OK, I am back on my feet and healed in Jaisalmer. I have spent the past few days exploring the golden fortress, going to the Sahara-esque sand dunes, and then looking at the merchant havelis (mansions) in this very cool former trade route town.
Jaisalmer was a major link along the camel trade route for silk, spices, perfume, etc. right up until partition in 1948. Since the border with Pakistan was sealed then, the trade coming through the town has all but stopped. In it's place the new main source of income for the town is tourism. There is a beautiful "golden fort", that as I said before is still occupied, as well as a lake (well, a lake-ish kind of thing - we are in the desert), and miles and miles of open space around (the Great Thar Desert).
As in everywhere else I've been in India, the cows rule the street. But in this smaller town (less than 100,000), like also in Pushkar, they rule even the narrrow city streets. Cows eat much of the daily refuse (sometimes even plastic
which makes me sad - apparently there is a guy in one of the big cities who goes around doing cow surgeries for these poor animals). I like here though that you can see the cows poking their heads into their master's houses as if to say "where's my dinner?". It's quite the sight. One I imagine is difficult to ignore if you're calmly watching cricket in your house or cooking as meal.The old merchant havelis are very cool. Ornate carvings, intricate fanning and cooling systems, the ever-present security features to trick or slow marauders and hide their money.
The other thing to mention here is about Jaisalmer Fort in general. The fort is sinking back into the hilside. Restoration experst suspect that the heavy water use of the fort denizens (especially hoteliers) creates more than the sewer system can handle and thus causes erosion. I chose not to stay in the fort for this reason. But it seems that hotels there are alive and kicking. In general, the state of preservation seems strained a bit here. I can understand this, it's not like the government has enough money just to work on literacy or clean water or sewage. But still, it can be sad. Alot of the Havelis are privately owned and rely on leveraged "donations" on top of their admission fees or
sales of trinkets, etc. to keep up their places (or in some cases perhaps lived on the donations and let the places fall apart). I had an interesting conversation at dinner last night with a man who was in town for the big Desert Festival that starts tomorrow (camel races, Mr. Desert contest - picture long twirling mustaches, horse races, etc.). He was an official with the Rajasthan Dept of Tourism and we talked about various festivals, his job, what has happened in tourism since he started in the early 70's. I think he was at my hotel to collect a little baksheesh. The servers brought him out wrapped bottles of whiskey that seemed to me to be "presents" for him (he shared with me). Also, he was very keen in me getting people to come to Rajasthan and told me if my mother wanted to come he could help her make arrangements. Also, he talked about his daughter and son who both wanted to study in the US at the "O-yo" university (it took me awhile to figure out he meant Ohio). He was nice, but sadly I've grown to be somewhat suspicious of nice people who just approach you. A result of all the factors that make India what it is: friendliness, chattiness, poverty, caste, thievery (there is supposedly a traditional Rajasthani dance to the theft deity Baba Ramdeo), curiosity, poverty, poverty (did I mention poverty), and in the case of tourists lots of competition for our relatively meager offerings. The amount of money we drop for a bottle of Pepsi could represent a significant chunk if not all of someone's average daily salary. Yikes. Anyways, I liked him and kept his card. I don't know if I'll refer Mom to him though...Yesterday when I went out to the dunes I did a very short camel ride - about 1 km - out to the "sunset view" area of the dunes. See me here on my camel! It was fun, but a bit tricky, getting on and off. They actually lie down, then you
climb on, then they stand up. But they stand up back feet first so you're at quite an angle for the first bit and have to hold on tight! They are also quite vociferous. When the camel tenders try to get them to stand or sit the camels turn their heads to look right at them and groan as if to say "what? again? leave me alone!" The dunes are a bit of a scene as usual for any place frequented by tourists. Little boys mob you and ask you for money, "pens for school", to buy very expensive drinks and snacks, etc. Little girls dressed in traditional garb go around with musicians and try to get you to pay for them to do a traditional dance or song. My sense - though I'm not an expert - is that these are gypsies. Maybe outside the caste system. So, in a manner very out of character for Indian women or girls, they can be very direct with you - making eye contact, etc - and very pushy. I've noticed this with some women all around Rajasthan, not only the girls. Smiling, chatting, making eye contact with men. This is not at all usualy behavior for women in most of India. I did some shopping at a women's cooperative and paid more than I would have for a nice hand-decorated wall tapestry. The woman at the store was telling me how she got about doing this. She went to university, studied art and history, learned to speak english very well, etc. Now she is 28, still not married, and feels that when her parents bring suitable prospects around she has the economic viability, maturity, and strength to say "yes" or "no" (she says "mom, dad, I have to live with this person my whole life!"). She told me just last week she had a good prospect - very handsome, intelligent, said he didn't drink at all. Then, that night by mistake she ran into him drinking with his friends and she went and got her parents right away and brought them to where he was partying with his friends and said "this is what you want for me?" Anyways, it was fun to talk with her and I hoped that the money I paid was in fact going to support women's lives (my new theory about India is that while you can't really control whether or not you are going to get ripped off - unless you want to really have a miserable time and make everybody exasperated with you - you can control WHO rips you off, or who you give your money to). Interestingly, she also told me - and I have noticed this - that there are almost no women merchants. The merchants in the town in fact despise her, because she is "doing men's work" by running a shop that is not beauty or henna-painting oriented. All the palaces/forts/havelis I've seen have had entirely separate wings for the women, with usually sneaky passages or doors for the man's "nightime visits" (as the guides like to say). So this is part of a long-standing tradition.
A funny story. Valentine's Day was this week. A friend of mine was at a store when the shopkeeper asked her if she'd like to take part in their anti-valentine's day protest. She thought "sure, I'm single, i'll burn a valentine..." and went outside to find cameras, newspaper reporters, etc, and a bunch of men in orange scarves around a burning trash can with their valentine's day cards. But what she didn't know is that Indians have a different reason for despising this holiday than her. It's a Hindu thing. Valentine's Day, according to the more traditional elements in the society (perhaps the BJP sympathetic), represents an opportunity for young couples to fool around with out getting married. It also represents the growing trend of "love matches" vs "arranged matches" (virtually every non big-city person I've met who is married has had arranged marrianges). The paper stated that there were gangs of the faithful roaming the parks and rocky coastal areas of Mumbai where young couples normally go to tryst. They would find a couple, demand to see their wedding rings, and if the couple weren't married they threatened to marry them right there on the spot. The newspaper even had a quote from a leader of one of these groups saying that "most people who celebrate valentine's day don't eventually get married". Also in the paper a cautionary tale about a young couple on the rocks by the sea who were so distracted by each other that they were swept out to sea by the incoming tide and drowned (that's what making out will get you). So, anyways, there my friend is, the leader of the protest urging her to tell the cameras that she hates valentine's day, the reporter asking her "do you really hate valentine's day?" and her having a hard time keeping a straight face... oops.
Tangent. In one part of Jaipur there are women shoe-shiners who are really prostitutes, or so says my shady rickshaw driver. Men come to have them sit at their feet and look down their saris. Ew! He says that if they're not at their post than they are off for some real business (he called it tikki-tikki). Definitely there is a culture of peeping. A woman I met down in the south told me a story about seeing peepholes in the place she was getting massage. I think that in this culture, at least the traditional part of the culture, men are expected to marry quite late and be celibate til marriage. But this collides with puberty, western advertising, etc. and causes all this built up sexual tension. Men can be absolutely awful to women here, especially western women, but not exclusively. I can see more now my friend's market for her book for solo women travelers. Sadly much of her advice - and it is the practical advice - is covering up, avoiding eye contact, etc. This can be very hard for western women to do and seem like taking a step backwards, but...
Ok, I think things are winding down. I'm almost done. In a few hours I hope on a train for 19 hour ride to Delhi. There I have a day to shop and fly out that night. I am capable of no great thoughts at this juncture. The thoughts I do have...-glad I brought toilet paper-did not need to bring shorts (can't wear them anywhere)-needed more warm clothes for the north-should have bought a warm shawl earlier- favorite books read here in this order: The Namesake, Inheritance of Loss, The Kite Runner, Holy Cow, Traveller's History of India, Lonely Planet Guide, Amma's biography (still haven't finished this one yet - it doesn't really grab you).
I guess that's the best I can do right now. I've processed as I've gone along. I want to come back here someday. I feel like I've just touched a tiny bit of the country and had it touch me. It's a noisy, dirty, smelly, sneaky place. But it's also full of life for the same reasons. There are so many different types of culture, religion, language, caste. It's such a mish-mosh of everything. I can really understand why Ghandi wanted it all to stay together and not divide. Together it symbolizes all the ways that people can live together even with vast cultural differences. Apart it focuses on those differences. Even India itself, after partition, is to me a monument of the struggles of various groups to get along, in a most unusual and (hopefully) succesful way.
I'll be back mid-week. Perhaps I'll write again if I have time in Delhi. Otherwise thanks for tuning in. It's been nice to stay connected to people while I've been here.
Love,
John
PS and I'm feeling healthy again!
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