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Published: April 6th 2009
Poolside in Jaipur
I've had some down moments in India (especially recently!), but this isn't one of them. I am sitting beside the lovely cool pool at Jas Vilas hotel in Jaipur drinking chai and using their wireless internet service. I stayed at this gorgeous place, run by a warm and aristocratic Rajasthani couple, three years ago when I was here with Caryl (my Canadian diplomat friend).
I can't actually afford to stay here so they have arranged for me to stay with their niece, "Dimple," at her homestay guest house nearby. And I can come over and swim in the pool and use the internet and have dinner, also, by the pool. They are such nice people!
The morning I left Pushkar, a wedding started amassing outside my window at Inn Seventh Heaven at about 7 a.m. The horses were the first to arrive. There were 10 of them -- one for each groom! -- and each was gaily decorated with colourful cloth and other raiments. It was an morning wedding, a massive celebration for 10 couples of the same caste in a wedding hall literally across the square form my haveli-hotel. I plunged into the colourfully-dressed
crowd asc the wedding procession -- bharat -- approached the hall. Ten grooms, on ten horses, filed past, each dressed in traditional Rajasthani splendour and looking very princley. Another one of those magical dream-like moments in India that you can barely believe is really happening. (Sometimes I have to pinch myself. Still.)
After leaving Pushkar, I took my first public bus in India (what took me so long, I wonder ...) and went to Roopanghar. (My aristocratic hostess here in Jaipur, Dimple, is related to the royal family of Kishanghar / Roopanghar.) The bus ride was hot and crowded, but it took only two hours, so it was very bearable. Luckily, there were no chickens or goats on the bus, but I did end up with two children on my lap. People stared at me, but overall they were very nice. A couple of girls, hoever, were completely fascinated by me and spent the entire two hours sitting on me or standing near me and staring and touching everything they dared! It was quite sweet, though their charm wore off after about an hour (when I started feeling a bit asphyxiated).
I stayed at Roopanghar on the advice
of Anoop, the charismatic man who owns the amazing Inn Seventh Heaven in Pushkar. I figured anyone who could run a place as good as that would know where to stay! And he was right. Roopanghar is an amazing place. It's a 400-year-old fort / palace that sits in the middle of a village that is completely un-touristy. Not a hippie in sight.
The palace was converted to a hotel some time back and the style is decidely shabby genteel -- which I love. Much more casual than chic or five-star. I really felt I was staying in an old Rajasthani fort, with the village and desert spread out below the thick stone walls.
From my window I could see the tarnished walls of the fort, and the setting sun. The first evening I was there, a massive male peacock alighted on top of an inner wall of the fort and I ran out to take a picture just as a camel safari was returning from the desert. It was an unbelievably picturesque and classic Rajasthani moment …. And I felt I was heaven. (In fact, peacocks are regular visitors to the fort and I became used to
their screeching cries as they strutted along the ramparts).
Outside my room in the other direction was a flat lawn, and I spent a pre-sunset hour doing yoga there, in the shade of a huge bougainvillea plant (my favourite flower). The first morning I was at Roopanghar, I went on a sunrise camel safari into the nearby desert with Laura and Jonathan, a couple of really great Brits who I met soon after we both arrived at the fort. We became an instant "threesome" when and were inseparable. After breakfast, the three of us walked throught the main street of Roopanghar -- a narrow laneway, really, lined with very small shops selling housewares, cloth and jewellry.
The whole place had a kind of feudal feeling to it, Rajasthani style, and we were the exotic sovereigns who emerged from the fort palace to walk among the people. Some villagers were deferential to us, some ignored us, some tried to sell things to us -- and some were downright aggressive. We were especially bothered by a very naughty boy who, we could tell, was going to grow into a trouble-maker. He kept threatening to hit us with a stick and
finally did hit Laura on the back of the legs before runnign off. At the market square, a thin, but very storng, tribal woman with leathery skin grabbed me aggressivley, demanding money for food. It was an unpleasant experience for me, though of course I understand that desert people live a hard life eking a living from a harsh and barren land. I felt so large and soft and well-nourished, standing beside her.
There are so many things I love about Rajasthan and people watching is definitely one of them! The women are amazing in their incredibly colourful saris and mounds of ornate jewellry. The men are so often handsome, tall and erect, with impressive moustaches and giddy turbans. The turbans are in ever greater sizes, and the styles and colours denote such things as caste, location, etc. I don't know the language of turbans, but it would be a good one to study.
Later, when my friends Laura and Jonathan moved over to the Phool Mahal fort palace hotel in Kishanghar, 25 kms away, I went with them and had lunch. Afterwards I returned on the local bus, escorted by Kamal, a very nice young man who
had to transport some wine. Kishanghar and Roopanghar are owned by the same royal family.
Kishanghar is also an amazing place to stay, and it has an entirely differnet feeling because the palace hotel sits beneath the walls of the Kishanghar fort (rather than in the fort, as in Roopanghar), facing a lake. I was thinking about my sister Victoria and her husband Gary, who are artists, and how much they would have loved the scene. The colours of the blue blue lake and green green plants growing on the lake were gorgeous -- very Monet. And green parrots, white egrets and all kinds of other exotic and colourful birds filled the air. It was beautiful there, and we had a fantastic lunch on the terrace overlooking the lake.
Alas, I had to leave my new friends as they were moving on to Jaisalmer and I was getting ready to go to Jaipur, in the other direction. Such is the life of a traveller! I've met so many wonderful people on this trip and of course had to say goodbye to all of them (though I am keeping in touch by email with Yahav, Diana, Krista and several
others).
The second morning in Roopanghar I got up at dawn to do my yoga practice on the terrace facing east, and I watched the sun come up as I did my surya namaskar. Asana practice at dawn is one of my favourite things to do in India, and I have done it many, many times.
I was going to stay a third day in Roopanghar, but everyone was leaving and I felt funny about being the only person staying in the huge, old fort. There was a French woman, with a car and driver, leaving for Jaipur, so I decided to hitch a ride with her.
On the way, we stopped at Kishanghar's Phool Mahal Palace Hotel as she wanted to see it, and then also at Tilonia village, the site of the Barefoot College. This description, below, is from their website:
"The Barefoot College began in 1972 with the conviction that solutions to rural problems lie within the community.
The College addresses problems of drinking water, girl education, health & sanitation, rural unemployment, income generation, electricity and power, as well as social awareness and the conservation of ecological systems in rural communities.
The College benefits the poorest of the poor who have no alternatives.
The College encourages practical knowledge and skills rather than paper qualifications through a learning by doing process of education."
We shopped at the crafts boutique and just walked around a little to see only a very small part of the huge "campus," which feels as if it's in the middel fo nowhere. However, I know from some research I did about it, that Barefoot College is a very successful and active development project. I am very interested in progressive development projects in India, especially when they benefit children and women, and would like to get more involved in something. Not sure what, yet .... but of course Aurovalley Ashram does lots of things to benefit the community so I will get my chance when I spend more time there.
We arrived in Jaipur in the early afternoon and the city felt very noisy, hot and polluted. Jaipur is the capital of Rajasthan, and it has a population of five million people. It's a big city by any standard, but especially after staying in Pushkar and Roopanghar -- both places have populations of about 20,000 people.
After the French woman and her driver droppe dme at Jas Vilas, Dimple came over to get me and take me back to her house, where I chose a room (she has five, and they were all empty). I was feeling lonely, and Dimple was kind enough to join me for dinner on the terrace. Dinner was cooked by her family's cook, and it was delicious. Rajasthani home-style cooking! Dimple's company, the good food and the lovely setting banished my lonely feelings and I fell into bed and watched TV for the first time since leaving Ajay's place ... which feels like a lifetime ago ...
I will write more about Dimple's guest house after I take some pictures. Today, I went shopping in Jaipur, in both the old city and new city. I bought Rajasthani textiles (a bedspread and matching cushion covers), some costume jewellry and a pair of jootis (leather shoes) -- all the things that Jaipur is famous for (except for gems, which I cannot afford).
So, I've been busy, getting to know Rajasthan, living through big life changes and I hope sowing some seeds for my future life as a writer, Indiaphile and
student.
Tomorrow I have a final day in Jaipur, and I may do something touristy (though I've been here before and have basically done all the toruisty things), and then off to Delhi on the shatabdi train and my last five days in India for this trip.
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the_wooh
non-member comment
oh, the colour
I think I would like Indai very much. The colour is super-natural and in my experience of the places I have loved... this colour radiates from the hearts of the people who live there! I am lining up a space for you to teach your teen class at...touch base and I can share this with you :)