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Published: November 29th 2014
Bundi, Rajasthan November 25th 2014 “
You don't stop laughing when you grow old, you grow old when you stop laughing” George Bernard Shaw “
You can free yourself from aging by reinterpreting your body and by grasping the link between belief and biology” Deepak Chopra “
I grow old . . . I grow old . . .
I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled” T.S. Eliot, The Love-Song of J. Alfred Prufrock Vanities run deep in our personal responses to ageing.... and we are faced with truths that are unavoidable (funny that word contains the word 'void') about non-permanence: all things must pass including ourselves. It is what it is: 'suchness'. Once we accept and become comfortable with our inevitable death, a whole new world of possibilities emerge. Or so I find. Of course the young might say “yeah right.... you
would think that or what?” Fair enough.... we do what we do, and what we do does, if little else, fashion our own illusions about reality. And a
note about being young: I wish back then I didn't know what I don't know now.
I was confronted last week with the fact that while I look out from this body as a 25 year old still, that is not what others see looking in. I was on the Delhi Metro and it was standing room only. I was offered a seat by this middle aged guy. What? The older (I say older but.....) guy sitting next to it pointed at the sign 'This Seat Reserved or Senior Citizens'. Ouch. But this was mild in comparison to a past younger lover telling me that one of the reasons we should now 'just be friends' was because I was 'retired' and that she wanted to 'build something' (with someone not too much older than herself)..... Apparently I am beyond building anything.
And so, at a time when I accept I am getting old (well I am getting old but I don't often feel it), I find myself back in a favourite haunt.... Bundi. Appropriate, because what I really like most about this place is the timelessness of its back-streets and the old traditional
hawalis to be found there.
These residences in particular are the real charm of Bundi... with their colours and painted doorways, and their exquisite internal and external architecture. They are the 'gold' of Bundi, and many a visitor pleads with the locals to preserve this heritage at all costs..... that this is what will keep visitors coming. Too often modernisation is taken on blindly in the belief that this will somehow improve the attraction that is the oldness of a place. It's my fourth time here in as many years, both because I just like it and because it's on my 'route' when I travel back and forth between Pushkar and Himachal Pradesh.
Bundi is about 200 km south east of Ajmer and has stunning ornate forts, palaces, and step-wells (
baoris). It became a princely state under Rao Deva Hada in 1342. The Taragarh Fort dates from this era and, together with Bundi Palace, covers the hillside overlooking the city. On one's first visit to Bundi, as the highway turns and the city comes into view, the vista of this hillside is mythical and mind-blowingly impressive. The Palace has on its walls and ceilings some of the most beautifully colourful and detailed murals and
Bundi Jazz lives
This guy plays in a wedding function band... the surprise was that he was a veritable Louis Armstrong on Jazz.... a real find ... felt like I was in the backstreets of New Orleans or perhaps Havannafrescoes to be seen in India. In the middle of the city is the largest of some 50
baoris, the intricately carved Rani Ji ki Baori, 46 m deep and dating from the 17
th century.
The city itself is pretty layback by Indian standards and apart from one small touristic section within the old fort precinct, has very normal everyday markets that wind through fort gateways and around
baoris. People are genuinely friendly and helpful and interested in meeting foreigners, albeit many have very basic, if any, English. Outside in the countryside surrounding Bundi are some really lovely lakes and buildings, plus temple complexes (some up narrow valleys with waterfalls).
I seem to always stay at least one day longer than I had planned.... but there grows a strong urge to come back here one day and stay for many weeks. Maybe soon.
It would be a nice place to grow older in – a day at a time.
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Home and Away
Bob Carlsen
Ouch...
When I was younger, I would stop doing things before I got to the point that I couldn't because of age. I figured that this way I wouldn't feel I was growing older. But I recently turned 65 and now I want to do things just to see if I can. My wife thinks I'm nuts to want to walk the 500 mile Camino de Santiago de Compostela.