Monday, May 01, 2006
Mayday
Sign of times. Today, on Mayday (may 1st), mineral water bottle went from 12 to 13 roupees today. I asked. Last change was in 2003 from 11 to 12.
Last blog attempt was done during Pierre and Limdara's visit. It was supposed to be a joint blog, but failed to be and ended in a single event blog about what we had just read on a news website. No word about Rajasthan where 3 of us we had been roaming happily in late march. Many ways to visit it. We chose bagpack-train+car-guest houses, guided by The Book (Lonely-P). 3 nights in train, 4 in guesthouses in the main cities : Jaipur, Udaipur, Jodhpur and Jaisalmer. Very intense.
Amber fort in Jaipur, surrounded by hills, built in pure moghol (muslim!) style tradition by a rajput (hindu!) king. Luckyly we could jump on an elephant's back but it went in the opposite direction to the fort. The climbing time was over. As a compensation we had a long "traveling" where we could enjoy the magnificence of the different levels of the fort. Pierre started his quest for indian animal's hairs by asking the driver to pick one piece from the jumbo's head. That piece of hair got lost later in tragic circumstances. Severe cultural bath for the 2 french : a Bollywood movie on the very first evening! "Souten" with a male hero - Raj - playing himself violin during the romantic scenes, and lots of discussions between us to understand who is who...
Udaipur looks like a local Riviera, a mix between Venice, where I've never been, (water palaces or "havelis"), Benares, where I've never been too,(the "ghats" or stairs down to the river) mixed with 5 star tourism. The rajputs here are proud never to have compromised with the moghols, unlike Jaipur. We were told about a battle between Udaipur and Jaipur, that turned out to be a victory only because the Udaipur king, Maharana Prakash escaped alive after a defeat on the battle field! Since he had no elephants, he simply dressed some horses with a artificial elephant trunk. Who could have believed it? Our guest-house (Lal-ghat) was lovely. After a night in train, we had our first breakfast under an elegant stone canopy, a few meters above the lake water, watching women washing colorfull sarees and kids bathing along the next ghat in a quiet morning. Udaipur is Octopussy's city. Do you remember this event in Mr. Bond, James Bond's life? No chance to survive in the competition between restaurants if the place doesn't have its evening "Octopussy" show! Thanks to Diggy to have guided us so friendly through the city (and Gajendra to have introduced uns his french-study-mate!).
Jodhpur, pure pleasure. Started with a funny visit of a kitchy haweli. Look-like-old decoration, with styropore painted in gold and taped to the ceiling! Non merci! We rush out and go our way to the city center and land in Yogy's guest house after having crossed some camels unloading their stone load. From the roof top of the blue haweli, wonderfull view up to the fort under a perfect sky drilled with stars. Time to open a champagne bottle brought by Pierre and celebrate a meeting in this unique site. Excellent safron lassy too, mixed with nuts and dry fruits. You get the right rajput feeling by visiting the amazing Meherangarh fort. Massive. Invicible. The guiding phone tells us about so many stories of honor, tragic deaths, widows,...magic! And from the fort, the indigo city lying below, as blue as the Egee sea.
In Jaisalmer, we experienced life 3 pillars of indian life : temple, movie and cricket. Visit of the jain temple full of bats, with amazing 12 painted dancers under the dome facig the main god house and the 24 saints all looking the same in polished white and yellow marble. We got on the same day an offer to act in a movie, we were supposed to play ourselves, tourists iteracting with an young indian kid. It failed on the next morning as the agreed pick-up didn't happen. Before visiting the biggest haweli, I saw kids playing cricket in a small square. They invited us to play. My short tennis experience and the low speed throw helped me to bat all the balls, promissing start. The kids got some rupees for they fair-play. Jaisalmer is supposed to be the desert gate, but the horizon is covered by windmills, so not really convincing. In the old city, you feel there are much more cows than anywhere else because the streets are so narrow, no place for a cow and a man. Opium consumption seems to be still very common here : heared about shepherds eating some for breakfast, warriors having some opium based drinks before fighting, even bride, groom and families drinking opium water during mariages (to accept easier some difficult realities???).
Chennai, Triplicane district, a sunday afternoon. Veena concert. Free entry. First floor, 20 chairs, 9 auditors. Krk, krk,...amplificator saturating (necessary in such a small room?). I am the youngest. All are aficionados, retired, beating the pulse with the hand, identifying the ragas in their small books. The artist is a woman, talentuous, getting good sound out of her veena (kind of sitar, deeper, less metallic sound, less harmonic strings especially, with the handle ending with a scaring dragoon's head), good "grooves" and improvisation, "riffs".
One week later, Mylapore district, Sree Kapaleeswarar temple. Bharatanatyam dance IN a temple (Hindu temples are living places, many happenings and activities inside, all more or less linked to religious devotion). The young dancer executes brillantly some compositions during more than one hour. Her image is reflected in the polished marble floor. Pure technical sequences alternating with expression, more free. Fascinating. The eyes, the red painted fingers and toes, the face, the ankle's bells, all are participating in precise and gracefull gestures forcing admiration. During that time devotees are queueing to see and worship the good, and a crowd in running in all corners of the temple to do their sacred duties...
On may 8th, the Tamil Nadu will vote between the ruling party (AIADMK, headed by Jayalalita, current Chief Minister, ex-Kollywood actress) promissing free computers for all student graduating from High School - 12th standard (baccalaureat)- and the opposition (DMK, headed by an talentuous tamil writter-poet, hidden behing thick sunglasses) holding a radical option : free color TV for all. Democracy is so lovely.
About to sign for 2 more years. Moraly, decision already taken, not completly rational, still too many things to do and see here...It won't be extending more so arrange your visit within 2 years from now!
Last blog attempt was done during Pierre and Limdara's visit. It was supposed to be a joint blog, but failed to be and ended in a single event blog about what we had just read on a news website. No word about Rajasthan where 3 of us we had been roaming happily in late march. Many ways to visit it. We chose bagpack-train+car-guest houses, guided by The Book (Lonely-P). 3 nights in train, 4 in guesthouses in the main cities : Jaipur, Udaipur, Jodhpur and Jaisalmer. Very intense.
Amber fort in Jaipur, surrounded by hills, built in pure moghol (muslim!) style tradition by a rajput (hindu!) king. Luckyly we could jump on an elephant's back but it went in the opposite direction to the fort. The climbing time was over. As a compensation we had a long "traveling" where we could enjoy the magnificence of the different levels of the fort. Pierre started his quest for indian animal's hairs by asking the driver to pick one piece from the jumbo's head. That piece of hair got lost later in tragic circumstances. Severe cultural bath for the 2 french : a Bollywood movie on the very first evening! "Souten" with a male hero - Raj - playing himself violin during the romantic scenes, and lots of discussions between us to understand who is who...
Udaipur looks like a local Riviera, a mix between Venice, where I've never been, (water palaces or "havelis"), Benares, where I've never been too,(the "ghats" or stairs down to the river) mixed with 5 star tourism. The rajputs here are proud never to have compromised with the moghols, unlike Jaipur. We were told about a battle between Udaipur and Jaipur, that turned out to be a victory only because the Udaipur king, Maharana Prakash escaped alive after a defeat on the battle field! Since he had no elephants, he simply dressed some horses with a artificial elephant trunk. Who could have believed it? Our guest-house (Lal-ghat) was lovely. After a night in train, we had our first breakfast under an elegant stone canopy, a few meters above the lake water, watching women washing colorfull sarees and kids bathing along the next ghat in a quiet morning. Udaipur is Octopussy's city. Do you remember this event in Mr. Bond, James Bond's life? No chance to survive in the competition between restaurants if the place doesn't have its evening "Octopussy" show! Thanks to Diggy to have guided us so friendly through the city (and Gajendra to have introduced uns his french-study-mate!).
Jodhpur, pure pleasure. Started with a funny visit of a kitchy haweli. Look-like-old decoration, with styropore painted in gold and taped to the ceiling! Non merci! We rush out and go our way to the city center and land in Yogy's guest house after having crossed some camels unloading their stone load. From the roof top of the blue haweli, wonderfull view up to the fort under a perfect sky drilled with stars. Time to open a champagne bottle brought by Pierre and celebrate a meeting in this unique site. Excellent safron lassy too, mixed with nuts and dry fruits. You get the right rajput feeling by visiting the amazing Meherangarh fort. Massive. Invicible. The guiding phone tells us about so many stories of honor, tragic deaths, widows,...magic! And from the fort, the indigo city lying below, as blue as the Egee sea.
In Jaisalmer, we experienced life 3 pillars of indian life : temple, movie and cricket. Visit of the jain temple full of bats, with amazing 12 painted dancers under the dome facig the main god house and the 24 saints all looking the same in polished white and yellow marble. We got on the same day an offer to act in a movie, we were supposed to play ourselves, tourists iteracting with an young indian kid. It failed on the next morning as the agreed pick-up didn't happen. Before visiting the biggest haweli, I saw kids playing cricket in a small square. They invited us to play. My short tennis experience and the low speed throw helped me to bat all the balls, promissing start. The kids got some rupees for they fair-play. Jaisalmer is supposed to be the desert gate, but the horizon is covered by windmills, so not really convincing. In the old city, you feel there are much more cows than anywhere else because the streets are so narrow, no place for a cow and a man. Opium consumption seems to be still very common here : heared about shepherds eating some for breakfast, warriors having some opium based drinks before fighting, even bride, groom and families drinking opium water during mariages (to accept easier some difficult realities???).
Chennai, Triplicane district, a sunday afternoon. Veena concert. Free entry. First floor, 20 chairs, 9 auditors. Krk, krk,...amplificator saturating (necessary in such a small room?). I am the youngest. All are aficionados, retired, beating the pulse with the hand, identifying the ragas in their small books. The artist is a woman, talentuous, getting good sound out of her veena (kind of sitar, deeper, less metallic sound, less harmonic strings especially, with the handle ending with a scaring dragoon's head), good "grooves" and improvisation, "riffs".
One week later, Mylapore district, Sree Kapaleeswarar temple. Bharatanatyam dance IN a temple (Hindu temples are living places, many happenings and activities inside, all more or less linked to religious devotion). The young dancer executes brillantly some compositions during more than one hour. Her image is reflected in the polished marble floor. Pure technical sequences alternating with expression, more free. Fascinating. The eyes, the red painted fingers and toes, the face, the ankle's bells, all are participating in precise and gracefull gestures forcing admiration. During that time devotees are queueing to see and worship the good, and a crowd in running in all corners of the temple to do their sacred duties...
On may 8th, the Tamil Nadu will vote between the ruling party (AIADMK, headed by Jayalalita, current Chief Minister, ex-Kollywood actress) promissing free computers for all student graduating from High School - 12th standard (baccalaureat)- and the opposition (DMK, headed by an talentuous tamil writter-poet, hidden behing thick sunglasses) holding a radical option : free color TV for all. Democracy is so lovely.
About to sign for 2 more years. Moraly, decision already taken, not completly rational, still too many things to do and see here...It won't be extending more so arrange your visit within 2 years from now!
