India 3: Holi in Jaipur and back to Delhi

     That night I had stomach problems.  I slept well into the next day.  I was ok with this because I wanted to avoid going out during the day of Holi.  Holi involves throwing and dabbing colored powder.  I would have loved to sit and take pictures from a distance, but I couldn't think of a way of doing it safely for my cameras.  I waited until around three in the afternoon, and then carefully ventured out, with my camera wrapped in a rain cover.

  I began walking north toward Thikana Mandir Sri Govinddevji, noting all of the patches of colored ground.  This temple was advertised as a public location that held Holi play.  I ran into a foreign couple and asked them what to expect.  They said that people may or may not respect my desire to remain unpowdered.  

  I needn't have worried.  Most people were already colored and I didn't see any powder throwing.  People were celebrating and chanting near the temple and its surrounding park.  One person asked if I wanted to be powdered and they respected my decision to decline.  Another put some on my neck anyway.  My camera was safe.  When seeing my camera, a few people asked me to take photos of them.  I took down their email addresses and sent them the picturess when I got home.  One set of four women asked me to sit down with them and talk.  They seemed genuine, but I wanted to wander, so I politely turned them down. 

  There were monkeys hanging out and eating near the people in the park behind the temple.

  Afterwards, I walked back to my hotel and prepared to go out for dinner.

  I returned to Labrass.  There was a tuk tuk driver on the road leading to the restaurant.  He approached me, claiming to be an official tuk tuk driver of the 5 star hotel(not a chance).  He explained that he learned English from watching Sex and the City and Desperate Housewives.  They had papad ki subzi this time.

  I took a different route home, passing the Albert Hall Museum.  Just behind the museum, people were throwing food discards to the many, many rats digging holes in the park ground.  As I was about to pack up, a man on a tuk tuk stopped next to me.  He was fascinated with my camera and while I was twisting off the filter, put his fingers right onto the lens.

  On my last day in town, I decided to visit the Jaipur Watch Company.  I originally was going to visit their Delhi office, but Jaipur is right there in the name, so it made sense to visit while in town. A bit removed from central Jaipur, I Ubered on over.  It was on the bottom floor of what looked like a condo building on a residential street.  It was a small showroom, but they had some beautiful locally made watches.  I picked up four.

  While waiting for my uber to return to the center of town, a girl around the age of ten approached me asking for money.  I decided to hand her some.  This was a mistake, as she then came back with her little brother.  He wanted money too and offered to sing in either Hindi or English for me.  I explained that although that was sweet, I was good.  They sat with me for ten minutes anyway, occasionally asking for money.

  I was planning to go to the Chandpole Bazar, but then I noticed that Hawa Mahal closed earlier than I expected, so Hawa Mahal it was.  In order to enter, you had to walk through a metal detector.  I asked if I should take off my backpack.  They said no.  The metal detector beeped nonstop while being completely ignored.  The place was beautiful, but the stairs and pathways were narrow, and people were pushy.  As I was descending, I noticed that two younger men behind me seemed interested in me.  I exited into a courtyard and put down my bag to put my cameras away.  When they saw that I had turned around while doing this, they quickly skittered away.

This iconic picture was found by exiting and going around the back to the street.

  The City Palace was a short walk away.  They were filming a horse and carriage.  Otherwise, there wasn't much to see.  I returned to the hotel and ate oatmeal.

This strange scene had a young woman posing in front of the arch, while another building was left to decay just beside it.

  On my Uber ride to Jaipur station, I spotted a pedestrian green light.  At no point during its time flashing did vehicles stop for even a second.  I arrived to the station a good hour and a half before my departure time, so I walked around and looked at what the vendors had to offer.  It was a good time to stop up on some snacks, since I didn't expect Delhi to have convenience stores.  

  I decided to buy some cookies at one of the stalls.  I asked the price.  He acknowledged me, but then ignored me in favor of random strangers that walked up and ordered as if I wasn't there. Then he held up a calculator with the number 380.  I knew that this wasn't even close to their price, but I chose to buy them them anyway.  Out of curiosity, I went to another vendor.  Each item was about 40.  I let him keep the change.  

  My train was to appear on Platform 1, but another train arrived and remained there at the time my train was supposed to come.  When that train arrived, people rushed as a mob toward each entrance, holding any items they had above their head, as they were crushed on all sides.  Their concern was not that the train would leave too quickly, but that they would not have room to board at all.  The train ended up remaining for twenty minutes.  At one point, a group of men wanted to enter one of the cars, and were refused by those already on the train.  One of the man on the ground grabbed one of them and pulled them off the train, so he could board, and pushed his way in.  I wish I had caught the entire process on video but I was too stunned and absorbed by the scene to think of it.

  My train's number disappeared from the electronic board as the train stayed longer than expected. I tried to use the diagram on the website to figure out what side of the station my train car would arrive on.    As it was approaching, I tried to read the car names and numbers on the electronic signs, but it seemed to be out of order.  The train was very, very, very long.  I chose the wrong side, so had to k very quickly to the opposite end. 

  When I finally reached my cabin, a two person bunk, it was fully occupied.  I had been assigned the lower bunk.  There was a man on the top bunk, with his wife on the bottom.  The small berth was filled to the brim with luggage, food, and cooking supplies.  The woman explained that they had one ticket in a different car, and asked me switch with them so they could be together. They wanted me to move down multiple train classes.

  With a poor attempt to come up with an alternative solution, the worker in charge of this section tried to assign me a top bunk in a group of four.  I said that I paid for the lower bunk.  He looked and me and responded that since I looked young, it shouldn't be a problem for me to climb up.  I was done being pushed about.  I stood my ground.

  He found me a train car with two bunk beds, but only one other occupant.  She was a thirty year old Indian doctor.  Although she had never left the country, she spoke English perfectly.  She had witnessed some of the confusion on the car, and explained that you have to stand up for yourself in India or people will walk all over you.  

  She was unhappy with the state of the room, from the disgusting floor to the air conditioning, which didn't work.  She complained repeatedly to the works.  They put almost no effort into cleaning things or fixing the air.  She had to call the equivalent of a 1800 number on the train car door for them to take it seriously.  Everything was made right very quickly after that.  She lamented the state of workers in India, stating that no one wanted to work hard.

  She was chatty, so we spent a majority of the train ride talking.  She briefly tried to nap.  I read my book, but the train workers kept waking her up to sell her things.  She tried their tea,  said that it was completely unacceptable, and didn't touch it again.  She ended up eating some of my cookies, and the traditional dessert of soan papdi, that I also bought at the station.  She spoke of women's rights in India, her love life, arranged marriage, and asked about life in America.  It was a lovely train ride.