Anne and Spencer's Excellent Adventure: March 2016

We went to a town called Chittorgarh for the first part of our spring break. We saw amazing old forts, palaces, stepwells, temples, and lots of cows. Lots. So many smiling friendly people, and we had an amazing stay at a restored haveli that was an ancestral home to the couple who lives there now, and was located inside the fort walls in the small town that has been there for generations. They have three kids, and the eldest was our impromptu tour guide for an evening walk through town with a bit of help from her brother. She is only 11 years old, but full of pride and confidence wrapped in a friendly smile. It was not a big town, and everyone knew and greeted her as we went. Their home and our room was decorated in traditional Indian style, and our meals were all vegetarian Brahmin dishes. The masala chai tea was fabulous! Our hostess was also our tour guide, and we wandered through the fort, learning stories as we walked.

Chittorgarh

Courtyard at City Palace - Udaipur

Our next stop was Udaipur, a much more heavily touristed town. It was beautiful with winding, crowded streets. Being amongst the hawkers also served as a good reminder that we really prefer to travel off the beaten track, and at the very least, we shouldn't go to a popular tourist destination during a holiday week. Wednesday night and Thursday were Holi festival, celebrating and asking for good rains in the upcoming monsoon. It typically gets a little wild with colors and water being sprayed on everyone. Even though it was busy, we loved seeing the old palace, meeting new people, and drowning our senses in all that was going on.

As we wound down the hill to go downtown one morning, we turned to look at the elephant with rider walking down the road; watched the family of four riding by on their motorcycle; slowed down for the three women walking across the street; listened to the cacophony of horns honking out their messages - let me go by, I'm here so don't hit me, I'm coming through, why'd you do that?; waited as a cow ambled along the side of the road; swerved around the dog that likes to sleep in the street. And that all happened in the space of a minute!

Shashi with colorful spices

We took a cooking class last week in Udaipur, and the woman was amazing. Shashi, the cooking instructor, is a widow with two sons. Her story was quite interesting in the glimpses it gave into the culture. She married in her twenties to a man who was also in her caste, the complex system of hierarchically "ranking" families. Even though it isn't officially acknowledged, in reality it is still a part of the fabric of life. Shashi came from a small village for her arranged marriage, and only spoke Rajasthani, no Hindi. Her husband only spoke Hindi. Communication was not easy, but she learned. She was used to cooking on a fire, and now had a gas stove top, and learned how to work with that. It sounded like she had to learn a lot in that process. Together, they had two kids. When the boys were 5 and 7 and she was 32, her husband passed away.

Anne and Shashi making naan

(This is a very brief overview of castes:
http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/indias-caste-system.html,
and Wikipedia has even more information if you're curious.)

So here's where the caste comes in again. She is Brahmin, the top caste, which in theory seems like it would leave you more options. However, there are a million rules associated with this caste. I'm not exaggerating. For example, after her husband's death, she had to sit in a corner with a veil covering her face from sunrise to sunset for 45 days!! while women of her caste would come in and wail and cry over his death. She wasn't allowed to go outside of her house for one year following his death. She isn't allowed to get married again. She isn't allowed to do certain types of work - like cleaning and laundry - which are designated to lower castes. Her husband's family wasn't helpful - who could afford to take on three more people? For a time, she secretly did do laundry to make money. Fortunately, she eventually stumbled into cooking instruction, which she is allowed to do, and is doing it well.

Spencer and Shashi stirring things up

She started her cooking school 5 years ago at the encouragement of some Irish tourists who her son met and brought home for dinner. An Australian couple took the class and they transcribed all the details of her instructions and the ingredients to make a handout that is used for students even now. A Dutch tourist put together her website, and many other tourists have built her business by giving Trip Advisor recommendations. Both of her sons have built spin-off businesses, one selling spices and containers for the spices, and the other selling bags to make cheese and booklets of her recipes in glossy color. We invested in one of each and are ready to roll with Indian cooking! The enterprising nature of some is so inspiring.

In contrast, our taxi never came to take us to the airport when we were leaving Udaipur. The hostel guy stood with us for a long while, then the owner of the taxi company stood with us for a long while after that, calling and calling the driver who had said he was already waiting at the place we were standing. In the end, the taxi company owner took us, and explained that in his experience, many people want to work to make enough to survive, but aren't willing to put in more effort to get ahead. Like if they can survive on 100 rupees for a day, they will work that much, but not more. That, by the way, is only like $1.50. Some enterprising people and some not-so-enterprising people, the same the world over, no?

The other thing the taxi driver - and others we've met - talked about was the corruption. The new prime minister has made changes, but it's going to be a long road. One way he has cut out some corruption is by putting services online. Great idea! You register online for some licenses and more are being added. When starting his taxi company, he told us that he had to pay a 1200 rupee registration fee. The clerk asked him for an additional 1200 rupees to file the documents. Doubling the fees for every step in a process can make it really tough to start a business or to do business. Many trucks were pulled over by the side of the highway - a regular check on paperwork. The taxi guy said that if you slip 100 rupees into your paperwork when you hand it to the inspector, you get a green light. If you don't, you get slapped with multiple violations and may owe thousands of rupees. What does that mean about overweight trucks or unidentified loads traveling the highways? No idea!

It is definitely an experience driving on the highways. Technically, we weren't driving, just riding in the back, and it was still a bit scary. I wish I took a video. While driving, you are passing trucks and cars, motorcycles with one, two, three, or four people on them, some with TVs or other loads that they're carrying home. Those same cows that wander the streets of the city are moving from town to town and have also hit the highway. People walking, often with bundles of something balanced on their heads walk alongside the highway or just cross when they can. It's hard to take it all in - then suddenly there is a large sign on the road that says "DIVERSION", and you're popped over to face the headlights of the oncoming traffic - cars and trucks and motorcycles and people and cows who are all coming at you! It's like anything goes...always an adventure!!