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Nowhere else but in Bundi will you:
- Find tribal virtually clamoring for their purchases at silversmith shops.
- Finally find yourself tempted to eat Kachori, a popular fried savory.
- Chitrashala- a treasure-trove of the finest Bundi murals.
 Looking from the main National Highway from Jaipur to Kota, Bundi seems like a lost city excavated out
of earth for pure academic interests. The Garh Palace which dominates the city-scape looks as if it came out
of the hill on its own. From wherever you look the palace of Bundi is the most imposing of all the forts in
Rajpootana, a famous writer once wrote. Kipling stayed here for a while, exactly at the time when its small
palace rooms were being painted with murals on missionary scale.
The Bundi murals have made Bundi the home
of a distinct and highly evolved school of art. Scenes of mythology and palace-lives come alive in these
painted-rooms and they reach the zenith of fine art as you reach the section of palace known as Chitra-shala.
The city in its heydays was indeed a great oasis of art and celebrations in the midst of ruggedness and
wilderness surrounding it.
The Taragarh fort on the hill top with its massive bastions and big water
reservoirs were made to keep the city well protected. Once a year before the annual monsoon rains the
water tanks were emptied flushing the cobblestone studded sloping streets of the whole city! The city itself
was given a liberal share of water tanks, ponds and beautifully ornamented step
wells-quite a feat in expert water management once upon a time when a source of fresh water made
available close to every doorstep.
 Today, walking in the old city will make you feel like walking in the past- citizens still have
enormous time to share with you. There is air of warmth and friendliness everywhere. Houses forever seem
to get fresh coat of paint. Men wear impossibly large turbans and women are in their colorful best.
The whole social strata exist outdoors- you get to know everything happening in the town by joining in
the gossips at crowded tea stalls and sweets shops. Bundi has an amazing taste for Indian savory – Kachori,
found at every sweets shop the aroma of heeng can be felt from a big distance away. The Lassi at
Saathi located close to the Garh is probably the best in India. However the most amazing common scene
on Bundi streets is the large presence of clearly recognizable tribal men and women at silversmiths shops
virtually jostling for space to make their sales and purchases. You may probably not see anything like
this elsewhere. Walks on Bundi streets and inner lanes at different times of the day reveal a different
beauty of the historic town. As if you are discovering it by accident.
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