Thursday 24th January

Thursday 24^th January

MONAFOMA  removed

India #75

Pete and I had a day and two nights in Jaipur to wander around and be what Raj called “a lovely couple.”  He was such a nice young bloke, we really enjoyed his company and his point of view.  We decided to go with the flow and take his advice on good things to see and do in this big (2.7 million, well not that big by Indian standards…) city.  Our first experience of the day was a quiet, out of the way place with some beautiful mausoleums made of three different sorts of marble, with exquisite, delicate carvings.  Nobody else was there at all, just a weary looking guide who was happy to show us around for a hundred rupees or so.  He had a big stick with him and we soon discovered that this was so that he could chase off the other inhabitants of these beautiful mausoleums – families of beautiful silver langurs lolling about in the banyan trees, and a whole tribe of boys racing around the ramparts.  These boys were gorgeous, full of life and fun, tearing around the high walls, leaping across the high platforms, intent on some fabulous game.  What a great place to play – trees, ruins, monkeys, a guide with a stick after you!  They caught sight of us and stopped playing so intently and beautifully: we were suddenly their focus and their prey, they wanted MONEY, chocolate, schoolpens, whatever we could give them.  Secretly I was glad we had a guide nearby with a big stick… Cute as these boys were I rather suspect they would have mugged us most fearlessly if we hadn’t had a chaperone.  They had a very Lord of the Flies look about them.  The mausoleums, so the guide told us, were built by one of the maharajahs of Jaipur, who had 122 children, all of whom died in childhood, of malaria and typhoid.  A cheery tale!

         

Raj had many enthusiasms.  One of them was for an Australian, John Stark, who runs a textile factory and shop.  He was certain that we would be interested to meet John.  “He used to be a social worker, and he has lived here for a long time, at least twenty years.  But you will see, he still looks SO like an Australian social worker!”  I found this quite astonishing.  How would Raj know what a typical Australian social worker looks like??  Even more astonishing – he was quite right!  John is a very nice man, with the exact look, clothing and manner of his former profession.  Loose Indian clothing, casual wavy grey hair, a warm and sincere way of talking.  The whole kit and caboodle in fact!  He set up the factory all those years ago to employ Untouchables, who otherwise would not have been employed at all, or only at the very bottom of the food chain in India.  We went over to the factory to watch people industriously screenprinting bolts of silk, dusting them with gold powder.  John invited us to have a cup of tea in the shop.  And yes ofcourse we did buy a few things, but he wasn’t in the least bit pushy.  While Raj was outside doing something to his autorickshaw he told us we were very lucky to have chanced upon this particular driver.  He said that Raj came from one of the very nicest, most hard-working families in Jaipur.