How Raas hotel in Jodhpur, India, was just first step in restoration of Blue City’s squalid ancient quarter
The blue alleyways and bazaars of Jodhpur’s old walled city had seen better days until two brothers turned an old mansion into a luxury hotel. Fifteen more purchases and US$6 million later, the area is getting back into shape
Celebrity names tumble off the tongue of Kanwar Dhananajaya Singh as if he is listing the days of the week. “We’ve had Mick Jagger, the King of Sweden, Sting.” He stirs his masala chai, then tantalisingly adds: “Supermodels.”
Singh is clearly unfazed by the stars who have knocked back martinis beside the pool at Raas, the luxury hotel he opened in his hometown of Jodhpur in Rajasthan, northwest India, in 2010. That’s probably because, in India, he is royalty himself.
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His cousin Gaj Singh II became the Maharaja of Jodhpur at the age of four, after his father died in a plane crash. Although the royal, who was educated at British public school Eton, was derecognised in 1971 when India’s constitution was amended, he is still a pretty big deal.
In 2007, British actress Liz Hurley got married at his home, Umaid Bhawan Palace. And that imposing fort on the cliff side overlooking the entirety of Jodhpur? Well, while most maharajas handed over their costly estates to the government after derecognition, not Gaj Singh II. The fort belongs to him, too – Naomi Campbell threw a birthday party for her boyfriend there in 2012.
But this is just background to what we are here to talk about today. The Singh in front of me is currently promoting one of India’s most exciting privately funded heritage programmes: the restoration of Jodhpur’s ancient walled city.
The city is a maze of Brahmin blue alleyways and bazaars dating back to the 15th century which have an Arabic flair reminiscent of Chefchaouen, the blue town in Morocco’s Rif mountains. It is the colour of this quarter that earned Jodhpur the nickname “Blue City”, but in recent decades the area had become squalid and rundown.