Amber Fort, Jaipur

January 17, 2010

Things I forgot to tell you

The skies here in Jaipur are filled with scores of kites. Their kites are not like ours. They are square, perhaps 1 1/2 feet on each side. They don’t have tails and most are black, purple or red. In February, there will be a kite flying competition and the skies will be filled with thousands of kites. They certainly brought back memories of the book and movie, Kite Runner. If you haven’t read it, please do. You won’t regret it.
During our rickshaw drive, our driver is swearing at everyone for cutting him off, for hitting his rickshaw, for passing his rickshaw (everyone did that) and they were swearing at him for cutting them off, and all the cars and motorcycles were honking at him. For our 20 minutes, it was an experience. Next time, we’ll take the young driver.
And the monkeys. They are on the roofs of the buildings, going from one building to another, stopping here and there to gaze down on the bedlam, and then continuing their journey to god knows where.
One other sight is the cow entering the rotary and then cutting straight across the 8 lanes of traffic. We watched breathlessly from the top of the roof but it made it safely down its route. It would be really bad on your karma scorecard if you took out a cow. That would pretty much ensure that your next life would be that of a snake, perhaps a cobra required to dance all day to the tune of the piper (no, we haven’t seen any of that yet, only as toys).
And now at 5:45 AM, we’re getting up early to go ride on the elephants. Shankar is not guaranteeing it but if we are there early enough, we may be able to get our ride like a rajah or a rani.

Rani Bay and Amber Fort

Off at 7:15 on the bus, we passed through the quiet (for a change) city streets into the hills surrounding Jaipur until we came to the foot of the hill upon which Amber Fort sits. As we drove through the few buildings, we came upon a line of painted elephants going our way, each with a wooden platform with bars around it 6 inches above the platform, and each with a number on the back of the platform, like 104 and 150. These were our elephants to ride up the hill to the fort. We stopped and quickly disembarked before other tours arrived so that we could get a good place in the “queue.” Our wait was only 5 minutes or so and before you know it, Bay and I were told to sit down on the platform, keep our feet within the width of the elephant, and to hold on with both hands. The elephants were colorfully painted and they had a red cover over their backs. The driver sat on the neck of the elephant with a substantial stick in his hand. Bay was nervous and we left the mounting stand and started up the road, swaying back and forth from side to side. I would try to take pictures but it was very difficult because the motion was too much to take a good picture. These Indian elephants are smaller than their counterpart in Africa, and their ears are much smaller. As we continued, we had to be careful when the elephant got close to the walls because our feet were hanging down outside the width of the elephant and I had visions of losing a foot or two by being rubbed off on the wall. Elephants were ahead of us and elephants followed us up the road. It was impressive. We entered the fort to great fanfare as a band was playing loud Indian music. Since it was so early, there were few people there so it was very relaxing after what we’ve been through the past several days.
The fort is enormous with a courtyard that is probably 100 yards in length and 60 yards wide - about the size of a football field. After gathering our crew, Shankar led us into the public area up a flight of stairs where the public would petition the King or the Maharajah on matters that concerned them. The women in the fort were not allowed to be seen so they had a separate area to stay behind walls with small holes in them so that they could see out but the men could not see them. Except the Queen or Maharani who had a larger hole to look through. Of course, I had to take a picture of Bay looking out the Queen’s hole.
This elephant ride put a smile on everyone’s face. But Bay did point out that she was almost enjoying the ride “until the driver whacked the elephant with a crowbar!”
And as we were walking to the exit, a man sitting by the side of the room we were walking through started playing music and a cobra started coming out of a basket. Honest!

Pat

And on the walk to the bus, I went up and put my arm around Pat, the Vietnam War vet, and told him that I wanted to thank him for his service. And Kathy asked, “What service?” And I replied to Pat, “ I wanted to thank you for your service in Vietnam and I’m sorry for the reception you got when you got home.” He thanked me and told me that he had flown in from Alaska into San Francisco and as you all know, he fell asleep and was awaken by an MP (“who didn’t even serve over there”) hitting his knee with his nightstick. So you’re right, Kit, it is never too late to say “Thank you.” And thank you for your suggestion.

Impermanence

Laura teaches us how everything is impermanent. And here is an example. I mentioned to Bay how curious it was that people always said she looked like some movie star but I never heard them say the same about a man (or at least me). When we made a stop today, Jane asked me if anyone had ever said I look like Clint Eastwood. Chest puffing out, I said, “No.” “Well, both my daughter and I think you look like Clint Eastwood in the movie Gran Turino” (which I haven’t seen). I laughed and told them about how people said that, on this trip, people said Bay looked like Meryl Streep (the answer to the quiz) and about our conversation this morning. Just as I’m feeling pretty good about myself, with Jane, a pretty 50 year old Californian, and her 26 year old daughter, Daria, think I look like Clint Eastwood, Frank asks me my “honest occupation”, I tell him, and he says something to the effect that that is a “dishonest occupation” and that he could tell I was a lawyer because he could smell something in his nose. I walked away. And this is the same 78-year old Frank whom I helped up from the floor yesterday when he fell because he didn’t see a step at a rest stop due to darkness in the room. He was trying to be funny. And I know he feels bad about what he said. We are okay now. To top it off, Bay told me that Clint Eastwood played a 71 year old white-haired grumpy father who basically committed suicide. So I guess it wasn’t such a compliment after all. I remember Eckhart Tolle writing “what other people think of you is none of your business.” Amen. Om....

At last

After stops at a jewelery (their spelling) and curio shop, and the textile shop with wool rugs, and lunch at Holiday Inn, we continued our tour of Jaipur at the Observatory, built by Jai Singh, the first and greatest of the Maharajahs of Jaipur and for whom the city is named. Jaipur was an independent principality in 1947 and it was told it either had to join Pakistan or India, and the Maharajah chose India, as did all eleven principalities. So now the Maharajah still has a castle but no longer owns Rajahstan (“Home of the Royals) and the Observatory is open to the public for a fee. The most interesting part to me was the sundial, accurate to two seconds. There were many other structures in this grass courtyard, most of which were devoted to astrology, a very important part of Indian society. Apparently they use it to chose a wife, when to get married, and even when to buy a new car. Now buying a car is hard enough as it is without worrying whether the stars are aligned for a car purchase.
As we gathered to go back to the bus, Shankar finally pointed out a large Bodhi Tree to me in the far corner of the courtyard. Being near to departure, I didn’t go sit under it as Buddha did. But I know I’ll get my chance later.

City Hall

We walked the gauntlet to City Palace, the palace of the Maharajah of Rajahstan, 60% of which is public and 40% of which is the private quarters of the Maharajah. It is quite beautiful with various museums of clothing, weapons, art, etc. Finally we ran our most difficult gauntlet back to the bus, filing single file through various hawkers and vendors, and also 4 women holding babies, one with a bandage on his head, until we reached the security of the bus.

Frank

We went out to a palace for dinner and a show of dancing girls, fire-eating display, puppet show and palm reading. On the way, I turned in my seat and started talking with Lydia, who was all dressed up, and Frank, my nemesis of earlier. It turns out that they met as pen pals in the late 50’sk, him in the US and her in northern Italy, and when they finally met, he proposed 3 days after they first saw each other. Their 50th wedding anniversary is in September and he had bought her amethyst earrings today at the jewelry store as an early anniversary present. I congratulated them and shook their hands. And later he thanked me for a good night. So we settled that issue as well.
So, if I haven’t made anyone cry today, it’s been a good and long day (it’s now
10:45). I’ll see if I can download a picture of an elephant and send it as well.

Good night to you all. Love, Nat, Matt, Dad, DB

PS It was a beautiful day all day today with blue skies, no wind and temps around 70. Just an all around good day.