Ajit Bhawan

My family has lived in Jodhpur for a long time, and Ajit Bhawan on Circuit House Road is basically our home that we opened up to guests. It’s not like those modern hotels with shiny floors and glass walls. Here, we have old stone walls that keep the heat out and big courtyards where the sun hits the tiles just right in the morning. We have these old vintage cars parked outside that belonged to my grandfather, and they still look pretty good despite the dust. Most of the people working here have been with us for decades, and they know every corner of the place better than I do. It gets a bit noisy with the peacocks around dawn, but that’s just part of living in this part of Rajasthan. We don’t have fancy touchscreens or robots. You get a heavy metal key for your room and we use old family recipes in the kitchen that haven't changed since I was a kid. Sometimes the plumbing is a bit temperamental, but we fix it as soon as someone says something. The gardens take up a lot of our time, just keeping the flowers alive in the heat. People come here to sit under the trees and escape the city noise. It’s a quiet, slow kind of life, and we like it that way. We just keep the place running and make sure everyone has enough tea and feels comfortable while they are staying with us.