Jaipur

ah damn. I had a whole entry written for Jaipur and then it disappeared.

well, I'll try to be more succinct this time. plenty has already been said about Jaipur, which is on the "golden triangle" of major tourist destinations in northern india (Delhi-Agra-Jaipur). Speaking of Agra, the Taj Mahal just made it onto the "new seven wonders of the world". You should have seen the hoopla here. there  was a huge campaign to "vote for Taj" as millions and millions of Indians voted by sending text messages. It is a huge matter of national pride for India, and made front page new today.

Also in the news today (the Times of India, that is) was a short mini-paragraph blip about problems in the Pennsylvania state house shutting down state services until the budget could be resolved. I was awfully surprised to see this make news in India.

So, back to Jaipur. It's the capital of Rajasthan, and the biggest city I'd been in since Delhi and Calcutta at the beginning of the trip. That meant there's all the MNCs and chain restaurans, like Baskin Robbins and Subway and McDonalds.

I got my first taste of urban monsoon. The rain only comes in bursts and only lasts a short while, but when it rains it pours. The lightning storms are most impressive. It's a nonstop light show, with the sky illuminated every couple seconds continuously for 30 minutes or so. That, on top of fireworks for the many weddings being celebrated on the occasion of 7/7/07 (7 being a very auspicious number in India). I saw at least four different wedding parties that night. They parade around on public streets, for everyone to see. These were some opulent weddings. There were elephants and camels and horses, all decorated in jewels. And there were 50-man wedding bands, which are very exciting and energetic. They use the same instrumentation as a western marching band, with a big drum corps, and the music they play is a very catchy and adrenaline-filled mix of marching band music, swing, free form jazz, and traditional indian melodies. There were also huge corps of lantern-bearers. I followed one wedding party into the Sheraton Hotel. I asked how much a room was. $270. Ouch! That's a lot of money, esp. for India!

Climbed up a hill to see a fort and look down on the city. Jaipur has a unique urban morphology for a premodern, pre-British Indian city. The Maharaja was a mathematician and astronomer, and he insisted that the city be laid out on a formal grid, long before grids were imposed by the British throughout India.

On my last night there, i'm walking along, not going anywhere in particular, when i see a ferris wheel all lit up in the near distance so i go closer and discover that its a whole carnival set up. Just 3 ruppees entrance (7.5 cents).

It's really not so different at all from the traveling carnivals in the state - rides, games, food, and people watching. It also had  magic show but it was really bad. the magician totally messed up one of the tricks where he was supposed to make milk disappear into a newspaper. Instead, the milk spilled out all over the stage. His assistant was this teenage girl. I think she might have been his daughter, because she looked so bored, and embarrassed to be up there. I rode the ferris wheel. They certainly dont seem to have any safety rules (or enforcement of them) because wild kids and teenage hooligans were climbing all over the rides - as they were moving! All the time they shouted to me, trying to impress me I think. I'm not impressed by displays of stupidity. The carnival also had a tent with scantily-clad dancing girls under the innocuous title of "cultural program". The all-male audience was like a sea of testosterone on overload, and I'm sure that the gesture and comments the young guys called and hooted at the girls were not polite.