Rajasthan is a Colour

How did we end up in the desert you ask? Well, to tell the truth, getting to Amritsar was becoming so difficult, that it wasn’t feeling like the advent of a vacation in the least. We found out that we could be guaranteed a seat on the train there, but not back.. And when we looked at all (and I mean ALL) the other modes of transportation up there, everything, every last seat, camel cart and bicycle, was booked. Which leads me to believe that visiting a temple that holds 30, 000 people at a time.. Might not be the best thing to do in 45 degree heat…surrounded by the aforementioned 30, 000 people.

So, we pretty much decided to head in the opposite direction to Rajasthan, and I’m so thrilled that we did. There’s this huge fort/castle down there that’s been converted into a beautiful hotel, which I really think is an excellent way of generating money to keep up the maintenance. Each room is different, so you don’t really know what to expect. We got the beautiful “Neelam Mahal” – decorated in blue and white. It was so fantastic, everything in blue Rajasthani print and white marble – it was like living inside a slice of Wedgewood-cum-Indian pottery. There is a long infinity swimming pool on the side that looks out over the tiny village and the start of the Rajasthan desert, we sat out there and felt quite like we were in another world. It’s a positively amazing place to just wonder around and explore – Bryan was right in saying that it would be a great place for kids to run around and play hide and seek.

We pretty much did that one night – they light up the fort with tiny white lights at night, so you can climb up onto terraces and lookouts. We sat up there and drank our red wine that we snuck in. The wind was so nice and warm and the wine was so good – I couldn’t believe that I was sitting in an ancient fort in the desert watching the moon come up.. The sky out there is a beautiful navy, with the stars and the moon and the glow of the villages it ends up looking like an embroidered sari pulled over the sky.

What we were told by everyone who had been there (and many, in fact, who had not) that Neermrana (the fort) was the only thing there to see. We decided to go down to the little (and by little, I mean miniscule) town of Neemrana, the forts namesake. That’s where I took the photos of the kids. I have some more, which I’ll post later. They were so sweet. The first little boy that I took a picture of just thrilled me. I took the photo (with the digital) and then motioned him over so he could see. He just about had a baby heart attack. He kept examining himself, then looking intently into the camera at himself, then up at me with the most amazing look on his face, like he really couldn’t believe what he was seeing. Needless to say, he attracted a lot of other children. I’d take a picture of them, and they would all run over to the camera. One of the older kids would stand really close, and call each kid up one at a time by name to peer at them selves on the screen. They were amazed – it was really sweet. I forget the things I take for granted, like digital cameras, can be really interesting to others.

The gentleman who’s shop we were in front of (and the father of a couple of the kids) asked if I might send him some of the pictures. He got one of the kids to run to get somebody who could write out his address for him – turns out the young man that they brought back was a business student in Delhi. He took us to his silver jewellery shop (they were making everything right in front of us, him and his brother) where I fell in love with a pair of earrings and a bracelet. The bracelet is kind of a bangle made of wood, edged in silver, and the earrings are made of the same wood and tipped in silver. They cost me next to nothing, and I’ve already gotten a plethora of compliments about them. It was really sweet – Bryan understands my sudden problem that I’ve developed, this buying of jewellery thing. (Even people who have known me for years have rarely seen me with earrings.. now when I have shoppers guilt I wear them to bed.. ;-) So he just sits quietly while my heart rate rises and I spend laudable amounts of money. The young silversmith asked if we were newly married, because Bryan was so patient with his young wife, and oh how that would quickly change. We just about died. It’s easier to feign marriage here than get the sideways glances when you say you’re just friends. So we had a good laugh pretending to be married…and waiting for Bryan’s newlywed patience to wear thin.

Our new friend asked if we had seen the step well of Neemrana, (which we were planning on going to) and offered to take us. It’s the difference between big towns and these fantastic villages – everybody just wants to show you things, have you meet their family, show you their life and their town. They have little interest in your money or your possessions, just your stories and your friendship. It really is different.. so wonderfully different. So we started walking towards the step wells.

It wasn’t long before our young friend encountered a friend riding a camel with a camel cart behind. He wanted to catch up with his friend, and asked if we wouldn’t mind riding in the cart (a term used loosely for a wooden platform with wheels) to the step wells. What luck. A guide, and a camel cart ride, all in one! Needless to say, all the other villagers going by on camels were more than a little surprised to look back and see us sweltering in the sun.

There isn’t a pat way to describe step wells. Basically they were used for surprise military attacks. When you look across a flat field, you can’t see anything but some bricks that appear to be laid out like a basement. When you get closer.. it’s amazing. There is a stairwell that basically descends down about 500ft into the earth, down to a well at the bottom. The stairwell is about 20 ft wide, wide enough, I suppose, for military men to rush up and attack. It’s about the size of 3 Olympic swimming pools at the top, if you were looking down on it. When you’re near the bottom, looking up – it really is stunning. The setting sun coming in illuminates the sandstone, and it glows this warm, beautiful color. The shadows and the birds flying within lend to this completely cathedral like atmosphere, where you can imagine the women (it was built almost exclusively by women) walking down to draw up water, and ascending the hundreds up steps back into the heat of the desert. It really is quite cool at the bottom, a welcome relief from the completely arid desert above.

Traditional Rajasthani dress is full of shockingly bright colors. Being used to the dull, dingy, somewhat dirty style of Delhi, it was so pleasant to see the beautiful colors everywhere. You can pick out Rajasthani women in Delhi easily, just by their amazing saris. Some of the women on road crews (as an aside, there is an interesting division of labour – from what we saw and what I read, primarily women do all the farming, road work, building, and the men do a lot of the artistic work – jewellery, cloth making, sari sewing.) actually had fluorescent saris. They wear a great deal of silver and gold jewellery on the wrists, arms, ears, noses… Everywhere. (They better if their husbands are the jewellers.. ;-) To walk through the villages painted the beautiful greens and purples and blues that is so common in India, and see the phenomenal flashes of yellow and green and silver and gold.. It was like walking through a set of oil paints, so vivid and saturated were all the colors.

It really was a wonderful weekend. I would recommend it to anyone and everyone – not only the fort, but to walk down into the village and explore, meet all the amazingly kind people and walk (or ride, if you’re lucky!) to the step wells. I still can’t believe my luck at living in a place like this, where a two hour car ride takes you to another world. I don’t think I ever will.