Volvo XC60 - Fit For Royalty

We drive the XC60 to Narendra Bhawan, a Luxurious Boutique Hotel in Bikaner

- A.B. Sharma

The word luxury seems to be losing its charm these days. Anything from a phone to a sofa could be luxurious, and while I understand it may be possible as an exception, I think luxury is going down the ‘awesome’ or ‘brilliant’ route where mundane things are also called awesome or brilliant. We could blame it on the laziness of the current generation or just bad language, but I feel it is more since people don’t actually get to experience real luxury. And I found just the right place to go to, in the right car.

Rajasthan has been the home of luxury in India I feel. Yes, there were kings and palaces all over India but the splendour and luxury that you get to see in Rajasthan is unparalleled. The conversion of old palaces into hotels was taking Rajasthan the ‘awesome’ way, but if you skip the regular hotspots like Jaipur and Udaipur, you can find luxury how the kings meant it to be. My destination, Narendra Bhawan, is the home of the last reigning king of Bikaner HH Narendra Singh. Like all the kings in Rajasthan, HH Narendra Singh had a couple of palaces (Laxmi Niwas Palace, one of them is about two-km from Narendra Bhawan) but Narendra Bhawan was his home. A pretty big difference, then, and now, if you see both the properties.