirts, ladies in sarees, girls in salwar-kurta 

with a dupatta, very much unlike those in the modern shopping malls and the coffee 

houses where they are there often in abashedly tight dresses. It is funny but exciting to see 

in the lane once in a while a cattle moving nonchalantly with the crowd, a dog or two 

zigzagging through the pedestrians from one end of the road to the other and more often a 

scooter precariously spiraling it’s way through the maize of humans, horning all the time, 

though it’s sound gets muffled in the hustle and bustle of the lane. Fortunately, there are 

no motor cars moving, if they were there, they would have to be carried on ‘palkis’ during 

this period. It is miraculous to see the jostling traffic moving so smoothly like wave front 

in a sea. 

When I move in the Haldio-ka-Rasta from one end to the other, I get a feeling of 

togetherness, living with the community as a whole, enriched by the ‘desiness’ all around. 

The pace of life in a peaceful coexistence - the cultural heritage of Jaipur. 

Jaipur