An Exercise in Irrelevance

As one person said of my blog, it’s a bit weird, what with you thinking you’re still in India. It’s been a long time now, that we’ve been back, and I’ve had a lot of time to reflect on the experience. Writing the blog has served it’s purpose though; since I’ve been back, I’ve marked exams, taught two modules, run a meeting and submitted a paper. The holiday seems a long time ago, but the notes I took for the blog has helped me to remember the experience; for this reason, even though I wrote most of these reflections while travelling, I’ve decided to write these from the present, as opposed to the past present tense all the other posts have used.

I’ve also noticed that my page view stats have plummeted to the point that they are flat-lining around 1 a day (which is probably google). Perhaps I should get back to wittering about ontologies.

One of the most pervasive parts of the experience was the architecture; we saw many different styles and many different buildings. It was magnificent, finely wrought and cleverly details. This seems to reflect a wider delight in design and ornamentation, which you seem everywhere. The women’s clothes are brightly coloured, even when they are digging holes in the road. The tuk-tuks are covered in flowers. Even the mud huts in the agricultural areas have intricate and sweeping patterns inscribed in the cow dung. It’s all in stark contrast to both the garishness of the Bollywood experience and the surrounding environment.

The food mostly lived up to my expectations. From the home cooked food in Agra, the Shanti Restaurant in Jaislmer to the thali in Mehrangarh fort, we had some really good meals. On the whole, it wasn’t a new experience. The food is not that far removed from the UK curry, although with a few unique ingredients — the Rajastani desert beans — and the careful use of coconut. Like my experiences with Italy the best thing about the food is that it’s easy to get. Everywhere you go, good food surrounds, you don’t have to hunt for it and it’s not expensive. It’s just expected, as a matter of course. Compared to the 3 quid, ready-packed, pub food that we get here, it’s magnificent. I think we have a lot to learn from India.

The poverty and degradation has been grinding — much less so in India than in Dhaka, and it’s not the first time that I have seen it, but it’s always depressing. I suspect that we only see the edges of it, and the worst of the Shantis were away from the road, but this was enough for me.

I heard less music while I was there than I would have liked—the percussion was limited to tourist and ceremonial occasions, the rest was garish Hindi pop which totally lacks in appeal to me. So, much like home then.

The pollution I expected, but India, or at least the part of it that I say, was a very dirty place. — no where is clean, with animals on the street, rubbish everywhere, and the in-town midden being the most common disposal path. I guess the cows makes some sense, as they at least dispose of the organic material and produce something useful, if smelly. Even in Delhi, just outside of our, relatively posh, hotel the place was a mess, with sand heaps everywhere, an unusable pavement, and around the corner raw sewage was spilling onto the streets from a broken pipe. I have a relatively high tolerance for this sort of thing, but really this was too much. It will remain, I suspect, till they treat their public space like their private space.

A more pleasant aspect of India was the diversity of smell. Herbs and spices fill the air, both as a byproduct of the cooking and from incense. Back home, we everything that we use is chemical, even for strong smells such as lemon. Coming back to the UK, my senses where heightened to nasal assault that my own society has turned into; it’s pointless and we should stop it.

India is becoming a world power; I think it’s clear that this century will be defined by it and China; I’m glad to have visited it, particularly at the time that I have. I’ve seen many good things here; but, then, many less good. I hope that India finds solutions for its problems and builds on its strengths; ultimately, it is going to have a larger and larger impact on this society as I get older.

My favourite memories of the journey; chilling out in the Shanti resturant looking over the desert from Jaislmer, the bus journey, hideous, crazy and dangerous though it was, and finally in Jaipur the observatory and the kites from the Wind Palace.

Outside the Hotel le Roi is a messy street, but inside it’s nice. The drive here was hectic and smelly, with many miles of crawling through traffic. Not nice at all. We had another near accident when a lorry in the lane next to us lost a tyre and the car was hit with large chunks of Rubber.

We came from the Taj Mahal. It’s been described in detail by many others; the sunlight scintillates of the marble facade, leaving you speechless; but, not if it’s foggy. Despite this, it is a magnificent building and visiting it is well worth while. I guess nothing can quite live up to is reputation once it becomes a world icon.

Just had to phone reception. The room heating controls don’t work, with the room getting colder and colder, so they have bought up a fan heater.

And that’s it; tomorrow, we go to the airport and fly home.

We started off today at the Amber fort in Jaipur. For some reason, the hawking here seems particularly heavy, a theme that was to continue. The Amber fort, though, is magnificent — it’s a labyrinth of connecting rooms, built through the walls of several connecting courtyards. Strange for me, the most interesting bit was the latrines (historical, not modern day, I hasten to add) and the water system. They had underground storage facilities, a system for elevating the water. In general, though I had a great time wandering through the rooms, finding new places.

After that we drove to a Agra Fort; we were short of time, but we managed to see much of it — the rooms were strange, over built over several levels. Finally, we saw the mosque at the back with relentless hawking, including demands for money in exchange for shoe guarding.

Finally a hellish journey into Agra — it was foggy and polluted, worse in the cold snap I suspect than normal. The driver didn’t know his way, and his relentless stopping resulted in a bike crashing into this rear end; minor injuries, fortunately, no worse. We finally got to the Garden Villas guest house, where we were staying. This was inside a drab, gated community, but inside the rooms were good with a warm welcome and an excellent, home-cooked curry. No complaints there.

As a city Jaipur is like many that we have been too — busy, polluted and unattractive, and also very in-your-face; yes, thank you, I am sure that are many elephants, but I still don’t want your tuk-tuk. We did see the Jantar Mantar observatory. This is a magnificent place, full of angles and careful measurements — Jai Singh thought that bigger was better. Each instrument had a careful description, telling you what it measured and what this measurement was for; although the signs kept of mixing up “accuracy” and “resolution” which bugged me a bit. The thing that confused me was that most of the instruments fall into two categories; those for measuring angles and sundials for measuring time. Time and space all sorted, it seems, but time only measurable during the day and space only measurable at night.

The city palace is okay; there are some good things inside, but it’s not as well done as Jodphur. The Wind Palace on the other hand is just a big building, but it’s fun to climb and the view from the top is great. Today is a saturday, and the place is full of tourists — many want to talk and I’ve been asked my name and photographed with many people. But the image that is going to stick in my mind are the kites circling overhead — hundreds of them fluttering in the wind, steered by intensely concentrating kids, perched on the sprawling rooftops. I have a grainy photograph which was the best I could do.

Finished off with dinner in the hotel cafe; the last time I had a curry with no spices at all was in Canada. That time, at least, it was served hot. If you stay in the Hotel Arya Niwas, well, avoid the food. Otherwise, it’s pretty nice.

The bus journey wasn’t that bad as it happened. The environmental conditions inside were okay; the heat disappeared pretty quickly; the temperature was nice till sundown, then I put more and more clothes on until I ran out. My feet got cold, but the rest of me was okay. The motion was a bit wierd and rolling, but in general I like travelling overnight and with horizontal. If there was some kind of night bus in the UK, I think that I’d take it pretty often; obviously I’d prefer something that wasn’t packed to the rafters and has some basic safety standards.

Oh, and a toilet.

The Aussies were made; the bus is squalid. There are seats and bunks. The posh option is a upper bunk over the seats, with sliding windows on both sides. The opposite side is a single bunk which is open. The seats are if you are really poor. The temperature inside the bus is rising from hot to, well, hotter. I have no idea what this must be like when we are not in the middle of a cold spell.

Turns out the seats are not if you are really poor; this is standing up. The bus is now heaving full of people on two different levels. Combined with the general madness that I’ve seen on the road, I would be nervous if there was anything at all I could do about it. People don’t moan about health and safety in India; there isn’t any to moan about.

Oh and it’s not non-smoking. The group of Americans opposite us are really not happy people.

Here we go…

This morning, went to the Jain temples I missed yesterday. There are five, as it happens, interlocking, interconnected, criss-crossing the streets. They’re very good, closeted and enclosed after the airy, openness of Ranakpur.

This afternoon a camel “safari” — on the way, we stopped off at a Mausoleum and then another Jain temple which we didn’t actually go in. The safari was a camel ride for two hours to some dunes, where we had fresh-cooked pakora, biscuits and a snack which tasted like a cross between poppadoms and monster munch. It was really fun in a donkey ride kind of sense. The town is the middle of a cold snap which made the desert pleasant.

We’re still on the waiting list for the train. We have a backup plan now involving a bus; apparently, without the tickets, we can’t travel anyway. I’d rather take the train, although some other Aussies (they get everywhere!) said the bus isn’t too bad.

The town of Jaisalmer is nice, with lots of great, intricate architecture; the lattice work is everywhere. The rest of the fort is actually a bazaar — to some extent, once you have seen one, you have seen them all. There are some Jain temples, though, which are impressive from the outside, although shut by the time we got there.

We eat food in the unpromising named “Shanti” restaurant, drawn in by the far more promising odour. It’s combination Nepali and India food, on the edge of the fort, with a view out over the desert. Best food so far by a long, long way.

Overnight from Jodphur was actually okay — the train was a bit of a tight fit, but fine. We arrived at the hotel just before 6am and kipped on the roof till breakfast. We are staying in the shadow of the fort. We should get a room and see what the day holds.

Still no reservations but apparently if they don’t come through, we can still travel, but with no sleep; better than nothing.

From the distance, an incredible noise shakes the town; it turns out to be a military jet.

Today, visited the Mehrangarh fort in Jodphur. It’s a wonderful place, excellent restored and with quality audio guide and signs. Apparently, when they started to restore it in 1972 one source of income was from selling the bat guano that have accumulated, which is an unusual start to a museum. Finished off the tour with an excellent veggie thali that went down very well.

Then moved onto a lightening tour of the outside of the palace — the tuk-tuk man expected to clean up on the return journey, but we already knew it would be shut by the time we got there. It was good, though, from the outside, and lovely at sunset. The tuk-tuk man on the way back tried to take us for 150 rupees back to the hotel; in the end we settled on 60 to the clock tower (5 minutes away).

Now in the train station waiting for a sleeper to Jaisalmer — I’m slightly nervous as we are travelling sleeper rather than AC2 — which is the first class — as there were no tickets. An aussie at the hotel mentioned that his sister lost her bags in the sleeper after someone gassed the entire carriage. The train station is not good; there are people everywhere, spread across the floor, sleeping on the stone while waiting. We’ve gone for the AC2 lounge (which technically we shouldn’t, I guess), which has seats at least.

We still don’t have reservations from Jaisalmer — we’re front of the reservations list, waiting for a drop out — apparently, we have a good chance, but I don’t want a good chance, I want tickets.