Today we toured Jaipur, the Pink City. In the Jaipur/Rajasthani culture pink is the color for riches. The Maharaja at the time painted the entire city pink for this reason. When India won Independence the government took over the palaces, so the Maharaja emptied these massive palaces right before independence day. These palaces are pretty amazing. They remind me a lot of the Alhambra in Spain and the Red Fort in Agra. Very similar. You know how palaces go, you see one, you've seen them all :)
At some point the Maharaja wanted to build a summer home for his family, so he dug out a lake and built a little palace that's over the water. This lake was built 200 years ago, it puts Lake Elizabeth to shame... I guess most lakes put Lake Elizabeth to shame... but really!! This lake is massive. I can't imagine the amount of man power it took. No machinery, hundreds of men and women with shovels...
The Pink City probably shouldn't be pink, I must say. The poverty here is pretty bad. I haven't seen anyone that looks even semi-middle class. The city is really dusty and old. All the people have dusty hair and such ominous stares. It's actually a spooky place. The city is hundreds of years old, you can feel the age here. It smells very very old. There are 2 million people that live in this small city... I wonder what they all do. There are parts of this city that remind me of Bihar, so out of touch from the rest of the world. When we were driving over here, there was an elephant on the road next to our bus... that's never happened to me in California :)
Speaking of elephants... Did you know the Siwan district of Bihar is where most of the elephants of Jaipur came from... most of the elephant drivers are also from there... I took an elephant ride up to the Amber Fort. The driver filled me in on the who's who of elephants...
The Jaipur Tour is part of the NRI society event... I've met the coolest people through this event. It's great to meet Indian people from all the continents of the world.
Oh I also took a camel ride today :) The order of the day was: camel ride, elephant ride, palace #1, palace #2, and dinner with the governor. Can't say I ever had a day like that in California...
Vineeta next to the Jaipur dolls.
2 comments:
Very vivid description of the dust and frown on the peoples faces in Jaipur. I had a very similar feeling when I visited Jaipur in January 1977
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