Tourism Desk Moron - 1

Just as I thought I would wind up on my posts on Jaipur and continue with the rest of the posts I intend to write on my trip to Leh and the rest of Ladakh, Anil P asked me to share on a "single defining experience" of Jaipur and Rambodoc asked me to write on my "personal experiences with others" when I was in India.


With the above two requests in mind, I'll share a different kind of 'personal' experience I've had in Jaipur though I wouldn't want to term it as something 'defining.'


When my flight landed in Delhi, I made a couple of calls and to learn that my friends who were supposed to join me from other parts of India could not reach Delhi for another 3 days. The original plan was to meet up in Delhi and proceed to Manali immediately and subsequently travel to Leh and rest of Ladakh. "Do a bit of sightseeing around Delhi till we arrive" was the so-called helpful suggestion by them. Grrr. Spend 3 days wasting on sight-seeing a place I've already explored before? In 3 days I am capable of going on a pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina and return safeIy. I've in fact done a quick world tour in minutes. Don't believe me? Have a look at this.


So, partly in annoyance at their delay to meet up on the appointed day, also in a gesture of defiance and more on an impulse, I decide to make a trip to Jaipur all by myself and return only after they reach Delhi. Finally, to cut a long story short, only one could make it to Delhi and that too only up to Manali and then had to rush back from there because of an unexpected serious illness in the family, but that's another story altogether. I've put up a few details of it in this post.


In that same post, I've written about a Delhi businessman ("DB") and a Lufthansa air hostess that I met during the bus journey from Delhi to Jaipur. The lady was going to her in-laws where her husband and little kid were waiting in particular and I felt good for her as she was looking forward to a family reunion.


I had not made prior reservations in any of the hotels in Jaipur and upon inquiries with DB, who is a regular traveller there, and after making a couple of phone calls through his help, I made a booking in the same hotel DB usually stays in, and subsequently, we were picked up by the hotel's mini-bus from Jaipur bus-stop to reach that hotel. That's how DB and I ended up at the reception desk of the hotel together.


So this piece of writing is about:

DB, the Delhi Businessman - a decent and interesting personality, with whom I spent more time over breakfast next morning beside the lovely swimming pool after the morning work-outs;

FDM, the Front Desk Manager of the Hotel - a helpful but 'cant-understand-him-much-and-I-don't-need-to-either' kind of personality; and

TDM, the Tourism Desk Manager of the Hotel (hereinafter my abbreviation to TDM shall mean Tourism Desk Moron) - a …. well, what can I say? Read on and figure out for yourself what he is.


[to be continued]