Advertisement
Published: February 10th 2012
Edit Blog Post
On our way from Jaisalmer to Jodhpur we stopped off at a charity project which was a school for local 'untouchable' children. Hang your head in shame if you laughed when you read ‘untouchable children’, it’s not what you think and anyway this is serious and no laughing matter. Untouchables are the lowest of the 7 castes in India and as such the poorest and least educated. Those in this caste are rarely educated as their parents cannot afford school fee's and often do not understand the benefit of education as they have not received it themselves. The project we visited gives local untouchable children access to free education and thus hopefully more opportunities in life.
I am always a little dubious of visiting such projects as I wonder what benefit can be provided in a two hour visit. However the children did genuinely seem to enjoy meeting us and I also feel that I learnt more about the plight of these children and the difficulties they face. Whether I act on that though is a different thing altogether.
Whilst at the school we had a timed 'putting on a turban' competition which much to my surprise
I won! Not bad considering I had never touched a turban prior to this competition. The children also painted us with henna tattoos, some of the girls in our group got some really pretty designs done. I was hoping to get something nice done on my hand, however the boy who painted my hand (the only boy painting) was not blessed with a delicate touch and left me with a very silly looking squiggle on my hand. I did of course tell him that it looked great as he seemed so happy with his work and I didn’t want to disappoint him.
I was surprised to find that I really enjoyed the project and meeting the children and will look at similar projects in the future in a more positive light. Leaving the project after lunch we continued our drive to Jodhpur.
Jodhpur's blue houses and hill top fort looked beautiful as we descended the mountain road into the city. We checked into a lovely B&B guesthouse (more good accommodation, well done Drago) where a few of us interested in cooking helped the owner prepare dinner. For me this was not a chore but a free
cooking lesson and a fantastic insight into Indian cooking. The main lessons learnt were:
1. Use lots of oil
2. Use lots of salt
3. Cook on a ridiculously high heat and use lots of oil and salt.
4. If in doubt use more salt
I kind of guessed all of the above were important, but it was good see that my beliefs were infact correct. The meal was great but interestingly less salty and oily than many others we have had which made me think about the oil/salt content in them.....
The following day we visited Mehrangarh fort (you will notice forts become something of a common theme) which is one the largest and most impressive forts in India. The size of the fort and the intricacy of the ornate stone carvings were impressive, once again we used audio guides for the tour which were excellent. To learn more about the fort see the following link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mehrangarh_Fort
We visited Jodhpur market after the fort and headed for Mr omelette, a cafe world famous (or so we are told) for excellent omlettes, naturally we had to
try. I opted for a Micheal Baba omelette which was basically an omelette with everything in (potatoes, toms, peppers, onions, two types of cheese and a load of different spices) served between two thick slices of bread and topped with some spicy sauce and mayo, it was the greedy persons option basically. The omelette was actually really fantastic, although as with Sangria I believe the 'being on holiday factor' and ‘hype factor’ may have enhanced its taste somewhat.
Jodhpur market itself is well worth a visit, the fruit and veg on sale looks stunning and you can pick up clothes, leather bound notebooks, jewellery, spices etc at very good prices, unless of course you are like me and decide to buy things you don't need at prices that are higher than you would pay at home. Hence why I normally avoid souvenir shopping at all costs.
Next stop Pushkar......
Advertisement
Tot: 0.085s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 11; qc: 52; dbt: 0.0592s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
joan archer
non-member comment
Indian Food!
Not so sure I agree with the extra salt and oil Mark - that's why hypertension is such a problem in parts of Asia . The photographs of the children are lovely, how can they be thought of as 'untouchable' The omlette sandwhich reminded me of the food portions in America - is this Indian Style fast Food.?