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Published: February 7th 2007
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Despite the previous night’s sleeping pill, I woke up at the crack of dawn. I couldn’t get back to sleep so I took a shower (no bathtub), brushed my teeth (with bottled water), threw on some clothes (thank God for clean clothes), and went to see if I could get access to the internet via the hotel’s guest internet PC. My international cell phone wasn’t working in Jaipur so I couldn’t call Tom and tell him that although the previous day had been one the most overwhelming of my life… I was indeed still alive. Guess what? The internet didn’t work. Big surprise there! So I decided to sit in the courtyard and just try to chill out and absorb everything that had happened in the last week.
There was a little German boy playing in the courtyard. He was feeding some pet rabbits that were in a cage. Whoever would’ve thought I could relax by watching a little kid playing? It’s a true indication of just how out of whack I am. Michele joined me in the courtyard about 45 minutes later just as the little boy was deciding that the best thing to do was let the bunnies
out of their cage. Michele went over and stopped him to my chagrin. I was fully prepared to sit there like a vegetable and watch the bunny fiasco that would’ve ensued. Don’t ask me where that kid’s parents were!
We had breakfast at the hotel where we met the owner of the hotel’s wife, Mrs. Singh. She was responsible for running the place. A very nice woman. We checked out the hotel, did a daylight inspection of our wrecked car. Determined it was a big dent, but safe to drive. Then we set off for the Hawa Mahal.
I snapped the next picture as we were leaving the hotel. It is of a painting above the hotel entrance archway. If you look closely you can see it is a painting of a human body with an elephant’s head. This is one of the significant God’s in the Hindu religion: Lord Ganesha. The Hindu believe that a goddess Parvati was disgusted with her husband Lord Shiva because he would not grant her any privacy - especially when she was taking bath (God do I know that feeling!). She created a son out of soap and told him to stand
guard at her bathroom door while she bathed. Her husband Lord Shiva arrived and the son forbade him entrance into his mother’s bathing chamber. Angered, Shiva cut off the child’s head - not knowing it was his son. When the wife realized what her husband had done she was grief stricken, threatened to destroy heaven and earth and told him he had killed his own son. So Shiva told his men to go out of find the head of the first living thing facing East and bring the head to him. An elephant was the first thing they found. So the elephant’s head was attached to the child’s body and that’s why this God looks like that. I don’t know what he is a god of… but you see drawings, statues, and renditions of him everywhere.
Back to the Hawa Mahal… We parked in the same parking lot as the day before and began to forge our way back through the onslaught of high pressure street vendors to reach the Hawa Mahal. They were easier for me to handle the second time around. Along the way, I saw this cow eating a pile of garbage in the street. At
last an actual garbage man, or garbage cow!
The Hawa Mahal is a thin building built by the same Maharajah that built the City Palace. It actually is an extension of the City Palace and the name means palace of the winds. Its purpose was to give the women of the palace a place to view the activities in the city streets below without being seen. Royal women were to be hidden from sight. The building is still facing the same street it did hundreds of years ago when the city was first founded.
There are little vestibules with tiny little windows that have stone chiseled screens. The idea was to let the women see out, but provide enough of a barrier that the public could not see the women. It’s made of the same pink sandstone for which the city is famous. Someone said there are almost 1000 windows in the structure - hence the reason it is called palace of the winds when there is a breeze.
We climbed to the top - lots of stairs and lots of ramps. I tried
to get some pictures to give you an idea of what the little vestibule rooms look like. I also took some pictures of the street below to try to show you what the street looks like with the street vendor shops lining the road and the early morning Sunday traffic. (This traffic was very light compared to the day before - just to give you some perspective.) In one the street views, you can see a little balcony area where the king and his buddies could sit outside and watch the public.
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tsdjr
non-member comment
Yikes
Rod Stewart was right.