The fort hotels of Rajasthan have been a favourite of mine for quite some time but due to plentiful of International projects, we haven’t been able to do justice to the beautiful heritage properties. So when an opportunity arose for me to head to Udaipur, I wasn’t going to miss out and headed out to explore. Although I had been to Udaipur as a kid and thrilled by the story of Maharana Pratap, the memories were starting to fade, it was time to refresh those memories.
Located about two hours away from the Udaipur airport, the Justa Hotels Nahargarh Fort is an ancient hunting lodge that has been converted into a hotel along with a man-made lake surrounding it. But this wasn’t some regular hotel review that we were headed off to. Justa Hotels was sponsoring an art residency, Chitrashaala where artists from all over the world come to stay together and paint. In already it’s fourth installment, the Chitrashaala featured 44 artists from 13 countries. Under the aegis of renowned art curator, Mr Anirudh Chari, the artistes arrived about a week earlier to set up their easels and fir their imaginations. What resulted on the final day of Chitrashaala completely blew my mind as a cornucopia of colours, textures and expressions set up the canvases like I had never seen before.
With a good mix of international talent admixed with quite a bit of local talent(especially from West Bengal), the ideologies varied from personal experiences from their homes to those found in India. Quite a bit of the inspiration also came from the neighborhood villages of Boondi where the small paintings take place along with the Chittorgarh Fort.
Coming back to the hotel, you are taken across the lake in a speedboat before a traditional welcome below gigantic chandeliers, quite reminiscent of the royalty of the past. The corridors are set on two floors around a square garden which also doubles up as a courtyard and centre for performance. There is also a swimming pool where you can enjoy along with a dining hall that serves the best of Indian and Rajasthani flavours.
So the nest time you’re planning to head to Udaipur, do check out Justa Hotels as your accommodation partner.
