Description: The Pataudi Palace is a spring chicken as far as historicity is concerned: it’s merely 20th century. Built in 1935 by Nawab Ibrahim Munsir and designed by Heinz, the sparkling white mansion looks very colonial, with its columns, high ceilings, marble floors and chandeliers. From the gate, we drove down a curving driveway of red earth, and reaching the palace, alighted at the foot of a short flight of white marble steps. On the left was the palace- smaller than most I’ve seen, but a palace nonetheless. On the right was the garden, all lawns, spring blossoms, and flowering trees. (Papa, on an early morning stroll, later had a chat with one of the seven gardeners, and was told about some trees, which "Nawab Sahib himself brought from Delhi and planted here").
The main palace has 11 rooms; the neighbouring building, once the Estate Manager’s house, has a further 5. The palace rooms are relatively large and cost upward of Rs 7,000 a night; the ones in the Estate Manager’s house cost between Rs 5,000 to Rs 6,000 a night. Meals are extra- between Rs 200 and 300 per person per meal.
Our room, which was called Muzaffar Mahal (all the rooms are named after the Nawabs of Pataudi), was a large, airy one on the first floor. It had a private balcony, marble floors, plush sofas, a large divan, a wardrobe, pretty twin beds- with slender brass bedposts and lovely blue bedspreads- and lots of pictures. The pictures in the Pataudi Palace, by the way, were what I liked best. The entire palace was full of paintings and photographs- of cricketers, royalty, monuments and more. They were, almost without exception, amazingly interesting.
The attached bathroom was clean and nice, but had its minuses. The bathtub was very slippery, and there was a step within the bathroom. My parents’ bathroom, and the one my sister’s family got, didn’t have any of these disadvantages; on the other hand, they didn’t have bolts or locks either. So quite a bit of that "Don’t come in, I’m in here!" stuff at frequent intervals.
On a happier note: the food. Like other Neemrana hotels, here too there isn’t a restaurant; there’s a buffet, with a combination of not-too-bad continental fare, and pretty good Indian food. And yes- the best vanilla icecream I’ve ever had (and this from someone who doesn’t care much for vanilla icecream).
There isn’t much to do in Pataudi Palace- we spent most of our time chatting, walking in the garden, and looking forward to our next meal. I discovered that Papa’s pretty good at billiards, and that my nephew Deb has got much better at badminton. Ah, the joys of a relaxing holiday…
Close